Critical Reflection

Having good communication is a key aspect of our daily life, as it helps us to project our message across to one another. My initial goal for SIE2016 Effective Communication was to see an improvement in my speaking and writing skill as it will help me to boost my self-confidence and be better prepared in the future. With the help of Professor Brad and my classmates in the module, I would say I manage to achieve my goal to a certain extend.

During my time through this module, I was presented with multiple opportunities to improve my speaking and writing skills through various assignments and weekly lessons. Professor Brad would give us a platform to speak up during lessons and practice our communication skills. I still remember vividly our first assignment was a self-introduction letter, it was the first writing assignment I was tasked with after being away from school for more than two years. The feeling was really weird I did not know how to get started with the writing and had difficulty writing using proper language. However, I just continue writing to my best ability and was given very constructive feedback on the assignment which help me to further improve and identify my weakness. This assignment has helped me to understand my writing skills and how writing and speaking are different in a certain aspect.

One of the challenges in the module was the assignment about the technical report, it require us to research a problem statement and come up with a possible solution. There will be lots of paraphrasing and citation that need to be done which are my weakness. Therefore I am really thankful to have my groupmates, Jane, Kathleen and Kriston to help me along the way to complete the report and presentation. We often meet up through Discord to discuss our project and help one another along the way whether is it in researching the topic or writing the report. Our group can work together efficiently as we each excel in the different aspects that can help to make the assignment better.

There were multiple opportunities throughout the module that gave me the chance to present and voice out in class, either by reading the lesson notes or impromptu presentations that have to be done. Those opportunities have helped me to gain confidence in speaking in a group.

Another challenge I have faced in the module was during the oral presentation, Due to the uprise of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lesson has been changed from physical to online. Therefore we were told that the oral presentation had to be done online, we made the preparation of having to present online and had our mock presentation online. However just a few days before the actual presentation, we were told that Professor Brad had managed to push for our actual presentation to be done physically. We had to make changes and be prepared for the presentation to be physical as presenting physically is different from online where the audience can assess you through your body language, eye contact and volume.

During the actual presentation, I was nervous and tried my best to present all the content that I want the audience to hear this has caused my body language to be stiff and I stuttered on certain sentences while trying to recall what I wanted to say. However, the feedback I was given was very supportive and will help me to improve my presentation skills in the future. Thinking back having the physical presentation was really a confidence boost for me as it was the first physical presentation.

"Practice every time you get a chance" by Bill Monroe, is the quote that I will use, to sum up, my journey in this module. Every lesson was an opportunity for me to improve on my language. Grabbing every chance available and you will learn a lot of useful skills that can be used in the future. Although I did not manage to achieve goals completely, I still managed to see an improvement in myself. I would like to thank Professor Brad and my classmates that all helped me to improve my writing and speaking skills.