Professional Skills

In the module of Professional Skills and Employability, we learned an effective presentation which need use PechaKucha presentation style. Actually, I have the ability to use Microsoft PowerPoint effectively and structure my presentation, using visual aids. However, when I made the presentation on the stage, I cannot do much eye contact with the audience and haven’t been able to enjoy the process very well. The reason may be that I was too nervous and didn’t have a lot of confidence. Therefore, I summarized the following points for delivering a presentation. Firstly, I should dress appropriately for the occasion. Secondly, I need to take deep breaths to reduce tension before the beginning. Then, the most important one is to make sure my voice can be heard and the audio-visual aids can be seen. Thus, I need practice my talk many times and try to overcome the shyness. For example, I should take small opportunities to practice speaking so that I can build up confidence. Next is to develop my own speaking style. That is to speak directly to the audience, look at their faces and take cues from their reactions. The other is to have a ‘plan B’ to respond to emergencies. For instance, the projection system fails. Lastly, I need to believe myself and brave to express myself, and then try to enjoy the occasion.

Recently, I completed an essay about the critical thinking of team work theory and practice. It helps me have roughly understanding of the academic writing and referencing material. After I looked through the literature, I have a basic understanding of the writing process. I have a system for collecting relevant information linked to the essay question. But the level of critical description and evaluation is limited. Therefore, to improve the critical thinking I need to reference the existing theory and model, state my own argument and evaluate all my evidence to back up my argument. In addition, I can reference sources and use Harvard style correctly.