"Mirror, mirror on the wall, how did...""My queen, I do not comment on oral presentation. Now, if you allow me to comment on your fairness, I must say..."
"I am getting a new mirror!!!"
I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but I think I will start my self-evaluation on a positive note. I think (I hope) I managed to keep my voice from shaking, or at least reduce the shaking to a bare minimum. As the first presenter from my team, I was very nervous and I was actually “on vibration mode” during the Q&A session of team Venomous (uh oh, it’s our turn…). I must admit that for the whole presentation, nothing was more wonderful than saying “…Chee Siang will take over from here to elaborate on the proposed solutions”. Phew, it was like having so much weight lifted off me and breathing was 1000 times easier.
Voice projection- wise, I probably did a better job this time compared to my peer teaching. Anyway, to be honest, raising the volume of my voice to be more audible is not something that I can do effortlessly and so I probably did not sound natural during my presentation.
I think it helps a lot when you get some non-verbal response from your audience. At one point, I saw Brad nodding his head and it is amazing how this simple gesture can really inject confidence in the presenter. I really felt assured that I was not talking nonsense or digressing too far from what I was supposed to be delivering. And I was glad because as far as I could see, none of my audience was frowning and some of them were smiling and nodding their heads at some points. Thanks for the reassurance!
In terms of language use, I probably had some problems with my pronunciation as sometimes when I talked too fast, I tend to mispronounce and had to correct myself. I must admit I put my team to shame when there was one time I said “Visionaires”, which was supposed to sound elegant if pronounced correctly, I sounded like I just had a few teeth knocked out and it was downright embarrassing.
My biggest weakness, I would say, is my inability to maintain eye contact with my audience. I think this was quite obvious during my peer teaching as I kept looking at my slides or above the heads of the audience. This time, for the oral presentation, I did try to establish eye contact but maintaining it remains a challenge as whenever I tried to do that, I tend to lose track of what of I was saying.
If I were to rate my presentation today, I would give myself 6.5 on a scale of 10. With more practice (though I am not looking forward to any, at least for now), I believe I can refine my delivery skills to become a better speaker, and more importantly, a professional communicator who presents in a way that is comfortable to both the presenter and the audience (a bit overambitious though :p).
P/s: To Abby and Chee Siang, both of you did a great job for the oral presentation. Thanks a zillion for the effort and dedication you showed throughout the project. I enjoy working with both of you and I still find it hard to believe that we had just completed this exhausting task which looked like a monster on the Friday before recess week.
Thank you, Wan Wei, for your effort and success with both the presentation and this reflection. I really appreciate it, and will be giving you more detailed feedback soon.
ReplyDeleteHi Wan Wei,
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by the improvement in your presentation skills. The soft spoken lady has grown to be louder and more confident in speaking in front of an audience.
There are some things you can further improve on though. I'm not sure if you noticed, but you kept looking sideways at the projection screen. You would glance at the audience, then break off contact and look at the screen, following which you would glance at the audience again. This cycle was repeated for large tracts of your presentation and it was distracting and betrayed your discomfort. Strangely enough, your discomfort whilst presenting was somehow transferred to me as I felt uncomfortable as well watching you present.
I would like to reassure you that your mispronunciation of "Visionaires" is not a big deal at all. I do recall you stumbling over a word or two while presenting, but the exact words you stumbled over were forgotten almost instantly. Rather, what I do recall is how you bravely recovered and continued presenting as though nothing had happened.
I hope my feedback helps. All the best towards being a better presenter!
Oh my, Wan Wei! You are absolutely right! Your voice never shaken and your voice projection is great! I guess an adrenaline rush is inevitable for everyone before and even during the presentation. No worries, you sound perfectly naturally! Your eye contact isn’t much, but to me I feel that it is suffice.
ReplyDeleteHonestly speaking, I actually worried a little for you because I fear that you would speak a little soft. However, once you open your mouth, I actually nodded my head too! On a good note, I like the way you greeted with a courtesy and as mentioned, your voice projection is there! There is some non-verbal actions from you every now and then, while your pace is perfectly alright!
However, I understand that you are nervous and thus you stumbled a little and mentioned quite a few ‘urghs’ during the presentation. Still, I don’t think it has posed much of a problem for me to get to have a clear picture of what you are trying to convey to us. As for pronounciation, take note of the word computer. Due to your anxiety level, you have mentioned it as ‘compluter’.
Despite the minor glitches (Which I feel is perfectly normal and excusable), I also feel that you have provided the class with a few good suggestions and replies during the Q&A reply. To end this, I will grade you 7.5/10, you deserve more than just 6.5. Great spirit and see you in class on Tuesday!
Regards,
Ivan
Hi Wan wei!!!
ReplyDeleteAs a team, I was rather impressed by your group! =) Your slides were very very nice and the usage of colours was perfect in terms of colour contrast. Your team had a very creative title and a creative catch phrase in the 2nd slide! Also, I see a good flow of content and there was good time management shown. Your team did well in QnA! However, it would be good if the lights could be on during Q&A as I couldn’t see you guys clearly from my position. Also, all 3 of you could be stand a little bit forward while presentation but of course, I understand that there were space constraints in the classroom.
As for your individual perfomance, Wan wei, I AM SUPER PROUD OF YOU!!! You spoke much louder and much clearer as compared to your performance during peer teaching =)!!! :D:D:D You really put in a lot of effort and you stepped out of your comfort zone! I did not really feel that you had insufficient eye contact (You did look at the audience) but perhaps one point to take note is that you tend to glance at the laptop screen pretty often. (Don't worry i did that at times too as I got too nervous at times >.< sigh...) As for non verbal gestures, I do not have much issues with it =) You appeared relaxed and calm but I thought you could smile more! =)
Thank you for your fine effort!
Hi Wan Wei,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job as the first speaker. I could sense your sincerity when you politely thanked the audience for granting your team an opportunity to present your proposal. You also painted clear objectives for your team’s presentation when going through the presentation outline. Your style was more of a soft approach, in contrast to the assertive and dominant style used by other first speakers.
I also want to congratulate you for successfully opening up your voice box! It was actually quite natural, in the sense that I did not realize that you were having a difficult time raising your voice. However, I find that sometimes there was no clear transition when you wanted to talk about a new point. Perhaps you could have paused longer, or used transition words like ‘next’ or ‘furthermore’.
Overall, you have indeed improved your presentation skills since our partnership for the peer teaching. And I feel happy for you! =)