Week 10 Blog

Hello once again to my interested fans and readers. This week saw me manage to complete and upload the final version of my paper to the College Board, thus completing a major chapter in my work for this project. It also saw me begin to greatly intensify the work that I had been putting into completing both the script for my presentation and the actual presentation itself. The completion of my presentation this week meant it would be a busy week of studying the script to achieve that goal. I also began to specifically look back at the opening slides of my presentation to ensure that they matched changes that I made to my final paper, and that these slides were refined enough to keep the audience interested. With the deadline for my presentation fast approaching, it has been a busy week for my project.

The first step that I took this week was to sit down and comprehensively read through my completed paper. I looked for any and all personally identifying information that I could, checking for my name, the name of my teachers and consultants, and for any information on the school itself. I also used this opportunity to do a final run-through of my paper for any grammar or syntax mistakes, as these would greatly detract from the credibility of the paper and the research that I had spent so much time trying to complete. To finish the paper off, I added in sub-headings to each of the major sections that it was composed of to ensure that the readers were in no way confused or unsure of the paper’s organization. With all this completed, I uploaded the paper to the College Board website and began my full-focus work on the presentation.

I first focused on the actual script for the presentation, looking to see if what I would be saying to the audience actually matched up with the slides I had created and the flow of the paper itself. After making a few edits to it, I moved towards examining how well my initial slides matched up to the now final paper and I found that I had to make a number of changes based on the edits that I had made earlier to my literature review and other parts of my paper. Considering that my paper’s organization and flow had changed a fair amount by the time the final was complete, I went back and reorganized the presentation to better match this flow, removing unnecessary information and focusing on making each slide representative of its subject material in the paper. Also, I put more focus on reducing the number of words on each of my slides, as I realized that they were becoming fairly verbose and I was relying too much on the presentation to convey my points instead of my own speaking to explain the research to the audience.

This week saw me end a major chapter in my work for this project, and it saw me take on a different aspect with a wholly new focus and determination. My coming time will only be spent further improving and building off my current presentation.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 9 Blog

Hello once again interested fans and readers. This week saw me practice presenting my research for the first time and then had me move on to examining the recording of my presentation and the feedback I received from the board of teachers to best improve my presentation. Also, this week saw me look to the presentations of some of my closer friends to get a better idea of the exact way to structure and organize my presentation. I learned a large amount of new information on how to better make my presentation both interesting and appealing to the audience, while still making sure that it was not to verbose or distracting to the actual points I was making. With my presentation redo set for tomorrow morning, it has been a week of intensive edits and corrections for me.

The first step I took this week was to review the video of my presentation to get a thorough understanding of where I could improve on my actual presenting ability. An immediate error that I noticed was that I had a weak memory for the script and that I needed to both edit and more thoroughly review it for my next presentation. In addition to my continuous pausing to remember the lines of my script, I also noticed that I was having problems directing my eyes towards the audience and keeping good posture. I took mental note of this and practiced reading off lines from my script while staring at something specific and standing straight to get more used to it. Another problem that I noticed in the video recording of my presentation was that I had a number of redundant points throughout the actual presentation itself. I began to remedy this by removing unnecessary bullet points, slides, and words that I felt added very little to the presentation.

Another important step that I took this week was to look at the presentations of my friends who did well on their practice runs to get a better idea of how my presentation should flow and what is should look like visually. With Malavika’s permission, I began by looking at her presentation and immediately noticed a number of excellent changes I could make to my own. The first important edit I realized I should make was to add many more photos and visually stimulating images so that the presentation itself was actually stimulating to the audience. Another change I realized I should make was to greatly reduce the word count of my slides, as I was just repeating the things I would be saying to the audience anyway. Finally, a change I realized I should make was to place my research question after my literature review, as this mimicked the structure of the paper and made it easier for the audience to understand by that point in the presentation.

Between trying to improve my presentational skills in person and trying to look at the feedback I received from the faculty, it has been a busy week of editing for me.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic 

Week 8 Blog

Hello and happy April fool’s day to my interested fans and readers. This week saw me manage to complete and upload the final version of my paper to the College Board, thus completing a major chapter in my work for this project. It also saw me begin to greatly intensify the work that I had been putting into completing both the script for my presentation and the actual presentation itself. I also began to specifically look back at the opening slides of my presentation to ensure that they matched changes that I made to my final paper, and that these slides were refined enough to keep the audience interested. With the deadline for my presentation fast approaching, it has been a busy week for my project.

The first step that I took this week was to sit down and comprehensively read through my completed paper. I looked for any and all personally identifying information that I could, checking for my name, the name of my teachers and consultants, and for any information on the school itself. I also used this opportunity to do a final run-through of my paper for any grammar or syntax mistakes, as these would greatly detract from the credibility of the paper and the research that I had spent so much time trying to complete. To finish the paper off, I added in sub-headings to each of the major sections that it was composed of to ensure that the readers were in no way confused or unsure of the paper’s organization. With all this completed, I uploaded the paper to the College Board website and began my full-focus work on the presentation.

I first focused on the actual script for the presentation, looking to see if what I would be saying to the audience actually matched up with the slides I had created and the flow of the paper itself. After making a few edits to it, I moved towards examining how well my initial slides matched up to the now final paper and I found that I had to make a number of changes based on the edits that I had made earlier to my literature review and other parts of my paper. Considering that my paper’s organization and flow had changed a fair amount by the time the final was complete, I went back and reorganized the presentation to better match this flow, removing unnecessary information and focusing on making each slide representative of its subject material in the paper. Also, I put more focus on reducing the number of words on each of my slides, as I realized that they were becoming fairly verbose and I was relying too much on the presentation to convey my points instead of my own speaking to explain the research to the audience.

This week saw me end a major chapter in my work for this project, and it saw me take on a different aspect with a wholly new focus and determination. My coming time will only be spent further improving and building off my current presentation.

Regards,

Lazar Vukcevic