Last but not least.....my final reflections

First off, I’d like to say that I’m glad to have taken up this module though initially I was indeed overwhelmed by the workload of the course. What Ms Lim has taught us in this course is very relevant to all areas and aspects of our lives. I quote from Plato “Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.” Effective communication can help us to bring across what we have to say to those around us.

The biggest take away I’ve had from this course is that I’ve learned that communications is not a one way process but rather it’s a two way process, hence the importance to have the “YOU” attitude in all forms of communications that we do, from our writings to our presentations. After all, we can write the best essay or give the best speech, but if the audience is unable to receive our message, those words being written or said will be pointless.

Secondly, I’ve also learned in the process of crafting our team’s proposal to be critical of that we are including into our proposal. It is through this process of giving feedbacks and improving on subsequent ideas that I realize this is a very important process to improve the quality of our work. This is definitely another skill that I’ve honed in this course where I can use it for other areas of my life in future.

Lastly, I’d like to thank all my peers in ES2007s whom I’ve worked with especially my peer teaching group and Team Planet. I’ve learned a great deal about working in groups with all of you and as well as the wonderful memories of staying late in school and during the weekends to complete our work. I’d also like to thank Ms Lim for her guidance and patience to impart the skills for effective communications to me. You have been a wonderful teacher and thank you for everything. =)

Reflections on my Oral Presentation

Finally the oral presentation is over!

One thing I realized is that no matter how many presentations we’re done before, the fear of doing an oral presentation will always be there. The nervousness and jitters I gets before it’s my turn to present will affect the performance of my oral presentation. Therefore, it is important that I learn to be more competent at giving a good oral presentation by consciously working on improving on my weaker points. 

In terms of preparation, I feel that having a speech text is good in helping me to prepare what I am going to talk about for the presentation. However I do feel that it can be rigid at times as we tend to memorise and regurgitate the script. Therefore I break down what I have to say into main points and elaborate the points with my own words during rehearsal. I have done numerous rehearsals with my team, However I feel that I could have put in more time and effort into my preparation for my individual part and be more familiar with all the main points that I am suppose to say.

For delivery section, I believe that I have used appropriate gestures to bring my points across to the audience. The volume of my voice was also loud enough to be heard by everyone in the audience. Some areas that I can work on to improve would be the speed of my presentation. As I get nervous, I tend to unknowingly start speaking faster, one way I can overcome this would be to use pauses and modulate my voice during my presentation.

Lastly, my group decided to use prezi for our presentation. I feel that it was a challenge as we’re not very competent with the software. Overall, the flow of the presentation turned out to be smooth and the effects were used appropriately to drive our points across. However, there are several aspects of our slides we can work to improve on like the size of the slides and content. I noticed during the presentation that several slides we had were too small to be seen clearly. Therefore, we can work to improve the visibility and standardization of the size for all slides.

In retrospect, oral presentation no doubt frightening can be overcome by adequate preparation. It is important as well to calm my nerves and remain relax so my performance for the actual oral presentation can be done better.