You will still utilize the camera set up we’ve been working on all semester for this assignment where your video camera is your audience and thus deserving of eye contact!
Assignment instructions:
After taking into consideration the feedback from your peers and your own self-evaluation, now is your opportunity to make the necessary changes to your speech, and submit a new and improved version that you are proud of.
Unlike the practice speeches which are graded on merely effort, this speech will be more harshly graded. Therefore, before submitting your speech make sure it is within the 6-8 minute safety zone, includes all 7 sources (correctly cited as well), follows the organizational model, etc. Note, you may not merely re-submit your first video. This should be the new and improved version. Failure to do so will result in a failing grade. And an irritated instructor. In an effort to deter you from doing so, you will have to submit the link to not only your Final Draft speech, but also repost the link to your practice speech.
The breakdown of the grade is Organization (30%), Content (30%), and Delivery (40%). You may want to look back over the feedback cheat sheets as a helpful guide under each of these areas.
Please submit your unlisted link to your improved speech below. Again, also include the link to your practice speech below it. Finally, include a bullet-point outline of your final draft sub-points. You will not need to re-submit your Works Cited page (unless you changed out some of the articles- in which case you can simply add the citation to the text of your submission). Failure to include any of the above will result in a significant point reduction.
Your graded speeches in this class will be rated based on your organization (30%) content (30%) and delivery (40%). Therefore, when assessing both your own and your classmate’s speeches, I want you focusing on feedback in the above three areas. Be careful, a common pitfall is to focus on solely delivery and skip the feedback on format and content. Push yourself to incorporate feedback on all three areas. That includes specific things that are done well, and specifically what needs to be fixed or changed before the next speech.
To make it easier on you, I have provided the following cheat sheet to use when assessing speeches:
Organization Points:Attention Grabber. What was it?
How could they make it even stronger?
Significance Statement. Did it convey how important the topic is? Was a statistic used?
Thesis Statement. Was it signposted? Short and to the point?
Preview Statement. Did they list their 3 main points? Was it signposted?
Clear transition statements between each part of the speech?
Did they review what was just talked about and preview what was about to be covered?
Did the main points have SUB-points? Did the speaker give an internal preview of their sub-points at the top of each main point?
Were the problems actually problems and the causes actually causes?
Did the speaker start their 3rd main point with larger scale solutions and end with personal solutions?
Did they provide at least 3-4 personal solutions that were specific and unique? How could the speaker give even stronger personal solutions?
Did the conclusion include all necessary parts?
Content Points:
Did they have all 7 sources? What were they? Were they cited correctly? Distributed evenly throughout the speech? Did they vary their sources?
Were they as close to 7 minutes as possible? (6-8 minutes is the safe zone).
What supporting material did they include? Statistics? Testimonies? Stories? Examples? Analogies? Was there a nice variety of each? Would including one or more types of supporting material make the speech stronger? Where in the speech could they include that supporting material?
How did they tailor the speech to their audience members?
Did they allocate the proper time to each part of their speech? Was their introduction about 45 seconds- 1 minute? Was each main point relatively equal in length? Was the conclusion roughly 30-45 seconds?
Delivery Points:
Vocal delivery
How was the volume? Could you still hear him/her when they transitioned away from you? Did they finish on a strong note and avoid having their voice trail off? How was the speaker’s pitch? Inflections?
Rate of speech. Did the speaker vary their rate throughout their speech? Did they slow down during more complex portions of their speech? Speed up in other areas? Perhaps even slow down during a story to create emotional appeal or for dramatic effect?
Did the speaker use pauses when appropriate?
Did the speaker of lots of great vocal variety and energy throughout the speech to keep the audience’s interest?
Nonverbal delivery:
Did the speaker have purposeful gestures? Did he/she vary those gestures? Did the speaker avoid holding their hands together and/or holding the notecard with both hands? When not gesturing purposefully, did the speaker return to the relaxed position? Did the speaker avoid bouncing their hands in sync to their speech tempo?
Transition walks. Did the speaker walk when appropriate? Did they maintain eye contact while they were walking? Did they provide a transition statement as they were walking? Did they avoid turning their back on audience members while walking? Did the speaker keep their feet planted when not transitioning?
Eye contact. Did the speaker have appropriate eye contact? Did they hold eye contact with each member of the audience? Did the speaker use various facial expressions to help guide the audience? Did they smile when appropriate?
Physical space. Was the speaker standing too close/too far from the audience?
