Critical Reflection

 

At the start of the trimester, I have set some goals for myself to achieve in the effective communication class. My goal for the module was to improve on report writing as I often have some difficulties expressing myself in words and also further enhance my presentation skills. 

Throughout the 13 weeks, there were many assignments and tasks to complete which tackles on my writing skills. During the first assignment, the summary, I had some difficulties trying to summarize the article which took up quite a fair bit of time as I tend to over summarize and include details that are not significant. However, after the consultation and some guidance by Professor Blackstone during the reader’s response assignment, it has helped me to shorten the amount of time needed to write the report as I was able to process my thoughts more clearly after applying the pyramid principle and also identifying the thesis statement. Overall, I felt that I was able to break down my thought process better and ensure that my content is sufficient whilst cutting down the amount of time needed for me to draft a report.

In terms of communication skills, I felt that I was able to communicate more freely as Professor Blackstone would always engage the class to answer questions. This has allowed me to voice out more often, learn from my mistakes and also learn from my peers. During in-class exercises, Professor Blackstone would also often group us with different students in the class which allowed me to communicate with different people and adapt to different working styles. I feel that I can further improve on my communication skills by reading nonverbal communication signs such as body language and be clear to the point when communicating with others. It is especially important to be clear to the point when working with teammates as they might have some misconceptions which may lead to misunderstandings.

For our research project, I have learnt extensively as the technical report consists a myriad of components and throughout the process of drafting the report, there were many learning outcomes. Firstly, for the writing skills, I have learnt how to be more organized and have a good flow to writing the report. As the different components of the report was written throughout a span of 5 weeks, Professor Blackstone guided us on how we should compose each of the component and the main idea. Throughout the report, I have learnt how to draft an executive summary and the APA style of citation.

The process of writing the report was tedious but my teammates, Tobi and Bernice, made it more bearable by splitting the task evenly. In order to have good progression, we would often arrange a suitable time to meet on Zoom to develop our report. Throughout the research project, I have learnt that Tobi is more outspoken, and he expresses his thoughts better through verbal communication as compared to technical writing. On the other hand, Bernice was able to articulate her thoughts on report writing better. The different strengths allowed us to work cohesively in order to produce a good technical report.

Through the pitching of ideas in the research project, my presentation skills improved. My confidence level was built up as the pitching was done in a circle which seems a little intimidating to me at first. However, I felt that my voice projection and eye contact could be better during the actual presentation in order to better engage the audiences.

All in all, I would like to express my utmost gratitude to Professor Blackstone for making the 13 weeks together a fruitful one.