My Replies to your Comments on Oral Presentation 2!

Inspired by Kevin’s method of response for the comments, I have decided to post a new entry to sum up all your invaluable comments!

Kevin: Thanks for your compliments! As our group had chosen to do a less technical topic, we had the luxury of presenting our problem and solution in a more casual way (without compromising our content of course). We had a minimalist approach, yet seek to be impactful. Hopefully we had succeeded in doing so. I feel however, that I may have let my group down with my slightly nervy display. As the first speaker, I had the responsibility of bringing the presentation to a certain standard. Having a greater expectation of myself, that perhaps gave me unnecessary pressures to do well. For the final oral defense, I would want to learn from this experience, and more importantly, keep my composure when presenting.

Khoa: You were right to point out my team’s time management problems. We were already concerned right from the beginning, the possibility of exceeding the time limit allocated for the presentation. We took great pains to sieve out important points required/what we feel is necessary. Eventually, my portion of the presentation was still a tad too long; however, I feel that it was already a good improvement from the initial plan. No presentation is perfect, therefore, time management definitely feature high in my priority list for the oral defense!


Jing Mei: I apologize if my criteria seemed redundant in my reflection. It is of no intent of mine to post criteria solely for the sake of doing so. Perhaps, it is due to my indirect references to the criteria that caused the confusion. But to clear the air regarding the criteria I have set out to complete, I believe I have succeeded in accomplishing 4 out 6 of them. The only two which requires more improvements are: time management and maintaining a professional demeanour. I admit these were lacking in the presentation, and I would strive to improve them for the oral defense. Thank you for pointing that out to me!


Ganesh: You and Xiangyu were great teammates; I really enjoyed working with you guys! Without good team mates for support, no team would be able to survive. So to be able to produce a respectable presentation that was able to capture the audience attention, and convince them of the severity of the problem, I think it was simply amazing. Kudos to both of you for all the hard work put in.
As for my individual shortcomings, I did realize my stuttering in the middle of the presentation. Fortunately, I did not allow that nervousness to overwhelm myself. Nervousness does not necessarily stem from a lack rehearsals; sometimes it is just a psychological barrier in our minds. I guess, being psyched up and generally, having the positive attitude before the presentation should do the trick.

Junius: Somehow, I had overlooked the fact that certain things I mentioned during the presentation could invoke negative feelings in the audience. On hindsight, I should have been more sensitive over my choice of words. I really have to thank you for that, as I sometimes appear rather tactless and over-the-top. I would certainly bear that in mind in the future =)

Lakshmi: Thank you for your compliments. I often have high expectations of myself and would find it hard to accept trivial mistakes, to the extent of exaggerating them. Therefore, I get a better gauge of my performance from your comments. Words from a different perspective are often better indicators of one’s performance. I appreciate that!

Jun Hao: Thanks for your comments! (First comment from you!) I tried my best to vary the tone of my voice, and also to employ the use of emphasis at important segments of my presentation. It was probably insufficient or perhaps exaggerated at times. Without the emphasis, some points could simply be neglected by the audiences, therefore leading to a presentation that fails to deliver. Actually, being impactful in a presentation is not easy, especially for a reserved person like me. Nevertheless, I would strive to improve on this aspect and present the best that I could for the upcoming oral defense (that’s the point of this module anyway =p)


Thank you everyone for your comments. These comments have really helped in my self-evaluation and reflection. Keep them coming!