I generally use the following guidelines when grading your speeches.  I will give you a copy of this sheet after each speech, and I will indicate on it where your speech falls in terms of each criterion.  The criteria are not all equal in weight, and your grade for the speech as a whole will be based on my estimation of the relative importance of each criterion.

A = Outstanding
An "A" speech focuses on one strong, clear, interesting, narrow, and specific claim and provides an introduction that gives an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the speech.

An "A" speech always exhibits professionalism, sincerity, enthusiasm, and confidence in its delivery -- with excellent eye contact, brisk pacing, effective use of voice, convincing gestures, no reading, and almost no notes.

An "A" speech surprises, engages, and educates its audience with concrete, interesting, and memorable detail in support of its assertions.

An "A" speech has a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the speech together logically in a thoughtful, sophisticated, and memorable manner with ample signposts to aid the listener in following the speaker's reasoning.

An "A" speech ends with a rousing conclusion that reinforces the speech's main claim, provides closure for the audience, and leaves its listeners satisfied with the length and comprehensiveness of the speech.

B = Good
A "B" speech focuses on a strong, clear, interesting, narrow, and specific claim, but the introduction is not a wholly adequate preface to the content, logic, and organization of the speech.

A "B" speech consistently exhibits professionalism, sincerity, enthusiasm, and confidence in its delivery -- with good eye contact, appropriate pacing, clear enunciation, adequate gestures, and, at most, only some reading from notes.

A "B" speech provides relevant, concrete evidence and logically persuasive reasons for its major points and assertions.

A "B" speech has a consistent overall organization that relates the ideas of the speech together logically with signposts for the listener at significant points in the speech, but the speaker's reasoning is not always clearly delineated for the listener.

A "B" speech ends by reinforcing its thesis and providing the audience with a clear sense of closure.

C = Adequate
A "C" speech focuses on one claim, but the claim is vague, broad, uninteresting, or not wholly relevant to the assignment.

A "C" speech is basically comprehensible but exhibits one or more serious problems of delivery -- lack of effective eye contact, too much reading, careless enunciation, stiff and unnatural gestures, excessive hurry, mumbling, a bored tone, or an unnecessarily slow pace.

A "C" speech provides evidence and reasons for its major assertions, but the evidence and reasons are frequently vague and general -- not sufficiently focused, concrete, and specific -- or not logically persuasive.

A "C" speech has a consistent overall organization, but the organizational principle is vague, uninteresting, or inadequate.  Signposts tend to be weak, uninspired, or absent.

A "C" speech concludes with an attempt at closure but leaves its audience wanting more or wishing for less -- often too long or too short in terms of the required speech length.

D = Deficient
A "D" speech is unclear or vague about what it is claiming.

A "D" speech is largely incomprehensible to its audience because of its poor delivery.

A "D" speech rarely provides real evidence or real reasons for its assertions.  The speech is made up mostly of unsubstantiated opinion.

A "D" speech does not have one clear organizational principle or does not follow through on its initial organizational principle consistently.

A "D" speech concludes with an expression of closure but ends abruptly, limpingly, or prematurely in terms of the required speech length.