Finishing this presentation lifts a heavy burden off my shoulders. I have always had stage fright. I know most people might find it strange because I perform on stage all the time, whether singing or dancing. However, when it comes to public speaking, i get all jittery and nervous. I worry that i would not be able to work the stage, engage the audience, remember what I need to say, speak professionally.
When I rehearse, I sound perfectly confident and sure of my content. But when it comes to the real thing, I stumble and rely heavily on the notes that I have prepared. For this presentation, when Brad told us no notes or cue cards should be used, I was devastated. Even though this was my pet topic, I still felt the stress. This was very obvious during the mock interview when the environment that i was in did not help either - two presentations going on simultaneously in the same room greatly distracted me.
During that week, I had two presentations - one Engineering Professionalism presentation as well as this Professional Communications presentation. I felt very much at ease presenting engineering facts and hence I was more confident. Perhaps it was also because in Engineering Professionalism, I know I am not judged by the way I speak and present myself but rather the purpose was solely to allow the audience to understand the concepts of my project. Furthermore, I was allowed to refer to my mini notes and cue cards from time to time. I think that really helped to calm my nerves because I know that I have a backup. Professional Communications, on the other hand, was intended to scrutinise the way I speak, my non-verbal gestures that I might not even be aware of, and trying to convince an audience who was trying to nit-pick. I felt self-conscious and that worsened the situation.
Despite my struggles and laments, I felt that my actual presentation was much better than the mock presentation. Also, I am glad that my idea of having a mini disturbance during the presentation, to illustrate my point of how dancers disturb the peace of others when they use public spaces, was well-received. Although it was not absolutely ideal, I felt that it was the best presentation that I could have given.
Nice post, I like it!
ReplyDeleteYou see there are those people who have a natural gift of presentation and those who don't. The people in the former may be presenting for the first time in their life, as child or adult, in front of intimidating audiences, but just CANNOT be self-conscious, and therefore CANNOT be intimidated, CANNOT be nervous, CANNOT be doubtful, CANNOT be fearful of failure, and a whole bunch of other CANNOTS.
Why?
I tell you this plainly, it is my true belief, Michelle: these gifted people really had a gift of no-self rather than the gift of presentation. When they have no stronghold over their Self consisting of the id and ego, which is there is no self-consciousness, they are free to work the audience in the frank, confident, personally touching, relaxed way. In a word, they are 100 times more effective than the ones who have a strong concept of Self.
You may not believe it, Michelle, but it is this strong concept of The Self, or self-conscious, that makes people selfish or self-centered, and that is the thing that makes people INEFFECTIVE also not only in life and relationships in general,BUT AS WELL AS, THE PRESENTATION. Bummer!!!! I only discovered it myself now! I realize lots of things through and WHILE WRITING, and I usually don't know about a certain thing or value or idea, UNTIL I'M ACTUALLY WRITING IT.
I'm not as all-knowing as teacher or coursemates might think. But I'm all-writing so that I can get to all-knowing, if I ever could.
Therefore Michelle, and I'm not judging you, your strong concept of Self or self-consciousness is a result of you being inherently selfish, self-centered, self-interested; which is fine because EVERYBODY is like that, though to different extents. Selfish is what fundamentally defines EVERY human being on Earth! And in my true belief, those with the least disturbing force of the Self, are conseqently those with the highest gift or effectiveness of presentation. How else do you explain the person who worked the audience a la Michael Jackson or Dr King with their very first public presentation or speech ever?!
And there exist not many such people in a community or nation of people, perhaps 5 or 6 in 3.5 million indigenous Singaporeans, and I'm certainly not one of the 5 or 6!! It would also be likely consistent, accurate to say that these 5 or 6 people have managed, for reasons unexplainable as yet, to circumvent the dreadful Self effects of their socializations.
Cheers
WOW. Its OK Mark if it makes you feel better I never once thought you were all-knowing. AND I'm pretty sure nobody I know thinks that way either. Far from it in fact.
ReplyDeleteWell now that I got that off my chest its time for some useful input. Michelle, I don't think you are giving yourself enough credit. I thought you were very clear, gave good eye contact and spoke at a good pace. All of those are quite important I think.
Its true you did look (and act) a little nervous, more so than the rest of your group in fact, which is a bit surprising given that this is your pet area. Or perhaps its because it is your pet area and your whole group is counting on you that you became so nervous.
I do suppose this would improve with a little more practice. My guess is that had your group done a few more trial runs prior to the actual entire presentation, it would probably look more "polished" and you by extension would appear a lot more calm and composed.
Cheer up Mich its really not that bad! Good effort I would say given the circumstances :)
In dealing with stress and performance anxiety, everyone should find their own unique ways to compose themselves. What Michelle needs is to discover techniques effective in calming herself down when under high-pressure conditions.
ReplyDeleteMichelle should also record herself in action and watch the replay as that is a good way to spot mistakes made unconsciously. It is possible that she did not notice, but Michelle was using the word “um” at a rate of 12 “um”s per minute.
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ReplyDeleteHey Michelle! I think you didn't do as bad as you thought you did. Even for the mock presentation, I was as distracted about your voice as you were mine. In fact, I thought you were so loud and clear that it really drowned out what I was saying.
ReplyDeleteFor the real presentation, I thought you did quite well in projecting your voice and using your hand gestures. I really liked that you were slow-paced and spoke rather fluently, though sometimes you tend to look at the ceiling to recollect some lines or phrases but thats okay. You posture was not very fixed so it was slightly distracting but otherwise I thought it wasn't too bad=). I know how nervous you could have felt, because I was equally nervous! So don't worry, as its over for now! =)
Hey Michelle!
ReplyDeleteThe others are right, you really should give yourself more credit. I think most people get nervous before a presentation and in the end you dealt with it quite well.
You were clear, concise and easy to understand but more than that I could see how much this topic meant to you. Everybody presented well but I think you connected to your topic emotionally the most and that's very important when trying to sell an idea. Initially I could see that you were quite nervous, you kept shuffling your feet but you did settle in and it was a good presentation in the end.
Hi Michelle!!
ReplyDeleteYou're the first speaker and hence you appeared a tad nervous. The nervousness took a toll on you because you had some pauses and (like what Issac said), you said "erm" way too often.
I also think that your slides were too wordy. Often, I find myself trying to read the words on the slides and either missing what you're saying or get interrupted because the slides went on to the next one before I could finish reading them all.
However, I felt that you did a great job when you described the problem. You were very clear with your intentions and you repeatedly mentioned the same point until we were fully aware of the situation facing the dancers. This is especially important for your group because your group focuses on dancers and hence you needed to get the audience to understand and to appreciate the plight of the dancers. In this aspect, you did a great job because we had zilch knowledge about the plight of dancers; but we gained tremendous insight after your presentation.
Thank you for the very persuasive argument put forth.
Hey Michelle,
ReplyDeleteActually I think you were ok leh! I wrote down in my comments sheet that you were slow and steady. I liked it that way, rather than a rushed presentation. Also, the points that you made were quite clear and understandable. I could see the problem that you were describing in a different light.
One area in which you could improve is your facial expression while presenting. I noticed that you were frowning quite a bit during the presentation, and it tended to convey negative feelings to listeners too. haha!
Well, you don't have to blame yourself for what transpired during the presentation. Everyone has their Archilles Heel. Just because you were nervous on stage does not mean that you were a bad presenter.
Work on it, and jia you ah!!
Thanks for sharing with us your personal struggles in giving an oral presentation. In fact, I was shocked to learn that you have stage fright, knowing that you are a dancer and would have to perform on stage often. Well, to be honest, I felt that you did a great job in your presentation and in dancing too (: You spoke very clearly and paced yourself really well. Besides, I could see that you made a conscientious effort in relating the video with your presentation topic. I also felt that you had a good control of what you were presenting.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it would be good if you had spoken more naturally as, during some parts of your presentation, it was clear that you had memorized what you planned to say. Moreover, since you were the first to present, you could have introduced your team members and provide a brief overview of what they will be presenting. You could have also addressed the audience, URA at the start of the presentation as a form of respect. Moreover, you lacked eye contact with everyone as I felt that during the presentation, you only maintained eye contact with a specific group of people. I also realized that you lacked confidence in your presentation as you stammered and often used “umm”. As for the intended distraction (dancing) during the presentation, I felt that it did not fully achieve its purpose. Generally, your presentation could have been more convincing.
Overall, I felt that your control of the presentation made the presentation look good.
Cheers!
Thank you for all your kind comments. I don't know if it's the right thing to voice this out. But I did edit my slides to be more simplistic but somehow it was lost in transit. I had to make do with the un-edited lengthy slides.
ReplyDeleteI think I frowned alot because I was a little irritated by the pushing back of the whiteboard because it was not the effect i wanted and my groupmates did not seem to understand my concern.
But I think I have learnt much. I will try to consciously reduce the number of 'erms' I use in my FYP presentation.
Hi Michelle! From last thursday I can see that you are trying your best to present. Since having the mock interview with your team, I understand you have the fear of public speaking. After this presentation, give yourself a treat as you have already improved! I will suggest to you, whenever you feel nervous, you can smile. For some unknown reasons, whenever I feel very nervous or scared, I will try to smile and it seems to reduce my anxiety. I will like to suggest that for your future presentation, e.g: FYP, you can try getting friends or family to roleplay as audience to give you the "feel" of how it is going to be like during the actual presentation. With practices, I am sure you can improve on your presentation! :D Like me, I recorded myself and found out that I am a ninja turtle during presentation. Perphaps, you can try it out and see what aspects you can improve on.
ReplyDeleteI think you dance very well. Most of the time I was looking at you dancing. I really admire your courage and confidence of dancing in front of the class. Perphaps, you can try to transform this courage and confidence to your presenting your project. :D
All the best to you, Michelle! Really glad to know you during ES2007S. :)
Hi Michelle. You seem nervous that day and I was a bit worried for you. However, you deliver your portion well with a very audible voice and comfortable pace. There are no excessive motions and you stood your ground despite being so nervous. That itself was already a great job =)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it’s because you were presenting your pet subject that you were very concern about such that your emotions was the highest in the team. I can relate to that since I was presenting a proposal in the arena of my upmost passion, which is education. Having a immense emotion in a topic can be a double edged sword. If one can harness it well, one can inject great amount of energy into a presentation. However, if one’s management of emotions is insufficient to control the flow of the emotions properly, anxiety and the guilt that one is not presenting well enough for the pet topic can kick in.
Hello Michelle! I think you need to cut some slack on yourself because I think you did much better on the OP as compared to the mock OP.
ReplyDeleteI can truly understand how you feel about not being able to use the cue cards during the presentation because I also rely on cue cards to guide my presentation. But it is definitely a good experience for us to be able to not rely on the cue cards and learn something new from this!
All in all, I think you did a great job on the OP :)