Wednesday 7 November 2012

Reflection of proposal presentation


I will break down my reflection into 3 main parts namely content, script and bring it out.

Firstly content, I strongly feel that a presentation will be half-success if the content itself is great.  A strong content is like the foundation, only with a good foundation, so that we could develop more interesting and sounding aspects for the presentation. This time round, I was presenting the same part that I contributed to the project proposal, and my group mates and I edited the part for several times before handed in. That is why I feel quite comfortable with the content I was going to present then.

Secondly it is the script. During the dry run, when I was presenting based on the materials that I wrote on the proposal, and I did not do much change to it. The feedback was not good. I felt that I was losing the attention of my audience shortly after I started. Moreover, Brad was also telling us that, presentation was actually a selling process in which we should add more our personal staff in order to make it lively. Furthermore, Brad kept emphasizing the importance of a pitch in a presentation, thus I decided to write a new script based on the content but entirely restructured and rephrased in a more interesting  way, and add in interesting staff like personal experience that I thought could be able to catch my audience’s attention.

Thirdly, bring it out. It is basically about internalizing all the materials and practicing with the group mates and on my own.  This time round I adapted the approach of memorizing the outline rather than memorizing the whole script. It is an effective way for me to avoid blank in mind when I am on stage.  Moreover, by internalizing the outline, I was more fluent in the presentation. Although I use very simple and daily language, I felt that a natural flow of the presentation is more important than good sentence structures or good choice of words.  

Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who was there in my presentation, as your guys were really supportive. Without your attention, I would not be able to do it in a comfortable way.

18 comments:

  1. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    I think your part was the stongest in our presentation. You spoke loud and clear with a good phase and used proper body language. I could tell that you worked a lot with the content, and by doing so I do not think you "lost" the audience even once. Thank you for your hard work and positive attitude in this project.

    //Sofie

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    1. Thank you Sofie! I personally like your way of speaking, professional and concise, just like a lawyer in court! Every time you speak you will catch my full attention, and so do I think the rest!

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  2. Hi Zhuang Wei, I feel that in your team, you were the best speaker because you spoke in a comfortable pace and I could feel your enthusiasm so you really engaged me throughout your presentation. You smiled more than the rest and the way you spoke seems more natural, not as if you memorised your script. Also, I agree with you too that your group’s transition is smooth and I like the positioning because it makes it seem more even out and there is a clear distinction on who the speaker is. However, I think that in the Q&A, you did not answer many of the questions posed to your group and you did seem a little disengaged. Nonetheless, overall, GOOD JOB! :D

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    1. Thank you Tasha! Yes, I was a little bit disengaged towards the end of the Q&A, perhaps I think it is a little bit too long and the questions addressed to us are more or less the same. So I guess I was just wanna have a seat soon and relax and watch the other team's performance.:-)

      And really thank you for your encouragement!

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  3. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    You speak very well during the presentation! You had a long part but you manage to make this part fluent and you seemed to master really well what you were saying. I thought that you have almost learned your part word by word but it was really efficient. So, if that is work, it is perfect. You was really confident during the presentation and smiling. Same remark than Tasha for the Q&A.

    Congratulations !

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    1. Maxime, you really have eagle eyes! How do you know that I was studying word by word and then memorizing by structure? This is all because, I sometimes speak my dialect which has straightened my tongue. We all know that a straightened tongue will not pronounce certain word in a fluent way. That is why I need to choose certain word that I am comfortable in pronouncing in my speech.

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  4. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    (Firstly I am so sorry I kept calling you Jon Wei :( all these days. Hope you forgive me)

    I loved your presentation. You were cool and comfortable. I could very obviously see you were not talking from a script. It was my favourite part of your groups presentation! I did not realize that your part was actually long till I say the time when you finished haha. You also made great eye-contact. Great job, girl! :)

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    1. Thank you Dhanya! It is okay for the name thing, I usually pronounce some names wrongly also.
      For the presentation, I really need to thank you also! You are an amazing audience who kept smiling and nodding back at me, in which I could be able to be firm in the stage. You are a natural speaker, compare to you, I still got a long way to go.

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  5. Hi Zhuang Wei!

    I too, felt that you are one of the strongest speaker in your team. I really like how you were so fluent and confident of your speech. It was as if they were all your thoughts at that point in time. The way your speech flow so smoothly and naturally. I guess the technique of memorizing the outline of the speech really do work for you.

    Furthermore, you were really clear of your content and you hardly turned to look at the slides. Your pace was slightly fast for me, but that's alright. Your voice projection was good too!

    Overall, I really was impressed with your presentation so good job!

    Cheers,
    Maple

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    1. Thank you Maple! Without your guys attention, i do not think i would be able to do the speech in a comfortable way. For the slides, because i have practiced a lot of times about which exact timing should I make a transition for slides, that is why everything worked out smoothly.

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  6. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    Your performance was flawless! The speed was just nice for the audiences. You were really confident. Your knowledge about the topic were shown by delivering the presentation fluently.

    *P.S. love your dress! :D

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    1. Thank you Teresa! I personally like your last line of your comment very much! I like that dress also!! And thank you very much for your encouragement!You are doing a great ob too.

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  7. Hi Zhuang Wei!

    The way you integrated a story together with the content of your presentation really captured my attention! You did a great job, given it was your first time trying out a new approach of presenting.
    In addition, your voice projection, gestures and eye contact was great! Though I have to agree with Maple that your pace was slightly fast. Overall, great job! :)

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    1. Thanks a lot! About the story thing, it was Brad that inspired me about integrating personal staff and feelings into our speech to capture audience's attention.

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  8. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    You did a great job! I loved the combination of your enthusiasm, your tone, and the flow of ideas in your scipt. You were able to illustrate the complex importance of "start thinking about having babies early" through the use of your aunt's story. That made it convincing, relatable, and thus very interesting. Well done!

    And I completely agree about not obsessing with grammatical correctness in presentations, as long as ideas are brought clearly across. In fact, after the Oral Presentations, I felt that having a non-standard-English accent, and having some grammatical mistakes here and there actually adds to the authenticity and sincerity of the speaker. =]

    Eunice

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    1. " I felt that having a non-standard-English accent, and having some grammatical mistakes here and there actually adds to the authenticity and sincerity of the speaker."

      I always know you are critical, and here it goes. This is exactly what I do not like about myself, the strong accent and grammatical mistakes in oral speaking. I am person with perfection, and my accent has been one of the things that I really can not bear and wanna improves on.

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  9. Hi Zhuang Wei,

    I like how you included your personal experience in your part even though you were not the first speaker. It was sort of like a 'break' from the heavy information from the earlier speakers (us), yet not losing focus of the audience. Great job :)

    -Jie Wei

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    1. Haha thanks Jiewei! You are actually good! When I look back at the video, I like your speech rather than mine. Even though you were providing 'heavy' information, but it was concise and clear. Sometimes we just need to talk about the details in our speech.

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