Everyone’s a critic

Step 1

Review elements of speech.
Review the information on commonly evaluated elements of a speech, which include the following:

Speaker Commitment to the Subject
Suitable to the Occasion and Audience
Clear Purpose
Fresh Point of View
Ethics
Step 2

View and critique one of the following informative speeches.
Research the Internet and locate an audio or video for one of the following topics:

Van Gogh’s Life
Getting To Know the Elderly
Step 3

Paste the table.
Speech Title:

Critique for Speech
Criteria Questions to Ask Yourself Comments
Speaker Commitment to the Subject How important is the subject to the speaker?
Appropriateness for Audience and Occasion How is the topic and delivery relevant and useful to the audience?
Clear Purpose What are the goal(s) the speaker has for delivering the speech?
Fresh Point of View In what ways does the speech challenge the audience to think about something in a new way?
Ethics How can you be sure that the speaker tells the truth and has the best interest of the audience at heart?
Substance What new information does the speech content provide that is supported by facts, statistics, and so on?
Structure How well organized is the speech? How clearly does the information flow from one topic to the next?
Step 4

Type the speech title and URL above the table.
Step 5

Watch the speech.
Pause the video as necessary and enter any initial thoughts that may be useful in writing your critique of the speech.

Step 6

Review the strategies for giving effective feedback.
The recommendations given in the lesson include:

Begin the critique by making a positive statement.
Focus on select areas for improvement.
Make your comments in an organized fashion.
Provide specific feedback about what needs to be improved.
Be honest but respectful and tactful in your comments.
Personalize comments by indicating how you were influenced by the content or behavior, using I instead of you.
Stress the positive aspects of the speech.
Offer specific suggestions on how to correct a problem.
Provide a plan of action for how to improve the next speech with examples.
End the critique with a positive statement.
Step 7

Write a critique of the speech.
Use your speech evaluation table and guidelines from the lesson for giving effective speech feedback to assist you in writing the critique.

Strive to include feedback on as many aspects of the speech as possible and to structure the feedback in a way that would make it valuable and understandable to the person delivering the speech.
Step 8

Save and submit your assignment.
When you have completed the assignment, save a copy for yourself in an easily accessible place and submit a copy to your instructor.