Presentation No.1 Reflections and Self-Analysis

1. Successfully achieved purpose / main message?

Reflection: My message was to adress the audience mainly about the merits as well as the demerits of my drop handle bar bicycle. Then I conclude by saying that altough it may be dangerous, cycling is a relaxing and an enjoyable activity to do. However I felt it was not well delivered as I expected to be.

Ideas for Improvement: Do more rehersals to make sure I know what I am talking about and what I want to tell the audience. Also, be a little more formal in order to adress my main points of the presentation.

2. Use of voice? (rhythm, emphasis, pausing, variation)

Reflection: I wanted to stay calm and speak fairly slow with a low toned voice. Also, since it was supposed to be a little humourous, I wanted to speak as if I was talking with the audience while I was presenting. I felt I was able to do that but it seemed that I could have spoken in a more formal way.

Ideas for Improvement: Speak with more passion(and confident voice) as if I was speaking to a big audience. Rehersal several times to see if I have variations in my voice and to make sure I am emphasizing my main points.

3. Use of body language? (posture, gestures, eyes, face)

Reflection: I wanted to keep still since it was one of my habits to move around a little but I failed to do that. I also failed to keep my hands still when I didn't want to emphasize anything. I was looking too much at the slides on the screen so I felt it would be hard for me to deliver the message since I was "talking to the screen." In addition, I was smiling most of the time so I will need to fix that.

Ideas for Improvement: Practice in front of a small audience to fix my habits of moving my body and hands when they are not necessary. As for my eyes, it may be good trying to talk to the wall at the back of the class in order to keep them from looking at the screen too much. Maybe choose a more serious topic next time to see if I can change my facial expression depending on the tone, theme, context of the presentation.

4. Use of visuals?

Reflection: I thought my slides were simple to understand and used good backgrounds to emphasize what I wanted to say. But as I have been saying, I want to see if I can make slides to fit any topics I choose to do.

Ideas for Improvement: Choose various topic in order to get used to making different kinds of visuals depending on the theme of the presentation. Practice with slides I made and keep editing it until I can get comfortable with it. But keep in mind that the visuals are for the audience and their guide to keep track of the presentation.

5. Preparation & rehearsal process?

Reflection: I purposely did not rehearse because I wanted to see how much I could do without much preparation. I felt I did pretty well but I looked at the screen too much.(maybe because I did not feel comfortable with my presentation yet)

Ideas for Improvement: PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE