Tuesday, November 8, 2011

#5 Reflection on Oral Presentation

The mock oral presentation definitely helped me and my team gauge the quality of our presentation. Although I had prepared a script for my part, I had no inkling of what the rest of the team was planning to say. With no coordination, I believe it was a disaster.

However, from there, we saw the urgency to be well-prepared. We reorganized our parts, discussed what we each would cover, and went back to craft our own scripts/points. Then we emailed each other our scripts, did a mock run-through together, identified overlaps or discrepancies in content, and revised what we were going to say.

So more meetings followed as we settled on our audiovisuals, the style and mood we wanted for our presentation, and practiced our presentation together. Also, it was very helpful that we gave each other feedback as we practiced together. My bad habit of stepping forward and backward is just one of the constructive comments I received for me to work on when I practiced my part on my own.

For the presentation itself – I believe I appeared confident about the benefits I was proposing; a good pacing of words and an appropriate stance (not moving as what I normally do). I tried emphasizing on words for messages that was important to convey, but I think it went both ways – I sounded passionate, yet artificial (as if I memorised a script). I made it a point too to establish eye contact – not just glance left and right.

I believe the slide graphics/pictures were used appropriately as well. For example, the multi-purpose usage of rooms was illustrated with a swissknife: one device (discussion room), many functions (uses).

However, I think I stumbled over my words at times where I had to click the change the slides, especially towards the end – I don’t think I am very good at multi-tasking! In future, I think I need to practice more with the audiovisuals that I will be using.

Also, I don't think I did very well for the Q&A - I went back to speaking the very "Noelle" style, which was quite informal, and I know I started my tip-toeing/ moving forward and backward again. Old habits die hard. :(

In general, I felt that I had prepared sufficiently for my oral presentation, both individually and with my team. Thus I think I managed to do a pretty decent job in delivering our proposal, and hopefully have successfully convinced our class!

6 comments:

  1. Hey Noelle,

    I thought the OP yesterday was remarkable. The biggest change I saw was that your part was not as long and draggy like in the mock OP. So, that was great.

    I like it when you asked “Impressive?” It lightens up the mood.

    You mentioned the benefits point by point – 1st… 2nd… that was well done.

    The “big picture” was also good, it gives a connection of how your project can be linked to other things.

    You restated what was mentioned by the first 3 members. That was good.

    Of course, the ending sentence of your team willing to work with different departments was very convincing. If I am really the person from any department, I would be glad to hear that your team will be working with us.

    Your “old habits” didn’t bother me too much. But I guess what you need is to be more assertive.

    Finally, it’s the team effort for the video? The video was great :D

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  2. The video was done by Eric! We were thinking of putting it near the start of our presentation, but he decided that at the end it would have been better. I think it worked well!

    AND ANYWAY, I just realised how inappropriately I was dressed :/ I completely overlooked preparation and delivery in that aspect.. >.<

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  3. Noelle!

    1) I don't think your group's mock op was a "disaster". If anything, it was a good chance for the class to provide constructive comments (although some might have ignored Brad's advice to temper the negative comments with positive ones?) Guys, the emphasis should be on constructive ;)

    2) I felt that your presentation was one of the more "real" ones out there. It was authentic.

    And because it was real (sincerity was more than sufficiently conveyed), it was more than sufficiently successful.

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  4. Hi Noelle,

    Welcome to the club of completing OP!

    Strength:
    Your delivery and visual was really great as the slides/videos/voice recording were very interesting. I did not realize your tip-toeing this time round.

    Weakness:
    I feel that the only weakness was when you stumbled over words. But those were negligible.

    Really a very excellent OP you all had there. During your group's OP, I did not feel bored for a moment.

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  5. Hey Noelle, so sorry for the late post. I thought your team did an awesome presentation. You played your part well. I could see more eye contact with the audience. However, there's something that bothers me. It's the way you were were speaking. I thought you were slightly nonchalant at times with the lack of facial expressions. However, I think your varied intonation somewhat made up for that. I'm not sure if you agree :)

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  6. Hey thanks everyone for the comments! Like what Chris mentioned during our last lesson, I think blog comments definitely give us confidence especially after constructive criticism.

    Ning - Hmm could you explain further? It means that I could have smiled more, or? What can help me look less nonchalant?

    But in any case, OK, I will take note to try to be more expressive in future. Thanks so much!

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