Reflection on learning

It has come to the end of the semester. Even though this is the toughest semester that I had, it’s really a very fruitful learning experiences based on what I have learnt from 4 interesting core modules as well as from ES2007S, Professional Communication. ES2007S has helped to improve my communication skills in several ways.

The area which I have learnt the most is how to write a formal proposal. From the proposal assignment, I have familiarized myself with the format and content required for a good proposal. Writing a proposal would aid in my future career as well as current CCA activities since we will be required to submit proposal when looking for sponsorship. In addition to that, this proposal assignment has also enabled me to learn about the method to conduct a proper survey to general public and interview with authority in order to obtain particular information.

I am also very glad to learn about writing business letter, in particular writing a cover letter. In my opinion, knowledge of writing business letter is crucial for the reason that it will be the most frequent used communication channel in workplace.

Besides that, I have also been taught about the 7Cs of writing. This part is very helpful for drafting email and writing assignment within certain word limits. I have learnt how to make my sentence concise and convey my idea effectively. This part of learning can then be applied to blogging. Blogging is an effective way to improve our writing, as well as to discover the diversified thoughts and ideas of everyone in the class.

Lastly, I greatly appreciate the presentation opportunities provided by this module. My presentation skills have improved significantly after having the two presentations. The experience in last presentation is especially useful. The understanding achieved from Garr Reynolds’s presentation show, video materials, and live presentations from other classmates have helped me to improve my presentation skills to a great extent.

I have enjoyed the learning in this module and it is worthy to wake up early in the morning to attend Mrs Richardson classes and learn something useful. Nevertheless, there is still a lot more for me to learn in this field of communication. I shall continue to explore more relevant information in order to be success in my future work life.

(Thank you Mrs Richardson for your guidance throughout the semester)

Reflection on oral presentation

The oral presentation on last Tuesday was the fifth presentation that I had in this semester. Honestly I do not like presentation because my English is not fluent to speak without memorizing a script or reading from slides. But of course presentation is an excellent way to train us to be more confident to speak in front of crowds in the future. Indeed, this presentation is very challenging because we have to use minimum number of words in all the slides, to have excellent visual effects in the slides, and it’s also not recommended to use a handout during the presentation. Hence, my preparation for this presentation was to draft a script and then memorize it according to slides. Besides practising in front of a mirror to build up my confidence and notice my body language, I also practised numerous times with my group members in order to receive feedback from each other and to manage the time of presentation.

During the presentation, I think I have managed to overcome the fears and anxieties and able to recall everything that I am ought to deliver. Even though I was able to complete my part of presentation smoothly, there are a few things that I must keep in mind so that I can improve further.

The first thing which I shall take note of is the mispronunciation of words. I have received comments from other classmates that there was mispronunciation here and there throughout my presentation as well as some grammatical errors. I am pretty upset by this comment because I thought my pronunciation was better compared to my pronunciation during practices. Although my pace and volume of speech were good, mispronunciation and grammatical errors could jeopardize my credibility of a presenter.

Next, based on the evaluation forms, I should also improve my confidence during the presentation. Being able to present confidently will demonstrate your control over the presentation and will help you to convey the message effectively. Maybe I should practice more frequently in front of mirror or friends to further improve on this.

Last but not least, I was impressed by the presentation of Footprints@NUS where they have wonderful visual effects in their slides and very interesting ideas to convey the messages. This is a very important thing that we shall learn because it helps the audiences to focus on your presentation. Perhaps we could spend more time in designing the slides and thinking of interesting ideas to deliver our messages. As an overall, in fact everyone knows that importance of presentation but to master it would be very difficult. Nonetheless, it shall be kept in mind that practice makes perfect and the reflection of past presentation would help you to succeed in the next presentation.