Course Reflection

This course “English Communications” is one of the most important courses that I have taken in the college. Not only because it teaches you various skills which will assist you in your academic study, but also in your future career. The main objective of this course is to teach you the necessary communication skills such as: How to prepare and run a meeting and how to present any topic to certain audience.

I, myself, have benefited a lot from this course. I learned how to run an effective meeting without wasting people’s time. To accomplish that I had to go through certain process like: make the Agenda, specify the aims of this meeting and how to apply an action plan. My role in the meeting was the facilitator “Chairman”, so I had to run the meeting and make sure that we come up with recommendations and creative results. Our meeting was very well organized and well prepared. Our teacher’s feedback was very helpful. He told us what was good and what could have been better. This feedback will help us to avoid mistakes in future meetings.

On the second half of the semester, we started to work on presenting which is vital skill that you will need it in your academic study and future career. We conducted two presentations (semi-formal, formal); the goal of first one was to focus on delivery skills: eye contact, posture, gesture, voice and visuals. While the goal of the second one was to concentrate mainly about the topic, however, not forgetting your delivery skills. Also, the objective of the second presentation is how to attract your audience’s attention and make them listen to your presentation. 

In general, this course was very interesting and useful at the same time. This course teaches you communication skills which you need it not only in the college or work but everywhere: in your social life and political life. These skills will let you deal with others professionally.

Formal Presentation Feedback

This report is about a presentation has been done by the students:  Saeed Alnaebi (H00155113) and Ali Alkatheeri (H00154993). The presentation took place at T002. The presentation started at 8:40 and ended at 8:55.

Saeed’s and Ali’s presentation was about the Global Warming. They introduced their topic in a simple clear way. They talked about this problem to show the audience how series the global warming is. They started their presentation with a good clear introduction. They also mentioned the points that they will be talking about in their presentation and proposed practical solutions.

They had a good start although they didn’t get the people attention so fast. However, they had good choice of words and nice language. Also, they mentioned good examples. They had very good eye contact and good gestures. Their visuals were good, but there was a mistake where they stopped the presentation and asked the teacher if the slide were working. Actually, they shouldn’t do that. Instead, they should have just kept presenting without referring to that technical problem so they don’t distract the audience. Another negative is that sometimes they look into their slides and they had problem with switching between points. The good thing is that they gave real life examples. They finished their presentation with a good short conclusion.

In conclusion, although they commit some mistakes, but in general it was an excellent presentation. They showed the effort that had been done in this presentation. Overall, both Ali and Saeed have a great delivery skills and my only advice for them is practice more and more.

Semi-formal Presentation Report

                On Dec 9^th, 2010 I attended a presentation conducted by my colleague Saif Saeed Al-Zaabi (Id No. H00154890). The presentation started at 10:30 AM and took place in room J33. In this report, I’m going to write a feedback to his presentation from my perspective.

                Saif started his presentation by greeting the audience in a gentle way then he introduced himself to them appropriately. His opening was interesting. He began by asking rhetorical questions about his topic which was “3D Technology”. In that way, he attracted audience’s attention and then he started to define this technology and talk about it from different aspects. His transition between the introductions to the body was smooth and clear. Also, he used an appropriate transition when he moved from one point to another which helped the audience to follow him properly.

                Although this may be his first presentation, saif proofed that he has a fairly good delivery skills. He maintained eye contact with the audience to get the audience’s attention. He stood at the side of the screen which gave the audience a clear view to his slides. Saif used a note card to help him organize his thought but he wasn’t reading from them. Another good skill is that he spoke in loud and clear voice. However, there are some points that could have been better. His slides “visuals” weren’t that clear because he used dark colors. Also, he wasn’t clear about some point, he should demonstrate more and give some examples.

                To summarize, the presentation was well prepared and well organized. He illustrated his topic in an interesting way. Although he seemed a little bit nervous and I noticed that in his posture but, in general, his delivery skills were good as a first presentation. I’m certainly sure, with more practice and more effort, Saif will be a great presenter. As the statement say “Practice makes perfect”, my only advice to Saif is to practice, practice and practice.

Meeting Reflection

Our meeting was conducted at 08:10 am on Tuesday, 27^th of October 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss student success in the college. My role in the meeting was the chairman. Therefore, my job was to run the meeting in proper way. All group members attended the meeting. I started the meeting by welcoming the attendees and describing the problem. My task was to find possible solution regarding this issue by asking the team members to contribute their own ideas.

 Our meeting was great, well prepared and went smoothly. The opening and the closing of the meeting were professionally done. In addition, the meeting direction was very clear and comprehensible. However, there are some aspects need to be improved. I noticed that when we were discussing a point everybody agreed where we should look to it from different perspectives like one person agree and the other disagree for different reasons. Managing the time allotted for each point also needs to be monitored more carefully so we don’t spend much time on unnecessary ideas.

In conclusion, this meeting was a new experience for me. It was very exciting and I learned a lot from this experience. I learned how to run a practical meeting in appropriate way by being punctual and focused to the meeting purpose to save time. Moreover, I learned write an agenda and how to contribute an action plan. Form this experience, I have gained self-confidence and now I can speak in front of people confidently. In the next meeting I hope to avoid the mistakes that had been done and improve my meeting skills to have a professional meeting that accomplish its purposes in order to achieve effective results.