It was a relief that the group project and the oral presentation were finally over. A shout-out to my team mates: Thank you for putting in all the hard work and well done!
During my preparation for the oral presentation, I was getting pretty keyed up because I often get very nervous for an impending presentation. Therefore, I got my slides ready a few days before the actual presentation and rehearsed for numerous times. Initially, I took more than five minutes to finish the presentation of my part. However, after a few practices, I managed to control the timing better and cap my presentation at approximately five minutes.
My group had quite a number of rehearsals together. Everyone was putting in effort to comment on each other’s part and to improve on the transitions between speakers. The group rehearsals helped me to gain confidence for my presentation. By the end of the rehearsals, I had a pretty good grasp of the entire flow of ideas.
During the actual oral presentation, I felt I was more enthusiastic in presenting my ideas and maintained better eye contacts with the audience, comparing to my peer teaching session. I have also tried to smile more and appear friendly to the audience because during the peer teaching session, I was too nervous did not smile as much. I have also inserted clip arts with animation for my visual aids to make the presentation more lively and easy to understand, and I think it worked out well as I saw smiles and nods from the audience.
However, I think I should have slowed down my speech. I sped up my speech considerably thinking our group was running out of time. As my speech took me about four and a half to five minutes during rehearsals, I have only used four minutes to finish my speech during the actual presentation, and it may have appeared too fast for the audience.
Nonetheless, I would like to thank the audience for nodding your heads and smiling at me during my presentation. It was reaffirming and really helped me to be more confident as a presenter! =)
Hi Edward!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on finishing the project proposal and oral presentation!
I think you have done well by getting the rest of your team members to suggest improvements for each other's section. This would certainly improve the overall flow and content of your presentation.
I especially like the animation of the bus that you have used. It allowed me to follow closely to what you wanted to present. Well done there!
Although your speed of speech did increase towards the end of your section, the pace was still acceptable and I was still able to follow what you were trying to bring across.
Cheers
Kai Liang
Hi Kai Liang,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the comments =)
Thank goodness you were able to follow through my presentation. And yes, I think I would incorporate more animations in my future presentations as they proved to be quite handy.
Cheers
Edward
Hi Edward!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the completion of the oral presentation too!
Like Kai Liang has pointed out, the thing I remembered vividly from your presentation was the bus animation. I thought it was effective in bringing your point across and it was at the same time attention-grabbing. Good job on that! :)
Also, you mentioned that you should have slowed down during your presentation. However, I felt that the pace was comfortable to follow so do not worry about it! Although it would have been better if you could vary your tone a little more, and smiled more during both your presentation and the Q&A session. It would help lighten the tense atmosphere and perhaps create more rapport with the audience. :)
Cheers,
Qianwen.
Hi Edward!
ReplyDeleteI feel that you were rather calm and cool during your presentation. I’m sure that’s because of the rehearsals your team had before the actual day! I also think that the animations illustrated your ideas well because I still remember them now! So good job on that! (:
Personally I don’t think that you were speaking too fast, but perhaps when you were answering questions, you could step forward a little because you sounded a little soft.
That said, I think you are a confident speaker and keep up the good work (:
Cheers,
Siyuan
Hi Edward,
ReplyDeleteI've got one question for you: How can you always remain so calm and composed during presentations?? I think that your presentation was very straightforward, you made use of animations really well to deliver the content and I think the speed of your presentation was just nice! And I think that you're quite enthusiastic during your presentation.
Congrats for a job well done!
Regards,
Mel
Hi Edward!
ReplyDeleteThe one thing I remember most about your presentation was how calm you were. It certainly helped make you look and sound more professional - it was as if presentations don't faze you at all! I certainly did notice the enthusiasm you displayed in sharing your content with the audience, which made me sit up and be interested in what you have to say. The bus animation certainly did help in making the presentation more lively :)
With regards to the time and your pace, I still think its okay as I could still follow your presentation very comfortably. From the comments above, I see that I'm not the only one with this view, so you have nothing to worry about regarding this!
All in all, I think you delivered a smooth presentation that day. Keep it up!
Amelia
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments!
@QianWen: Yes I think I could have smiled even more during the presentation. Sometimes I did appear quite rigid. :P
@Siyuan: I did not realize it, but I think I was standing further away from audience during Q&A session. I will take note of my speech volume next time! :)
@Mel: Hi Mel, actually I was pretty nervous throughout the presentation! I guess it was the rehearsals that helped me to remain composed during the actual presentation.
@Amelia: Thanks for the reassurance. Now I am pretty sure that I worried too much about the pace of my presentation. :)
Thank you all for the positive comments and encouragement! I will take note of the shortcomings in this presentation and fix them in the upcoming ones! :)
Cheers,
Edward
Hey Edward,
ReplyDeleteNervousness is something which I believe everyone experiences when speaking in front of a live audience. I tend to get nervous and speed up too when I think that my time is running out (as can be seen from my peer teaching session).
I've found that what Ms Lim said in class to be very much of a help. She said that "the audience wants you to succeed" and I found that keeping that in mind helped me to present better with less nervousness.
Looking at how you talked in front of the class on Thursday, I could hardly detect nervousness on your part at all and that's a good thing! Instead, you came across as someone who was very happy and earnest! Keep it up!
Kim Soon