class blog assignment #4

Mary McCormick
ENG 104-020
John Barbour
14 July 2010
Class Blog Assignment 4 self-critique
My first concerns were the scores that my peers gave me on their evaluations of my presentation. I got mostly 4.1 and 4.2 but I scored lowest on eye contact (3.6) and gestures (3.9) so I realized that was actually eye contact because that what I listed as one of my concerns about how did on my presentation. I remember that in preparing for my presentation that I ran short on time so I wrote everything I wanted to say down on 6 pieces of paper and try to space out my presentation into 1 minute topics to add up to the 6 minutes I needed. But it didn’t work out well because I lost my place and even though I had practiced and knew the material I couldn’t find my place because I had written too small. So I knew that my eye contact scores would be low. I spent the majority of the time looking at the paper in my hands. And it was obvious when I abandoned plan A with the notes in my hand. Because I just put them up.
Gestures being scored second to lowest didn’t surprise me either because I am sure I appeared nervous and unprepared, those both partial truths. I hadn’t slept but a couple hours after driving home from Buffalo, NY less than 6 hours before class. I also had to trudge threw a rain downpour to get to class so I was wet and in casual clothes with flip-flops that still squeaked walking up to the front of the room. I would image that I didn’t gesture toward my image at all. I was nervous once I lost my spot and gave up on my notes.
My word speed and volume were the things I would score myself higher on than other things but my peers scored me higher on posture and enthusiasm.
I learned in St. Martins a lot of things that would have been helpful in my last presentation that I will do differently in my next. Like how to prepare your note cards and the use of signpost words. Helps keep things in order and draws attention back if you have lost your audience. Making a different color highlight for things that can be skipped so if you are running out of time. And you will not cut your conclusion short because of time. The beginning and ending are what people remember.
I realized looking back at my presentation that I didn’t really have a conclusion. So I will definitely work hard at drawing things to a close and having a define conclusion instead of just the “tad da” or wait for the gong sound. I read in St. Martin’s how important it is to have a start and end. So I plan to improve my conclusion and try to get some rest the night before. If I use note cards I will use only a few keywords with signpost words as flags. I will plan out the eight minutes based on start, topic, end and space out my time. Practice timing myself doing the presentation at least ten times and two of those being right before class.