With Rhetorican you can make a speech in front of your webcam with your pc, notebook, tablet or smartphone, a speech which you have prepared first or chose to improvise.
The difference is that you can freely choose your topic for a normal speech, while for an impromptu speech you will be told a story, given a question or shown something that you have to comment on. This way you practice speaking spontaneously, which will help you immensely in dealing with other people in every-day life, to act and react spontaneously.

You have different possibilities to make a new speech:
You click on the “speaking/ speeches“ item at the top of “Beginning a new speech“ and choose if you want to make a “challenge“ or a single speech in the according category.
A challenge should stimulate the competition and determine a winner, who of the speaker implemented the topic better, through the evaluation by other users.

The private speech will not be made public, only you have access to it. You can send this speech to certain people, if you want to, or keep it totally private, so that nobody can see it.

The normal speech can have a length from 2 to 7 minutes, an improvised speech should take between 1 to 3 minutes. After that time the recording stops automatically and the video will be uploaded.

If you’re not satisfied with your speech, you can stop the process and begin a new speech.

After a made speech (with is made public), you have to evaluate two speeches first, in order to be able to make another speech yourself. The private speech can be made at any time.

This way you guarantee yourself fast progress by learning and evaluating/ giving feedback. Because of using the feedback for yourself you can see what others do well already or what they still have to work on, and you can use this knowledge for your own progress.

You will be evaluated by other and give feedback yourself to other speeches. This way you guarantee yourself fast progress, because you don’t just practice by yourself, but also support others at practicing their rhetorical skills. You can observe what others do well or not and you can transfer this knowledge to your own practice.

Because of this you have to evaluate two speeches made by others after your own speech, before you can make a speech again – this doesn’t apply to private speeches, which you can make at any time.

Make sure to always evaluate in a manner, you yourself would like to be evaluated. We are a community, which wants to improve the individual speaking style, which each speaker calls his own. We don’t want to create identical robots, but that everybody can make good speeches individually.

It doesn’t matter if you have never evaluated a speech before. In the academy there is a whole course on this topic on how to evaluate speeches. In addition you get help from an evaluation system. You can give stars and write a comment, which should have a minimum of 140 characters.

You will get positive and motivating feedback from our community, which you can give back to the others users as well.

You can also be sure that you will progress and grow through the feedback by others. Each person can give you constructive feedback, through which your rhetoric will improve.

The academy is an interactive online course, where you get tasks after each theory introduction, which will enable you to practice immediately and to improve yourself.

There is a variety of different courses to choose from, e.g. ”the basic course“, “the advanced course“, “overcome your stage fright”, ”presenting correctly”, and more ...

Each course is focused individually on the according theme of the course. It gives you specific explanations and tasks to work with, which will further you specifically in this area. Each task has an emphasis on something different, so that the evaluation system is especially adjusted to this task.

Here your latest position will constantly be saved. You can also watch the theory introduction and do your task the next day. Just as you have time.

The first 3 tasks can be made in direct succession, before you will be asked to evaluate other academy speeches, so that you can improve your speaking skills by watching others. We help each other.

Depending on what kind of speech you want to make, you need a different kind of preparation. With each speech your webcam and microphone should be ready. The webcam should be placed that way that you can be seen and heard well, neither too close nor too far. The light should be sufficient, too. You can test this before each speech – if need be in your private room. You can record your speech directly/ live, which will then be uploaded, or you can upload a previously made and saved video file. Whichever suits you best.

The prepared speech

You can make a prepared speech (challenge or single speech), after you have written and rehearsed it 1 to 5 times.

Simply follow the instructions. We work together with the reputable provider “Ziggeo“. You can record your speech by webcam directly or – if you want to record the speech yourself – upload or with the ‘upload’ function.

Wait, before you click on “continue“, so that the speech is uploaded completely. Rather wait a little longer than shorter, before your click on “continue“.

For a new speech you also choose a title for your speech and a category.

At challenges you compete against other speakers in a little competition, whereas at single speeches only your speech – without comparing – will be evaluated.

If you would like to take part in a challenge, you can find an appropriate speech by clicking on “partner wanted“, and choose a topic for the speech which appeals to you.

It goes without saying that we will not accept defamation/ slandering of other people, radical (also political) topics, negative prejudice, hostility to foreigners, or similar topics. Topics and videos with topics not acceptable to this platform will be blocked and banned without prior warning. We want to maintain a friendly, trusting standard, in which everybody – no matter where they come from – feel comfortable. We want to create an atmosphere in which everybody enjoys, and has fun, learning.

The impromptu/ improvised speech

With an impromptu/ improvised speech you practice your spontaneous speaking skill, in order to be able and ready to answer to various situations of your everyday life. This can help you in your professional and also private life to give answers spontaneously, to tell “little“ stories or to make speeches. It can also be an aid in your communication with a business partner, to express yourself properly and to bring across, what you really want to say. The whole point is that you feel comfortable when telling something or making a speech – no matter in which situation you’re in. This is what we practice and train here.

At “prepared speech“ you can also choose if you want to take part in a “challenge“ or practice by yourself. Here you‘re also asked questions or told a story, a situation is described or a problem is shown, or you are asked to give your opinion – your task will be to make a 1 to 3 minute speech. There are a few hundred impromptu speeches, from which one will be given to you at random. At the beginning you might find this hard/ difficult, but in time it will get easier and you’ll be more confident doing it.

The academy

In the academy, after each theory part you will get a task, which you can work on. You’re welcome to take all the time you need to prepare for the task, before getting started with it. Always concentrate only on what you‘ve just learned in this specific chapter, in order to put it into practice. We take it step by step to improve your speaking skills. The recording of your speech works in the same way as with the normal speeches outside the academy.

It doesn’t matter if you have never evaluated a speech before.
Simply read through this article, look at other evaluations or take part in the academy course “evaluating speeches“. In time your evaluations will get better as well, the only thing it needs is practice, just like practicing speaking.
Even if you’re at the start of your career as a speaker, it will help immensely, to look critically at speeches of others, to give tips and advice to these speakers, what he/ she does well or what could be improved.
This way the speaker learns from you as well as you learn from him/ her, because you‘ll automatically compare his/ her rhetoric skills with yours and because of this your rhetoric will also improve.

For the evaluation of speeches by other speakers – which you’ll have to make regularly, in order to be able to make further speeches yourself - you’ll get support from us, through a system of stars, with which you can work.

In the section “making a speech“ there are these 9 points:

• voice
• language
• grammar/vocabulary
• body language
• appearance
• effectiveness of speech
• structure of speech
• materials
• in total

5 stars are the highest and best score, 1 star indicates to the speaker, that he/she should turn special attention to this point.

In addition you are asked to write a final comment, with a minimum of 140 characters, to give your personal feedback to the speaker, which again will help him/ her specifically to improve. Each evaluation is subjective, it is impossible to make purely objective evaluations. One person might criticize a point, which another thought was good. This is normal and absolutely okay.

Let’s get to each individual point:

Voice:

Does the speaker use a lot of variations of his/ her voice? Does he/ she sometimes speak slower, then again faster, quietly or loud? Does the voice fit the contents? All in all, should he/ she speak louder or more quiet?

Language:

How is the articulation of the speaker? Does he/ she speak loud and clear, or does he/ she sometimes mumble? Is the wording/ way of expressing suitable for the topic of the speech? Does the speaker use metaphors or other rhetoric stylistic devices?

Grammar/vocabulary:

Is the grammar of the sentences correct? Is the vocabulary well-chosen or should there be a wider variety?

Body language:

Does the speaker’s body language fit the topic of the speech? Does the speaker allow his arms and hands to simply hang loose or does he/ she fidgets with them nervously? Does the speaker’s body language support or hinder/ impede (sometimes) the speech? Are the movements suitable or do they appear exaggerated?

Appearance:

How confident does the speaker appear during his speech? How well can he/ she bring the topic across, or rather: do you believe, what he/ she says? Does he/ she seems to have knowledge of the topic? Or does he/ she appear rather insecure in what he/ she talks about? Effectiveness of speech: Did it become clear, what the intention/ aim of the speaker was? Were the stories and examples well-adjusted to the topic and intention/ aim of the speech? Did the “message“ reach the audience? Did the speech touch the audience?

Materials:

If the speaker didn’t use any materials/ props, he/ she will get 1 star. Depending on the occasion of the speech this doesn’t matter. Did the props support the speech or did they rather hinder it? Could he/ she have done better by using aids? Were there, e.g. too many words per page in the power point presentation? Was everything clear and well-structured?

In total:

How was the over-all impression of the speech?

Commentary box:

Here you can write to the speaker, what he/ she did well and what he/ she could improve. Address in detail, what you – as the audience – noticed. Always write in a positive and motivating manner!

How do I write a positively and motivatingly phrased evaluation?

It is best if you always base your evaluation on the kind of assessment you would like to get if you had made this speech. You want to be respected for your speech and want to be able to look forward to your next speech. This applies to every speaker and everybody has different starting point in his career as a speaker.

Avoid phrases like:

• it was bad that ...
• I didn’t like at all that ...
• It was ****** that ...

Better use the following expressions:

• It was good that ... / I liked that /how ... / It was great/ fantastic how you ...
• What you could improve, though, is ...
• What I personally didn’t quite like was ...
• I noticed that ...
• I do ... (sth.) also sometimes and ... has helped me that ...
• In your fantastic speech it bothered me a little that ...
• I think your speech was wonderfully made and if you can fit these personal suggestions for improvement into it, your speech will be a huge success.
• I’m looking forward to your next speech.

Surely you notice the difference. With phrases and words like this you show respect to the speaker (which he/she deserves, because he/ she wants to work on his/ her rhetoric skills and improve them). You exhibit friendliness and motivate him/ her to keep working, and to get better with every single speech.

You’re welcome to look at further explanations in the academy course “evaluating a speech“, where we talk about this topic in detail.

In case you should find that an evaluation doesn’t observe or even break the rules, both one you’ve received or noticed somewhere, please notify us and we will see to the problem – evaluation or evaluating person. In most cases this person simply didn’t pay attention to the wording and didn’t mean to be negative on purpose. We will explain and show how a speech can be evaluated to motivate.

Voice:

Does the speaker use a lot of variations of his/ her voice? Does he/ she sometimes speak slower, then again faster, quietly or loud? Does the voice fit the contents? All in all, should he/ she should speak louder or more quiet?

Language:

How is the articulation of the speaker? Does he/ she speak loud and clear, or does he/ she sometimes mumble? Is the wording/ way of expressing suitable for the topic of the speech? Does the speaker use metaphors or other rhetoric stylistic devices?

Grammar/vocabulary:

Is the grammar of the sentences correct? Is the vocabulary well-chosen or should there be a wider variety?

Body language:

Does the speaker’s body language fit the topic of the speech? Does the speaker allow his arms and hands to simply hang loose or does he/ she fidgets with them nervously? Does the speaker’s body language support or hinder/ impede (sometimes) the speech? Are the movements suitable or do they appear exaggerated?

Appearance:

How confident does the speaker appear during his speech? How well can he/ she bring the topic across, or rather: do you believe, what he/ she says? Does he/ she seems to have knowledge of the topic? Or does he/ she appears rather insecure in what he/ she talks about? Effectiveness of speech: Did it become clear, what the intention/ aim of the speaker was? Were the stories and examples well-adjusted to the topic and intention/ aim of the speech? Did the “message“ reach the audience? Did the speech touch the audience?

Materials:

If the speaker didn’t use any material/ props, he/ she will get 1 star. Depending on the occasion of the speech this doesn’t matter. Did the props support the speech or did they rather hinder it? Could he/ she have done better by using aids? Were there, e.g. too many words per page in the power point presentation? Was everything clear and well-structured?

In total:

How was the over-all impression of the speech?

Commentary box:

Here you can write to the speaker, what he/ she did well and what he/ she could improve. Address in detail, what you – as the audience – noticed. Always write in a positive and motivating manner!

For your purchase of the Rhetorican subscription you can choose various methods of payment. When you enter your data for the payment of your initial purchase, this chosen method of payment willalso be used for a further extension/ renewal of your subscription – unless, by that time, you have changed your data for payment in your profile settings. You can see the status of your subscription in your profile settings any time and you can also change the selected method of payment for the extension/ renewal of your subscription.

Method of payment for the purchase of a coach subscription

You can pay for the Rhetorican subscription with the following methods (of payment):

Credit card: You can purchase your subscription easy and safe on our website. We accept Master card and Visa. The data of your credit card will be encodedly transmitted by SSL-procedure/ method. Because of this high safety standard your purchase by credit card will be safe.

PayPal: Paypal is also available for the purchase of the subscription. You can also choose Paypal as method of payment easy and safe on our website.

Immediate transfer/ : Also an immediate (money) transfer is possible.

Your subscription will be accessible immediately after the purchase. You can record speeches right away, evaluate and participate in the academy.

Checking/ verification of the subscription

You can see the status of your Rhetorican subscription at any time in your profile settings in the profile view. There you can also find the date, when your subscription will be extended/ renewed. Changing of the data for methods of payment, or term of subscription

This is how you change data for methods of payment or the term of the subscription:

Go to your profile page.
Click on item “extend subscription“
Click on the item “cancel subscription”

After you have canceled your subscription you will receive a confirmation email. In case you shouldn’t receive one, please check your spam box also.

You can revoke/ cancel your initial purchase of a Rhetorican product within 14 days of the first purchase.
Please note that the 14-day-money-back-guarantee does not apply to extension/renewal payment (if your subscription is being extended in the terms chosen by you).
Please do not delete your Freeletics account, as long as the reimbursement didn’t take place yet. This can prolong the process unnecessarily.
You will find all necessary information, which you will need for a revocation/ cancellation, here:

Please contact us at support@rhetorican.de
In order to be able to process your request, please contact us via your Rhetorican account email- address. If you write to us from an email-address other than the one you opened your account with, unfortunately we will not be able to help you for reasons of data protection.

If you purchase a subscription, it will be renewed/ extended at the end of the term for the selected period.
You can terminate your subscription at any time. After having terminated/ cancelled yoursubscription the automatic extension ends – but you still have access to the premium program for the remaining term of the subscription.
This is how you terminate/ cancel your subscription:

Go to your profile page.
Click, at “subscription“, on “next extension“
Click on item “cancel subscription“
After you have canceled your subscription you will receive a confirmation email. In case you shouldn’t receive one, please check your spam box also.

Did you get a voucher, open a new account.
Click on ”My premium access”.
Choose your favorite subscription.
Click on “Enter voucher code“ and type in your code.
Click on “Apply/ Redeem“
Enter your data for payment.

You can change your profile data (also your email address and your password) in your profile view on the website.

Log in with your login data and enter your new data in the profile settings. While making these changes the password box/ space has to stay empty, if you don’t want to change your password.
Keep in mind that you can change your user name only once a year.
If you have updated your email address, you will receive a message to this new registered email address. By clicking on the included link, your email address will be confirmed. If a report note appears that there is a problem, this will mean that you already have an account with Rhetorican with this email address.

If you forgot your password, you can request a new one.
Click on “forgot password“ and enter your email address. Check your email address once more and Geben Sie ein neues Kennwort ein

Please wait until your receive an email with your new password. In case you won’t receive an email, please check your spam box.

In case you don’t receive a new password within an hour, write a message to us at support@rhetorican.de with your registered email address and your user name, so that we can find a solution.

You can change your Rhetorican newsletter setting on the website at any time.

Go to profile view to the item “data protection“ Tick the appropriate box with a simple click on your newsletter settings in order to receive or cancel the newsletter.