Reflection on Oral Presentation

Preparation for the Oral presentation was pretty interesting. The previous week, Mdm Fazilah had shown us various ways to start and end a presentation. That left me thinking which to choose as I would be starting and ending my group's presentation. Finally I decided to use an example related to our topic to start the presentation, which would stir the emotions of the audience.

Writing the script was fairly easy. I knew that I had to insert confident and persuasive words. However, words are often phrased differently in writing, as compared to speaking. After I wrote my script, I tried reciting it; it did not sound right. Changes were made along the way.

Practising the script was harder - I was a little nervous as I had taken a module last semester which involved a presentation as well, and due to my reading off the script, I did not do too well. Even in the peer teaching, the feedback for me was that I was looking too much at my script. I knew that I had to memorise the crucial points, yet not fully memorising word for word of my script because that would throw me off if I forgot the actual words while presenting. For many people, it leads to them stopping mid-sentence and then having to check their script. Thus when you present, you must be clear-headed enough to know what you are saying so that you can phrase the sentence yourself if you forgot how you phrased it in your script, and being calm helps you to think properly.

When presenting, one should use certain words to aid in remembering the points. This is where the visuals come in. I feel that the ideal case is where one has no script but looks at the screen for the point, then turns towards the audience and elaborates on it.

Before the presentation, I tried to encourage myself that I knew what I was saying, and that boosted my confidence and helped me to be less nervous. During the delivery, there was one point in time where I forgot what was next, and I checked my script but I could not find the place of the point. However, I took a deep breath to calm myself down, looked at the slides for reference on the next point and moved on. I knew that it was alright not to say all that I wrote down, but more importantly, the delivery of the presentation had to be smooth.

My group mates did an awesome job as well and during the Q&A session, we listened to the suggestions given by our peers and answered their queries. I felt that we were in sync and that as a team, we knew each other's parts well. Our answers complemented each other and we had a great feedback. I felt that overall, I have improved very much in my oral presentation skills.