Last Saturday, I represented NUS Toastmasters Club to compete in Area Z1 Toastmasters Evaluation Contest. The objective of the contest is to train speakers in becoming competent in their analysis of fellow Toastmasters’ speeches. The evaluation contest is 2 to 3 mins in length. A mystery speaker will give a speech, which will be evaluated by the contestants. After the speech is delivered, they will be given another five minutes to prepare their evaluation. Contestants will then be scored based on their analysis, recommendation, technique and summation.

Lucky for me, I won! Yippeee!!! However the journey ahead is still long. Next Saturday (28 Oct), I will be competing head on with veteran speakers from Divison Z. Being my first time competing in this competition, I am both edgy and excited!

Nonetheless, like all good students, I decided to post the debrief of my performance here as an opportunity to crystallize my thoughts. Read Learn by Reflecting on Your Experience to understand the rationale behind this debrief. I hope this would also provide you with useful insights in preparing for the evaluation contest in future!

i. What happen? (i.e state the end results)
I won the Area Z1 Evaluation Contest.

ii. Why?
The preparation I have done was instrumental in my success. I think being the sixth contestant to do my evaluation also helped a great deal. (Luck maybe?) It gave me ample time (~15 mins) to prepare my evaluation.

iii. What work?
JJ’s evaluation framework helped ensure that I have thoroughly evaluated Felicia’s speech. He taught me the Aristole’s criteria of speech writing: Invention, Arrangement, Delivery and Style.

Instead of writing long text on my paper, I only put in key words that trigger my evaluation (particularly the strengths and recommendation). For example in my paper, I wrote “great use of stories” and then I elaborate using my own words how it make Felicia’s speech a success.

I evaluated all eight humorous speech contestants. It helped warm up my evaluation engine and make it so much easier to evaluate the actualy mystery speaker.

iv. What did not work?
I took too much time preparing the introduction and conclusion of my evaluation. If not for being sixth to evaluate, I would have fumbled and lost the contest.

I was expecting some kind of motivational speech from the mystery speaker. (i.e. a project 9 or 10) As such, my preparation involved evaluating such kind of speeches. However it turned out to be a “Speak to Inform” kind of speech, which caused me to stumble at the start.

The evaluation contest was way at the end of the program. I got really exhausted waiting for my turn. And it doesn’t help that both my nerves and excitement were wrestling the entire time.

Near to the end of my evaluation, I rushed through as I was afraid that I will speak overtime. I feel that my time management still need work i.e. giving all my recommendations and analysis within a good time frame of 3′ to 3′20″. If I am not wrong, I ended at 2′50″. I could have deepen my analysis using the extra 30 seconds.

v. What did you learn?
You MUST include a summation in your evaluation!! Thanks Yetty for your advice. I totally left that out which caused me 15 marks, out of 100 marks. In the summation, you have to do a recap of the speaker’s strengths and suggestions for improvement.

I have also learnt that you need to address the intended purpose of the speaker in the introduction, which will then provide the basis for my analysis and recommendation. For example, if the purpose of Felicia’s speech was to inform, then I need to analyze if she was successful in doing so.

Lastly, I learnt that I still have a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go in winning the District Evaluation Contest. To me, this is good news. It means that I have a lot of room to grow and get better which underscore the importance of finding a coach to help me with the contest!

vi. What can you work on improving?
Internalize the structure of evaluating speakers. For now, I still need to refer to my notes. My intent is to be able to evaluate speakers instinctively. My plan of action is to evaluate as many speakers as I can from now till the contest. It could be in the formal Toastmasters setting or even in class! Ah.. I can evaluate my lecturers and even classmates. One great reason to attend class! (grins)

Be able to think on the feet really quick! Be fast to come up with a theme, an intro and a conclusion that flows seamlessly with my analysis and recommendation. Otherwise, I have to rely on luck which is hardly reliable. Recall Murphy’s Law!

To have an internal concept of time. In other words, I know how long it feels to give a 30 seconds or one minute speech. This skill would be extremely indispensable!

Wish me luck! ^^

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