#3

*No personal attacks meant. :)

Mr Lim is gone. Oh yeah. The sense of relief seems to be prevalent throughout our class this year. However, the departure of the imperious, ferocious tiger has not culminated in the liberation of style I expected. Rather, it has made presenters more comfortable with what they have been doing for years; dictating their essays aloud.

Aristotle once said, ‘Think as wise men do, but speak as the common people do’. The value of a presentation can be interpreted differently by everyone; it is subject to personal preference and external requirements. It can take on the form of a casual, extempore conversation, or perhaps a rigid, academic rendition. But the fundamental essence of presentation remains - it should be an elegant, beautiful, way of getting our ideas across to our audience. It should be clean, simple and succinct. Regretfully, many of the presenters have not made sufficient use of the power of speech - to captivate, compel and connect with their audience.

Most of the presentations have become an almost unbearable, dreadful bore. They lose their appeal when the presenters, like pre-trained robots, verbalize their essays in the same, austere structure. I agree, I agree, I disagree, blah blah blah. Structure and form, of course, is necessary. But when they are adhered to like how Nazis obey Hitler, presentations become tastelessly bland. Occasionally, presenters comes along and try to take advantage of the white-board; most of these endeavours fail. They come across to me as comical attempts to perhaps, get a few more marks ; how many times have we seen a presenter go up onto the platform, take a minute to draw some flashy tables and diagrams, add some text, and never once make a reference to their doodles on the board? Aren’t visual aids supposed to aid the us in our understanding of the topic at hand?Do these intricate tables not become mere adornments if the presenter never once utilizes them? Only a small, select minority of the presenters have been able to use visual aids to their advantage. Sheng Hui, for instance, was extremely innovative and effective in the use of his vanguard-plastic-card contraption. His visual tool immediately drew attention to his presentation, enabling him to engage the audience for the full duration of the presentation. Junyi also utilized his flow chart effectively to give the audience a greater understanding of the background and causes of the Tiananmen Incident.

Most presenters also missed the whole point of presentation completely; a presentation is to communicate, not impress. While their bombastic, fustian vocabulary might be ‘highly acclaimed’ in an academic writing assignment, the overuse of jargon and polysyllabic words only serve to distract and diverge the audience’s attention in a speech. I might be impressed, yes, but do I understand what you are getting at? If I don’t, why do you need to present when I can just read your essay? To add on, the overuse of the third-person perspective in majority of the presentations lends an impersonal and cold touch to the various speeches. Many presenters seem to be detached and aloof; they seem more eager to finish their presentation and end their ordeal rather than to engage and communicate with the audience. This consequently results in the audience’s inability to concentrate, amounting all of the presenter’s efforts to null.

Still, the presentations, or should I say, specific presentations, do have certain interesting aspects.

The one thing that intrigued me the most during the presentations were the accents. My beloved classmates seem to enjoy taking on a contorted, unnatural, funny accents when they present. Some make me laugh; others make me squirm in my seat. Yang Tao’s distinctive slur and pronunciation was comical - in a good way. The way in which he enunciated his words offered me a much-needed breather from the otherwise mundane presentations of the day. Others trying to mimic American accents made me extremely uncomfortable, but it was still interesting in a way. It is not their desire to put on an American accent, but rather, the product of their attempt which made me queasy. Many a time, I hear 3 different intonations in a single sentence. First few words in a Singaporean accent, words in the middle in a British accent, and the rest in an American accent. The next sentence comes along and again it is all jumbled up. Maybe certain people are trying too hard to impress; if you cannot speak American english, please, for god’s sake, stick with Singlish and try not to make a fool out of yourself. Still, I need to thank these people, in particular their comical accents, for brightening up the otherwise monotonous day.

The contrasting presentation styles of certain outstanding individuals also offered me some insight into their personality and character, and little doses of unique viewpoints here and there made the whole experience an interesting one. Rather than the superficial perception of the presentation as a mere test as with so many other presenters, the excellent presenters are able to connect and captivate me on a much deeper level. They put their heart and soul into the presentation, expressing their character along with their points, and this makes the presentation really, really shine. They successfully compelled me to ponder, question and ask. They make me WANT to listen, not FORCED to listen.

The interesting part is this - we see the personalities of various students begin to surface as we observe their presentations; we see the casual, laid-back ones, we see the willy, comical ones, and we see the uptight, intense ones. And as we recognize the different characters in the class, we gradually realize that the presentation styles are intrinsically linked to the person’s personality, and that a presentation is actually a reflection of a person’s identity.

To conclude, the presentations thus far have been ample in content, but rather lacking in style. We need to realize that a speech is not merely about reading words off a piece of paper. Speech is a form of empowerment, which enables us to persuade, compel and communicate. Interesting as the presentations are, I would really like to see further improvements in style in the upcoming presentations.