• Check out the room so it is the way you like it.
• Introduce yourself - SMILE
• Call roll. Make sure everyone who should be there is; if there is any discrepancy have the timekeeper notify the office. Do not move someone to another classroom on your own.
• Wait for a signal from the office to start a round. Do not start any round until you hear this signal, i.e. bell, buzzer.
• Keep everyone in the room once a round of speaking has begun.
• Have speaker(s) print name(s) and number/letter(s) on the board.
• Be sure timer is ready before you allow speaker to begin.
• Give some indication to speaker(s) that he/she/they may begin.

• Write comments during, and/or after speech is presented, which ever you prefer. Try not to appear as if you are busy writing instead of watching the speech!
• Make comments in the spaces provided. Do Not leave a comment section blank.
• Make comments constructive. “Good”, “Fine”, and “Fair” are not enough.
• Make sure comments are clear and to the point. Avoid ambiguity.

• MAKE SURE SCORES FIT THE COMMENTS. NO low scores with excellent comments. NO high scores with negative comments.
• Deduct a point in the section provided for under/over time speeches.
• Do not compare students’ speeches.

• Sign both parts of the ballot.
• Note under/over time on both sections of the ballot.
• Send entire ballots in sealed envelope via timekeeper to board office.
• Distribute upper section of the ballots to the students.
• Answer any questions they may have about your comments.
• Do NOT reveal any score to any person at any time.
• Keep all people in the room until end of round has been signaled.

• Visible: Posture, facial expressions, gestures and movements should be natural, devoid of stiffness, and yet, not sloppy; Contestants should not be judged on or comments made about their clothing.

• Audible: Rate of speech should be even, steady, neither too fast nor too slow to be understood. Speech should be presented at a volume strong enough to be heard without difficulty. If accents are attempted, they should be maintained consistently throughout the speech. A speech in which one speaker assumes different roles should contain different “voices” for each role. Natural speech impediments and those caused by braces should be taken into consideration when judging a speech.

• Psychological: Interpretation and persuasion - does the speaker make you feel that he/she has become the character? Do you believe it? Poise - does the student keep his/her cool? Does he/she stumble over words? Do partners in a duet pick up cues from each other? Friendliness - does the speaker seem to enjoy giving his/her speech? Forcefulness - was the interpretation convincing enough? Did the Character come across as he/she should? Was the introduction strong enough? Did you understand the speech? Did the student understand the speech? Should a student "freeze" and need to start over, one point should be deducted in this section.