President's Tip of the Week

Learning How to Evaluate
(6/18/08)

The absolute best way to learn how to give a good evaluation is to study good evaluators. Here are some things that I did when I was trying to figure out how to become a better evaluator.

1) Listen to every speech as if you were going to give the oral evaluation. Get yourself a cheap composition notebook to work in. When you arrive at a meeting write each of the speech objectives from the agenda into your notebook. Leave yourself space to make notes. Add a section for suggestions you would offer. During the speech, write out what you observed on each of the objectives. Then, during the oral evaluation, compare your notes to what the evaluator says. What did you miss? This provides you with feedback on things you need to observe more carefully. Did you catch something the evaluator missed? Good for you!

2) Observe the structure used by good evaluators. Did the evaluator follow the basic outline I provided in the last tip? If not, was the deviation from that structure effective? Why or why not? As a reminder, here is the 5 part structure:

Opening - brief reaction
Objectives - positive
Objectives - suggestions for improvement
Positives outside the objectives
Summary - always positive

3) Discuss your evaluation notes with your mentor. The best time to do it is immediately after the meeting. Make arrangements before the night of the meeting to go out for coffee with your mentor after the meeting.

4) If you are not a new member, but still want to buff up your skills, ask someone to mentor you in this area. Mentoring an "advanced member" can count for CL credit, just as mentoring a new member does. Pick out someone who is a good evaluator and who attends meetings regularly.