Showing posts with label sub-heading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sub-heading. Show all posts

Friday, February 28, 2014

Prize-winning Evaluation - how to do it

I (Angela Lansbury) am on the right with my two ribbons for Table topics and Evaluation. On the left is our warm and encouraging Toastmaster of the Evening, Mandy Carlin. 

I heard Lynn Cantor, last year's UK and Ireland Evaluation Prize Winner, speaking three times in workshops. The first time I admit I had trouble paying attention and sat at the back and what she said bored me, but the second time it sounded interesting, although I could not remember it, yet the third time, wow, either she had improved enormously or 'the penny had dropped' in my brain. Her vital messages got through about how to evaluate what you hear and see and write succinct one word reminder.
    The first time I tried to evaluate table topics I had trouble remembering who said what. To sum it up, you divide your page in half. Don't bother listing commend, recommend, commend. (Praise, suggest how to improve, praise.) Just put one or two good things on the left, one or two good things on the right.
   I started with the first name of the person called out as a heading. I ended comments on each person with a line across the page - otherwise you lose track of who your comment describes.
   I admit I wrote not in a proper book (Lynn recommended keeping a book just for all your evaluation.) I borrowed a pen and wrote on the back of the agenda. After reaching the end of the page I wrote up the side margin - then onto another page, marked 2. Yuk!
   In the break I remedied this. I copied all the comments onto one page neatly, with just a one word summary of each point.
   The page was headed TOPIC EVALUATIONS (date) by Angela. Keep/File.
(If I dropped the paper, it would be returned to me.)
the left column was headed by a tick. The right column was headed by a cross.
Once or twice I got the praise on the right or the recommend on the left. I drew circles and arrows to show where the comments should be.
When the timer gave the timings I was able to check I'd got the person's name in capitals and underlined, and circled. Then i wrote the topic in small letters circled beside the name.
First comment was sub-heading Eric - Age.
That enabled me to start confidently, "The first topic was Eric on age."
In the left hand box I wrote: smile laugh happy
In the right hand box I wrote: Pull up trousers.

   My comment was: Eric's topic was age. Most people are gloomy about age. He smiled from the start, looked happy, kept us happy, and laughed. He began happy, continued happy, and ended happy.
The only recommendation is about the moment when he pulled up his trousers. After that I was worried they were going to fall down! Great happy topic.

Prabha - Chocolates. (Life is a box of chocolates.)
Key words: Success.
Recommend - Touch Nose.
Recommend - Mid-way through the topic you thought and grasped your nose. No need. It won't fall off, I promise.
Book: Quick Quotations by Angela Lansbury. Lulu.com

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Punctuation in Presentations

   A presenter who spoke English as a second language had carefully researched English grammar for his/her* presentation on good grammar. The first error I noticed was the headline was wrong. His/her spelling was wrong. Grammar, when spelled correctly, has the letter 'a' twice.
     Each slide had a major error. As an expert in English, and English teacher, I was hailed as the expert to evaluate the evening. He/she had gone to such a lot of trouble, researching, then producing the slides.
Capital Letters
   Capital letters can be used for every word in a heading or sub-heading. In German nouns have capital letters. In English we restrict capital to names. On rare occasions a word can be both a name and a generic term. In that case you use the capital only when the word is used as a name. For example, 'When I saw my mother, I asked, "May I have an apple, Mother?" '
Full stops
    Full stops are used to indicate when the reader can stop for breath. A page with no full stops, just a series of sentences with commas between them, looks daunting. The unbroken text is exhausting to read aloud or silently.
    The listener would be totally confused.
    Full stops usually separate two sentences, expressing two separate ideas. Commas are used for a briefer pause, before a small phrase which expands or modifies the noun which the extra words qualify.
    I say his/her because this has happened more than once. I also don't want to create the embarrassment of somebody thinking, 'that must be me' or 'that must be him/her'.
I later frowned at a slide which contained the word yours's. Should I tell the speaker, if I were not the Language Evaluator. 
I previously saw a slide with a mistake by a German. I hesitated. Eventually I wrote him anote praising his great presentation. As an afterthough I mentioned how he had only one error in a long presentation, when others have two or three errors in only one sentence. I was very relieved when he wrote back a charming note thanking me for my help in pointing out his error so that with my help he could be one hundred percent perfect.

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