2008 Woodie Awards
Today's Lesson
Group Presentation, Anyone?
Paula Wilder
Issue date: 4/11/08 Section: Forum
I know that I am not alone in this fear and hatred of the group presentation so, what is the point and why do we have to endure this in a large number of our classes here at Guilford?
I don't have a definitive answer from any one professor, but from my experience in life, a group presentation is indicative of the way a lot of life goes, so in essence it can be used to prepare you for how life on the "outside" may go.
We've all seen it in the movies where there are two or three people that prepare a huge presentation or snag a great customer and only one person gets the credit for it. It is usually the person who has free loaded the whole way, but has the biggest mouth, and so gets all the attention.
It may not be that dramatic in real life, but it would definitely fall into the category of one of the fears of a group presentation and would definitely override and have longer lasting results than just receiving a "C" when you should have received an "A."
Maybe struggling through group presentations at Guilford will better prepare you for how to handle such a situation in the outside world. But I bet if we had a choice, we'd all rather just skip this training and learn some other way.
By the time you are reading this, I'll have struggled through my one group presentation this semester and I'll be glad it's over and for now, I'll be able to put that fear behind me.
I don't have a definitive answer from any one professor, but from my experience in life, a group presentation is indicative of the way a lot of life goes, so in essence it can be used to prepare you for how life on the "outside" may go.
We've all seen it in the movies where there are two or three people that prepare a huge presentation or snag a great customer and only one person gets the credit for it. It is usually the person who has free loaded the whole way, but has the biggest mouth, and so gets all the attention.
It may not be that dramatic in real life, but it would definitely fall into the category of one of the fears of a group presentation and would definitely override and have longer lasting results than just receiving a "C" when you should have received an "A."
Maybe struggling through group presentations at Guilford will better prepare you for how to handle such a situation in the outside world. But I bet if we had a choice, we'd all rather just skip this training and learn some other way.
By the time you are reading this, I'll have struggled through my one group presentation this semester and I'll be glad it's over and for now, I'll be able to put that fear behind me.
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