Friday, April 15, 2011
Reflection on Oral Presentation
Part 1
Part 2
The end of the oral presentation marks the closing of the research project for this module. Personally, I felt a great sense of satisfaction both when we handed in the report, and when we finished our oral presentation. I would like to thank Jake and Stella for being such excellent project group mates. I must say that we were very efficient in getting work done as we had very good teamwork and our working style is very similar. It was great working with you two! Thanks so much!
For my part of the oral presentation, I overused the word “actually” and only realize it when my classmates pointed it out to me after the presentation. I looked through the video and counted the number of times I said “actually” and it was a shocking 26 times. I do have the tendency to overuse some words. It was “like” during the oral discussion, and “actually” during the oral presentation. It is important for me to curb this bad habit of mine by being more self-conscious.
Besides that, I fumbled a little here and there due to nervousness as well, but it was not so bad because I internalized the points through numerous practices and had ample knowledge of the topic. However being a science student, I do not have many chances of presenting in front of a class and this caused me to be more stressed during this oral presentation. I believe that with more exposure, I will not feel so nervous for presentations in the future.
All in all, I felt that our group’s oral presentation was relatively smooth, except for some minor mistakes here and there. Please comment so that we will know where we can improve on! Thank you!
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Hi Hwee Teng. Personally, I thought you presented really well because you were loud, clear and concise. I did not really mind when you overused the word "actually", because it did not come across to me as a serious problem. As we all would know, your eye contact was good because you have natural big eyes! (:
ReplyDeleteWhile some hesitations are inherent in your presentation, the strengths of your presentation outweighs this weakness. Nonetheless, I hope that you will be able to improve further on some minor weaknesses such as overusing of a word and some fumbling.
Cheers!
Hi Hwee Teng,
ReplyDeleteThanks for uploading the videos! Delivery was clear and loud, very similar to Jake and Stella. The fumbling was rare but you recovered well from it, partially due to "internalizing" I hope.
Gestures were not over the top as well and definitely "big eye" contact. Try to explore more ways to make transitions from one point to another to avoid overusing per phrases. Well done!
Hey hey Hwee Teng, how are you doing!
ReplyDeleteFirst let me say you did a fine job with confidence and energy level, which also brought out your passion and interest for your subject. In addition, you showed good grasp of your knowledge and spoke relatively smoothly and without burps. You also gave your eye contact very well, but here comes below the negative points I'm going to make. Pardon me! Hwee Teng, I want you to know that the points I'm going to make below definitely applies to Adeline, Edwin, Benjamin, Eunice, Isaac, Kecen, Michael, Michelle, Kenneth, Uttara, Paula, Yu Tian, Jacqueline, Ahmed, Chuan Ting, Jake, Greg, Vanessa, Susan, Luqman, Cynthia, Zoe, Jing Horng, Stella, Wellens, everybody in Group 4 and 10, and even myself I have to watch too. Here's why:
Your enunciation and articulation leaves too much more to be desired, your elocution needs total revamp, your volume and inflection needs total revamp, your gesturing needs total revamp, and I wrote about all this in my latest article in my blog on acing presentations.
You speak in a very Singaporean way when saying words with a 'th' sound. For instance when you said 'method', you enunciated it as 'metad', and when you said 'this', you said it as 'dis'. These are just a few examples, and in fact every word you spoke, Hwee Teng, was totally off with regard to world class standards of English expression---articulation and enunciation. The same can be said for every single student in Group 4 and 10, even myself sometimes, everybody's articulation and enunciation is in shambles, again that is due to our Singaporean style and ways of expressing, which you and I know have no 'class'. Without articulation and enunciation in place, Hwee Teng, no confidence, power, energy, strength, persuasion, honesty, volume, inflection, tonality can take place.
Why?
Because these presentation values all start and are build from articulation and enunciation first and foremost. Take a look at volume and tonality---you can only do this to perfection, if and only if, you can also do enunciation and articulation perfectly!!! These values are complimentary. How do you expect to ‘properly’, fine-soundingly, professionally, vary your volume and tonality expertly, and world-classly if you can’t pronounce and articulate words and ideas just as world-classly? Isn’t it?
Then after articulation and enunciation, you have language use and the way you construct sentences and string your words to create world-class, proper, and grammatical sentences, that remain true to conversational and easy-going for presentation purposes! Only when you have these 2 values in your bag, then only comes persuasion, confidence, passion etc cetera. Everything builds from the base blocks of first articulation and enunciation, then, language proficiency and expression, what else is truer? Isn’t it?
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In another instance, Hwee Teng, many of your sentences were ungrammatical, and while the logic flow can be vaguely made out and your ideas can still seem to flow from one to the next, there is no apparent organization of your sentences from one to the next, precisely because you are speaking in broken Singaporean English, which tend to skip and bypass proper syntax and sentence structure rules in favor of CONVENIENCE! Now that is the problem I have with Singaporean English expression, but not that I dislike Singaporeans as a result, but rather I don't like that English style and not proud of it myself, even if I'm born and bred Singaporean. Haha!
ReplyDeleteOk, so let me point out one grammar error. You said "the public are....". Ok so that's wrong, and many others which I leave you to find out for yourself.
Also, as your classmates point out, you use one ‘actually’ too many, and 'ums' too. You would need to learn to kick out that habit as they aren't suppose to be present in proper, grammatical and world class English language expression. These words distort the structural integrity of world class English sentences.
Other than that, you made a lot of shrieking noises as I observed. Maybe it’s a girlish habit of yours. For instance you tend to shriek on your second and third syllable. When you say ‘pro-pose’ or ‘u-ni-ver-si-ty’, and on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th syllable, you shriek so wildly!!! It sent shivers down the back of my spine! If you were singing, I don't mind, but if you are speaking, that is very hard to accept for me because it sounded too wrong, because I take dressing from British and American English and presentation standards, and check myself against those standards, and if you ask me my opinion of your presentation, I will rate you according to British and American world class standards, and the truth is, there is just too much more yourself, and myself of course, and everybody one else too, have to learn in enunciation, articulation, language expression, and gesturing. But you can do it Hwee Teng, it's not too late, I'm doing my best too, so should others.
Speaking about gestures Hwee Teng, your gestures were, well again by British and American standards that I'm acquainted with and see with my own eyes, just not powerful enough. I mean, yes, you make appropriate gestures, but something is still missing when I compare yours with more world class standards. Gesturing isn't merely about bringing up a hand to a screen every now and then, or blinking your eyes every 20 seconds, or turning your body here and there, or smiling for the sake of smiling. Because there is no winning energy and force in your gesture if you do it in these wrong ways.
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Instead, good gesturing must be based on logic and reason, those that which your audience can understand the reasons (connections) behind. For instance, what is your reason for smiling gesture? Is it because the course rubric say you should smile and the start of the presentation, or that Brad say you must do so to warm his heart, and therefore you smile? No, that is so wrong I feel, isn’t it? You must have a REASON to smile, because only then can you take that smile INSIDE YOU and exude sincerity, honesty, persuasion, energy, which your audience can and knows how to naturally, and positively react to. Your audience knows if you smiled for ceremony and occasion, or smiled from deep within your honest, pure heart and soul. The former is without strong reason and intended to please people, whereas the latter has conviction of heart and mind and soul, and is intended to WIN people!!! Do you agree Hwee Teng? Nothing can be closer to these truths, do you agree Hwee Teng?
ReplyDeleteWithout conviction of your heart, your gestures will seem to 'float' in the air, out of place, out of view, out of mind, out of imagination, out of wit, out of pity. Without conviction, your gestures will not make sense, will not have any real and true connection with you or your audience, will not flow nicely and logically from one gesture to the next, and your audience can recognize if your gesture is world class, convicted, mind-blowingly good, or simply meager, constrained, ceremonial, formulaic, 'fake'. Just take myself for example, I am your audience, but why is it when I look at Simon Sinek's every single bodily gesture, and when I look at your gestures, I find this huge world of a difference, and it's so different that I would say Simon is alien to you and vice versa. Isn't it right? Simon's gestures are just well, from his heart, from inside of him, and he intended it from the bottom of his every neuron, blood vessel, drip of sweat.
In comparison to yourself as well as every other student in Group 4 and 10, things are simply so different. But that is why we are all here to learn, to become masters ourselves, and I expect you, dear Hwee Teng, to take my advice on its head, digest it, eat it, process it, and come out an expert presenter and professional communicator!
Run to it!
Cheers to Hwee Teng!
Heyy Hwee Teng!
ReplyDeleteGreat presentation being the first team on the first day! I really liked your slides and I myself learnt quite a bit about slides making from you too.
As for overusing words, I'm an overuser myself and I feel it's really hard to change the way we speak. But I'm sure with more practice and by being more conscious during daily conversations with friends it can be changed bit by bit!
That aside personally your presentation flows quite well and I can sense confidence from you. I tend to forget that you fumbled at the end of your presentation so do not worry about that :)
Luqman and Greg: Thanks for the compliments! I really do wonder if my good eye contact is because of my big eyes as well! Haha!
ReplyDeleteMark: Yes I do realize that I speak in a very Singaporean way, but I must say that your description of "Singaporean English" as no class is a little too harsh. I have been trying hard to improve my enunciation of words, especially for words with a "th" sound, but only because it is wrong and not because "Singaporean English" is not of world class standard.
Next, I have to disagree with your comment on my shrieking noises. Some people do have natural high pitched voice, and some low pitched. I do not see this as a mistake, and I do not think the rest of the class noticed this "mistake" as well. You saying that this is "a girlish habit of yours" seem to be stereotyping as well.
However, I do have to agree that my gestures are nowhere near world class level and that will definitely need a lot of hard work on my part to improve.
Nonetheless, thanks for your advice!
Zoe: Thanks for your compliments! Let's word hard together to prevent ourselves from overusing certain words! :D
Hi Hwee Teng!
ReplyDeleteAs a group:
Persuasiveness:
The first part about seriousness of food dependency was not a very strong argument to me. Brief explanations about the concept of urban farming could be given first since it is not a common idea. Similar ideas like container farming, hydroXX, ect could be explained as well. Just like how stella explained the concept of urban heat and island effect.
Story flow:
The structure of the problem-solution set was clear and easy to follow. However, an outline of presentation at the start would help.
PowerPoint was nicely designed, simple and elegant. Personally, I would prefer more pictures to be added. It is good that the numbers which can be hard to capture were stated in large fonts in the slides.
The stage props helped to grab audiences’ attention.
The conclusion was forceful and persuasive. It would also be nice to include rooftop farming into future work.
Lastly, I think it will be less distracting if there were no member standing behind the presenter.
For you:
As othere mentioned, besides“actually”, everything was very good. Good voice projection, gestures, eye contact, firm stand and confidence.
I also wish to say that, I believe Mark did not meant to insult or offend you. He definitely has room to improve regarding the way he expresses himself. However, I watched the video again after reading (briefly) his comment. I do think your naturally high pitched voice can cause problems to certain audiences, especially people who are not very used to the Singapore Style. You may just want to try to adjust it when presenting to non-locals? I am not sure whether it is something that can be adjusted. Just a piece of suggestion :)
Susan
Susan: Thanks for the advice on the presentation as a whole! And to clarify, I do know that Mark had no intention of insulting or offending me. It's just that I disagree with some of his comments. By the way, just to clarify, do you think that the natural high pitched voice is "Singapore Style"? Because what I meant in my reply to Mark is that different people have voices of different pitches, and not Singaporeans have natural high pitched voice. Thus, I do not see it as a mistake.
ReplyDeleteCalling out to the rest of the class! I would like more comments on my pitch so that I can do something about it if more people think it's disturbing! Thanks a lot! :D
ReplyDeleteHi Hwee Teng,
ReplyDeleteI am not saying your high pitched voice is Singapore Style nor a mistake. What I wanted to say that for people who are not from the region, it can be a bit inconvinient since they need to understand the Singapore style at the same time. For example, Stella speaks in the Singaporean way as well(in fact everyone does), but her pitch is lower and her tone is flatter, so it is easier to understand her.
But it is a minor problem and it is not at all disturbing! And your "girlie" voice atually sounds cute to me, especially when you giggle :)
Plus, I think Mark has a horrible speaker that amplifies problems ten times or something. Cos he said he cannot figure out a single thing I said during presentation due to my accent.
Don't be so worried, I did not mean to make the pitch thing a big issue. My bad!
Susan
Hi Susan!
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying! Now I understand what you meant. So sorry for misunderstanding your words!
Hwee Teng
Hey hey HT,
ReplyDeleteYour pitch is perfectly normal for conversational purposes outside presentation. I absolutely find no problem speaking with you and listening to the musical high pitches you make, because frankly, I love it! Haha! In fact, I think you have a pitch that any guy will certainly fall for!
But the presentation is different. Your high pitches were not consistently made. Your predominant pitch was low, so when you made high pitches out of sudden, it sounded like 'screeching' or 'shrieking', very painful and tortured to my ears. Because I rate you against American and British standards also, and American and British presenters don't all of a sudden screech or shriek. If I were to rate you against Singaporean standards, which I suppose all our classmates did so, you would receive a 100 marks without question, but American and British standards are a world of a difference, and that's what make them world-class, and that's what I want for you too. Why would I want the worst for you, Hwee Teng! Haha!
I'm probably the best friend you ever had, because I want the highest standards for you!!!
Cheers to HT!