Evaluation on Oral Presentation

EDITED VERSION: 

 

A big relief for ending my final presentation on a high note! 

I do believe all the trainings from the peer teachings, mock interviews and ‘elevator pitch’ have provided me with greater confidence in myself and the ability to cope under duress. However, despite all these practices, I still felt uneasy and nervous when I have to give the final presentation of this module. [EDIT: help provided by Chandra]

The fact that our group crafted the proposal together have helped us tremendously as each and every one of us were thorough with the content of our proposal and ultimately contributed to the ease in forming our presentation. [EDIT: help provided by Chandra] Though we allocated ourselves with the main bulk of the proposal that we had written, the difficulty of converting a proposal into a presentation is still a difficult task. [EDIT: help provided by Chandra] From our mock presentation, we understood that our presentation should not simply be a replica of our proposal. But rather, a form of a marketing plan where our proposal should be a support to our presentation instead. Hence, we revamped our entire presentation and made it as interesting as possible and tried not to overload it with technical jargons so that our stakeholders would be able to understand. [EDIT: help provided by Chandra] In the event that our stakeholders are interested in our proposed solution, we can then provide them with the technical information that they may be interested in, which is at the back of our fingertips.

Despite so many rehearsals and practices done on my presentation speech (waiting for the bus, meal times and many other occasions),  I still had frayed nerves and at times, felt like giving up. Nonetheless, I am so glad I pulled through in the end!

After my presentation, a few of my classmates commented that there was a stark difference in my presentation style this time round as compared to my previous presentation for my peer teaching. They added that the Shiying that have presented earlier on does not felt like the usual Shiying that they knew. I always thought that I should be formal for such a presentation and had practiced so hard to try and sound professional as I usually talk in a much more animated way due to my character. [EDIT: help provided by Chandra] However, I do feel a little dejected after hearing such a comment because I thought they might mean that ‘I sounded very fake’, and I was trying to ‘act out’ the presentation. Another weakness of my presentation was that I should have included some statistical data to prove and support my points. While I thought that such figures should be minimized in a presentation and tried out narrating more this time round, I realized it was a wrong move. Another improvement I could have done is to sound more convincing and engaging instead. I understand that in a formal presentation is very different from a peer teaching presentation, which is why I tried not to ask questions and it would be awkward to establish any games to entertain the audience, I believe that all these could be achieved if I were a much more dynamic presenter and attract them simply through thought-provoking and impactful use of words and ideas.

Despite all these weaknesses, I am still pretty proud of my performance this time round. 

Firstly, I managed to establish longer eye contact with my audience, especially to Laura, since she was appointed the role of the NUSSU president and she is the person we are trying to get our proposal approved. I am really thankful to Huiyun for always giving me that assuring smile whenever I established eye contact with her. It helped to alleviate my level of nervousness during the presentation.

Secondly, I did not blank out this time and managed to deliver the bulk of my presentation and thirdly, I did not fidget as much as before and tried to develop a stable stature while presenting.

With each presentation, I am becoming an even better presenter. Hopefully by the time that I graduate, I would be ready for THE WORLD.