The Humanities Department sponsors a public speaking contest each semester that is open to students enrolled in the public speaking course. After one contest a friendly dispute arose between some of the student members of the audience and the judges. A student who delivered a very dynamic, skillful speech finished third in the competition. Based on the skillful delivery, the students argued that this speaker should have won the contest. However, the judges expressed some concerns about the content of the speech. Specifically, the speaker did not cite sources appropriately. As one judge explained, “Delivery cannot substitute for a sound message. An effective speaker must convey a well-reasoned message that is supported by a variety of sources and is well organized.”
Which do you think is more important, Delivery or Content?
When you watch a speech, do you pay more attention to Delivery or Content?
When you learn how to evaluate a speech/speaker effectively, you will most likely place more emphasis on the speaker’s delivery and less on the speech organization, citations, relevance, and other content components. The more messages you evaluate the more you will realize the importance of the content regardless of the skill with which the speech is delivered. As mentioned in Chapter 1, a listener should seek to understand and analyze the message no matter the level of delivery. The speech could be well organized with very relevant and new information, but be delivered by a less satisfactory speaker (good speech/poor speaker). Would this keep you from receiving the message? On the other hand, you may encounter a speaker, who is very conversational, enthusiastic, and passionate, but is delivering a poorly organized speech with confusing explanations that both keep you from fully understanding the message and/or recognizing unethical content. Would the speaker’s delivery keep you from realizing this? Consider Adolf Hitler. He is known as one of the most persuasive speakers in history. He convinced his supporters to believe in his viewpoint and carry out horrible crimes against millions of people. Where they so taken by this man’s delivery style that they were willing to overlook the truth or rightness of his message? Many people are scammed or deceived everyday by messages on television, the Internet, and others in their life because they cannot properly evaluate both the content and delivery effectively. A speaker’s contend and delivery work together to create a highly effective speech. Inexperienced evaluators often have difficulty because it is not easy to train the ear to listen to different aspects of content and delivery at once. Remember, you are not only evaluating the content that is given by the speaker but the content that should be included. The more you evaluate, the better you will become at multitasking and effectively evaluating a speech.
So, how well can you evaluate both delivery and content together?
