A Personal Reflection on Oral Presentation
I would say that my performance for this oral presentation was better than my usual. When I was younger, I used to participate in oratorical contests and debated regularly. However these days, having fewer opportunities to practice public speaking, I find my confidence in making oral presentations and speeches had reduced tremendously. Prior to any presentation, I’m always an anxious jitterbug. The rehearsals usually go horribly and this time around it was no different. Although I had already prepared a speech text and cards, I had difficulty memorizing it. The speech text allows one’s group mates to be prepared when it comes to slide transitions. Perhaps me not adhering strictly to the script was had affected the coordination between my speech and the clicking of slides.
But I did find that despite all my stuttering and blunders during the practice sessions, when the presentation began, I was kind of on autopilot. The prep sessions and repeatedly going through the content matter in my head definitely helped internalize the presentation points and flow in my mind. This I feel was why I was able to perform relatively well in the presentation.
Another thing I realise on hindsight is that when presenting in a group, it is very important to try to mesh the individual styles of the members. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how my group faired in this. How do you think the J&G Group performed in this aspect?
When preparing for the presentation, my group mates and I tried to cover all our bases – from the colour scheme of the sides to the wordiness of the content displayed to preparing for possible questions that would be asked. Ultimately, I think this is what made our presentation a smooth sailing one.
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Hey Jayanthi..
ReplyDeleteI always found you to be a very confident speaker (I remember the 1st class when we had to be the priests in the island)and it was the same during this presentation as well. I thought you presented really well, you made good eye contact, spoke in a clear voice, and didn't show any nervousness at all. As for your presentation as a whole, I think your group did a great job there too. Your slides looked professional and neat and all three of you managed to get the content to the audience clearly. I did feel that you ended the Q & A session rather abruptly but other than that, the whole presentation went smoothly.
So yeah, overall, you and your team did an excellent job, so cheers for that. Also, it was really nice meeting you and hope I'll see you around sometime. Good luck with all your future work :)
Madhu
Thank you very much, Madhu! It was very nice to have met you as well. I'm glad I came across confident during the presentation. As I said, autopilot =P. I also understand what you mean about the abrupt ending. Maybe we should have said something like 'unfortunately, we're out of time for any more questions..."
ReplyDeleteAnyway,congrats on graduation and all the best for your future endeavours.
Hi Jay,
ReplyDeleteYour delivery for your presentation was excellent that day. Good use of eye contact and smiles throughout the presentation to capture the audience’s attention. Even though there was a little lack of coordination between you and your teammate over the clicking of slides and what you were going to say, you remained calm in spite of this, asking your teammate to quickly click to the next slide.
As for your aesthesis effect on your presentation slides, I thought they were excellent too. Good use of pictures to brighten up the slides. The pictures also complement well with the content of the slides. The slides were also done up professionally. Furthermore, your group had responded very well to the Q&A session, answering the questions confidently and to the point. However, I feel that further adding on to the points your teammates have said earlier on during the Q&A session will seem to undermine their explanation, indirectly implying that they have left out something during their explanation. Just my two cents worth. =)
Overall, good job on the presentation.