Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
TM Club Evaluation Speech Practice
To practice for the upcoming Division B contest, I arranged to be the evaluator for an Advanced Manual speech. It was from the Information Speech manual and this speech's goal was giving a demonstration.
The primary difference between a TM prepared speech and a contest speech is in a contest you have to figure out the type of speech is being given.
In an information speech, the message is more important than the messenger. The biggest problem with most information speeches is the tendency to mistake quantity over quality. In other words, valuing amount of information over clarity.
This speaker had a great prop and good visuals, which he used to great effect in the 1st half of his speech. Then he diluted the impact of his message in the 2nd half of his speech with too much abstract information. Abstract in that he did not relate the additional infomration back to the prop and visuals presented in the first half.
Since we had guests, I had to devote time to explaining that evaluating an advanced speech require that I offer more constructive criticism than normal. Therefore, I had less time than usual. Determining my strategy allowed me to priotize my comments, ensured that I communicated the most important points and that I stay within the time limit.
To help me with the upcoming Division B contest to held Octover 17th, my club then gave me a roundtable evaluation which was very helpful.
The primary difference between a TM prepared speech and a contest speech is in a contest you have to figure out the type of speech is being given.
In an information speech, the message is more important than the messenger. The biggest problem with most information speeches is the tendency to mistake quantity over quality. In other words, valuing amount of information over clarity.
This speaker had a great prop and good visuals, which he used to great effect in the 1st half of his speech. Then he diluted the impact of his message in the 2nd half of his speech with too much abstract information. Abstract in that he did not relate the additional infomration back to the prop and visuals presented in the first half.
Since we had guests, I had to devote time to explaining that evaluating an advanced speech require that I offer more constructive criticism than normal. Therefore, I had less time than usual. Determining my strategy allowed me to priotize my comments, ensured that I communicated the most important points and that I stay within the time limit.
To help me with the upcoming Division B contest to held Octover 17th, my club then gave me a roundtable evaluation which was very helpful.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Area B-1 Contest - Part Two of Two
The Area Contest
There were 6 total contestants besides myself. 3 women and 2 other men. I drew 3rd in speaking order.
The target speaker was an advanced speaker, whose speech title was "Passing the Generational Torch".
I was surprised by the quality of the speech because in the past target speeches are usually given by speakers who are still working ont their first speech manual. The reason is many of the contestants at this level are usually first-timers.
At first I had a moment of panic, as the usual standard points I include in an evaluation were no longer valid in light of the how good the target speech was. I calmed myself down by remembering the holistic guidelines I set for myself and set about organizing my presentation.
Being 3rd in order gave me the additional time to decide on how I was going to present. Following is the organization I came up with:
The presentation was of the speaker's family history, focusing on family members who lived during the Civil War. This made the history relevant and was enlivened by the speaker's sense of humor.
Because of the quality of the speaker and the speech I decided to use a theme of coaching a storyteller. What the strengths the speaker had as a storyteller, how he could make those stronger and what constructive criticism could I provide to make the story clearer.
I was surprised by how nervous I was as I began. Intellectually I knew I was rusty as it had been years since I last presented outside of my TM club, but it was still a shock emotionally.
Having my holistic guidelines and several keynote points to organize my evaluation allowed me to be spontaneius and fun. For example, I pointed out one of the speaker's strengths was coming across to the audience in an affable manner which would allow the forgiveness of a lot of sins. In the resulting audience laughter I then qualified my statement by saying the speaker didn't have that many sins to worry about.
I focused my constructive criticisms on the speaker's transitions from the opening to the body to the conclusion. I also pointed out the an item he was given by a relative which was the source of his searching his family background would have had more impact if he had actually brought the item in question to show the audience.
Another of my points was complimenting the speaker on his voice and urging him to think of it as an instrument and using its full range and use of pause to make the presentation come across as more varied.
The result was I won to advance to the Division contest in October.
There were 6 total contestants besides myself. 3 women and 2 other men. I drew 3rd in speaking order.
The target speaker was an advanced speaker, whose speech title was "Passing the Generational Torch".
I was surprised by the quality of the speech because in the past target speeches are usually given by speakers who are still working ont their first speech manual. The reason is many of the contestants at this level are usually first-timers.
At first I had a moment of panic, as the usual standard points I include in an evaluation were no longer valid in light of the how good the target speech was. I calmed myself down by remembering the holistic guidelines I set for myself and set about organizing my presentation.
Being 3rd in order gave me the additional time to decide on how I was going to present. Following is the organization I came up with:
The presentation was of the speaker's family history, focusing on family members who lived during the Civil War. This made the history relevant and was enlivened by the speaker's sense of humor.
Because of the quality of the speaker and the speech I decided to use a theme of coaching a storyteller. What the strengths the speaker had as a storyteller, how he could make those stronger and what constructive criticism could I provide to make the story clearer.
I was surprised by how nervous I was as I began. Intellectually I knew I was rusty as it had been years since I last presented outside of my TM club, but it was still a shock emotionally.
Having my holistic guidelines and several keynote points to organize my evaluation allowed me to be spontaneius and fun. For example, I pointed out one of the speaker's strengths was coming across to the audience in an affable manner which would allow the forgiveness of a lot of sins. In the resulting audience laughter I then qualified my statement by saying the speaker didn't have that many sins to worry about.
I focused my constructive criticisms on the speaker's transitions from the opening to the body to the conclusion. I also pointed out the an item he was given by a relative which was the source of his searching his family background would have had more impact if he had actually brought the item in question to show the audience.
Another of my points was complimenting the speaker on his voice and urging him to think of it as an instrument and using its full range and use of pause to make the presentation come across as more varied.
The result was I won to advance to the Division contest in October.
Area B-1 Contest - Part One of Two
Before the Area B-1 Contest.
I attended a meeting of the Founder's District Speakers Club at the Crystal Cathedral. Attending helped me prepare for the upcoming evaluation contest because the Speakers Bureau has speeches given by either Toastmasters who are professional speakers and those who wanted to turn professional.
Speakers bureau evaluations are a round-robin format as all the members have the chance to participate in the evaluation. This helped me to learn and hopefully pick up a few evaluation pointers.
The day before the contest I decided on how I was going to approach the contest. One idea I debated was having a checklist of things to look for. I decided against the checklist as I felt it would make my presentation too mechanical.
As an alternative strategy I decided on keeping several holistic goals in mind. These were:
1. Giving an inspirational evaluation meaning the type of evaluation that would insprie the target speaker to give their next presentation at a higher level.
2. Focus on the strengths of the speaker that helped convey his/her message.
3. Give constructive criticism on areas that took away from his/her message.
I attended a meeting of the Founder's District Speakers Club at the Crystal Cathedral. Attending helped me prepare for the upcoming evaluation contest because the Speakers Bureau has speeches given by either Toastmasters who are professional speakers and those who wanted to turn professional.
Speakers bureau evaluations are a round-robin format as all the members have the chance to participate in the evaluation. This helped me to learn and hopefully pick up a few evaluation pointers.
The day before the contest I decided on how I was going to approach the contest. One idea I debated was having a checklist of things to look for. I decided against the checklist as I felt it would make my presentation too mechanical.
As an alternative strategy I decided on keeping several holistic goals in mind. These were:
1. Giving an inspirational evaluation meaning the type of evaluation that would insprie the target speaker to give their next presentation at a higher level.
2. Focus on the strengths of the speaker that helped convey his/her message.
3. Give constructive criticism on areas that took away from his/her message.
Speech Evaluation Contest Setup and Rules
1. The contestants are informed of the rules and contestant order determined.
2. A 5-to-7 minute "target" speech is given to be evaluated by contestants.
3. A period of time is given for the contestants to complete their evaluations.
4. All the contestnats notes are gathered and the Sgt-of-Arms takes all of the contestants, except for the first contestant to evaluate, out of the room.
5. Each contestant is given 2-to-3 minutes to give their evaluation with a 30 second grace period, meaning an evaluation can last as long as 3:29 seconds without being disqualified for going over time. On the other hand, an evaluation must meet a minimum time requirement, which I believe, is 2 minutes. I'm not sure because as far as I know I can't recall any being disqualified of being short on time in all the years I've been competing.
6. A minute is given for the judges in the audience to make complete their notes.
7. The next contestant is brought in.
8 After the last contestant, the judges are given 2 minutes to wrap up.
9. The judges make their decision.
2. A 5-to-7 minute "target" speech is given to be evaluated by contestants.
3. A period of time is given for the contestants to complete their evaluations.
4. All the contestnats notes are gathered and the Sgt-of-Arms takes all of the contestants, except for the first contestant to evaluate, out of the room.
5. Each contestant is given 2-to-3 minutes to give their evaluation with a 30 second grace period, meaning an evaluation can last as long as 3:29 seconds without being disqualified for going over time. On the other hand, an evaluation must meet a minimum time requirement, which I believe, is 2 minutes. I'm not sure because as far as I know I can't recall any being disqualified of being short on time in all the years I've been competing.
6. A minute is given for the judges in the audience to make complete their notes.
7. The next contestant is brought in.
8 After the last contestant, the judges are given 2 minutes to wrap up.
9. The judges make their decision.
Pasadena Jaycees Toastmasters Club Contest
Since this happened before I started this blog, this will be taken from what I can remember. The club contest was held August 26th.
There was one other contestant, Robert "Bob" Helbing. Bob is one of the founders of the club and is one of the club's best evaluators. I knew this was going to be a tough competition.
The target speaker, a club member, gave an information speech regarding going to the movies.
Bob was first and then me on the order of speaking. Unfortunate, because I was out of the room I missed Bob's evaluation. Fortunately, this gave me additional time to mentally organize my presentation while waiting to be called back to the room.
When you only have 2-to-3 minutes you have to decide which are going to be your most important points. This additional time was critical to the contest's result.
A key for me was backing up each of my evaluation points with a specific example, either through from the targe speaker's presentation or giving an illustration. For example, when doing a contrast of two points. I suggested pointing to the left when making a point and then pointing to the right when making the counter point giving a non-verbal gesture.
Our club contest used all the attending club members as judges by having each person vote on who they felt did the best job. Before the result was announced a round-robin roundtable evaluation was held where each member could make a comment or pass to the next member.
For myself, the constructive criticism was focused on being careful on not sounding patronizing and adding more "atta boys" to my evaluation.
The result was I beat Bob, primarily because my evaluation appeared better organized. It was pointed out that we had two contrasting styles, Bob's was more content-oriented and mine was more context-oriented.
On to the Area Contest in September!
There was one other contestant, Robert "Bob" Helbing. Bob is one of the founders of the club and is one of the club's best evaluators. I knew this was going to be a tough competition.
The target speaker, a club member, gave an information speech regarding going to the movies.
Bob was first and then me on the order of speaking. Unfortunate, because I was out of the room I missed Bob's evaluation. Fortunately, this gave me additional time to mentally organize my presentation while waiting to be called back to the room.
When you only have 2-to-3 minutes you have to decide which are going to be your most important points. This additional time was critical to the contest's result.
A key for me was backing up each of my evaluation points with a specific example, either through from the targe speaker's presentation or giving an illustration. For example, when doing a contrast of two points. I suggested pointing to the left when making a point and then pointing to the right when making the counter point giving a non-verbal gesture.
Our club contest used all the attending club members as judges by having each person vote on who they felt did the best job. Before the result was announced a round-robin roundtable evaluation was held where each member could make a comment or pass to the next member.
For myself, the constructive criticism was focused on being careful on not sounding patronizing and adding more "atta boys" to my evaluation.
The result was I beat Bob, primarily because my evaluation appeared better organized. It was pointed out that we had two contrasting styles, Bob's was more content-oriented and mine was more context-oriented.
On to the Area Contest in September!
Introduction
This blog's purpose is to share my journey toward my hoped for goal of winning the Toastmasters Founders District Speech Evaluation Contest. The total blog may be shorter depending if I get to advance to the next level.
There will be 6 total posts on this blog as follows:
1. Introduction
2. Setup and Rules of Speech Evaluation Contest
3. Pasadena Jaycees Toastmasters Club Contest
4. Area B-1 Contest
5. Division B Contest
6. Founders District Contest
The District Contest is the highest level that you can go. Only the International Speech Contest goes higher.
There will be 6 total posts on this blog as follows:
1. Introduction
2. Setup and Rules of Speech Evaluation Contest
3. Pasadena Jaycees Toastmasters Club Contest
4. Area B-1 Contest
5. Division B Contest
6. Founders District Contest
The District Contest is the highest level that you can go. Only the International Speech Contest goes higher.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
