Oral presentations are scary. I used to dread being picked to do presentations in classes, and it was without good reasons. Slide designing was tedious. Wall after wall of texts with the need to animate the entry of every single bullet points made me fell asleep while doing my own slides. It couldn’t be helped at those times since I was taught in the school of thought that more is better, even for oral presentations. Basically, the slides themselves were the presentations itself.
But the scariest was the actual presentation. Even with the best laid scripts and clocking in hours of practice, the anxiety never fades away presentations after presentations. The need to follow the script point for point actually made my mind to go blank on many occasions. Cue cards weren’t much of a help either. There is nothing worst than to just look blankly into your audiences’ eyes.
Oral presentations are still scary. However, for this recently done presentation, it was actually a mixture of excitement, scariness and a little dose of anxiety.
I was instantly captivated by the style of slide designing conveyed by Garr Reynolds. He advocated simplicity on his slides, specifically the extensive use of graphics with minimal supporting words.
Me and Anh decided to adopt this style of slide design. We searched the internet for a slide theme which fits our proposal. We used pictures from the internet to replace a lot of words. In fact, we don’t rely much on the use of cue cards to recall the points we wanted to make.
Another interesting thing I adopted from Garr Reynolds was to actually plan the slides on paper before transferring the slides to its electronic version. It really got my ideas to flow the instant I face the blank piece of paper, instead of staring into blank electronic space which happened very frequently in the past. Furthermore, I found that doing this way actually helped me to know the important points and flow of my presentation. There was no need for a script or cue cards to jog my memory. Of course, there was still the need to practice diligently in front of the mirror to properly grasp the flow.
Robert Grahams made a few points for the oral part of the presentation. The most notable one when I visited his website was that the audiences do not know what the presenter is going to present next, or how the flow of the presentation would be like. This really decreased the anxiety felt. I do not have to worry following a script in case I jumbled up the order of the explanations. As a matter of fact, for this presentation, I actually discarded the thought of writing up and memorizing the script before. I noticed during the presentation itself, this actually resulted in my mind not freezing up.
That being said, I do notice several weaknesses while speaking in my presentation. These include:
• Stuttering – I still stutter during presentations. Perhaps it was the anxiety that I felt when facing an audience.
• Pace – I used to speak too fast. So I tried to reduce the speed after consulting with Mrs. Richardson. However, I had the feeling that I was speaking too slowly, and coupled with my anxiety and my natural tendency to speed up; it resulted in a rather unnatural tone of speech to me.
• Slide theme – I could had looked for a theme with better color scheme, as the colour blue would put people too much into a relaxed mode.
To wrap this blog post up, I would like to note point stressed by both Garr Reynolds and Robert Graham which entirely changed my view on presentations itself. This is not in their exact words but:
In a presentation, it is not the slides but the presenter, which is the presentation itself.
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Hi Wai Chii,
ReplyDeleteBefore I comment on your presentation, I would like to thank you for raising your hand when I post a question at the beginning of my presentation. I was so worried beforehand and at that moment of time that no one would respond. You were the first person to raise your hand high up. Your simple action had made me feel relief. With the other 2 or 3 guys (Zibin, Nigel and Meng Wee) putting up their hands, it made me feel better. (Sorry for not being observant enough. Though, I did notice Zibin smiled several times, which made me feel contented that I had not bore the audience to death. Meng Wee also showed enthusiasm by sticking his head out to look at the slides.)
Coming back to your presentation, I think it would be better if you can button up your sleeve so you look neater. I really admire that you know your speech so well that you can present without cue cards. It is another plus point when both you and Anh can present without it and appear so confident at the same time.
In contrast to what you have mentioned in your 1st paragraph, I myself like to design the slides and add in the animations quite a lot. At least it is a much easier task than to tailor a perfect speech and to memorise it by hard.
Moreover, displaying the statistics is extremely large fonts is a unique way rather than just pasting the pie chart. In addition, as mentioned by Nigel in class last Friday, I like the slide with the 21% bar chart moved to the bar chart on the left-hand side of the slide very much. Furthermore, your hand moved concurrently with the bar, which adds to the visual effect.
In my opinion, your hand gestures are slightly ‘big’. It would be good if you can try to reduce it a little in future.
As for the slide background, I myself prefer lighter tones. To me, dark blue makes it looks dull.
Lastly, I am sorry that I chuckled when you were presenting. I deeply apologise if I had affected your performance.
Dear Wai Chii,
ReplyDeleteafter your presentation, I was so curious whether the dental services in NUS has improved to justify the prize that I decided to pay the dental clinic a visit on Monday. As it was my first time in the new dental clinic in the new UHC, I could not find the place and instead walked towards the laboratory section to ask the staff for directions. Previously, I attended the NUS dental clinic at the old UHC.
After walking one round to the counseling centre and to the old restaurant, I still could not locate the dental clinic. As it was raining on the Monday, I decided to leave.
It would be better if your group has brought price lists from the NUS dental clinic during the presentation for the audience to see so that we can compare and judge for ourselves if it is reasonable.
Another suggestion would also be for you and Charlotte to personally interview the dentist at the NUS dental clinic about this subsidized care issue to learn about the constraints of implementing that. Also, photographs of the interior dental clinic, not just at the entrance can be taken to show the facilities and atmosphere inside in your slides. If there are many extra sophisticated facilities and the environment in the dental clinic make one very comfortable. What's more they are using the state of the art technology on their patients, then perhaps the price is justifiable. At the same time, this will also make your slides closer to the theme of dental care.
At the very end, I could remember very vividly the picture of a starfish but not much the dental care services.
However, I still wish to applaud your efforts for choosing the topic of subsidized rate for dental care. I could still recall an Associate Professor from the US who told me that dental care is so expensive over there that many of them could not afford. Also, I realise that it is a shame that not many of the people I know go for regular dental checks unless it is free or cheap. Free in the case for students from primary schools to junior colleges. I only know of the free dental care when I was in junior college last time. So wasted! It is quite strange that there are some who rather spend their money and time on traveling and luxuries rather than the most basic hygiene care such as dental care.
However, it also cultivates me to continue cleaning my teeth up till now. Now, I visit the dentist about three times a year.
Best regards,
Clover
Dear Pei Shan,
ReplyDeleteyou do have quite an amazing memory. You could remember who chuckle and who "gave you support" during your presentation. I am impressed.
I think I have better not offend you as you would most probably it for life.
:)
Clover
The slides were neat and for most of them, the colour contrast was quite good. However, there were some where the contrast was not obvious like those where it was white on yellow.
ReplyDeleteYour rehearsals before classes and with Mrs Richardson seemed to help a lot. The handing over portion to Anh was good. Your speed and volume were well regulated too. The part that I feel showed that you were well-prepared was when there was a bit of technical error and the fact that you did not faze.
However, when you were walking around, I feel that there were times when you had your back facing the audience. You were sometimes also standing on one leg.
Hi Wai Chii. I would like to applaud the brave attempt of your group in employing some of the methods used by Garr Reynolds in th design of the slides. I agree with you to a certain extent that "it is not the slides, but the presenter", who matters in a presentation.
ReplyDeleteI had provided some feedback on your group's performance as a whole in Anh's blog post. Hence I shall not repeat here.
I would like to give you some comments on your personal presentation.
Strengths:
1. You exhibit confidence during your presentation with a loud voice.
2. You replied confidently to questions from the audience.
Weaknesses:
1. You seem to fidget too much during the presentation. Perhaps you could rehearse with your group members observing you in the future, to check if you stand straight while presenting.
2. Your voice is stammering, which disrupts the flow of speech. Perhaps more rehearsals would help in your presentations.
3. As for your attire, I had noticed that you had your sleeves folded up, which may not leave a good impression of you on the audience.
4. I would like to correct one frequent mistake you had made in your speech. You had said "80 percentage", which should be "80 percent".
Hi Wai Chii, I enjoyed reading your post! It was very insightful. I'm glad you learnt so much from Garr Reynolds and Robert Graham. It shows in your presentation your application of what you've learnt - the slides were well done and different from everyone else's. I also understand the anxiety of presenting and I commend you on your efforts, especially not depending on cue cards and not memorising your script because you wanted to have a natural flow to your words. I think you started out a tad nervous but you warmed up by your next segment and I could see you grew more comfortable and confident. You should keep in mind your hand gestures; it can be a little distracting at times, and your sentences can get jumbled up sometimes so it was slightly difficult to keep up with what you were saying at times. I also noticed you saying "80 percentage" as Meng Wee has mentioned, so do take note of that. (:
ReplyDeleteOther than that, well done! I hope you continue to improve you presentation skills and like myself, will not dread presentations as much next time.