The oral presentation on last Tuesday was the fifth presentation that I had in this semester. Honestly I do not like presentation because my English is not fluent to speak without memorizing a script or reading from slides. But of course presentation is an excellent way to train us to be more confident to speak in front of crowds in the future. Indeed, this presentation is very challenging because we have to use minimum number of words in all the slides, to have excellent visual effects in the slides, and it’s also not recommended to use a handout during the presentation. Hence, my preparation for this presentation was to draft a script and then memorize it according to slides. Besides practising in front of a mirror to build up my confidence and notice my body language, I also practised numerous times with my group members in order to receive feedback from each other and to manage the time of presentation.
During the presentation, I think I have managed to overcome the fears and anxieties and able to recall everything that I am ought to deliver. Even though I was able to complete my part of presentation smoothly, there are a few things that I must keep in mind so that I can improve further.
The first thing which I shall take note of is the mispronunciation of words. I have received comments from other classmates that there was mispronunciation here and there throughout my presentation as well as some grammatical errors. I am pretty upset by this comment because I thought my pronunciation was better compared to my pronunciation during practices. Although my pace and volume of speech were good, mispronunciation and grammatical errors could jeopardize my credibility of a presenter.
Next, based on the evaluation forms, I should also improve my confidence during the presentation. Being able to present confidently will demonstrate your control over the presentation and will help you to convey the message effectively. Maybe I should practice more frequently in front of mirror or friends to further improve on this.
Last but not least, I was impressed by the presentation of Footprints@NUS where they have wonderful visual effects in their slides and very interesting ideas to convey the messages. This is a very important thing that we shall learn because it helps the audiences to focus on your presentation. Perhaps we could spend more time in designing the slides and thinking of interesting ideas to deliver our messages. As an overall, in fact everyone knows that importance of presentation but to master it would be very difficult. Nonetheless, it shall be kept in mind that practice makes perfect and the reflection of past presentation would help you to succeed in the next presentation.
Dear See Hon,
ReplyDeleteI decide to comment on your blog because so far, no one has commented on our group besides Joyce. Joyce had provided an insightful comment on my blog.
This is even though Mrs Richardson has allocated 2 groups to comments on our group's blog. I cannot remember which are the 2 group but every group has 2 groups to evaluate their group's performance in the oral presentation.
Now, the internet connection for blogspot is also quite slow relative to other sites such as even china websites like Tuduo. I confess now I am suffering from insomnia again and I am watching some dramas online.I think this is because everyone is frantically posting their last few posts.
Strange!
Hello See Hon,
ReplyDeleteGood job on the oral presentation! You made an effort to memorise your script and had the confidence to present without a script, that is commendable! As for the mispronunciation of words, I feel that it happens more often when we are nervous because it happens to me too. I guess we just have to calm ourselves down and not rush our words too much and it should be fine. I feel that overall your presentation was fine!
Xinyi
Hello See Hon,
ReplyDeletekudos to the effort that you have put in for your presentation! It is good to roughly know what your weak points during presentations are beforehand, and practicing to minimise them. I certainly did not practice in front of a mirror and most of my rehearsals were sadly done facing a shelf. I also did not time myself during the presentation nor make a conscientious effort to pace my speech, thus this resulted in me speaking too fast. I guess the errors arose because my group only had 2 rehearsals which was very little compared to the other groups. However, I believed that everyone's presentation could definitely be further improved and perfected if we practiced as much as you did. Hence good job on the effort and it is something we can all learn from! :)
A little on your presentation, I think your group provided a good insight on what TCM is about and how it would benefit us if incoporated into the UHC. Honestly, I learnt a lot more about TCM during your presentation that I did in my entire life. I believe that it is the same for others as well because TCM is something pretty foreign to us albeit us being chinese because we are so accustomed to using western medicine.
Well for your group presentation weaknesses, I think your group used quite a lot of scientific terms and foreign names during the presentation which got us pretty lost because introduction to them was quite brief as well. But I guess that is inevitable especially when you are presenting to a group of people who have little knowledge about TCM.
Overall, I think your group did relatively well during presentation. I think the transition between the speakers were smooth and you guys delivered a clear knowledge and were confident of what you were presenting. Like what I mentioned in Pearlyn's blog, I was impressed by the amount of hardwork your group has put in for the presentation. I am super amazed by the spiderman soft toy as a tool and the acupuncture needles. Well done for the effort :)
For individual performance, I think you are a little too hard on yourself. Don't be too upset over the comments because they all meant well and you should look at them in a positive light. Though I must admit that I did feel quite disappointed and upset after my presentation too because I felt like I performed below expectations. But this only means that we have no where but up to go right? Furthermore, I think the mispronounciations and grammar errors are things that can be worked on. Like you have mentioned, a bit more practice would be able to minimise them and maybe get someone to proofread your script before memorizing it.
Actually I thought you were quite confident during your presentation because you did not fumble that much with your information and you maintained eye contact with the audience. You also spoke with assurance that you knew your material inside out which is good. So think of all these good points and let them press you on to work on your weaknesses to make your next presentation an awesome one.
Hope you had fun during your presentation Seehon!