Reader Response

Speech Critiques

Why study other speakers?

The Speech Analysis Series

Studying and evaluating the techniques of other speakers is an excellent way to become a better public speaker.

When a speaker impresses, ask “Why was that impressive?“
When a speaker bombs, ask “Why didn’t that hit the mark?“

Analyzing other speakers provides an abundant supply of ideas that can be incorporated into our own presentations.

Why use video critiques?

With a growing supply of speech videos readily accessible, video critiques can be especially useful teaching and learning aids.

Without video, you can say: “Remember that keynote speaker last week? Weren’t her gestures powerful?“
With video, you can refer directly to precise moments: “The keynote speaker last week was fantastic. Her gestures at 1:27 and 2:38 of her speech were powerful.“

Speech Critique Examples on Six Minutes

Speaker: Dan Pink
Title: The Surprising Science of Motivation
Venue: TED 2009
Notable Elements: Strong opening and closing; masterful speechwriting; passionate; superb gestures and vocal variety.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Abraham Lincoln
Title: Gettysburg Address
Venue: Dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863, in the midst of the United States Civil War.
Notable Elements: One of the most famous, most quoted, and most recited speeches of all time. It is also one of the shortest at just 10 sentences.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Elizabeth Gilbert
Title: Nurturing Creativity
Venue: TED 2009
Notable Elements: Passionate; storytelling; engaging the audience; speaking rate; hand gestures; relating the message to the audience.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Jacqueline Novogratz
Title: Escaping Poverty
Venue: TED 2009
Notable Elements: Strong opening and closing; relates to the audience; storytelling; contrast; visuals; eye contact.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Barack Obama
Title: Presidential Inaugural Address
Venue: Washington, D.C., January 20, 2009
Notable Elements: Inauguration speech delivered to a live crowd estimated at 2 million people and billions around the globe.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Martin Luther King Jr.
Title: I Have a Dream
Venue: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963
Notable Elements: Given to a crowd of 250,000, "I Have a Dream" is considered one of the greatest speeches of all time.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Dalton Sherman
Title: Do you believe?
Venue: Dallas Independent School District Teachers Conference
Notable Elements: 10-year-old 5th grader Dalton Sherman delivers an inspirational speech to 20,000 teachers about the importance of believing in each other.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Randy Pausch
Title: The Last Lecture ("Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams")
Venue: CMU (Carnegie Mellon University)
Notable Elements: Tremendously inspirational, funny, clever use of props and visual aids, a truly memorable speech.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Patrick Henry Winston
Title: How to Speak
Venue: MIT Annual Lecture (1997)
Notable Elements: Dozens of practical public speaking tips; targets speaking to teach or to inform; lecture-style.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Majora Carter
Title: Greening the Ghetto
Venue: TED 2006
Notable Elements: Personal emotion, energy, passion, rapid speaking rate, call-to-action, reading from script.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Hans Rosling
Title: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen
Venue: TED 2006
Notable Elements: Six simple techniques for presenting data, graphical display, energetic delivery.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: J.A. Gamache
Title: Being a Mr. G.
Venue: 2007 Toastmasters (Region VI) Speech Contest
Notable Elements: Strong writing, powerful body language, speech opening and closing which feature the same prop, callback technique for repetitive humor, emotionally charged writing, and a series of wonderfully choreographed gestures.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Steve Jobs
Title: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
Venue: Stanford University Commencement Address 2005
Notable Elements: Strong opening; simple classical structure; the Rule of Three; rich figures of speech; and a recurring theme of birth/death/rebirth.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Al Gore
Title: 15 ways to avert a climate crisis
Venue: TED 2006
Notable Elements: Humor; call-to-action; audience awareness; and slide techniques.; Read the Speech Critique

Speaker: Dick Hardt
Title: Identity 2.0
Venue: OSCON 2005
Notable Elements: Lessig method, speech opening, humor, repetition, contrast, analogies.; Read the Speech Critique

This is one of many public speaking articles featured on Six Minutes.
Subscribe to Six Minutes for free to receive future articles.

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Twitter: @6minutes

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15 Tweets

Andrew Dlugan — Jan 18th, 2010

@PaulRJones Again, thank you. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on my other speech critiques: http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/video-critiques/

Michael Moesslang @moesslang — Mar 29th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ow.ly/1s3hY of famous #speakers

moesslang @riewo07 — Mar 29th, 2010

今度の舞台は空中都市！神ゲーバイオショック新作『BioShock Infinite … ：【9月22日】クロヒョウ龍が如く新章特典… http://bit.ly/bVIOrr #followmeJP #followdaibosyu

Heiko van Eckert @hveckert — Mar 29th, 2010

RT @moesslang: Speech Critique Examples http://ow.ly/1s3hY of famous #speakers

tangentfield @dtpdesign — Mar 29th, 2010

News: Hull Futures And Options Markets – My Experiences Trading Sugar Commodity Futures Contracts and Options http://bit.ly/dBs8f3

Michael Moesslang @presensation — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPec of famous #speakers

Michael Moesslang @moesslang — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPeb of famous #speakers

moesslang @askbiography — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPeb of famous #speakers

presensation @san_ss77 — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPec of famous #speakers

Michael Moesslang @top1speaker — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPed of famous #speakers

top1speaker @coodoo — May 14th, 2010

Speech Critique Examples http://ht.ly/1KPed of famous #speakers

bigwags @bigwags — Jun 6th, 2010

Why study other speakers? http://tinyurl.com/cfnph8 from @6minutes thanks @mikesansone for pointing me to Andrew's wk!

Matthew A. Gilbert @matthewagilbert — Nov 20th, 2011

@MatthewAGilbert Matthew, many university instructors/students like this http://t.co/P5yRCQm7 and these http://t.co/0Sc4PzEY

madi @dilgerma — Jan 15th, 2012

want to know how to give a good speech? http://t.co/rMaLIoWV – excellent material

Ashutosh Tamhankar @asshutossh — Jan 26th, 2012

http://t.co/v2rJkSeO interesting stuff on how to deliver a speech!

5 Blog Links

salegro Vertriebs-Blog » Archiv » Speech critiques — Mar 29th, 2010

[...] you want to study other speakers, here is a great site to do so: six minutes speech [...]

Giving a Talk About Your Book » Holly Brady — Apr 14th, 2011

[...] more inspiration, spend some time checking out the video speech critiques on the excellent website Six Minutes: Speaking & Presentation Skills, including one that critiques this TED talk by author Elizabeth [...]

Giving a Talk About Your Book « Holly Brady — Apr 20th, 2011

Critiquing Speeches – ELC Learning Place — May 11th, 2011

[...] Six Minutes – Speaking and Presentation Skills has an excellent explanation on how to critique speeches. Critiquing doesn’t mean just criticizing what is wrong with something. Critiquing is thinking critically about an ideas behind the words. Critiquing is about: [...]

Reading Response for Class 11/22 | Visual Design – Com 364 — Nov 22nd, 2011

[...] article, Speech Critiques, explains why we should study other speakers and use video critiques. I think that it is a good [...]

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Speech Critiques

Majora Carter (TED, 2006)
Energy, Passion, Speaking Rate
Hans Rosling (TED, 2006)
6 Techniques to Present Data
J.A. Gamache (Toastmasters, 2007)
Gestures, Prop, Writing
Steve Jobs (Stanford, 2005)
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Al Gore (TED, 2006)
Humor, audience interaction
Dick Hardt (OSCON, 2005)
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