1. Listen carefully – listening takes effort, so you must be committed to paying attention to the speech. You should pay attention not only to the delivery and nonverbal elements of the speech, but also to structure, development of ideas, and documentation of sources.

2. Remember to give a "critique," not "criticism" – your comments should come in the form of constructive criticism that is intended to help the speaker improve his/her skills. Focus on the performance rather than the personal characteristics of the speaker.

3. Address strengths of the speech as well as areas for improvement. While you don’t want to give a false sense of well-being to a speaker who needs improvement, you should try to help him/her recognize elements which were done well.

4. Be specific – vague comments such as "The introduction was weak" are not much use in helping a speaker pinpoint areas to work on. Give concrete examples of things that went well and of problems you saw with the speech. Take notes as you listen to help you remember specific examples.

5. Try to avoid "you" statements as much as possible. "You" statements are often taken personally by a speaker, which puts the focus on him/her as a person rather than on the speech performance. By using references to the speech, you keep the focus on the areas that need improvement ("The attention getter seemed to be too long" rather than "You tended to ramble during the introduction.")

6. Ask questions – sometimes, a person will recognize a weakness on his/her own when asked to explain something about the speech. However, be sure there is no hint of sarcasm in your question!

7. Make suggestions – although the speaker is free to reject your advice, sometimes getting another idea is what he/she needs to resolve a weakness in the speech. Suggestions also have the advantage of pointing toward the future and the process of learning to be a better speaker.

8. Be positive – remember that your goal is to help this person improve his/her skills as a speaker.