Critical Reflection

 

Looking back, 13 weeks have passed since embarking on a new journey, university. At the start of this journey, we were tasked to set goals to achieve from this module, SIE 2016 Effective Communication. The two main goals that I set were to improve my public speaking skills as well as develop my writing ability.

Reaching the end of the module, I feel that my public speaking skills definitely improved. Public speaking has always been an issue for me. Previously in my introduction letter, I mentioned that I feel uneasy when I present and that I would stutter and get mind blanks due to a lack of confidence in myself. During our lessons, Professor Blackstone would engage the class by selecting individuals to read to the class and answer certain questions. We were also given opportunities to present to our classmates which allowed me to feel more comfortable when presenting. Now, I am able to speak without stuttering and control my emotions enough to not blank out as often as before. However, I am still unable to get over the uneasy feeling during presentations and I still blank out when I feel intimidated.

My second goal was to develop my writing ability. In every lesson, we were constantly given opportunities to write, and comments on our writing were given on the spot. This allowed me to understand the different expectations of writing different types of documents. The class also frequently looked at the works of others and reviewed them together with our professor. From this, I was able to pick up good writing tips and the things that I should avoid writing. Through the writing of all the assignments, I would think that my craft of writing has improved. I feel that the review received from Professor Blackstone about my writing allowed me to learn the most. The detailed review of my work showed me the fine details that hindered me from producing a good essay. Now, I am able to adequately cite and produce an essay with minimal language use issues. Nevertheless, my writing still has room for improvement.

Often, we believe that there are no issues with the things we wrote because it is based on our understanding of the use of the language. However, our mistakes can be spotted by others who reads our writings. To further improve, I should let others who have a better command of the language review my work and learn the areas where I am lacking. I believe in the phrase ‘practice makes perfect’ where the more one practices, the better one gets. I should constantly practice writing as well as speaking to get better at communicating.

The technical report was the most memorable project out of all the assignments completed to me. Throughout the process of crafting the report, there were many mini tasks that we had to accomplish. The first task was to brainstorm ideas and produce a pitch to sell that idea to your groupmates. We then pitched our ideas to them and a handful was selected to pitch to the class. I was one of the selected few to share my idea in front of the class. From this exercise, I learnt that I tend to fidget a lot during presentations when I am nervous or unprepared. Looking at the others present their pitch, I was able to identify who were the few who are good at verbal communication and those who are subpar. Professor Blackstone provided tips on how we should present ourselves to ensure that our presentation looks formal and confident.

Following the pitch, we decided on a topic to work on and started crafting the report. The process of writing the report was strenuous as it was hard to find articles from credible sources to provide credibility to our report. Through the process of writing the report, I learnt that different people have different working styles as well as ideas to a certain topic. For me, my working style would be to work individually at my own pace as I know that each of us have our individual schedule to adhere to. Thus, work should be split up and assigned to each group member to have it completed before a certain deadline. However, I learnt that for two of my groupmates, they prefer the group to come together and work on our project instead. I am a very meticulous person, where I would ensure that my writing is adequate and everything is done properly for a part of the essay before moving on. When crafting the report, I realised that this is not the case for my peers. There are those who writes the whole essay before looking back to edit.

From this project, I am able to learn that different people deal with things differently. When working together with people that work differently from you, you just have to adept to the different working style. Communication is also important when working in a team, as it is crucial to have everyone to be on the same page to ensure working efficiency.