Critical Reflection

At the start of this semester, I wrote that I wanted to learn how to write professional reports, communicate more effectively and gain more confidence in talking to people. As this semester comes to a close and I look back at the 13 weeks I spent in this class, I can say that overall, I have at least partially achieved these goals. I have indeed learned how to write professional letters, including technical reports and transmittal letters. I have learned how to properly format and cite them as well as how to leave out ‘I’s' and ‘We’s' to make the letter seem less biased to the reader. I believe this course has successfully taught me how to write in a way that takes the audience into account and appeals to them and that these skills will be very useful in the future.

However, in terms of effective communication and confidence in speaking, I can say that while I have improved during this course, I still have a long way to go. Throughout this module, Professor Blackstone provided me with several opportunities to go out of my comfort zone and speak in front of others. I took on the role of a speaker during my group project despite my weakness and was encouraged by my group whenever I had to present in front of the class. However, whenever I presented, I was asked to raise my voice as I was always too quiet to hear. My general tone, expressions and posture were overall too stiff and too monotonous to earn me a good score for my presentation.

I feel like the factor that contributed to all this was my fear of speaking as time and time again, I was too overwhelmed by the situation to utilize any of the proper skills taught to effectively give a presentation, such as moving your hands or talking slower. Knowing this, what I can try to do going forward is push myself to speak out more. As the constant chances I got during class somewhat helped me become less scared of public speaking, continuing to do so may help me build more confidence and thus become a better speaker.  

As for the project, though it had a rocky start; it took us about 2 in-class sessions to actually get started as we had to change our target upon finding out that a better solution already existed, I would say that the project went extremely well. It took us around 4 meetings to finish the report and that was due entirely to the coordination, cooperation and, most importantly, communication of all the team members.

This experience taught me that teamwork means relying on others while also being able to pull your own weight. It means making sure everyone is on the same page before making a decision and helping each other out. It was only through effective teamwork that we managed to finish the report so quickly and I’m extremely grateful for my teammates' support throughout.

I also learned how to be a more active team member. In past projects, I was more passive overall; I wouldn’t ask questions and would just go with the majority. However, from the very moment this project started, I was ‘forced’ to give my input, from what the project should focus on to the pros, cons and feasibility of each idea. It was honestly a new experience for me and I think I was a better teammate because of it. In the future, I will have to push myself to be a more active team member as not every team project will actively encourage me to give more input like this one did.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank Professor Blackstone for providing me with chances to push myself in class as well the encouragement and feedback he gave me throughout the course. I’d also like to thank my teammates, Xian Sheng, Mark and Yeow for being so understanding and always listening to what I had to say.

Thanks!

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