Wednesday, October 14, 2009
The Power of Positive Criticism
An important part of becoming a strong speaker is using the feedback from your audience to develop a self awareness of yourself and your message. We spoke about the idea of viewing the critiques that you will receive on your speeches as a "gift" from your classmates to becoming a stronger speaker. We need to stay aware of how we share this information with each other. What words or ways will you share with each other suggestions for strengths and improvements? It is important to always remember that the criticism should be positive in form whether it is sharing a strength or necessary improvement. What ways can you share suggestions for ways to improve? Try to think what can I teach another student when I critique them, not just list of speech criteria. Check out this brief article. Dr. Weisinger is a psychologist, author that addresses the area of positive criticism and emotional intelligence as a means to finding both personal and professional success. Share in your comments suggestions for what needs to be addressed in your opinion in speech critiques. How will you share this information? And, have you ever receive a critique that you found useful? Or destructive? What things have you found to be helpful in receiving advice? This blog comment is due by Thursday, October 22th at the start of class. You must write a post that contains 300 words. Please check for spelling and grammar. This post will count toward course points in participation.
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When giving a critique it is important to address the overall effectiveness of the speech Was the speech delivered in a manner that is clear and concise? Did it follow the pre-described guidelines? Was it delivered in an informed manner? Did the speaker seem to have a firm and confident grasp of the material being presented? A speech that is lacking in any of these elements is a speech that is lacking in effectiveness. It is important, however, when giving a critique on these matters that the critique itself delivered in a way that will be constructive and helpful to the speaker. A critique that does nothing but point out the failings of a speech is little more than an insult. The critique must also cover the positive aspects of the speech while at the the same time offering suggestions on how to strengthen any weak points.
I have received several critiques, both good and bad, in both my professional and educational life. Generally speaking, it seems that the critiques I have received at the hands of my instructors were the least effective. This is not to say that they didn't know what they were talking about. It is rather a matter of judgment. It is the job of a teacher to judge, in the way of grading, the performance of their students. Unfortunately, a critique given from a judgmental stand point is not likely to be well received or effective. It is difficult for a person with a well informed, professional understanding of a topic to provide positive criticism for someone whose own understanding of said topic is haphazard at best. To put it in other terms, a major league baseball player is unlikely to be well equipped to give pitching advice to a little leaguer. It's not an issue of professionalism, but a rather of being on the same level. In my experience, the best critiques, at least the ones that have the best results for me, come from my peers.
Critiquing, in general is a sensitive topic in my opinion. You want to be helpful, yet not insult somebody on their work. To find a balance of the two is the tricky part. This is going to be our first graded speech, so for most if not all this will be our first time critiquing a fellow student. The first thing when you critique, hopefully, will be the introduction of the speech. I will ask to myself...what is the purpose of this speech? How does this pertain to me? What are the points he/she will tell me about this subject? Next, I will listen while my fellow student delivers the body of their speech. While doing so I will keep an eye on their comfort level. How fast they speak, how well they know this material, if they are using eye contact. Did they pause for a sufficient amount of time. Were there transitions noted and flow in an easy manner. Were there many interjections. Did they cite efficiently and correctly. Finally I will evaluate there conclusion. I hope my criticism will be valued as an outside view for improvement, and not as an insult. I personally, have received a lot of criticism, some good and some bad. Never with school work, but with parenting. I find that being a parent, criticism is part of the package. I found this article helpful with my personal experience for the reason that, it does make me realize that people give their criticism to help. Criticism can and would be a useful tool as long as its given in a professional manner.
Critiquing someone should always be on a positive note. When I am speaking in front of a group of people I want the same feedback as I give to them. Respect should go both ways and I would never give negative feedback to someone. Even if I didn't approve of someones work they're speaking about I wouldn't throw them an attitude. Receiving positive criticism would give me the power to speak better and give me the confidence to achieve better. If I was listening to a speech that was not well put together at all, I would confront that person and tell them respectfully what was wrong. I would tell them in postitive criticism. I like when my friends give me positive cristicism because I would probably agree with them and take their advice immediately. A critique that is all negative criticism would make me not want to redo the speech. Positive points makes everything stronger and more important. This article was very helpful because I realized from now on I will always give off positive criticism. Criticism does not always have to be a "wrong thing" and letting that person down. "The Power of Positive Criticism" made me believe those steps into making a critique much better and making the elements of a speech perfect.
There are many ways of critiquing people. I find that the most effective criticism is when one says a positive note followed by a constructive note and then a positive note to top it off. It helps to start out with complimenting the person on something that they did well on in their speech. This makes them more confident in how they just performed in front of the class. After you make them feel more secure with what they gave to the audience, you should give them constructive criticism on some aspects of the speech that needed work. To top off the constructive criticism another compliment is needed to make sure they have the confidence to produce a better product the next time around. This technique can be used in many instances, not just public speaking. I find that when this technique is used the person is more responsive and are able to take the criticism no matter what kind of person they may be. Even if they are very sensitive people, they’ll still take the advice and run with it because they were given a positive response with helpful advice. Some students find their teachers don’t use a technique like this and all comments are negative. This causes students to give up on what there are trying to improve on and shut down. A teacher I used to have used a technique that gave all negative criticism back to the students and after a while we all just wanted to give up. She never told us what we were doing right, it was always what we did wrong, but never a way to fix what was wrong. It became frustrating and hopeless to all the students. I find if advice is given in a positive, constructive, positive manner it keeps the critiqued person more focused on what needs to be fixed rather than how embarrassed they are because of how bad someone is making them out to be.
Critiquing I believe is almost as tough as the speech itself. It involves a lot of analysis of the speech from how it was delivered from the presenter, the presenter’s physical characteristics such as how the persons posture was, did they make eye contact? Many things that the critiquer must pay attention to they can not simply listen to the speech as a regular audience member can. Was the speech meaningful and was the content there? Lots of things that must be realized. And then the other part is actually giving the critique, as Dr. Hendrie Weisinger says the best kind of critique to give is a positive one and that can be hard when you are picking out the negative things that need to be corrected in someone’s speech. As Dr. Hendrie says you need to be self aware, aware of what you are saying to the person and how you are saying it. You might have to change the way you say things from one person to the other because they make take it different ways. The other part of the critique is the positive points, I think this is the easier part on the person and the most helpful part because positive reinforcement builds confidence. But it may sometimes be harder for the person critiquing the speech because normally when you think of a critique you look for the fall out points that need help.
Criticism is an important tool to help people develop their potential to the fullest. However, criticism may not always be received positively. Taking criticism positively is a key quality of successful people. When critiquing someone, you do not want to insult them. It may be difficult to effectively critique someone’s speech without insulting them, since this may very well be the first time for some of my peers and I to critique a speech. It is important to pay close attention to whoever is delivering the speech. There are some questions my peers and I may want to answer while watching and listening to the speech being given. First we want to know what the speaker is delivering their speech on. Some questions to ask are: Are they clear on the topic of the speech? Is it informative? Are they credible? How are they delivering the speech? Attention should also be paid to the speaker’s body language. Are they moving around too much? Do they look comfortable in front of an audience? Are they making strange gestures they aren’t aware of? How fast are they speaking? Are they making eye contact? Asking questions while someone is delivering their speech is a good way to give positive criticism because you are fully aware of the speaker and the speech. When critiquing a speaker, you do not only want to focus on what the person did wrong. It is helpful to let the speaker know what their strong points are as well so they do not feel like they are being insulted. Insulting the speaker does nothing, it is not an effective method of criticism either. Critiques will vary from speaker to speaker, since nobody delivers a speech the same way. When it is time for me to critique someone’s speech I will pay close attention to everything I say to the person and make sure I am in no way insulting them. Most of the times I have been critiqued by a teacher or another student I didn’t really find it useful. Some students just do not care if they are insulting and some teachers are too worried about insulting you that the criticism they give has no effect. I plan on delivering my speech and my criticism as effectively as I can.
I will be a positive critic in the sense that I will keep in mind what I would want out of someone critiquing me. I would want positive feedback so I can be confident in what I’m doing well, but I would also want to know what my negative qualities are so that I could improve them and do better next time. Although it is important to receive constructive criticism, it would not feel as harsh if it were to be “spinned” in a positive way; this is what I plan to do when I am critiquing something. When one feels good about the tips they are getting they are likely to run with it and become self-confidant rather than stress over it and become self-conscious.
In my life I have received both positive and negative critiques. The positive critiques help me to feel confident in what I am doing and make me work harder so that I can live up to the standard I just now set for myself. The negative critiques come in two different packages. There were the constructive criticisms which I took note on; these I were able to figure out with help and work through them for my own improvement. Then there were the harsh criticisms, which I’ve found can do more further damage than actually help a person. The difference between constructive criticism and harsh criticism is that constructive criticism invites and challenges a person to improve; it tells them that they’re not quite there yet but they are certainly capable of reaching their goal. Harsh criticism on the other hand makes a person feel embarrassed and incapable of success. When they try to improve with the echo of the harsh criticism in the back of their mind, it gives them a feeling of doom and eventually they just give up. Hopefully through this class we can not only learn to be good public speakers, but good critics as well.
Any type of optomism is great for furthering in life. When it comes down to critiques, being positive is an ultimate plus. When anyone is talked to in a negative way they automatically tune out, well atleast with me. Most of the time negative is always a complaint about you that you do not want to hear. The best way to critique has to be in a positive form. If a critique is given in a positive way the person will accept the fact that they did something wrong and they know it can be fixed. In other words they are not scared away from fixing the problem. Some major key things that are critiqued is the way the speech was given. If the speaker is offset with a boring voice, someone should let them know that the audience was not interested. Say something along the lines of, " that was a great speech i just wished i could have heard you a bit louder in the back because i was so interested in the topic." Now, instead of being held back by a negative comment, the speaker will know next time the voice they need to bring. I have always been critiqued since my sister is an english major. She always told me that when it comes down to people always have a positive vibe. Never feel insecure of the things you are saying because people can sense it and have a negative reaction. Overall, critiques are known to me as a way to help strengthen the negatives into positives and as a result you as a person will become more experienced.
When critiquing someone, you have to be able to get your point across. I believe I am better critiqued when it is done in a caring manner. If someone is tearing you apart, it is also going to tear your self- confidence apart, making it hard to even give a speech next time. You have to explain what could have been done better without saying it was done badly. It always helps to be positive in critiquing and to always offer a comment on what their best feature was. Was it the fact that they knew exactly what they were talking about or that they got everyone’s attention? Whatever it is, it should be mentioned. There is always something good about a speech or about the way that the person presents it. I have seen people give presentations and then get absolutely ripped apart. Many people are nervous enough to get up and have to talk in front of a class. To think about what is going to be said about you and your speech when you’re finally finished creates even more nervousness. Well, for me at least. Critiquing is extremely important. It helps us learn about our flaws in a manner that doesn’t make us not want to fix them. When I receive positive criticism, I welcome it. It’s good to know what you are doing wrong so that you can easily learn from your mistakes. It makes me want to listen when I’m being criticized in a positive way. When people are mean and nasty, you feel like they are critiquing you, but judging you. You don’t want to focus on what they have to say because it is negative. This in the end probably results in you drowning them out. The bottom line is that people are more apt to hear positive criticism than negative criticism.
Critiquing is important and necessary to be a successful person. It is meant to help, not hurt. In helping the person you are critiquing, I believe you should be positive and call attention to not only the weaknesses, but the strengths. People, who are being critiqued, should learn and take it with a grain of salt if it is harsher than necessary. You can always put a positive spin on things whether you’re giving or receiving criticism. When critiquing someone, it is important to call attention to the bigger things that really stand out and maybe leave out things that aren’t that big of a deal, for instance, telling someone to make better eye contact, but not mentioning the fact that they said “um” once during their speech. You should be aware of a person’s feelings and how hard it is to stand up and present something. Even if it isn’t hard for you to get up and talk in front of large groups of people, it may not be for someone else. As stated in the article, you should practice what you preach. If you’re going to tell someone that they need to add more humor in their speech, and then proceed to speak without a lick of it, you shouldn’t be critiquing anyone. Someone who is critiquing should also be learning. Maybe they have noticed a behavior that they themselves have been practicing and are now aware of it. You shouldn’t critique with the attitude that you could do so much better, but know that he or she is trying to grow as a speaker and reinforce as positively as possible. Also, I believe that having a cheerful disposition helps when critiquing someone. Think about it, would you rather have Simon Cowell critiquing you, or Paula Abdul? I think we would all arrive at the same answer to that one
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