This was the evaluation speech that helped me win the champion trophy at the District 80 Evaluation Contest last year. Kindly transcribed by Gerald Ong.
Contest Chair, fellow toastmasters, ladies and gentlemen, a very good afternoon to all of you, especially to my dear friend here, Amelia.
The wonder of Toastmasters is that it can transform you from a mediocre speaker into a mesmerizing presenter and I have seen that transformation in Amelia. And this afternoon, her presentation is worthy of an A grade, which her name also starts with A. I am going to use the 3 As to expound on her strengths.
The First A is an appropriate topic.Your topic is about the pursuit of perfection and it is relevant to all of us. In toastmasters here, we are here to pursue perfection as well as communication and leadership
skills.
The second A is anecdotes. You were able to use anecdotes effectively and you drew them from your personal life, involving your son and daughter as well from your work life.
And the third A is for animated. You were very animated as a speaker. You were able to use vocal variety, as well as appropriate gestures. You also used the stage area very effectively. So those are the 3 As that helped you score an A for your performance today.
But how can you go from being an A grade performer to become an A* grade performer? This is where I am going to share 3Ps, which will turn you into a more poised and polished speaker.
The 1st P (you are supposed to take notes now) is to plan pointers in your speech content. For me, I am a very logical person. I like it to be numbered like 1,2,3 or in acronyms ABC, or all As or all Ps. That's my style. I found it a little hard to follow your speech. I would have preferred you to plan some pointers. For example, by telling us that to pursue perfection, there are 3 ways that you can do it. Like number 1 from your personal life, number 2 in your work life, and number 3 on a global scale. You go through these 3 points. On the first point, these are what we can take note of. On the second point, these are what we can take note of and so on. I felt if you had done that, it would help the audience follow your points more logically.
The Second P is to polish your language. There was a few pronunciation as well as grammatical errors in your presentation. You were able to polish that up, that will make you come across as a more poised and polished speaker. For example, you asked 'Is there a such thing called perfect?' when you should have said, “Is there such a thing called Perfection?” This is some of the little things that you may want to tune up.
And the third P is to plan a memorable conclusion, because the audience remembers best what they hear last. So if you want the audience here to follow your advice and to keep improving, keep innovating and keep pursuing perfection then you have to bring that message across strongly to them. And I would suggest in your conclusion, stand still and bring across that message in a loud and powerful voice, instead of pacing, which you were doing at the last part.
In conclusion, Amelia, 3As that helped score A, appropriate Topic, anecdotes and you were animated as a speaker – and finally worked on the 3Ps: plan pointers, polish up your language, plan a memorable conclusion. With that, you will become a very powerful speaker.
Back to you, Contest Chair.
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