Critical Reflection

Module learning:

When I first entered this module, I thought that it would just be like any other communication class, similar to those that I have taken back in my polytechnic days. I knew my presentation skills were not perfect but I thought I only needed minor improvements, and as for my writing skills, I was confident that I am above average. However, through the weeks in this module, I have discovered that my thinking was no more than shallow and was wrong in my self-assessment.

Throughout the trimester, I have been exposed to numerous writing skills, ranging from formal introduction email to formal research report. The tasks given were by no means an easy task and I often work on it for a long time as there were plenty of research to be done. However, this broadened my view of my writing skills and how subpar it is compared to my classmates. After every task, I found myself slowly improving and gaining confidence through the feedbacks offered by my peers as well as prof. These insightful feedbacks was an integral part of my improvements and I was thankful for all the honest though brutal feedback.

Furthermore, this module provided the best resources by far compared to any other module. Everything can be found in our google drive, from our schedule to content and previous student's work. This made finding resources very easy and I could always find references whenever I encounter a problem or whenever I get stuck. This proves that our course has been very well-planned and I sincerely appreciate the thought process that went behind this implementation. The resources were also crucial for academic, I strongly believe that by mimicking these past work, we will integrate the skills better into our own work.

I would like to extend my gratitude to this module, through this module, I was able to refine my skills every week and that led to my new found confidence in public speaking. As I stated in my self intro, I didn't have much experience in presentation and felt like I was not confident sharing my ideas, but after the constant assurance and feedback given by prof and my peers, I was able to break free from my imposter syndrome and realise that I was the only factor holding me back. From this, I have learned to freely express my thought in speech and capture the attention of my audience. I see this being an asset moving forward for my upcoming projects and even future job.

Project Learning:

For our team's research project, I took the role of the secretary. My key task were to take notes during discussions within my team and output them into meeting minutes. At the start, I found myself having trouble keeping up as there was too much being shared and each sharing can last upwards of 3 hours. However, as our team dynamics developed, we found ourselves taking up key roles and directions that we would focus on and this eventually made us more focused on only the key information.

Working with my teammates was a blast, they were very supportive and we'd pick each other up if we were falling behind. One of the best key takeaway that I had from working with my team is to be open-minded. Not everyone's thinking is the same but everyone should be heard, by being open-minded, we were able to hear different insights and perspectives. This allows us to think from a different point of view and understand each other before evaluating whose idea is better. As the saying goes "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together".