Presentations Reflection (Juliet Rodriguez)

                Presentations Reflection

Hi, my name is Juliet Rodriguez, and I have viewed many presentations about public speaking. Listening to group 1 and 3 and presenting with my group (group 2).

 I have learned many things from group 1 as they talked about chapters 1-4 which covered the intricacies of creating a presentation, such as selecting a topic and searching for information. I have learned about the presentation process which consists of seven components source, receiver message, channel, feedback, situation, and noise. This is interesting as I've never viewed presenting as a seven-step process. I would think that you just present your information and that's it, never thinking about the components involved. I have also taken note of avoiding topics that my audience has already heard unless I got about giving the information in a different way, stating new information that they haven't heard before. I'm usually nervous speaking in front of a group of people so one of the presentations helped me learn how to reduce my fear of presenting. It taught me that I should act confidently, know and care about my subject, and practice. If I do all these things, I will surely be less nervous to present next time. I learned about what topics I should be presenting such as ones on important issues, current topics relevant to the audience, and topics that can cause positive change. I also learned what not to present, like trivial subjects. I learned what to do when using sources from the internet in my presentation. I should use current topics from news and media for speeches that are relevant to what I'm presenting. I should use social media to draw my audience into what I'm saying. I should be careful of what information I gather from the internet, as it can be incorrect. I should gather information that is relevant to my topic, that is what I'm interested in. And I should always give proper credit to whatever online source I used within my presentation, especially speeches. It's not only important to be a good speaker, but it's also important to be a good listener. I learned that we should always suspend judgment about the speaker. We should focus on the speaker as a source of information. We should concentrate our attention on the speaker and listen to their entire message. And we should remove or ignore physical distractions. This is major for me as I can get distracted really easily, especially during a long presentation.

I learned a lot from group 3 as well. They discussed chapters 10-12 which focused on how to present information, enhance your audience's understanding, and speaker skills. I picked up tips on how to help my audience learn by focusing on the 5 principles of learning. I didn't know them before, but now I do. The 5 principles of learning are building on the known, using humor, organizing my information, using sensory aids, and rewarding my audience. I did know that presenters should use sensory aids, build on what's known, and use humor. Humor and sensory aids help you stay focused on the presentation and you should always build on the knowledge that you and your listeners have. I learned that I should always organize my information so that it doesn't get confusing for me and my audience. I also learned that you should always reward your listeners, I didn't think it would be necessary before listening to group 3's presentation. I discovered skills important as a speaker such as, defining, describing, explaining, and demonstrating in an informative presentation. I also discovered that ethical Principles should guide persuasive speaking. There are 6 of these principles, honesty, respect, transparency, empathy, fairness, and accountability. I feel as though these 6 principles also are the key to being a better person as well. These should be key values.

Let's move on to group 2 my group. We explained how to gather information, outline our presentations, and what sources are available to us. Although this is my group, I still learned information from my fellow group-mates. I learned about library resources to use. I never knew that we had access to the holding database of the library to view its index of books and other resources. This is very useful as it can help me start organizing and finding the subject I will present. I also learned that although the internet can be useful while researching information, it can often be unreliable as the information that is found may be biased or not credited. To avoid these issues with the web I can only use the extensions that end in .ed, .cor, .gov, and .org. I learned how to outline my presentation by listing points and including a list of references. I should try including words that will prompt my memory so that it will be easier to remember the information. I should organize what I'm talking about by coming up with a topic that is divided into two subtopics that are subdivided into two categories. I also learned how to deliver speeches, which is vital to public speaking. I should always choose a topic that I am passionate about and feel comfortable with while presenting. I learned that there are 5 ways to deliver a speech. I can deliver it by having it memorized, having a written manuscript, using an outline, giving a speech without preparation, or receiving questions from my audience and answering their questions. I also learned that language is important while presenting as it helps us organize thoughts. The way we use language while we speak can shape the way that we think. By thinking about this we use words that evoke images. This is important as you'll be invoking another sense to be used other than listening. When someone describes something to me and I can picture what they're saying, I can better understand the topic. But if you say something and I can't picture it then I'm going to be confused for the rest of your presentation.

Overall I have learned a lot from these group presentations that will help me become a better public speaker and hopefully help me improve for my next presentation.