Corinne Lei Yalong - Group 1 - Reflection 1

From Nervous to Confident: Your Guide to Powerful Presentations

I enjoyed getting ideas from the first class presentation we had - it was a great experience. It allowed for diverse perspectives and improved understanding, especially with Professor Sinkoff's guidance. The project managers effectively did their best to do the introduction and conclusion in every group. I would say these presentations were truly transformative, engaging, relevant, and offering valuable insights.

Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 5 - The Evolving Arts of Public Speaking | Building Your Confidence | Listening | Adapting to your audience

These chapters convey public speaking - a dynamic skills that constantly evolving with the audience. Indeed, public speaking is a life skill that can leads us to a new opportunity and a successful career. Learning the techniques of persuasion to persuade an audience are the ethos, pathos, and logos that defined by Aristotle are effectively communicating a message and influencing audience behaviors. To gain confidence, talking with two or more people is a good way to enhance communication skills. I realized that to feel nervous is normal when presenting because along the way everything will be fine. However, everyone are different especially in building confidence in ourselves but the most important is to figure it out.

I noticed that not everyone are willing to be a listener, but I do. When it comes to listening- being active, fully present, and showing interest through eye contact are essentials. I appreciated this chapter for including HURRIER model to highlights the interconnected stages of listening which is important just like when communicating. I found out that  audience analysis and audience-centered are significant to know the audience interests, specific needs, and level of understanding. Speaker credibility is what the audience need and has to offer in the table. In addition to that, the competency of each everyone will continuously developing through learnings from both professional and personal experiences in life.

Chapters 4, 6, 7, & 8 - Developing Your Purpose and Topic | Researching Your Topic | Supporting Your Ideas | Organizing and Outlining Your Speech

These sections provided brainstorming techniques to learn on maximizing creativity and collaborating by encouraging members to share their thoughts freely and build upon each other's ideas to acquire great speech. I was enthusiast to know to be specific to the topic, present it precisely, and keep it mind that audience response would be the reference point to keep on track in doing speechmaking process. Thesis statement is important sentence in the essay because it outlines the central purpose of the essay and support with evidence throughout the paper. In doing research paper, gathering information is a must and seek credible sources through internet, library or interviews. In my opinion, supporting the ideas should provide evidence and examples to strengthen the claims and make the topic more reliable to the audience. I believe sharing your own stories is a solid foundation to the speech because audience can relate and remember stories better. Using statistic graph made the topic more clear and easy to understand. I noticed that organizing and outlining the speech made the audience pay attention, follows, and easily understand whatever the speaker say. In addition to this chapter, I learned the right way on how to connect ideas with transactions and having it will help to move clearly and smoothly from introduction - to main content of the speech - until conclusion.

Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12 - Beginning and Ending Your Speech | Using Language Effectively | Integrating Presentation Media | Delivering Your Speech

The material they used in presentation provide valuable insights and engaging. This chapters emphasize on how to deliver a great presentation and I believe having a strong introduction is a good catch for audience attention. Start to introducing yourself, add inspirational quotes from a leader that could inspire your audience, tell funny stories, and saying playful language will help to make your audience laugh or smile. Having some humor is a powerful tool that can enhance engagement with the audience, build rapport, and make the speech more memorable. To sum up the speech it is important to review the main points in reminding audience, providing closure and expressing gratitude to them. This presentation taught me to use meaningful words, be clear, be concise, and be appropriate to the audience and context. Choosing your language will affect your speech that is why choose wisely, be concrete and specific, besides avoid aggressive and defensive languages. I found a valuable connection using social media on doing presentations just like adding visuals, effects, audios, images, and videos that enhance audiences engagement. I generally recommend the dress code  either in person or zoom presentation the fact it will helps the speaker to look professional and presentable in delivering a successful speech. On top of that, practice and be prepared as "Practice makes perfect!"

Chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17 - Informative Speaking | Persuasive Speaking | Understanding Argument | Distance Speaking and Media Appearances | Special Occasion and Group Presentations

I came across that a good informative speaker conveys accurate, clear, and interesting information to the audience and keep them engaged in the topic. I agree to maintain your purpose clear and be consistent about the importance of your topic that the audience can listen and remember. I think it would easily connect the topic in the lives and interests of the audience. I got to know that persuasion is happening all the time that we should be aware of our audience types and ethics to know who are we talking to. I like that this chapter differentiate the two types of persuasion for us to understand it well and I admire them for providing examples about the types of prepositions. I acquired knowledge in explaining of claims, evidence, and reasoning to strengthen the argument. I am in favor that there is a lot of options to communicate when it comes to distance speaking - including using of telephones, online presentation, and videoconferences. We must considered the setting when delivering a speech and lend some time to prepare for the speech in any significant events.

The presentation enhanced my understanding on how important the preparation and practice for public speaking. This experience has given me the confidence to pursue further opportunities and engage in more presentations. Furthermore, the knowledge I gained will be invaluable in my future endeavors.