Sunday 11 November 2012

Reflection on my oral presentation


Last Tuesday, my team SHSS INC were put under the spotlight as we were the first  in line for the oral presentation. I personally felt that we had put ourselves in the most difficult situation as  we did not know what was the expected standard of the oral presentation. Moreover, this was not the first ever presentation in this module  and so we did not have the excuse of first timers at our disposal.
Personally the problems I had to tackle were the mistakes I had committed in my peer teaching and since the presentation for our proposal is very different from the topic given to us for our peer teaching, I had to make a lot of changes in my speaking style . In addition to this ,since I also speak comparatively fast compared to my other team- mates,I had to make major adjustments to my pace of delivery in order to maintain a constant tone throughout our presentation.
Practicing what we had to say was another important aspect that we could not afford to ignore as we were not retelling our written proposal .Instead ,we had to convince our stakeholders that our solution to the problem we had identified is the most viable option and that it should be undertaken with immediate effect.For this ,we had to draft out what we were going to say and how we were going say it.

However, there were  a few aspects  that gave us immense confidence about the success of our presentation. One  was that  we as a team worked on practically every part of the proposal together and thus we had ample knowledge about the subject matter at hand .The other advantage I felt we had was the decision to use Prezi instead of the usual PowerPoint slides. Though,we had our fare share of difficulties in  using this software (I personally still find it very hard to use this software to make a single slide),the sheer thrill of imagining how unique the entire presentation would look like geared us on till completion.

Eventually , when it came to the time where we had to showcase our work in the form of the presentation I felt that I was in my elements for some reason and so I never really felt nervous or uncomfortable at all .Instead I was focusing on how to present myself in the best manner possible.After we had done our presentation , I felt quite relieved and satisfied as during my part I was totally aware of what I was speaking and took that extra effort to control my pace of delivery so that the the crux of the matter I was conveying did not go over everyone's head .Though there were few instances where I was not able to control myself from speaking fast , on an overall basis I had managed to stay composed and thus I felt that I had done a pretty good job at "being the presentation" .

6 comments:

  1. Hello Sai!

    Thank you for your interesting blog post. Before, I mention how I feel about your group presentation, allow me point to point certain mistakes in your blog.

    1) Last Tuesday my team SHSS Inc...>>Last Tuesday, my team SHHS Inc... (punctuation)

    2)... as we were the first re in line...>> ... as we were the first in line... (I think you accidentally wrote 're'?)

    3)... as we did not know what standard of expectation was going to be like>> ... as we did not know what was the expected standard of the oral presentation. (or you may rephrase it to sound clearer)

    4)...and thus we had ample knowledge about the subject matter at hand. (you do not have to write this part as you have already mention on the previous sentence that you had thorough knowledge on the subject.

    These are all the comments I have on the language of your blog post. Well, I have to congratulate you on a good performance on the day of your presentation. In fact, I do find your presentation clear and concise. It was simple to understand and after all,your group's main idea is to propose the building of hand-phone charger ports. I actually like the way you present and you should keep it up for your future presentation.

    Min Thu

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    Replies
    1. Hey Minthu,
      I have made the changes to my post like you stated.I also am happy that in the end you as part of the stakeholder gropu did find it clear and concise.Nevertheless ,I hope to do better in my future presentations.

      Delete
  2. Hi Sai,

    Congrats for the wonderful presentation given! Personally, I feel that speaking at a slower pace is really one of the biggest challenges for you. Not only was your normal speaking pace slightly faster as compared to the rest, but you were also presenting on the technical aspect which makes it even more important for you to speak slowly and clearly. However, I think you did a really good job as I was able to understand the solution your group proposed. In addition, I didn’t know that it is so difficult to create slides using Prezi but I think your group’s hard work really paid off as the slides are amazing.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Yea Wen,
      I agree that it was a difficult task to speak at the same speed as my other team mates and I still will continue to make improvements so that if I get an opportunity to present in the near future ,I will do a better job.However, I am happy that you were able to understand our solution and that the slides were effective.

      Delete
  3. Hello baby Sai,

    Great job on your oral presentation! I always admired the fact that you never seem to be afraid or nervous when you are presenting. Prezi is really tough to get used to, but I am really proud that we managed to make the slides to cater to each of our parts, without it being distorted.

    To add on to Min Thu’s recommendations, I would like to suggest the following that may improve the fluency of the post.

    1) Practicing what we had to say was another important aspect that we could not afford to ignore as we were not retelling our written proposal ,instead we had to convince our stakeholders >> Practicing what we had to say was another important aspect that we could not afford to ignore as we were not retelling our written proposal. Instead we had to convince our stakeholders

    2) For this we had to draft out what… >> For this, we had to draft out what…

    3) However, there were a few things that we as a team had up our sleeves before the presentation (I have a different understanding of the phrase “up our sleeves” and I think it is no advisable to be used in this way? >> There are a few factors that contributed to the success of my group’s presentation.

    4) Though,we had our fare share of problems creating the entire presentation using this software >>Though we had our fair share of difficulties in using Prezi..

    5)would look like made us carry on with our hard work till we completed it successfully.>> would look like geared us on till completion.

    Hope this helps!

    Regards,
    Shiying the puppy X)

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    Replies
    1. Hey Shiying (puppy :D ),
      I have made the changes that you suggested on my post.I thank you for helping me with the content that I had put in the Prezi slides as well as giving ideas for presenting the slides for my part.I am also glad that the oral presentation is finally done.

      Delete