These speeches may last from 5 to 20 minutes. These speeches are based on speaking projects in the development manuals and would be focused on a particular aspect such as 'Body Language' or 'Using props'. Your first speech would normally be the 'ice breaker', a four to six minute speech about yourself that will introduce you to the other members. After that there are a number of categories of talks specified in the Toastmaster handbook. This is where we provide advice on your development as a speaker.
Every speech is evaluated by another member of the club.
The purpose of an evaluation is to provide friendly feedback which will help you to improve, and at the same time give you more confidence as a public speaker by pointing out your plus points and areas to improve upon. Often this is provided by a guest from another Toastmaster club, and this is in effect an evaluation of the whole evening. The main focus is on the evaluators, if it was points they missed out in their evaluation, and if they put across their evaluation in a efficient manner. Another part of the feedback process is the ballot. An award is made to the winner in each category.