Final Reflection

Through ES2007S, I have gained deeper insights on good communication skills which include the verbal, non-verbal and written aspects of communication. Looking back at my first post, I see effective communication as a life-long ‘education’. I believe that we never stop learning and it takes experience and practice to improve our communication skills.

I feel that one of the most valuable takeaways from this course is learning to craft a successful resume and job application letter. The advice given by Brad and my classmates were really useful in improving my resume and job application letter. One of the activities that I enjoyed was the mock job interview, be it being the interviewer or the interviewee. It was really fun and I have learned so much on surviving a job interview from my classmates. Like my classmates, I feel that this was a good exposure and it definitely has better prepared me for a real job interview in the future.

As Brad has mentioned previously, the best way to improve one’s writing skills is to practice writing. And I totally agree with him! Initially, I found blogging a hassle due to my poor writing skills. However, I could see myself improving on my writing skills gradually through the blog assignments. Through blog writing, I also had a chance to discover that I tend to write minimal without much elaboration. Hence, I am grateful for the comments received from my classmates as they have helped me to identify my weaknesses and to further improve on my writing skills. In addition, I would like to thank my blogging buddy, Napalie, for her time and efforts to proofread my posts.

The project was an excellent opportunity for me to apply what I have learned during the course. I tried to adopt the 7Cs in writing the proposal and practice effective communication with my teammates. Besides this, I had a chance to write business correspondence, create a survey and carry out an interview together with my teammates. I believe all these experiences would be valuable to me when I step out into the working world in the near future.

I must say that the presentation was a nerve-wracking but rewarding experience for me. I have learned so much from listening to my classmates’ presentations. Big thanks to all who commented on my previous blog post! I really appreciate the encouragement and feedback on ways to improve my presentation skills.

Lastly, I would like to thank Brad for the wonderful learning experience and my classmates for making ES2007S a more enjoyable one.

Reflection on Oral Presentation

Firstly, I would like to thank my team members, Ruth and Yuanhua for the hard work during the past six weeks. It was a great experience working together with the girls and I truly enjoyed it.

For the preparation of slides, our team decided to use visual aids to enhance our presentation. In addition, we felt that the use of visual aids would better captivate the audience’s attention and hence making our presentation an interesting one.

However, I was extremely disappointed with my performance. I had a nervous breakdown and my mind went blank for a few seconds during the presentation. As a result, I was lost for words at some point of time and could not deliver my messages to the audience effectively. Thankfully, I became more relaxed halfway through the presentation but still, I felt that I had let my team down due to my bad performance.

From this incident, I have learnt that I should rehearse my speech well before the presentation. I could have done better if I am more prepared for the presentation. Overall, the oral presentation was a good learning experience for me as I have realised my mistakes and hopefully I can improve on my presentations in the future.

Lastly, I would also like to thank my classmates for their encouraging nods and smiles during the presentation. You guys (and girls) definitely made me felt much calmer after that. And thanks Brad for the big hug, I really appreciate it! =)