1. Describe the best presentation you have given since you started college. What made it better than others?
In my third year, I presented an assignment I had researched on in my favorite unit at the time. I spent half of the time in the day creating beautiful graphics and designed a colorful presentation. I was so determined to talk through my presentation that I spend 3 days reciting in my bathroom mirror. This made very confident. On the morning of the presentation, I lost my flash disk which was the only copy of the presentation I had made. I had to quickly create a simple alternative presentation within 3 hours. Owing to the fact that I had mastered most of the content, I completed the new design in time. It entailed basic images that interacted to help me connect the ideas as I told the story. During the presentation, I relied on my memory of most important (and exciting) points and only used the board to illustrate what I had already said. I was amazed at how my interest in the unit boosted my confidence and most importantly, the consistency. However, I was disappointed by the fact that I was so wordy that I did not have time to summarize my points. To my surprise, my lecturer commended me for avoiding the summary part asserting that it only makes people lose their attention.2. Describe the worst presentation you have given. What made it so bad?
In my first year in College, my discussion group voted me to represent the group by presenting an assignment. However, with only two days to the presentation day, we had not yet discussed and completed the assignment. I had only two nights to prepare for my second presentation in my College life. I spent the first night designing my slides and rehearsing and the second night panicking. I was so anxious that night that I barely grasped any information. In the morning, I could not decide what dress was appropriate that day (my colleagues had told me my dress-code is wanting). As stepped before the audience (which included 3 lecturers and the entire class), I kept memorizing how the previous presenter had gone about it. My anxiety caused my body to shake and voice shook too. I tried to assure myself that the audience did not see my fear. It is then that I was convinced I could do nothing to improve my confidence and I needed another opportunity.3. Do you have a pet peeve about presentations, especially those given by professors or students? What is it?
I get irritated when presenters create humor over religious and racial issues. Joking about religions and races reveals the person's discriminatory beliefs. The jokes may be hilarious to the audience, but I never find it funny. I think there are very many issues apart from religion and races that people can make fun of. Religion and racial discussions are, to me, a matter of life and death and should be considered serious any time they are discussed.4. View the brief presentation about slide design by Nancy Duarte at http://www.bnet.com/2422-13724_23-241933.html and comment on one thing you learned.
Nancy Duarte provides four crucial items to consider in making an effective presentation. Besides defining the audience (their needs and how to address them), creating ideas, and removing distractions, my favorite and most helpful of her points is the arrangement of objects. She asserts that arranging simple objects in a structure (considering contrast, hierarchy, white-space or flow-chart) guides the audience better than animations or colorful objects.
5. Explore Prezi software at http://prezi.com/index/ and one or more of the Prezi favorite presentations such as http://prezi.com/7okmswx_ex40/power-of-storytelling/ then describe how you might use this software to enhance your next presentation rather than using Power-Point.
The Prezi software would be very exciting for the audience. Although over-dependence on slides distracts the audience from the speaker, using it sparingly will do the trick. I will also ensure the slide is short enough to avoid distractions.
6. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cusnmxkISU&feature=player_embedded about advice for making presentations that stick and comment on two things you learned or found interesting.
What I found most interesting in the video is the fact that the USP (Unique selling point) slogan is self-centered as it considers the seller of the product rather than the needs of the audience. By centering of the seller, the presenter does not impact lasting impressions to the audience. Instead, issues that the audience relates with in daily life attract their attention and cause them to remember the points. A presenter should, therefore, focus on needs and judgments of the audience.
Facts are not as important as stories are a notion that surprised me as well. Although facts may be true, they are not necessarily exciting and, therefore, will not create lasting impressions on the audience. For instance, although summary is meant to remind people of the major points put across, the audience, assuming the presenter will repeat themselves, quickly looses attention (some even leave the room).7. Read the article on Preparing Effective Presentation Slides at http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html and comment on two things you learned or found interesting.
I learned (from top ten slide tips) that the presentation may have little or no text at all. Relying on too much text that especially bulleted bores the audience. The boredom explains why some people would rather skip a presentation preferring to request for the slides. This preference indicates that the text would rather be read by someone in their private time and does not need presentation.
I also learned that sketches that are too simple to attract people are inappropriate. As much as a slide should be simple, the graphics should also be of high resolution to improve the quality standards. Images of people are a good example to use since the audience naturally connects with sensitive images of people. The emotional attachment is the crucial key to maintaining consistent attention throughout the presentation.8. Go to this site: http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/steal-this-presentation-5038209 and click through the presentation. Comment on 3 things you learned or will now do in your presentations.
Slides are meant to help the presenter illustrate his points effectively by enhancing what he says. I learned most of the time; I use them to show what I cannot explicitly convey to the audience (as a crutch). I should therefore focus on doing all the hard-work and only use simple slides to help the audience grasp my ideas quickly.
The information on the slides needs to be as much as the presenters verbal details. If the information is equal to what they are saying, then the presenter would rather distribute the slides to the audience to study them on their own.
Finally, as a presenter, I need to be creative. For instance, I need to avoid common fonts that are not exciting. Objects and the font style on my slides should relay readable information to the audience.9. What was the most helpful thing in this assignment? Why?
The most important and intended information should, therefore, appear first on slides. I learned that creating a quick first impression to the audience is extremely important because the information relayed initially is memorized.
Good Example Of Essay On Answers Of Questions
Type of paper: Essay
Topic: Public Relations, Audience, Time, Race, Students, Information, Learning, Presentation
Pages: 5
Words: 1250
Published: 03/08/2020
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