Division Z Evaluation Contest 2008

DIVISION Z EVALUATION CONTEST 2008
EVALUATION OF HIJAZI’S SPEECH “THE ECONOMICS OF RELATIONSHIP”

This was the evaluation speech that helped me win the contest:
(Transcribed from video)

Good afternoon, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen, and especially toastmaster Hijazi. I would like to commend you on giving us a fabulous speech today. And let me share with you why your speech was fabulous using the acronym FAB.

Firstly, you were funny. Everytime I hear you speak, you never fail to tickle my funny bones. I think you really gave the contestants a run for their money. Let me share with you in what way you were funny. You used exaggeration, you used meaningful stares, as well as a very interesting analogy comparing women to the stock market. I think the audience loved that.

A for audience participation. You made use of audience participation by asking them questions and getting them to raise their hands. You also gave them fill-in-the-blanks. And I think the audience enjoyed that as well. So audience participation was great.

And B for body language. You had effective use of body language. You were very animated. There were times when you did this (punch fist into other palm), or used your fingers to emphasize certain points. So well done on those 3 points.

Now I want to share with you 3 ways in which you can improve on your speech today. I want to give you recommendations on how you can improve on the content and organization of your speech. Let me run through the 3 points using OBC: Opening, body and conclusion, which is the basic structure of how we have all been advised to structure our speeches.

Opening. Opening is very important because that is where you grab the audience’s attention. Yes, you had the use of questioning techniques but were your questions relevant to your topic? No. Because your topic is The Economics of Relationship but instead you asked questions about the economy, which was not relevant. So when you want to use the questioning technique, choose your questions carefully. Make sure they are relevant to your topic.

Next, body of your speech. In the body of your speech, you have 3 tips. You spent a lot of time on the first tip ‘Act against normality’, you had anecdotes and you had advice. Your 2nd point ‘diversity’, you spent a moderate amount of time and then you just skim the last point. So your three tips were not well-balanced. So this is something you can look at. How can you manage your 3 tips so that you can spend equal amounts of time.

Last one, conclusion. There is a saying: “the audience remembers best what they hear last.” So conclude with a bang. And this is something you failed to do today because you were rushing for time. You saw the red light and you stopped. That detracted from the power of your speech. So what I want to say to you is: Craft a memorable ending because when you end with a bang, your audience will remember you for a long time to come.

So you are a talented speaker, humorous by nature. And in my humble opinion, if you are able to incorporate these advice by giving us a grand opening, a balanced body and a wonderful conclusion, then you will be able to give a speech with greater pizzazz and finesse.

Contest chair

(TIME TAKEN: 3 min 6 sec)

This was the first time I had won in a Division contest so it's a breakthrough for me, especially since I had strong competitiors in the likes of Wee Meng, Wekie Tay & Christine Lim.

It's also the first time I watched myself performing on video! The first time I watched it, I cringed, but after a while, I got used to it. Haha.. On reviewing my transcribed evaluation speech, I realised I used 'so' quite a lot. That's something to take note of and cut down on. Thankfully, I managed the points and timing quite well.