No pain, no gain. There is so much truth in this saying. Why? Because each time you go through the stress (read pain!) of organising a contest, you grow in your organisational and leadership skills. Delegating has always been one of my weaker areas. At the club contest in September, I ended up preparing a lot of the stuff myself. This time round for the area contest, I delegated as much work as I possibly could.
Still, I ended up with a lot of loose ends and details that I overlooked. Like not having an extra SD card to take videos of the contestants, not having blank paper for judges and contestants to take notes. Not only that, one of the air-cons in the room broke down (on a positive note, it gave us a warm audience) and there were not enough chairs - it was literally full-house. The food was also insufficient. Areas for improvement...
In my closing address, I was able to draw laughter from the audience by tapping on the contestants' earlier humorous speeches. But oops, I forgot to mention the chief judge and judges when thanking everyone for helping out in the contests. It will definitely help to write down the key points and run through them in my mind before I go up to speak.
Next assignment: contest chair for the Division Z contest on 10 October 2009.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
LANGUAGE EVALUATION @ ULU PANDAN TMC
LANGUAGE EVALUATION @ ULU PANDAN TMC on 6 OCTOBER 2009
Word of the day:
delirious (adjective): extremely excited and happy
She was delirious with joy when the compere announced that she was the winner.
deliriously (adverb): The crowds cheered deliriously when the home team scored a goal.
delirium (noun): Not able to think or speak in a rational way because of illness or fever.
I thought I was suffering from delirium.
BRICKBATS
VOCABULARY:
INCORRECT USAGE CORRECTION
1. Ms club president Madam President
2. maximum number of oxygen maximum amount of oxygen
3. all of us are guilty with.. all of us are guilty of
4. she did well by bringing up a visual aid she did well by displaying a visual aid
5. She would have improved better if.. she would have improved if …
6. What she could have do… what she could have done
7. Use the six steps to do a better project use the six steps to present a better project
8. Which I will come and address later which I will address later in my speech
9. What is the main message you want What is the main message you want to share with the audience?
to say?
10. It is very inspiration. It is very inspirational.
11. Persistency persistence (noun) or persistently (adverb)
SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
1. May be young, may be matured or any group of age..
Correction: may be young, may be old or any age…
2. It feels a sense of achievement.
Correction: I felt a sense of achievement.
3. … which I am completing in next year June.
Correction: …which I am completing in June next year.
4. I’m still in a shocked state.
Correction: I’m still in a state of shock.
BOUQUETS
ALLITERATION:
born and bred in Singapore
efforts and expertise
busy as a bee
POWER OF THREE:
I was shocked, embarrassed and angry.
Military training, thinking, tactics
upkeep, upgrade, update
physical, mental and social well-being
RHYME:
gabra like zebra
survive but to thrive
PARALLEL STRUCTURE:
What you want to do when you want to do it.
ACRONYM:
Use of acronym ARMY for evaluation points:
ARMY: ACES, REASONS, MY OPINIONS, YARDSTICK
I had failed to give credit to Seh Leng for the use of power of three in her Table Topic speech. She mentioned that there are three family members born in the years of the CHINESE zodiac sign of the TIGER. She ascribed each of them with a characteristic: Her grandmother is domineering, her father is chauvinistic and her brother is assertive, “a tiger in the making”. An excellent use of the power of three!
Word of the day:
delirious (adjective): extremely excited and happy
She was delirious with joy when the compere announced that she was the winner.
deliriously (adverb): The crowds cheered deliriously when the home team scored a goal.
delirium (noun): Not able to think or speak in a rational way because of illness or fever.
I thought I was suffering from delirium.
BRICKBATS
VOCABULARY:
INCORRECT USAGE CORRECTION
1. Ms club president Madam President
2. maximum number of oxygen maximum amount of oxygen
3. all of us are guilty with.. all of us are guilty of
4. she did well by bringing up a visual aid she did well by displaying a visual aid
5. She would have improved better if.. she would have improved if …
6. What she could have do… what she could have done
7. Use the six steps to do a better project use the six steps to present a better project
8. Which I will come and address later which I will address later in my speech
9. What is the main message you want What is the main message you want to share with the audience?
to say?
10. It is very inspiration. It is very inspirational.
11. Persistency persistence (noun) or persistently (adverb)
SENTENCE STRUCTURE:
1. May be young, may be matured or any group of age..
Correction: may be young, may be old or any age…
2. It feels a sense of achievement.
Correction: I felt a sense of achievement.
3. … which I am completing in next year June.
Correction: …which I am completing in June next year.
4. I’m still in a shocked state.
Correction: I’m still in a state of shock.
BOUQUETS
ALLITERATION:
born and bred in Singapore
efforts and expertise
busy as a bee
POWER OF THREE:
I was shocked, embarrassed and angry.
Military training, thinking, tactics
upkeep, upgrade, update
physical, mental and social well-being
RHYME:
gabra like zebra
survive but to thrive
PARALLEL STRUCTURE:
What you want to do when you want to do it.
ACRONYM:
Use of acronym ARMY for evaluation points:
ARMY: ACES, REASONS, MY OPINIONS, YARDSTICK
I had failed to give credit to Seh Leng for the use of power of three in her Table Topic speech. She mentioned that there are three family members born in the years of the CHINESE zodiac sign of the TIGER. She ascribed each of them with a characteristic: Her grandmother is domineering, her father is chauvinistic and her brother is assertive, “a tiger in the making”. An excellent use of the power of three!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Project Evaluation of P4
Last week, I had the joy of visiting NUS Alumni TMC to evaluate a Project 4 speech. The speech title was "There are no ugly women, only lazy ones". P4 focuses on use of words, rhetorical devices and proper grammar and pronunciation.
My evaluation points included two commendations (IR) and two recommendations (GP).
COMMENDATIONS:
I Introduction
The speaker uses questions in her introduction to engage the audience. The questions were direct and simple to understand, which allowed the audience to respond easily.
R Rhetorical devices
The speaker was able to use rhetorical devices such as alliteration (e.g. picture perfect, ladies are lovely, forefront of fashion) and metaphors (e.g. gentle bashful guys transform into women-hungry wolves, for every cloud there is a silver lining) to spice up her speech.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
G Grammar
Incorrect grammar was used in some instances. For example, in the sentence "I was expecting for more", for is redundant. The phrase "to bring around him and his friends from Germany" is better rephrased as "to bring him and his friends from Germany around Singapore". In the phrase "we went into great lengths", the correct preposition should be to, as in "we went to great lengths".
P Pronunciation
Pronunciation of some words were incorrect. For example, 'infamous', 'fizzled off' and 'gigantic'.
In conclusion, leverage on your strengths of using questions to engage the audience and rhetorical devices to emphasize your points. Work on your grammar and pronunciation and rehearse your speech to perfection. Then you will be able to dazzle your audience with speeches that exhibit greater finesse and pizzazz.
My evaluation points included two commendations (IR) and two recommendations (GP).
COMMENDATIONS:
I Introduction
The speaker uses questions in her introduction to engage the audience. The questions were direct and simple to understand, which allowed the audience to respond easily.
R Rhetorical devices
The speaker was able to use rhetorical devices such as alliteration (e.g. picture perfect, ladies are lovely, forefront of fashion) and metaphors (e.g. gentle bashful guys transform into women-hungry wolves, for every cloud there is a silver lining) to spice up her speech.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
G Grammar
Incorrect grammar was used in some instances. For example, in the sentence "I was expecting for more", for is redundant. The phrase "to bring around him and his friends from Germany" is better rephrased as "to bring him and his friends from Germany around Singapore". In the phrase "we went into great lengths", the correct preposition should be to, as in "we went to great lengths".
P Pronunciation
Pronunciation of some words were incorrect. For example, 'infamous', 'fizzled off' and 'gigantic'.
In conclusion, leverage on your strengths of using questions to engage the audience and rhetorical devices to emphasize your points. Work on your grammar and pronunciation and rehearse your speech to perfection. Then you will be able to dazzle your audience with speeches that exhibit greater finesse and pizzazz.
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