Final Presentation

Today we had our final presentation for the social movement campaign.  I thought that it went very well on my end.  I spoke with confidence and I was logical and clear in what I was saying.  This is a marked improvement for me.  Generally, I do not perform well under the pressure of presenting in front of a group of people.  However, recently, I have found myself a lot more comfortable in groups.  Part of that may be from gaining experience through performing in Greek Sing for my fraternity, in which we won first place this year, before a large audience.  I think overall, my growth throughout a year of being in college has changed me.  I would never be comfortable talking in front our class and giving a coherent and eloquent presentation.  Another factor that I think worked in my favor was the fact that we did not over-prepare for the presentation.  Generally, when I carefully plan what I want to say for a presentation, I get nervous and being to forget what I wanted to say.  To compensate, I take long pauses to think of my words and sometimes stutter or stumble over my words.  This time, I just presented based on what I knew from writing the white paper and doing extensive research.  I looked at the slides and used them as a reference when I spoke to the class, careful not to read directly off of the slides.  This was a huge step forward for me in terms of making an effective presentation.  I’m particularly proud of myself for the growth that I have experienced in such an important area.  Presentations and effective communication skills are a huge part of working in any profession, so improving in that field is extremely important.

The rest of the presentation went very well, and most of the group members dressed up in more business casual attire so our presentation had a more professional feel.  Our presentation was also helped by the fact that we had our final digital rhetorical solution to our problem already created.  We were able to display our finished website in front of the class and show a tangible final product.  Each of us presented well and spoke eloquently, it was a generally good result.  Considering we were limited in our preparation because of one of our group members falling sick, I think we had a strong performance.