Finally, the oral presentation is over. What a great relief, although it does signal the last week of the semester and the start of reading week. Before I begin writing my reflections, I would first wish to thank my team members Emily and Kian Leong. It has been a fruitful journey with you guys the past few weeks! I have learnt a great deal about how to prepare better oral presentations thanks to the information you guys have shared with me.
Conception of Ideas
The initially conception of the whole presentation style got off to a slow start, however we soon gained momentum and the ideas kept flowing in. The idea to use ourselves as examples on how science undergraduates were not having enough practice on communications skills was rather unique. (Yes, the case study I mentioned during my part of the presentation was actually a real life case base on the members of my team.) On hindsight, I felt that it was a rather risky move which could have easily backfired. Glad to say, the gamble did pay off at the end of the day.
Presentation Style
I initially had fears about the pace at which I spoke. Having been a debater in the past, I have developed a rather bad habit of trying to “spew” out as much information as I could in 5 minutes. During my peer teaching session, I had received feedback that the rate at which I spoke was too fast. With that in mind, I had actively tried to keep my bad habit in check by forcing myself to slow down during the oral presentation. I can only hope that the pace at which I went was slow enough.
A second bad habit of mine which I had actively tried to keep in check was the fidgeting of my hands. During my peer teaching session, I received comments on the amount of fidgeting I did; the “playing” with my shirt, as well as the bouncing of my body. Taking this into account, I had actively forced myself to remind still during the oral presentation. On top of that, I kept my left hand in front of my body in an effort to stop myself from fidgeting with my shirt.
I had decided on the use of a “script” instead of cue cards for the oral presentation. The “script” provided me with the appropriate cues on the transition of my slides, as well as various key points regarding my presentation. This was something I had never done before, and only recently came to know about while reading up on how to be a good presenter. I am not too sure if I should continue this practise, as I felt it was rather distracting having a sheet of paper in front of me as it broke my eye contact with the audience.
Overall I had really enjoyed the oral presentation especially the Q&A section. I felt that it was the only time when I was able to judge if I had presented the information clearly to the audience base on the questions they asked.
Please feel free to comment on any of my mistakes which I made during the oral presentation as by learning from them, I would be able to become a better presenter!
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Hey Joshua,
ReplyDeleteI seem to be unable to delete a comment on your blog. Apologies for the stray text below my name. That's just comments in rough form - would be great if you could help me delete the post.
Here is the full comment -
Dear Joshua,
Thank you for the succinct self analysis. The point about your background as a debater puts a lot of my feedback in perspective.
I have always liked the amount of passion and energy you exude when presenting. I had only 2 possible points of improvement though.
The first is the script. I think having a script is a great idea. I like having a basic one myself but I have always been against the idea of taking it on stage as the temptation to look at it is hard to resist. I found the frequent glances to the sheet of paper distracting.
The second probably comes from your debate days. I found parts of the presentation as well as responses during the Q&A felt like a debate i.e. you versus the rest of us. This feeling of attrition is probably one we can do without.
Having said that, yours was a great presentation. It is very easy to give you points of improvement from the eyes of critic. I'm sure you saw these points yourself and I'm sure you will be much much better the next time you present!
All the best!
Cheers
Rohan
Hi Joshua,
ReplyDeleteYes, I did notice that this time round, you did not fidget and also spoke at a slower pace. These changes made you sound and look very confident throughout the presentation, which I felt had enabled you to put your points across effectively.
With regards to whether a script or cue card would be better, I feel that it would have to depend on which you feel more comfortable using. I do not disagree with Rohan that it would be ideal to make a speech without a script. However, I feel that if having a script or cue card can give one more confidence when he/she is making a speech, the script/cue card would do more help than harm. I myself have made presentations where I do not refer to my script at all but I still prefer to hold my script/cue card or have them at the table beside me, just so that I feel more assured that should any problems crop up, I have a safety net with me. But yes, effort has to be made to resist the urge to take a peek at them.
One improvement I thought could have been made to your oral presentation involves your tone. In the midst of trying to sound convincing, your tone was a bit too harsh at times, making it seemed like you were trying to force the information onto us instead. Perhaps this tone would have been more appropriate for a debate instead.
Nevertheless, I did enjoy your presentation and could understand the proposals put forth very clearly. Good job!
Joshua,
ReplyDeleteI agree with the other two comments that you sounded very aggressive during the whole presentation...hence there is no need to elaborate more. I understand that this is due to your past debating experience.
Here's what I feel - that there is a beautiful side to all things, including this background of yours. I must say that debate has trained you well as a public speaker. Your performance was not an unimpressive one, it was persuasive and loud. It was one that commands attention (which is not a bad thing).
I realised that throughout your delivery you attempted to adopt hand gestures... but I personally found the gestures very repetitive. Perhaps you could move to the other side of the stage to substantiate on a different point or segment of the presentation. This would aid better in helping your audience visualise the distinct segments you were putting across. Gestures that are repetitive seem to make the whole delivery look very homogeneous..and hence it's less easy to pick out the main points of your speech. Do make full use of the stage! Albeit like aggression, too much or too little movement is not good.
Good one Joshua! Keep up the standard!
I hope you are done with the LSM2241 mini project. Good luck!
Hey Guys,
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your feedback. The best part of this module is the feedback! It is really very useful as I can always expect the feedback provided to be honest.
Rohan: Thanks for providing me pointers with regards to the use of a script. I have always found the script to be useful, although of late I have been trying to move towards a "scriptless" presentation.
Jolene: I too felt that my tone of was a little harsh. I would keep this point in mind if I ever need to do another formal presentation in NUS. Thanks for the feedback.
Diana: Thank you for pointing out the part regarding my hand gestures. During the presentation, I did not really notice what my hands were doing. I was actually trying very hard to keep my hands away from my shirt and thus prevent them from "playing" with my shirt. I would keep this point in mind during my next presentation.
On a side note, thanks for the ecnourgement for LSM2241. The project is really draining too much from me.
Cheers,
Joshua