Report 3: Strengthening My Oral Presentation Skills
Lisa Naka
December 1, 2003
CONTENTS
Affective and
Cognitive Information Behaviors for Presentation 1
Presentation 2
Affective and
Cognitive Information Behaviors for Presentation 2
Task 6
Affective and
Cognitive Information Behaviors for Task 6
Errors for Presentations 1 & 2
Errors
for Task 6
Hypothesis About Errors
Advice
to Future Generations
Facing a Due Date
Table
of Pre- and Post-Ratings
Conclusion
Introduction
This
is the third report required for the Psychology 459 course instructed by Dr.
Leon James. The course textbook is Deborah Tannen’s Talking From Nine to
Five. The class includes roughly twenty Psychology major students, and
takes place once a week. Each session begins with an overview of what has been
assigned, comments by Dr. James and the students, and a brief discussion
concerning tasks. After all matters are settled, two or more students give
their presentation. Each student has been assigned to either present a chapter
or an article/s relating to the presented chapter of the week. Throughout the
semester, each student presents at least twice, one of each content, a chapter
and an article.
When
I learned that this course will not only have three major reports, but also two
oral presentations, I felt very intimidated and anxious. Giving presentations
is my biggest weakness; I have never felt prepared to give one no matter how
much I practiced beforehand, I always felt nauseous, and hardly ever gave a
presentation satisfactorily. I have even taken a Speech course not because it
was required, but in hopes to learn to better my oral presentation skills. My
grade for that course reflected how little I succeeded.
Report
3 will analyze the two presentations that I did for this course. Each
presentation will be discussed separately, their affective and cognitive
information behaviors will be listed, and errors encountered will be discussed
as well. I will describe the ups and downs of facing a due date. The table of
Pre- and Post-Ratings will help compare and contrast the difference in my mood
before and after each presentation.
Instructions for Oral Presentations
The
specific chapter and article to present were decided upon during class. The
students called out for their desired date or chapter to present as Dr. James
built the presentation schedule. I chose to present chapter 3 “Why Don’t You
Say What You Mean?: Indirectness at Work” and an article related to chapter
4 “Marked: Women in the Workplace”.
Presentation 1
Description of Presentation 1
1) Choose chapter to present.
2) Fill out Pre-Rating.
3) Read Chapter.
4) Prepare
a) Write out brief outline
b) Look through chapter again for main points
c)
Work on
outline
d) Make sure presentation meets requirements
e) Make flash cards
5) Go to the Web for information on how to
prepare for presentations.
6) Practice, practice, practice
a) Practice speech to friend
b) Have friend ask me questions to make sure
I know the material
c)
Make any
necessary corrections in outline or look up more information as needed
d) Practice speech again
7) Present in class on October 2nd,
2003.
8) Fill out Post-Rating.
See
Outline for Presentation 1: Chapter Three “Why Don’t You Say What You
Mean?”: Indirectness at Work
|
Table 1.1 |
Affective and Cognitive Information Behaviors for Presentation 1 |
||
|
Task/Subtask |
Affective Information
Behavior |
Cognitive Information
Behavior |
|
|
Choose a chapter to present |
I looked at the contents page
of the book and felt really interested in chapter 3. I’ve always felt curious
about “indirectness” and its works. I was slightly nervous to speak up in
class to get the chapter but I decided I would regret if I didn’t do so. |
I spoke up and requested to
get chapter 3 to present. No one else requested so there was no conflict. |
|
|
Fill out Pre-Rating |
Extremely nervous. Filling
the Pre-Rating is tedious but it doesn’t bother me today because more than that
I feel very nervous about the presentation itself. |
Concentrating on filling this
is difficult, not to mention on any task because I keep thinking about the
presentation. |
|
|
Read chapter 3 |
This is really interesting
stuff!!! I feel so lucky that Tannen talks about the Japanese culture because
I’m from Japan and she has worded the differences in the Japanese and
American cultures towards styles of speaking really well. I am glad I chose
this chapter. |
With my own experience from
being a Japanese raised in Japan, I can relate to the contents of this
chapter and I plan to present the contents well to the class. This chapter is
more personal to me now so I am more motivated to work on this. |
|
|
Write out brief outline |
The chapter was really
interesting and I enjoyed reading it so I think I learned the material well. |
Writing a brief outline is
surprisingly easy right now. |
|
|
Look through chapter for main
points |
I’m glad I looked through
again because there were a couple of points that I should include. |
Editing outline. |
|
|
Edit outline |
Writing this outline out is
taking time but I don’t mind because I like the material. I plan to have some
people participate in my presentation too so I am anxious if that will work
out. |
The outline looks complete. |
|
|
Make sure outline meets
requirements |
I’m really nervous about this
presentation but what I can do in my outline, I feel I’ve done. |
I’ve read through the grading
criteria. I plan to organize my presentation so at least some of my
classmates participate. The rest will be up to how well I speak out and keep
eye-contact. |
|
|
Make flash cards |
I don’t want to read out
sentences. |
The flash cards should be
helpful since they will not be in sentence format anyway. |
|
|
Go to the Web for information
on how to prepare for presentations |
I hope that this website
helps me out and gives me good advice so I can feel better about my
presentation. I feel that the sites are
repeating what I learned in speech class but it’s good to go over the tips
again. |
I think I might be aware of
these tips already but I have always had difficulty actually knowing how to
execute them. As suggested, I will practice aloud. |
|
|
Practice speech with a friend
and have friend ask me questions on material |
I’m embarrassed doing this.
But I’m really glad I’m practicing because now I feel more confident in the
material. I’m glad I’m doing this after all. |
The practice will let me
realize how much I know the material and what parts I should brush up on.
This way I shouldn’t feel too anxious when I present in class. |
|
|
Look up for necessary
information and correct outline |
Practicing was such a good
idea! I feel better knowing what to brush up on. |
This helps me perfect the
outline so it’s more comprehensible and informative. |
|
|
Present in class |
I felt really nervous until I
got up to the seat and finished introducing my topic. I felt much better
after that. |
Thanks to the practice and
encouraging words from the classmates, I was able to present fairly well with
more confidence than usual. |
|
|
Fill out Post-Rating |
I feel good now that I am
done with my first presentation. It’s such a relief. |
I think that I might be able
to present my second presentation okay too if I do what I did for this one. |
|
What I tried that didn’t work
Practicing
definitely worked in making sure I knew the material. However, no matter how
much I had felt prepared, nothing worked in soothing my stage-fright anxiety. I
tried convincing myself that I would do fine and friends encouraged me as well
but I still had absolutely no appetite the night before and the entire day up
to when I actually presented. When I had a small bite, I felt nauseous.
Presentation
2
Description of
Presentation 2
1) Chapter for article assigned by
instructor; Chapter Four Marked: Women in the Workplace
2) Fill out Pre-Rating.
3) Read Chapter.
4) Request for change of presentation date
from October 9th to the 23rd.
5) Prepare
a) Search for related articles online
-
Casual attire out, executive image in” Honolulu
Advertiser 21 April 2003
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Apr/21/bz/bz07a.html
-
“Is Your Appearance Hurting Your Career?” All That
Women Want
www.allthatwomenwant.com/careerappearance.htm
-
“Successful Dress Attire – Men” Samford University
www.samford.edu/groups/cardev/attiremen.pdf
-
“Successful Dress Attire – Women” Samford
University
www.samford.edu/groups/cardev/attirewomen.pdf
-
“Appearances count – to the point of bias?” Austin
Business Journal 23 July 2001
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2001/07/23/focus3.html
b) Write out brief outline
c)
Look through
articles again for main points
d) Work on outline
e) Make sure presentation meets requirements
f)
Make flash
cards
6) Go to the Web for information on how to
prepare for presentations.
7) Practice, practice, practice
a) Practice speech to friend
b) Have friend ask me questions to make sure
I know the material
c)
Make any
necessary corrections in outline or look up more information as needed
d) Practice speech again
8) Present in class on October 23rd,
2003.
Fill out Post-Rating.
See
Outline for Presentation 2; Chapter Four Marked: Women in the Workplace
|
Table 1.2 |
Affective and Cognitive Information Behaviors for Presentation 2 |
||
|
Task/Subtask |
Affective Information
Behavior |
Cognitive Information
Behavior |
|
|
Chapter 4 article assigned by
instructor |
I feel like there is no time
for me to relax because I have to present a week after my first one. |
I had better start reading
this chapter. |
|
|
Fill out Pre-Rating |
Bummed out. I wish I didn’t
have to do my second one so soon. |
I’ll have to deal with it. I
only have a week to get ready. |
|
|
Read chapter 4 |
I find this chapter
interesting (not as much as Ch.3 though). |
There should be quite a few
related articles online. |
|
|
Change presentation date |
How lucky! Dr. James offered
students to change their presentation dates to the 23rd and I was
able to! I feel so much better about my upcoming presentation. |
I can have time to relax and
prepare now. |
|
|
Search for related articles |
As expected, there are lots
of articles on this topic. These articles are really interesting and I think
some may be of interest to my classmates. I am happy that I found these
articles. |
These articles will be
informative as well as interesting. |
|
|
Write out brief outline |
This is not as difficult as I
had expected. I’m happy again. |
Having done one for the first
presentation makes this a lot easier. |
|
|
Look through articles again
and work on outline |
I really like the articles I
found. They’re debatable and informative. |
I seem to have covered the
main points in my outline. |
|
|
Make sure presentation meets
requirements |
I feel better about this
since I’ve presented once already. |
It is good that Dr. James
lets us know what exactly needs to be done to meet requirements. |
|
|
Go to the Web for information
on how to prepare for presentations |
The site I found is pretty
informative. I like it because it goes into detail for each major step a
presenter should take in preparing. |
I think the general idea is
the same as most other sites on tips on oral presentations but this is nicely
laid out and easy to follow. |
|
|
Practice speech with a friend
and have friend ask me questions on material |
I am glad that I can
comfortable practice my speech with my boyfriend. |
This part of practicing
turned out to be the biggest help last time and it seems to be again. |
|
|
Look up for necessary
information and correct outline |
I feel confident in the
material I am going to be presenting. |
I will fix up the outline as
needed. |
|
|
Present in class |
Dr. James was not there today
but I was nevertheless extremely nervous that I had no appetite and my
stomach hurt. Once started though, my classmates listened and I felt much
better. |
I will turn in a copy of my
outline to Dr. James once he is back next week; I hope that he can get a
general picture of what and how I presented from it. |
|
|
Fill out Post-Rating |
It’s such a relief to be over
with both presentations! It was a constant source of anxiety but now I don’t
have to worry about presenting in this class anymore. |
I think the setting and
atmosphere of the class had helped me in presenting. I cannot see myself
presenting as well in other situations. |
|
What I tried that didn’t work
As
for my first presentation, I was unable to relax prior to presenting again. No
matter how I told myself that I was prepared, and no matter how much comforting
words my friends gave me, I had no appetite again and I could no concentrate on
other tasks. My mind was constantly thinking about the presentation.
Task
6
Description of
Task 6
1) Fill out Pre-Rating before starting task.
2) Create Report 3 and upload it to your
class folder.
3) Go to the Web and check your Report 3.
4) Fill out Post-Rating after viewing your
Report 3 on the Web.
5) Upload Post-Rating and edit Report 3 as
needed.
6) Email the instructor that Report 3 has
been published. Subject Line: Report 3 published. Message: Anything you like to
say.
|
Table 1.3 |
Affective and Cognitive Information Behaviors for Task 6 |
||
|
Task/Subtask |
Affective Information
Behavior |
Cognitive Information
Behavior |
|
|
Fill out Pre-Rating |
This will be my last
Pre-Rating and I’m happy about it. |
Time to get started with
Report 3. |
|
|
Create Report 3 and upload
it. |
Completely freaked out. My
computer apparently has a Trojan and my Norton’s cannot get rid of it! I am
so scared and anxious. I don’t know what to do. |
I am going to have to seek
help on this one. |
|
|
Get help from friend |
My friend says they can try
to re-format my computer but since it is in Japanese, I have to be there to
translate everything. I am so tired and upset at my computer. I have no idea
how I got a Trojan and now I am going to get my report in late. |
I will email Dr. James about
this situation. |
|
|
Computer is [hopefully] fixed |
I am relieved that my
computer is working now but I am not sure if it alright. I am being very
careful in saving the report frequently. |
I am running out of time now.
Dr. James said that the report needs to be up by Monday morning or else I
will not have access to the home page. I need to re-install all my programs
including FTP. |
|
|
Finish report and upload |
A lot of my report was lost
and I was really frustrated but there was nothing to do but work on it. I’ve
finally completed it and am hoping that I did not miss out on anything. |
This had better work. I will
be in so much trouble if it doesn’t. |
|
|
Fill out Post-Rating and
uplaod |
I am so exhausted… mostly
emotionally. I was so freaked out and expected the worst but somehow I got
this done. |
I will email Dr. James now. |
|
|
Email Dr. James |
I’m so glad that I am done
with all of my reports. I am worried how Dr. James will like this one. |
Email. |
|
Errors
for Presentations 1 & 2
|
Table 2.1 |
Errors Made for Presentation 1 |
||
|
Errors |
Description |
Type |
|
|
Failed to calm myself down no
matter how many times I tried, prior to presenting. |
I have always had
stage-fright and never did well when presenting. My attempt to fix this by
taking a speech course did not help either. No matter how much I practice and
I feel confident in the material, I am nervous, even without being conscious
of it. I lose appetite from the previous day and I become really moody prior
to presenting. My friends had also tried to comfort me but nothing worked. |
Not serious |
|
|
Could not remember well on
how I presented afterwards. |
Because I was nervous during
the presentation, I could not remember much about how I spoke or how my
overall presentation was afterwards. This affects my self-evaluation on my
presentation. |
Serious |
|
Why these errors
were made and how they were solved
The
first error is something that I go through every single time I present a speech
or even set up an appointment to meet with for example, an advisor or a
professor. The only way to deal with it for me is to just keep thinking
positive thoughts, feel more confident in the material, and pretty much just
wait until I am over with the actual event. This error is categorized as Not
Serious because although it affects my mood and appetite, I have been through
it numerous times so I was aware of what I was going through. Also, once the
presentation was over, I felt fine.
The
second error of not being able to remember precisely what happened during my
presentation is most likely due to being nervous. This is also common to me,
and happens not only at such presentations but also with taking examinations.
After taking the test, I usually cannot remember the content of the test as
much. In the presentation’s case, this affects my self-evaluation afterwards so
I categorized this error as Serious. I do, however, remember bits and pieces of
when I presented and how my classmates shared their views and listened to me.
|
Table 2.2 |
Errors Made for Presentation 2 |
||
|
Errors |
Description |
Type |
|
|
Failed to calm myself down no
matter how many times I tried, prior to presenting. |
As described above for
Presentation 1, this is a problem that I face every time I have a speech no
matter how prepared I am. As always, I failed to convince myself that I was
prepared and felt sick all morning. |
Not serious |
|
Why these errors were made and how they were solved
The one error I noted of was the same as
the first presentation and as described above, I felt extremely nervous and
sick until I presented. The error was not serious because like I said, even
though I felt nauseous, I felt much better once the presentation was over.
Errors
for Task 6
|
Table 2.3 |
Errors Made for Task 6
|
||
|
Errors |
Description |
Type |
|
|
Computer got a Trojan. Need
help from a friend. |
My Norton’s detected a Trojan
called Java.NoCheat on my computer. This may be why my computer has been
acting up lately. I was so scared and did not know what to do but found a
friend to help me out. I had to write a large part of the report over again
but I got it done somehow. |
Serious |
|
|
Re-install FTP program. |
My computer was re-formatted
and so I had to re-install a program. I made a mistake during the process of
installation and had to start over. |
Not serious. |
|
Why these errors were made and how they were solved
The
first error was something I would not have been aware of if Norton’s did not
detect it. Norton’s was not able to repair my computer from the Trojan so I was
really scared. It was my fault for not correcting the settings; the program did
not run scans frequently enough. Therefore I have no clue just how long I have
had the Trojan. Apparently people on my chat buddy-list have been received
awkward messages from me… possibly done by someone who had control over my
computer. I got help from a friend but we are not certain if this computer is
okay. The error is categorized as Serious because it greatly affected not only
this report’s completion, but also everything else on my computer and I had to
re-install everything.
The
second error of having an error while installing the FTP program is Not Serious
because I was able to correct the problem without trouble.
Hypothesis About Errors
The
errors I made for the presentations and Task 6 were mostly not the tasks
themselves, but how I was so nervous and could not let myself relax about it.
The most serious problem was getting a Trojan on my computer. I’ve had a virus
before but learning that I had a Trojan was really shocking and I felt really
scared.
The
reason for not having errors for the actual preparation for the presentation
was probably due to taking each instruction’s step slowly and practicing a lot.
I took care in following advice from the websites as well as from friends who
had more experience in giving speeches.
Advice
to Future Generations
My
advice for future generations for this course is, like everyone says, practice,
practice, and practice more to prepare for your presentations. It really makes
a difference and the audience can tell if you were ready to give the speech or
not by how well you can answer their questions or how good the flow is. I
personally struggle a lot and as mentioned towards the beginning of this
report, I have taken a speech course not because it was required (because it wasn’t
for me), but in order to better my skills. The results were not good. However,
presenting in this class was not as bad because you get to know your classmates
on a really friendly level, they are all there to help you out, you get to
present sitting down if that can help, and classmates can share their thoughts
during your speech as well. This can help make the atmosphere much more comfortable.
I
really benefited from repeatedly practicing and having a friend ask me
questions to make sure that I really knew and understood the material. If you
have the chance to, prior to setting the presentation dates, take a look at the
contents page and see if any of the chapters seem to interest you. I did this
for my first presentation and as a result, thoroughly enjoyed reading the
chapter and felt motivated to share what I learned to my classmates.
Facing a Due Date
Facing
a due date was a challenge for each presentation I had. As mentioned numerous
times throughout my report, I am very scared of giving presentations, and
always ended up getting nauseous. Yet having practiced a lot helped me know in
my head that I was going to be fine. Facing a due date was not as bad as other
presentations I’ve given in other courses.
As
for the actual writing of this report. It took a very long time and was really
frustrating. I had lost about third of what I had done when my computer needed
some fixing. I never thought my computer would be susceptible to getting a
Trojan, and I have no clue as how I got it, so it was a frightening experience.
I hope that it is really gone and wish I knew how to prevent it from happening
again in the future.
Table
of Pre- and Post-Ratings
Table 3.1
|
Pre- and Post-Ratings
|
||||||
|
|
Presentation
1 |
Presentation 2 |
Task 6 |
||||
|
Mood [negative 1 … 10 positive] |
3 |
9 |
5 |
9 |
6 |
3 |
|
|
Importance in succeeding [not important 1 … 10
extremely important] |
7 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
9 |
10 |
|
|
Difficulty [not much 1 … 10 a lot] |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
|
|
Being upset for not
succeeding [not upset 1 … 10 extremely
upset] |
6 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
9 |
9 |
|
|
Confidence in succeeding [doubtful 1 … 10 almost
certain] |
5 |
7 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
Likelihood of becoming good [pretty doubtful 1 … 10
almost certain] |
4 |
5 |
6 |
6 |
7 |
7 |
|
|
Motivation to keep trying [slightly motivated 1 … 10
very highly motivated] |
5 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
9 |
|
|
Computers will make task
easier [I strongly disagree 1 … 10 I
very much agree] |
10 |
7 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
|
|
Amount of
effort needed [not much 1
… 10 a tremendous amount] |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
|
Self Observation
Data
As
the numbers shown on the table for Pre- and Post-Ratings for both
presentations, my mood changed drastically from before and after giving the presentation
itself. Being nervous really affected my mood while preparing for the
preparations. My stage-fright was the biggest factor in affecting my mood and
overall view of the tasks.
Conclusion
The presentation tasks taught me just how
important it is to practice the speech. When I took Speech 251, I felt too
ashamed to practice over and over again. All I did were one or two rehearsals
and that was it. However, for this class, my boyfriend encouraged me to
practice my speech, in an informal manner. By running through the materials, it
helped me gain confidence in what I knew about the presentation.
I had felt extremely intimidated when I first learned that there were two required presentations for this course. But in addition to the above reason, the class’ atmosphere also helped me in feeling comfortable when presenting. I think it is crucial that the class is kept small and that the seating is structured in a way that the speaker can sit and still face everyone. It is a different feeling to having to sit or stand in front of a regular classroom where the students are sitting at individual desks.
