Reflection for SIE2016 Effective Communication

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Through this module, it has taught me the importance of essential communication and writing skills that is applicable for the rest of my life. The goal I have set for myself at the start of the module is to improve my writing and communication skills. In this module, I have realised that writing of reader response, purpose and problem statements have to be precise, clear and focused as I tend to go off-track from the main subject. Through much-needed guidance and advice from my peers and professor, I have honed my writing skills in terms of the correct usage of tense and grammar. Also, there are many useful website links shared by Professor Blackstone that aid me when performing the tasks given. Looking back at the assignment I did, even though my writing skills are still not fluent/perfect, I personally feel that my English writing skill has gradually improved compared to the initial phase of my learning journey in this module.

During the presentation showcase, I have learnt a lot from observing the teams that have presented where each group have its own strengths in the aspect of the confidence level, speech delivery as well as visual aids in slides. At the same time, the panel judges have pointed out some useful tips that I can learn from as well where I remembered one of the judges explained why the presenters should not apologise when saying something 'wrong'. I feel that all the teams have presented very well, and there are a lot of learning points to take away from this presentation showcase.

One of the key takeaways from this module is the presentation in class. To be honest, I am very disappointed in how I did my presentation in class as this is not how I envisioned myself in speaking to everyone when presenting the ideas I had in mind. I have to admit that my nerves got the better of me, which resulted in me being very disorganised and forgot the flow of ideas I wanted to convey to the class. My weak command in English hinders me from improvising the words during my presentation, which led to many awkward moments where I could not speak in proper sentences. However, through this experience, I can know the areas I am exceptionally weak at. Knowing that there is huge room for improvements, I believe I will not stop learning here. Hopefully, I can continue to improve through conscious effort in learning.

To conclude, I would like to sincerely thank Professor Blackstone for the engaging lessons as well as being ever so encouraging towards the class. I would like to thank the class as well for making this module an enjoyable one.

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