Public Speaking Website

I looked at another website a couple of weeks ago called ‘Welcome to Allyn and Bacon: Public Speaking Website’ (http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_public_speaking_2). The site goes through and explains general steps about all the questions you should ask yourself about your presentation and who you are presenting to and what your presentation should be about.

Throughout my research into presentation for this module and the viva voca presentation I have to do for my next assignment I have noted what I think I need to do and what I feel I need to improve throughout my blog entries. One thing I haven’t mentioned is the questions that I may get asked after my presentation. For this I think I should prepare myself before hand with a set of questions that I feel I may be asked and prepare the answers for them so I don’t get caught on the spot and can’t think of a good answer or reply.

Bibliography:

1. Welcome to Allyn and Bacon: Public Speaking Website, (2006), available at:
http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_public_speaking_2
(accessed: Monday 2nd April 2007)

2. Welcome to Allyn and Bacon: Public Speaking Website, (2006), available at:
http://wps.ablongman.com/ab_public_speaking_2/0,9651,1593250-,00.html
(accessed: Monday 2nd April 2007)

Experience of Other Peoples Presentations

Looking back at many of the presentations I have seen before from students, teachers, lecturers and also on the television it provides me with a very large sum of research to look back at and review. There are many things I have learnt and can learn from viewing other peoplek’s presentations as it has shown me a wide range of people and how they present differently. From seeing others present it has also put me in the opposite position of being in the audience and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

I have learnt and will know for my presentation not to fill up slides with too much text and not to use too much in the way of effects including sounds and animations. I feel I should try and get what I want to put across and show in my presentation quite quickly and be to the point but to still include everything I need to. By this I mean I don’t want to ramble on talking for ages about something and bore my audience. I also think it is quite good to break up my presentation by showing the audience images and animations/videos, etc where necessary and that are relevant to my work to keep them interested.

I have seen presentations where people have got so nervous that they have completely messed up their presentation and lost their place a number of times, and then I have also seen people who have sped through their presentation really quickly. However, this is what I have done in the past and sped through my presentation really quickly o get it over and done with. I now feel I have got better at this but could still improve on it as the more nervous I get the faster I seem to speak during a presentation, so I need to keep reminding to slow down before and during my presentation. Hopefully if I practice enough before my presentation I will not have this problem.

I am hoping that after all of the research and reviewing other peoples presentations that I will be able to accept my nervousness and be able to provide a good presentation, and be able to look at the audience, speak slowly and not rush and also not look down and read from my notes.

Reply From Nationwide Mercury Prize

Unfortunately I received an email from the National Mercury Prize the other day informing me that my work had not been short listed. The email is below:

From : Nationwide Mercury Prize
Sent : 10 April 2007 13:37:57
To :
Subject : Art Competition

| | | Inbox

Hi,

Thank you very much for entering the Nationwide Mercury Prize 2007 Art Competition, we have received an overwhelming response from universities and colleges around the country this year.

Many thanks for taking the time to send us your work – I’m sorry to let you know that your work hasn’t been shortlisted on this occasion. Hopefully we’ll see another entry from you next year.

All the best,

Michael

———————————–
Michael Hamilton
Nationwide Mercury Prize

Presentation Tips Website

I read another site about presentation the other week titled ‘A Research Guide for Students: Chapter 3. Presentation Tips for Public Speaking’ (http://www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html). The site explains about not just reading from your notes and looking down and that you have to look up at your audience and get eye contact with someone for a few seconds. This reminded that this what I used to do, I used to just look down and read from my notes as I was too scared to look up at the audience and just wanted to get it over and done with. However, over the last few years I have improved on this but still like to have my notes on hand just incase, so I am hoping that I will improve some more on this for the presentation for the next assignment within this module. The site also explained about doing hand outs for the audience which I think is quite a good idea and I might consider this for my presentation and also any presentations I do in the future, however, I hope it would not distract the audience from the presentation.

Bibliography:

1. A Research Guide for Students: Chapter 3. Presentation Tips for Public Speaking, (2006),
available at:
http://www.aresearchguide.com/3tips.html
(accessed: Monday 2nd April 2007)

Presentation Website

I viewed a site the other week about “The Art of Oral Presentation” (http://www.uweb.engr.washington.edu/education/engtoolchest/EffectiveComm.pdf). Although the pdf on the site was quite good, it didn’t really tell me anything that I didn’t already know. It explained about colours to use for backgrounds and text and what font size to use. However, one thing that did stand out for me was at the beginning that said some people learn visually and some learn from what they hear and so I have to provide for both. Although this is quite obvious it really stood out to me because I have seen some presentations where people have just put for example two words as bullet points on one slide and spoken for ages about them, and so for the people who learn more through visually reading something they probably haven’t really taken much in. I have also seen people do presentations who have completely filled a slide up with a large block of text. So with my presentation I need to cater to both of these learning needs so that everyone takes in what I am presenting to them.

Bibliography:

1. Effective Communication: The Art of Oral Presentation, (2006), available at:
http://www.uweb.engr.washington.edu/education/engtoolchest/EffectiveComm.pdf
(accessed: Monday 1st April 2007)

Presentation for Assignment 2

I have been thinking about the oral and vica voca presentation for the second assignment and think that I should really try and prepare myself to be more confident. I feel I am quite good at putting presentations together and preparing and including everything that needs to be shown and spoken about, and practice and go through what I am going to say before. However, when it comes to presenting I tend to rush and speak very quickly. This is something I am going to have work on and practice for this module and the future, as it shows I am nervous and doesn’t look and sound very good and professional.

At the moment I plan to finish my presentation early so I have plenty if time to practice. I feel I know quite well what needs to be included in my presentation and how to go about presenting it but I am going to research and view a few of the links in the module study guide to further help me and maybe give me some new ideas.

Distributing My Work

Over the last few weeks I have been speaking to a few of my personal contacts about using my videos within clubs, venues and at events to be used in VJ sets. I am thinking about distributing a DVD showing a short example and mix of my videos to several VJ’s to see what they think about my work and if they like it and if they would like to use it.

Assignment 2

I have been thinking about the second assignment with the oral and vica voca presentation and how I am going to put it together. I am hopefully going to put together my presentation using Macromedia Director, however as the main part of my work involves video I will have to show an example within the presentation and at the present moment I do not know how to do this within Director. Hopefully I will learn how to do this or otherwise I will have to use another program to produce my presentation. I have chosen to use Director to produce my presentation because I feel it would look more professional than using Powerpoint for example as I can set up buttons and use things such as moving graphics and also sounds and music in Director.