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Since secondary school, I've been through many presentations; be it individually or as a team and all these presentations left me with different experiences and feedbacks. The question that I always ask myself at the end of every presentation "Did I presented well? If not, where else can I improve on?" I appreciate that through ES2007S, it actually provided me an opportunity to watch myself in action (a first for me).
Preparatory stage: Writing a speech text really help to organize my thoughts and our team also dedicated an entire day just to rehearse our presentation. During our rehearsals, we watch each other's expression, transition, gestures and feedback on how to improve. I have to say there was definitely sufficient time to prepare ourselves.
These are the remarks I have jotted down after reviewing Team ZAS presentation video
- Overall, there was no faltering or long pauses to indicate nervousness by any of my team mates and I'm glad all the rehearsals that we did was worth it. All of us were 'riding' on the same momentum and confidence! I still recall our last rehearsal on that thursday morning, we were so nervous that we kept forgetting what we wanted to say.
- When I was at the slide of comparing the job market (past VS present), there was a distinct pause and I do remember at that point, there were alot of impromptu analogies running through my mind. I was distracted for that instance and I felt it broke the presentation flow. This is an area I have to work on where I have to remain more focused and to have my thoughts in line with my presentation.
- I noticed I was having too much upper body fidgeting and this could be a potential distraction for the audience (which I hope it didn't distract my classmates).
- There were appropriate tone variations and word emphasis; voice projection is clear and audible
- As our team was concerned that we will exceed the 20 minutes allocated hence we decided to speak faster. I noticed my own pace started out a little fast which eventually slowed down towards the middle part of my presentation. This area can definitely be improved on.
- Another area to work on is my lack in facial expression variation and one way to do that is to rehearse in front of a mirror and monitor my own expressions. Its really difficult to just smile if the audience is not smiling but I do remember Annika smiling at me and that gave me an additional confidence boost towards the end of my own section! I'm thankful for that :)
Zhing!!
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that you have done a very accurate analysis of your oral presentation as it is very difficult to observe everything about oneself.
Firstly , thumbs up for the very good tone modulation , your tone itself seemed very persuasive .
Secondly , I felt that you were quite nervous during the presentation, don't worry , it happens with everybody but then you could have followed Ms.Lim's advice of taking a few deep breath in order to calm yourself down.It worked with me quite well so I believe it should work well with everybody.
Thirdly ,you maintained a very good eye contact with everybody !
Overall,I personally feel that you did a good job.Good luck with your final year presentation!!!
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ReplyDeleteHi Zhing,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your accurate reflection (and of course it should be, as you jotted down your observations after reviewing the clip).
You are a fluent and smooth presenter, and I like your preparedness. The poise you exuded helped built credibility, and the assured look on your face, reliability. Your delivery on the day of the Oral Presentation was so effortless it seemed as if you were running on auto-pilot.
Auto-pilot?
Yes.
Good?
Not very.
Well, it was good in the sense that you'd internalised all the points that you wanted to share, and regardless of nerves or whatever unexpected that may and will happen, the auto-pilot will ‘take over’, and leave you unfazed.
But it seemed as if the ‘auto-pilot’ had taken over the real you. Where did the personable Zhing go to? Indeed, you were exploring the problem; so surely when you were doing that you’d got to be serious.
Maybe not. Rather, hone a personal communication style that connects you with your audience. The goal is not to become slick. What you want to do is to find ways to connect with your audience, to build relationships. You want the audience to feel that you are really talking to each of them, one-to-one, genuinely… and…sincerely.
Show your audience the natural and the real Zhing.
You do not need to become someone different when you address an audience. Allow your personality to be reflected in your presentation. In other words, just be yourself.
I know I definitely sound as if I am preaching now, so I’d better pull the plug here.
Wait, just a few last words: Zhing, your presentation was enjoyable, and I do commend the amount of preparation put in. Thanks for the fine effort!
PS: You mentioned that it is difficult to smile when the audience are not smiling. Well, I’m going to ask you to look at it from the audiences’ perspectives – if the presenter is not smiling, would it be difficult for them to smile (at the presenter) too?