I began my group’s presentation by introducing my team members, setting the context of the presentation, giving an overview what we were going to cover, illustrating the significance of the scientific research industry and ended off by explaining the importance of laboratory report writing skills in this industry. Whoa that was a long sentence; thank god I did not have those in my presentation :) I have a habit of using long sentences which I realised was counter-effective in oral presentations after I heard the speech by Bryan and Gerard (last week Mon class). Thus I put in more effort to ensure my speech text was free of long sentences. I feel I achieved this relatively well.
I also feel that I had an appropriate volume and relatively good intonations to put my point across. I put more emphasis on the points which illustrated the importance of our SLRW workshop. I tried to improve on my eye contact which I believe was a low point in my peer teaching. Thus I consciously told myself to look at all four corners of the room as well as at certain people who were strategically placed all over the room and were smiling (i.e. Mufeedha, Alex, Wei Xi, Benedict, Jim ;p). However, I feel that perhaps I did not smile enough and might have looked abit stressed. I have realised over time that when the presenter does not look completely at ease, the audience tends to feel restless also. I will try to improve on this particular point. I think being the last group to present may have frayed my nerves a little.
Other than that, I tried to use a personal experience at the introduction section to make the speech more interesting and to get the audience attention. Personally when I am listening to a speech I feel more connected to presenters who bring in personal anecdotes or stories. I had also committed my speech to memory as I felt that eye contact is easier to establish when I am not looking down at cue cards. While I believe this was effective to a large extent, I think it also led me speed up during the last part of my presentation. Being a fast speaker normally, this was a very intuitive thing for me. Hence despite consciously telling myself to slow down I think I spoke a bit too fast towards the end. However I did try to guide my audience through the use of rhetorical questions during the presentation.
I do believe that I had reasonably prepared and hence could deliver my speech without major glitches. The delivery was fairly good although I could have done better. I will remember to maintain a pleasant expression on my face. While I improved on my eye contact, I could have been slightly calmer which would have helped me slow down while speaking as well. I feel that the use of slideware was largely glitch-free. All in all I feel that my speech was decent but of course could be improved through more public speaking experiences.
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Hi Jigna! =)
ReplyDeleteWell, glad i was able to help by smiling =p. I think you did great for your presentation and seriously i don't really know what else is there to comment. It is very obvious that MUCH efforts was made for this presentation be it content, delivery and also visual(ppt). Keep up the good work, you have much in you!
In any case i would still need to comment or at least share how i felt so this will be just my 2 cents worth for you to consider.
Engaging the audience is not just about smiling and making eye contact with the audience. I personally feel a good presenter always seems to be making a "one sided conversation with a friend". The audience will feel that the presenter is in fact speaking to him or herself and there will be this "connection" there. For the presenter to pull this off, he'll have to know his speech and material like the back of his hand. Sometimes, too much emphasis will be made to memorizing the speech text that was prepared before hand. This might result in the presenter just trying to regurgitate the speech during the actual presentation. For example, comparing Aish and me! haha. It was very obvious who made more preparation. I felt that i was just reading something and Aish was really TRYING to TELL the audience something.
Well if it's still not clear what i'm trying to say, it basically this-> If you want to do a very engaging presentation, 1. Really know your stuff well and 2. treat the audience as your friend and the presentation will just be like sharing something in which you feel is beneficial to them. If you can do that, all you presentation will be engaging naturally.
hope it makes sense.
Lastly, all the best and it was great having you as a course mate. =) Keep in touch ya!
Hey Jigna,
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm a bit late in posting. Haha I like your reflection. It basically covers almost all the points I wanted to bring up! Lol. I'm glad my smiling helped =) Hehe you know I have a tendency to look at the people who smile more when I'm giving presentations too, it helps me feel more confident.
Anyway I thought your presentation was really good. It was focused and very well prepared. You knew what you wanted to bring across to the audience and was convinced of it. I liked your slides too. And yups, you did speak very fast so much so that some parts I lost you but I think you did reiterate your points and summarise which was helpful. I guess sometimes having a bit of pauses can actually be very beneficial. Well that's about all I have to say.
Cheers!
Ben