Critical reflection

My goals for this effective communication module were to improve on my public speaking skills as well as my writing skills. In my polytechnic days presentations were a part of our project work and I was rather weak in this field and moreover, during my two years of national service after my poly studies, I did not get to practice presentations at all. In these thirteen weeks of effective communication module, I believe I have achieved my goals.  

Through this effective communication module, I got the chance to brush up my presentation skills and also pick up related skills in effective communication. We were advised to pitch and sell our ideas in front of groups of threes and fours, whom are actually our project teammates, and then move on to pitch in front of the entire class. I realized now that the intention behind the pitching and selling of our own ideas to a small group of people and then gradually moving to pitch in front of more people such as in front of the whole class, is rather an interesting and unique way to help a relatively quiet student like myself to slowly gain confidence in speaking to a large audience. With constant practice with my teammates and family members at home, I felt that I was not as nervous while presenting as compared to before, and furthermore now I have the confidence of having eye-contact with the audience which is a very crucial element for a good presentation. The other goal I had was to improve on my writing skills, due to my poor command of the English language. I always had difficulties writing a good essay. I believe that through paraphrasing information that was sourced online, I was able to draft the summary reader’s response and annotated summary. Another important point that I took on board was how citations are important. For this module, we were asked to practice the APA format.  

For my research project, I was in a team of four members including myself. I was lucky to have teammates, who are cooperative and responsive. During our project, we spent a long time researching for information related to our project. By working as a team, we were able to learn from each other strengths and weaknesses. Also, we were able to provide each other with feedbacks and advices on how we could further improve our own individual parts. As I mentioned earlier, I was rather weak in presentations, and we had to do it without any aids. My team was aware of my weakness and they were patient enough to let me have more dry runs in order to boost my confidence. Through this research project, my team and I have also learnt how to draft up a proper report by citing useful information from credible sources such as research articles. 

Overall, it has been a fruitful thirteen weeks of effective communication, filled with countless memories and learning experiences. I believe that the greatest takeaway from this module is learning the importance of citations. Citation skills may seem trivial, but it is necessary for the many reports and papers that I will write during my time in Singapore Institute of Technology.