Developing Concise Presentation Skills

1. Identify any presentation skill that you had difficulty with at the start of this module. How have you tried to develop this skill during the module and with what success?

I had a difficulty in making the presentation in the sense that I had to write in few words a wider subject matter. I think that it is a different kind of skill that you need to write a presentation because the topic may be very broad but one has to keep each slide neat and concise while also trying to provide as much information as possible.

2. How effectively did you perform in the presentation? Which skills did you use well and which ones need further development?

I think while my written presentation was done reasonably well, the actual presentation exposed some of my weaknesses that I need to improve on. More precisely, I was not able to answer some of the questions satisfactorily, particularly those related to the cases which I was not able to explain well. On the positive side, I think my body language was satisfactory. I need to work more on answering questions.

3. What strategies do you have to develop the presentation skills needing improvement and what timescale will you seek to complete this by?

Please give specific examples from your assessment.

I will need to work more on my skills relating to interacting with the moderator and answering their questions. I plan to get my friends to help me in this regard by making presentations in front of them and then having them ask me questions. This will help me develop my confidence better. I realised during the presentation that one of the major reasons why I was not able to engage better because I was nervous. Building my self-confidence is therefore a task that I think I need to undertake more seriously.

4. What research did you complete for this presentation? How could you have improved your research?

I did research for this presentation primarily from textbooks on employment law. I also used Google Scholar to explore specific issues related to dress code. ACAS website was another useful resource for me for this research. Regarding improvement, I realise that I can improve my research by also exploring more case law because this is an important source of law. I am not entirely satisfied with the number of authorities I used for this research as there were one or two areas where I could not locate cases.

5. On reflection, do you think you missed out any relevant material formation from the presentation? Please give details.

As I mentioned above, I could not locate case laws for some of the areas that I mentioned in the presentation. Specifically, I could not locate case law concerning dress code and transvestite employees. This is one area that I would like to see an improvement in for myself.

6. How confident were you in answering the questions? What could you do to improve this?

I was a little nervous in answering questions and this is the one area where my presentation suffered. I think my nervousness arose from the fact that I was not entirely satisfied with the level of case law research that I had done so that when questions related to case law were put forth to me, I was not able to answer them satisfactorily. I would like to improve this part of my skills and I plan to do this by making mock presentations in front of my friends and having them ask questions to me.

7. Considering your career, how might the skills learnt or to be developed in the presentation assessment be used in the workplace?

Skills related to effective communication are useful in all workplaces and through this presentation, I have acquired some important skills in presentation, particularly related to communication of information in concise and effective manner. This skill is the one that I think will be the most useful for me at workplace because effective communication can be key to ensuring that our success in getting our message or ideas across to our colleagues. Another important skill is to engage with the questions of the colleagues and team mates or even superiors. For this confidence can be the key to success. This presentation has made me realise how I need to work to improve these skills for future success.

8. Finally; thinking about the presentation overall, is there anything else that you would have done differently that you have not mentioned in the answers above?

I cannot think of anything that is not covered by this self-reflection. The questions raised above have made me cover all the principal points. I cannot think about anything else that I would have done differently.