Evaluate your progress

As you enter the world of public speaking and practice various techniques to improve, it is crucial to keep track of what you are doing. This will allow you to make sure that you are moving in the right direction and reaching your goals.

Evaluating your progress allows you to identify your strengths and weaknesses. It helps you stay motivated and gives you clear guidance on what aspects of your public speaking you need to work on. Through evaluation, you can listen to objective and constructive feedback. This will allow you to become aware and correct possible mistakes in the long run.

Steps to evaluation: Evaluating your progress involves a series of steps and considerations that will allow you to effectively measure your progress. We will explore these aspects in detail below:

• Set clear goals: Before beginning any evaluation, it is important to set clear goals that you want to achieve in your growth as a speaker.

• Be specific: Instead of setting a general goal such as "improve in public speaking," define more specific objectives such as "reduce the use of sound bites" or "improve eye contact with the audience.

• Make your goals measurable: Make sure you can measure your progress. For example, you could count the number of times you use crutches in a presentation and work to reduce that number.

• Review and adjust your plans regularly to make sure they remain relevant and achievable.

• Set realistic deadlines and trust that you will reward yourself once you have achieved your purpose.

• Collect recordings of your presentations: One of the most effective ways to evaluate your progress is to record your presentations and speeches. This allows you to review your performances closely, analyze your body language, identify patterns of behavior and evaluate the incongruence of your ideas. When reviewing these recordings, pay attention to aspects such as pace, intonation, use of pauses, posture and gestures.

• In addition to evaluating your own recordings, you should listen to the opinions of trusted people who are experts in the subject. Ask colleagues, mentors or professors to observe your presentations and provide honest and constructive feedback.

• Consider working collaboratively with a fellow student or joining a public speaking group where you can receive criticism and advice from other speakers-in-training.

• Conduct regular evaluations: Evaluating your progress should not be a one-time event, but an ongoing process. Schedule periodic evaluations in your calendar to review your development over time. You can set a weekly, monthly or quarterly schedule to make a more complete assessment of your skills and make adjustments to your learning approach if necessary.

Levels of achievement: Use checklists and rubrics to keep structured track of your progress in public speaking and assess key aspects such as use of gestures, speech structure and clarity of voice.

Also, consider setting different levels of achievement on your checklist or rubric. For example, you could assign levels such as "initial development," "proficient," and "excellent" to each of the items being evaluated. This will give you a more detailed view of your progress and motivate you to keep improving.

Learning from mistakes: Learning from your mistakes is an essential part of evaluating your progress. When you identify areas for improvement or make mistakes in your presentations, take advantage of these opportunities to learn.

Reflect on what went wrong, analyze the causes and look for ways to improve in future presentations. Remember that mistakes are part of the growth process and will help you refine your speech.

Also, don't forget to celebrate your accomplishments. Recognize and appreciate your progress, even the smallest ones. Celebrating your results will keep you motivated and help you remember everything you have accomplished so far.