The team performed well for stating the problem and suggesting the solutions. During the oral presentation, the transitions between speakers were smooth which was mostly due to both the logical sequence of the content and each member’s cooperation. All the members are able to present their section without looking at the cue cards as the result of good preparations and good understandings of the content.
Individual performance:
Compared with oral presentation 1, I think I have some improvements: Though I am still not a practiced speaker, I was more familiar with the content. Instead of kept looking at my cue cards during OP 1, I was more confident to present my section without using reference(but I still brought it with me). My volume was still low but the speed was slower to make myself understood. My pronunciation was still not good, but it was improving.
Some positives during the presentation: The content of my part was related to our problem and carefully analyzed (in my opinion), so I think I led the conclusion with proper explanation. The cohesiveness needs to be improved, but I think my presentation meets the level of logical sequencing of opinions to some extent. In addition, I make use of some reasonable conjunctions (like next, firstly…), which contributes better consistency, but the usage seems stiff. My slides are a little wordy, but it provides enough information for the audience to understand the content.
The negatives are obvious: During Q&A session, Jonathan and Krithika did well to answer each question, but I kept silent all the way and I should have tried to answer questions even my answers were wrong. For the aspect of eye contact, I kept looking at the slides with little eye contact. But I tried to maintain eye contact with the audience while not glancing at the screen. I kept the bad habit of make the annoying sound (like eh, ah…) during my presentation.
There is still a lot for me to improve. One thing is to add more pictures in my slides to make it more interesting, so it will not seem so boring. Next time, I need to do more preparations to be confident and try to get rid of cue cards as well. In addition, I will practice more to be a better speaker and spend more time to enlarge my vocabulary for variety of modes of expression.
In conclusion, I am improving, but more improvements and practice should be done.
Hey Zhuli:
ReplyDeleteI like the humble tune that you use in your post, it demonstrates your genuineness and readiness as a learner. i should learn from you. here are a few points you may wish to consider:
1. for team reflection part, maybe you should include some negative points on your team performance instead of just going through the areas that you group performed well in
2. for personal reflections, i feel that your reflection is largely limited to your content and use of language. i understand that these two areas might be your primary concern at this moment, however, bear in mind that they are just part of your presentation. a comprehensive evaluation should include more elaboration on other aspects as well (e.g. time management, body language, confidence level, engagement with the audience)
3. in your reflections for your room for improvement, i think most of your observations concede with those we made. you should have been more active in QnA and you could add in more picture or try better engage the audience in your part to liven up a bit. However, i think 'eh, ah' are normal for everyone because no one will be expecting perfectly smooth delivery from any other else. Just try not to hang there for too long and keep audience waiting. That will be impolite and indicative of your poor preparation.
All the best =]
Dear Zhu Li,
ReplyDeleteIt's good to hear that you think that your presentation skills are improving! I agree with most of your criteria of a good presentation, such as having carefully analysed content, cohesion of various parts of the content, and maintaining eye contact with the audience.
However, I'm not so sure about the part that says having 'wordy slides' that provide enough information for the audience. I think in a presentation, the presenter should be the one doing the main job of conveying ideas and information, rather than the slides. I guess it's called a presentation after all, rather than simply disseminating information in a written format. Perhaps you could have justified why you thought having words was an effective way of communication?
Also, while I think it's important that all members participate in Q&A, maybe you shouldn't say that you should try to answer even if what you said is wrong? I know that effort is definitely important, but from what I understood from your post, I don't think you should speak just for the sake of speaking. I think a better approach would be to tackle the root cause of the problem (e.g. if you were nervous, work composing yourself, if it was because of insufficient preparation, think of possible questions and answers before hand, etc.).
Hey ZhuLi
ReplyDeleteYour team did a great job for the oral presentation. You all provided an overview of your project’s problem statement and you all also came out with unique and creative solutions to the problem.
I don’t think you have referred to the cue cards on that day. If have, I think it is minimal. It is great that you do not refer to cue cards. This will allow you to maintain eye contact with the audience and to better engage them in your presentation. I feel that your pace was good and your voice was rather loud and audible.
You mentioned that your slides looked wordy. I think you could reduce some of the points to be placed on the slides and instead verbally say these points that are not on the slides. This would allow your slides to look simplified and less congested. You could also reduce the content on the slides but just stating the main points and the message that you would like to convey to the audience. Perhaps you could use a picture or chart to make your slides look less wordy.
It is good that you use words like firstly, secondly etc. These words allow your speech to flow smoothly and to better convey your ideas to the audience.
I feel that you should also try to take the initiative to answer questions in the Q and A session. Don’t worry about giving wrong answers. There are no wrong or right answers as they are just your opinions to clarify other people’s doubts on what you have talked about.
Good job! We should all work hard to become better speakers.
Dear Zhu Li,
ReplyDeleteIt is great that your team did not have to refer to the cue cards, which shows great preparation on your team members’ part. You could have projected your voice more and pronounced your words well. it is good that you realized the sounds you were making, which will be able to help you avoid saying that again in future. It is always good to have as much eye contact with the audience as possible, to build rapport with them. You could have participated more during the question and answer session, which will help you reason out
You could have varied your tone more, and you can look more confident about you presentation.better usage of visual aids would have mage your slides even better. One point you can improve on is the way you speak too fast and times, and it would be good to use a varied tone and avoid reading out points.
Overall, your team did a good job in presenting!
Hey Zhu Li,
ReplyDeleteAs an audience of your presentation that day, I can say that you have improved in your presentation skills.
Nonetheless, being a good presenter isn't easy. It's not just about memorizing your speech and reiterating it to the audience. I think there's a need to understand the dynamics of the situation i.e whether there's a need to engage with the audience or speak with a variation of tone. Do practise more in the future and I hope you would be a confident speaker soon.
Regards,
Alden
Firstly, thanks a lot for your comments. Here are some points based on the comments:
ReplyDelete1. For the slides: I know that my slides are a little wordy and I need to reduce part of it. And I agree with Gillian’s opinion that it should be the presenter who delivers the information and ideas to the audience, rather than the slides. But I think if the slides are simplified too much, it will make the audience harder to get the ideas. Therefore, in my post, I meant that my slides may be helpful for the audience to get a better understanding of our team’s ideas.
2. For personal reflection: I considered to include more elaboration on other aspects, but gave up at last. One reason is the word limit, another reason is that I focused on the main aspects I has improved and I lacked. Though I did not do very well in other aspects, I think I should reflect my main problems at the moment.
3. For Q&A: first, I need to declare that I know it is not good, even wrong for me to keep silent during Q&A session, and if I have to give a reason, I will say that it is because I was afraid to make mistakes. Because of my poor English, it took me a bit long to understand the questions fully. And when I got it finally, it took me even longer to find appropriate or credible words (my small vocabulary…) for a question. Even if I got an answer (which might be wrong), I was not sure of its correctness and I was worried that it might affect our team’s performance if I provided a wrong answer.
Thank you once again for your advice and encouragement.