Taking on this role improves active listening, critical thinking, and positive feedback skills. Evaluation is the heart of the Toastmasters educational program.
Contact Presenter
- Before the meeting, contact the Presenter for the following:
- The Pathways evaluation form
- Anything specific they would like you to focus on
- You can practice by watching presentations of the same type and recording yourself either on your phone or webcam for 2-3 minutes:
Evaluate Presentation
- During the meeting, your role is to write a report that evaluates the presentation according to the Pathways project:
- Open with 2-3 strong points.
- Offer 1-2 opportunities for improvement.
- Close with another 1-2 strong points.
- Remember: You are evaluating the presentation, not the Presenter.
- Be highly specific with all feedback as follows:
- If something is very strong, directly quote it and/or imitate it.
- If something has a significant opportunity for improvement, offer specific options for improving it.
- Check out Alondra Sánchez’s presentation on how to be a good Evaluator:
Give Evaluation
- At the end of the meeting, the Toastmaster calls on you to give your evaluation in 2-3 minutes:
- There will be nowhere near enough time for your entire report. Just give the highlights!
- Be sure to incorporate both the Toastmaster’s Theme and the Grammarian/Ah-Counter’s Word of the Day.
- Addressing the Presenter in second person (“you”) or by their preferred gender pronouns in third person (“they”/“she”/“he”) are both totally okay. Some clubs stress doing one or the other, but Tragicomedy Toastmasters believes you can oscillate between the former and the latter as appropriate to make a point to the Presenter or to the audience, respectively.
- Focus on the presentation’s strongest points and opportunities for improvement.
- Above all, because Toastmasters is laser-focused on positive reinforcement, be sure to use the sandwich method whenever you give feedback by layering all constructive remarks with positive ones.