Krystian Garcia Blog Post #1

 BLOG POST #1

    This new year started with a new semester of college (being my second), which came with four new classes to take, one being public speaking. During my time so far in public speaking, my classmates were all assigned to a group where we all worked together to make projects come to fruition. We recently completed our first project, which was all about the fundamentals and characteristics of a public speech. Each group made their own PowerPoint and presented their information found on Cengage based on their specific assigned chapters. In this blog, I will be reviewing and criticizing each group's presentation, so nowhere better to start than my own group: 

   Group 2: 

    For group 2's presentation, I worked with Kevin on chapter 4. To speak on my behalf, I did okay. I was very nervous the night before because I knew I was going to be presenting in front of many other people, even though it was over a Zoom call, I knew they would hear my voice. On my part, I felt like I stuttered too much and sometimes couldn't find the exact word I wanted to say or the best word that would go with what I was talking about. Nonetheless, I pushed through and completed my part, unsatisfied with my performance, but at the very least, it was done and over with. For my next presentation, I need to review my content better and organize what I will say so I won't be all over the place. Also, I need to come in with more confidence instead of being so shy and nervous. I will still give myself a pat on the back for completing the work and presentation. 

    

    On the other side, the rest of my group did a phenomenal job. I felt like they were a lot more confident than me when presenting. The one major key detail that I noticed that can be improved on for most of my group members would be the number of words that are on the slides. For example, mine and Giuliana's slides were comprised mainly of photos, leaving the rest to spoken for, but everyone else's slides were filled with words, which is very unappealing to the eye, especially during a public speech. Even though their slides contained a lot of words and few graphics, the content and information were explained very well. They knew what they were speaking of and spoke with confidence. The only bit my group can improve on is the presentation of the slides; other than that, they did an amazing job!

    Now onto:

Group 1

    Group 1 did a great job; they had great slides that were very organized and concise. None of the slides we're littered with too many words, which is very important when it comes to a presentation of public speech. One thing that I have to say for each and every one of the presenters were there use of filler words such as "uhm" and "so"; they used these words very often during their presentation, but I don't blame them because they do not have much experience in public speaking, so it is to be expected. Either way, they all can work on using fewer filler words, but nevertheless, they did a great presentation that had valuable information that was very informative and useful to me. I learned quite a bit from their presentation. Hats off to Group 1 

 

    Now onto:

Group 3

    Group 3 did a good job; they presented very valuable information, but one thing I have to say is that the presentation did look a bit bland. It lacked appealing visuals and colors, but the information was correct and, like I said, very valuable. One more thing I do have to comment on was the microphone quality of many of the speakers, at times it was a bit hard to understand what they were saying due to the poor quality of thier microphones, I was still able to make out most of what they said, nonetheless on a virtual speech they should make sure their microphones are clear and sound. Again, this was their first time doing a speech for this class, so I can't blame them, and sometimes they might not have the funds to purchase a quality microphone for their speech. Overall, they did a good job, a hat's off to them too!

    Now onto:

Group 4

    Group 4's presentation was quite messy; the information was good and rich, but they had many issues due to certain members not showing up on time and being unable to present their parts. One of their group members had to substitute for them and read their slides. This was due to one of them having technical difficulties with their software and the other being absent. In their slides, I liked the fonts of the titles I thought it was very cute. The slides were missing eye-appealing graphics, but had the necessary information. Thankfully, the team member who substituted for the others was able to present the slides well; all in all, they did a good job even with the difficulties and issues they faced.

Conclusion

    In conclusion, I believe that everyone did a good job with their presentations. Presenting valuable and useful information that we can all use in our future careers, and even in our normal lives. We all worked hard as a team to complete our slides, and we all had the bravery to present in front of all of our peers. I am sure many of us were nervous, but that is to be expected for our first time presenting. We have many things to improve on: the main one being more confident in our speech and using fewer filler words. Knowing what you are speaking about and how to convey properly matters a lot when public speaking. It was a pleasure to work with my team, and I am looking forward to learning more with them. Also, thank you to Professor Sinkoff for being so understanding and kind throughout every single presentation.