Post #6: Reflection on Oral Presentation

Preparation:
We made the PowerPoint slides separately and then combined them together. My part includes the introduction of the existing student lounges in NUS, the reasons for creating a student lounge in the Faculty of Science with some statistics from the survey, and the conclusion. Here are some strengths from my opinion. Firstly, I think that I used the appropriate pictures of student lounges to make the audience visualize the points I made. Moreover, I drew bar charts for the survey results, which were easier for the audience to read and remember the viewpoints I wanted to make. Finally, the words and phrases in each slide were kept as short as possible which made the slides clear and easy to read. At the same time, there are also some weaknesses. I think that I should have used a lager size to show the related figures in the graphs because the audience could not see the figures clearly from the back of the class. The last step in preparation is thinking about how to present. I wrote the delivery notes and practiced myself, and we also had a complete rehearsal before the formal presentation.

Delivery:
Though I had experience of doing presentations before, I still got nervous when it was my turn. I remember that I spoke too fast in the peer teaching last time, so this time I tried to speak more clearly and slowly. I think my whole organization was clear and logic, and I reemphasized the key points to make my presentation clearer. Furthermore, during the presentation, I also tried to have eye contact with the audience, and referred back to the slides as less as possible. However, I did not look systematically at different sections of the audience, and I looked at my left-hand side more than my right-hand side. In addition, I presented my ideas without referring to the delivery notes in my hand. The reason that I could speak without notes is because that I wrote the proposal and I knew my material very well, such that I could remember the points naturally. This is quite different from the peer teaching I did last time, as the ideas of how to write the resume and the cover letter are searched from internet instead of being developed by myself. However, at one time, my mind just went blank due to nervousness, and I did not remember what I should talk about next, luckily, I got PowerPoint slide to remember me. I am not sure about whether my gestures were appropriate perceived by the audience, but I felt a bit unnatural. Finally, I found my presentation was not fluent enough, so more practices are needed.

Overall, it is a good experience for me to do this presentation, and I believe that I can do better next time.