Turn off all electronic devices and put away any distractions. Look at the speaker while the speech is being given. You shouldn’t have anything in your hands but maybe a notepad for taking notes. Don’t ever evaluate a speech based on the text alone. In other words, don’t read the speech and offer feedback. Have the speaker perform the speech. If something is designed to be spoken, it needs to be heard if it is to be appropriately evaluated.

If you can’t find the main idea of the speech, try to guess what you think the speaker is trying to prove. Write it down. When you’re evaluating the speech later, this will be helpful feedback. For some speeches, like a toast, a tribute, or a thank you, the main idea might be obvious, but play dumb. Is the speaker getting across the idea clearly? Or is the occasion doing too much of the work? Could the speaker do more to make the point of the speech obvious?

If you’re listening to a persuasive speech, try to come up with responses, questions, and retorts that you might use for feedback later. What was confusing? Were there any supporting points that could be made more clear? Did you find any holes in the argument? If you’re listening to an informal speech, like a toast or a congratulatory speech, focus on the organization of the information that we’re getting. Does it make sense? Does it follow? Does it seem to jump around?

Write down particularly memorable quotes or moments from the speech to praise. Write down any time the speaker gets a good crowd reaction, or a negative response.

What was the main argument of the speech?[6] X Expert Source Patrick MuñozVoice & Speech Coach Expert Interview. 12 November 2019. Was the content clear and well-articulated? Was the argument supported with research? Good examples? Was the content made clear to the audience? Did the speaker prove their point?

Was the supporting argument logically structured? Was the speech easy to follow? Difficult? Why? Do the speaker’s points flow logically from one to the next? What could be included to clear up the speech for you?

How would you describe the style of the speech and the speaker? Did the style of the speech work for the content, or against it? Why? How convincing was the speaker? How was the timing of the speech? Was it easy to follow?

Who is the audience for the speech? What are their expectations of the speech and the speaker? How would you describe the tone of the speech? Did it match the content? How? If not, how might the tone be improved? How well will the tone match the audience for the speech?

For some speech classes, you may have to fill out a rubric or assign a grade to a speech. Follow the specific class instructions regarding this and assign a grade appropriate.

Try to start your response with things like, “What I heard you saying is…” or “What I got from this speech was…” A good summary should be several sentences in the evaluation, perhaps slightly less than half of your feedback. Identify the main idea and the main supporting points of the speech. The summary should focus on content only.

If the speaker is mostly a wet blanket, focus on how the content could better match the speaking style and how the tone might be changed to match. These are changeable things. Telling a speaker to be “more dynamic” or “funny” isn’t good feedback.

If you thought the speech was boring, instead learn to say something like, “It was subdued, which I think works well for the occasion. " If the speaker seemed nervous, try to reassure them with some compliments, “You seemed confident up there. The material really speaks for itself. "

Don’t say, “I didn’t like the jokes you used,” say, “Next time, I think you could leave the jokes out and the speech would move a little quicker. ”

Focus first on content corrections, the organization of the speech, and the tone before you focus on anything else in the speech. These are the most important categories for improvement, and the best ways to quickly improve the speech. Think of these as the highest order of concern. Worry about the specifics of the delivery later. Whether or not the timing of the joke at the end of the speech works should be one of the last things a speaker worries about. If the speech is already very good, feel free to move onto these secondary concerns.