Final reflection

Among all the different skills learnt, my favourite skill would be on oral presenting. I was fascinated by speakers who appeared confident, spoke convincingly and gave memorable speeches. I always wondered how they crafted their speeches and added different elements, such as humour, to spice everything up. Such speeches often stay with me for a period of time. All these questions would perhaps be unanswered if I had not taken ES2007S.

During peer teaching, I had problems engaging with the audience. Even the class activity felt quite awkward in fulfilling the purpose. This might perhaps be due to the nature of my teaching content. However to think of it now, I think regardless of the nature of the speech content, various effort has to be put in to engage the audience. This is one of the many components to making an effective presentation. Even on the day before the final presentation, I still had problems in engaging the audience with my speech. Fortunately, the story which I included was rather effective in engaging the audience.

Apart from this, I thought having a speech text was useful even though it does not apply to all. As an amateur in giving speeches, the speech text allowed me to make my speech more conversational. It was useful in improving my speech every time I revise it together with my teammates. Also, I could make sure that I would not miss out on any crucial points during the presentation. As I did not craft a speech text for my peer teaching, I was able to see the contrast between the qualities of the two presentations.

Of course, other skills learnt during the module are equally useful such as interview and communication skills. Once again, I never regretted to have taken ES2007S because apart from the life skills learnt, I met a dedicated lecturer and many wonderful classmates. This has really been a memorable experience for me. I hope we can all move on with the skills taught in life and never forget to use and sharpen them along the way.

Reflections on oral presentation

I cannot believe it, oral presentation is finally over! Even though it was only a mere 7 minutes, I would say the effort invested to put it together was tremendous. I started preparing a week before the presentation and it took me a few days to finalize my speech text and slides. Attempting to make my speech more conversational was a challenge encountered. Initially my speech sounded completely like the proposal because it seemed to me like every detail was important in making a persuasive speech. Another challenge was the rearrangement of details to craft a convincing speech. This is because I realised that the sequence, the choice of details and transition between points greatly determine how convincing a speech is. Having spoken to a friend who had taken ES2007S last semester, I was ‘enlightened’ on how to make a conversational speech. I hope I achieved that during my presentation! Haha!

Personally, my favourite part of my presentation was the true story I shared because I thought it illustrated my point suitably and it engaged the audience. However, I could have delivered it better if not for the time constraint by adding longer pauses for more impact. Also, I felt that the quote used (“Even if it’s just 1%, it is still important to raise awareness”) rounded up the presentation really well as it sounded impactful and I could bring the audience’s attention back to the message our team hopes to convey.

On the other hand, I thought I did not gesture enough. I suddenly became very nervous and felt my hands and body shaking as I presented. I was afraid others might notice me trembling if I gestured too much. My nervousness also made it difficult to smile and might affect how enthusiastic I looked. Enthusiasm was something I wanted to improve after reading my peer teaching reviews.

Nevertheless, I am still glad that I survived the session and I am quite satisfied with my performance. I will keep my strengths and weaknesses in mind to improve my performance the next time I give a presentation.