Blog Posting #10 Presentations

Part 1:
    Anderson's Chapter 20 reflects on creating and delivering listener centered oral presentations. The first part of the chapter focuses on defining the objectives of the presentation in a listener-centered manner by determining who the listeners are and what they expect. The chapter also emphasizes on selecting oral and visual media that is most appropriate for the presentation. This can be achieved by considering the audience, the topic and the purpose. The other part of the chapter focuses on strategies and guidelines that will help the listeners to understand and remember the main points that we made. It is important to identify the main points and create a simple structure built around the main points. In order to maintain the listener's attention, we should talk in a conversational style by expressing our selves clearly. There are also some non verbal strategies we can use to establish and maintain a personal connection with the audience such as maintaining eye contact. It is also appropriate to invite questions either during or after the presentation to ensure listener participation. To make effective team presentations it is critical to develop the presentation as a team and rehearse it together. Overall, this chapter explains how to prepare presentations that are helpful and informative to the listeners and how to deliver them properly.


Part 2:
    One of the recent presentations that I have witnessed is for one of my classes that described a topic and presented it as a website. Since it was a team presentation, the team should have rehearsed the presentation prior to it. In some of the groups, I witness lack of rehearsal. There were several filler words and hesitations that displayed improper practice. Another issue I saw was that one team wasn't aware of the structure of the presentation. There should be a logical coherence with a clear introduction and ending. They were missing the appropriate linkage in between. It is also critical to think about the purpose of the presentation and make sure the listeners is interested in that with the help of visual and graphic aids. It is important to keep the presentation short so that we don't lose the audience. When considering one of the presentations I have given, one problem I faced was nervousness. In order to take care of this issue, I have followed certain strategies such as relaxing before the presentation, talking to the audience before the presentation, etc. One of my strengths is my body language when I deliver the presentation. I make sure that there is a connection to the audience and invite any questions.

Part 3:
        Our group plan on breaking up the presentation into several parts such as summary of statement of work, summary of feasibility report, system prototype walk through, a conclusion and a reflection. The group should be able to decide who will talk about which section depending on which section they are most familiar with. I am planning to cover some parts of the feasibility report since I am most comfortable with that section. In order to showcase our prototype we will be using FluidUI. This will help with the screen transitions as well. One of the biggest idea I want our audience to take away will be the main points that we present such as how our application is different from the existing application and about the customized notifications.