Last Friday, I had a learning but refreshing experience for my oral presentation. Be it on content, organization or delivery, there were many rooms for improvement and lessons learnt.
For the first time, our group, EcoChatters, decided to fashion a totally different approach for our presentation. After watching a video of Steve Job’s presentation, we wanted to create our presentation slides in line with his recommendations; that is to minimise the number of slides and content. We noticed that most of his slides are very clear and concise, with no bullet points in most of them. In fact, there were multiple slides with only one figure or word. Despite that, he always never fails to surprise his audience with his awesome presentation skills. From the video, my group learnt that the main character of our presentation should be us, not the slides. The slides were there to accentuate our points. Keeping all that in mind, we created our presentation slides, each with not more than 20 words. In addition, we also tried presenting only a figure or a word on a few slides and not to include any graphs or tables.
I have a few reflections on my group’s oral presentation which I would like to share. First on the content, we could have included more background information, such as the structure of the Life Science curriculum, examples of conservation-related workplaces and what people normally do in the field, as well as the main communication needs we found lacking in the workplace. This could have given the NUSSEU audiences, which are not all Life Science students, a clearer picture before we move on to our recommendations to make changes to the Life Science curriculum. This made me realise how important it is to always keep in mind who our audiences are while preparing the presentation.
While implementing Steve Job’s recommendations during our presentation, my group also realised that to make such a presentation an effective one, it is important we explain and demonstrate our ideas clearly throughout the presentation, especially when the contents in the slides are minimal.
On the delivery part, I have to constantly work on my lack in confidence. Moreover, there were few times during the presentation when I suffered from momentary concentration lapses. Besides that, I feel that my eye contact with the audience could also be more frequent, and I certainly have much to improve on my articulation. To summarise, connecting with the audience is crucial, but many factors also play a part in making it possible. I believe that with more practice, my presentation skills will improve with time.
In conclusion, the hard work that my group has laboured in the past few weeks for the proposal and oral presentation was definitely worthwhile. We attempted a new way of presenting and I believe we all gained a lot of insight from this project, even if it does not turn out as awesome as Steve Job’s. Most importantly, through all the long hours of rehearsals and preparations, we have gained one very important communication skills, team work.
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Hey Diana
ReplyDeleteI felt that your delivery was smooth; looks like you put your cue cards too good use!
Just a couple of pointers to take note:
1) Try not to refer to your cards too often as it will become a habit throughout the presentation.
2) Also, compared to Jie Ren, who stood right beside the screen while presenting, you looked to be standing too far away from it. As the result, the audience had to keep turning their heads to look at you and the screen.
Dear Diana,
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the team work! That would probably be the most lasting memory of this experience.
The feedback I had for you were very much along the lines of what you wrote down. It is wonderful you attempted the Steve Jobs style of presentation - we all have to start sometime!
Maybe a tip that would help your lack of confidence would be repeated practice in front of the mirror. I started public speaking around 12 years ago and till a few years back, I used to practice every speech/message atleast 20-30 times in front of the mirror till I was satisfied. This never stopped my leg from shivering on stage, but definitely gave me the confidence to smile and go on.
Another small thing that helps is not taking a piece of paper or cue card on stage as when we have nothing to refer to, we tend to think on our feet and get better!
Just a couple of thoughts. Great job and all the best!
Cheers
Rohan
Hello Rohan and Jasper,
ReplyDeleteJasper: I didn't realised that I was standing abit far from the screen, thanks for pointing that out to me. I will definitely take note of that in my future presentation.
Rohan: I really love to know more tips on how I could overcome my lack of confidence. I believe the tips you have given will be really helpful, I will certainly try them out in my next presentation.
Actually, I wanted to try not to use the cue card. However, because I know of my momentary concentration lapse during presentation, I decided to drop the idea. Perhaps I should give it a try the next time, like you have said, we have to start sometime!
Thanks so much guys. I really appreciate your feedbacks, in fact I hope to hear more from the others on how I can improve on my presentation too.
Cheers!
Twin,
ReplyDeleteI was once told after a speech I made that I was looking to the ceiling a couple of times throughout my delivery, and I was discouraged to do that because it is a sign of "amplified thinking". Don't amplify and display the thinking process in front of your audience - as looking to the ceiling shows that some thoughts are going through your head. It makes the speech less persuasive and credible.
You had a clear and good projection of voice but one thing you could take note is the handful of pause-fillers in your presentation. Pause-fillers are words or expressions to fill up supposed-pauses like for instance "erm", "mm yah"... So do try to cut down on pause fillers because they make you lose credibility as well.
You mentioned that you were lacking confidence. There are two ways to go about handling this - the first is to keep speaking. Find every opportunity to speak up... over a period of time you'll see incremental changes in you. As the saying goes: "The only way to go around a problem is through it."
The second tip is to imagine a very powerful uplifting experience you had. Is it having received a great reward or trophy? Is it the moment you received your A level results? Is it the day you were immensely praised for an achievement? Imagine that being re-played before your eyes again... experience that euphoria you felt. Then, take a deep breath... and start speaking. That powerful experience would give you a lot more confidence on stage!
Hi Diana,
ReplyDeleteI think it is a good and brave attempt for your team to adopt Steve Job's recommendations in the presentation. However, I felt that because of this, your team had compromised the slides contents. It was good that you guys had made the slides less wordy for the audience to read and comprehend. However,the contents for certain slides were not detailed and quite ambiguous. Also, the essential information that explained or showed the underlying principles for the recommendations were lacking. Hence it created much confusion in the audience. But I do admire your team's bravery, for it is really a hard task to present everything within 20 words.
At the start of your delivery, I could see that you were calm and confident. But in the later part, you showed signs of nervousness, and kept referring to your cues cards. I suggest that if you are nervous during a presentation next time, try taking a deep breath and calm yourself down before continuing your speech. It does help greatly whenever I feel nervous.
Overall, I still think your performance for the oral presentation is great, for your speech delivery is quite smooth. It can be even better if you refer to your cues cards less often.
Oh, can I say that I love your voice? There is this tinge of gentleness and softness in your voice, and it is quite soothing to hear you speak :)
Good job for you and your team!
Hi Diana,
ReplyDeleteAlthough you still sounded a little nervous during your oral presentation, I thought you had improved and were more confident than during your peer teaching. Good job on the improvement!
However, I do agree with Goh Chern that one area you could improve on is your pause-fillers. I realised you tended to use the word “so” after almost every statement during your oral presentation, which after awhile, became very distracting. Perhaps taking a mental note of that the next time you present could help?
All the best!
Wow wow! Diana2, WeiYing and Jolene, I love all your comments! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteDiana 2: I vehemently agree with the saying you have quoted: "The only way to go around a problem is through it". I will keep that in mind and try to speak up more often. In fact, ES2007S has been a very good training platform for me to speak up. I would dare to say that I feel more comfortable speaking now then before!
Thanks for pointing out my pause-fillers. I did not really notice that until now you have told me.
WeiYing: Thanks for your encouragement, and your praises on my voice! Yes, I will try to not use cue card the next time.
Jolene:
Thanks for pointing out about my pause-fillers too. I will try not to mention "so" every now and then.