Critical Reflection

 

Beyond strong technical knowledge, strong engineering communication skills are essential for presenting concepts and designs to confidently present their ideas to decision-makers in presentations, meetings, and reports. As communication has never been my strength in Temasek Polytechnic, I have always wanted to improve on my writing and presentation skills by the end of this module. Throughout this module, I have always reminded myself to overcome the fear of being wrong, learn to ask big questions, and never be afraid of making mistakes as this is the best chance to learn from my mistakes. Professor Brad has helped me greatly by taking his time to correct my assignments and patiently answered all my questions when I was in doubt.

Even though I was not afraid of the crowd, I tend to stutter and use filler words during my presentation. To overcome this, I learned not to say the first thing that comes to my mind but instead understand exactly the message I am trying to get across. Reading more books and newspapers has greatly improved my vocabulary and grammar to better phrase my ideas across too. I have also learned to read my audience's facial expressions and ask myself why they are attending and what do they wish to find out. By understanding my audience, I can tailor my message accordingly to better engage them. Lastly, as messages do get conveyed from nonverbal communication too, I have also worked on my body language to better present myself. Understanding the various aspects of body language allows me to present myself positively without speaking a word. I believe learning these skills and practicing often will allow these skills to become habits. Once they become my second nature, my presentation and communication skills will flow with confidence.

For my research project, I was in charge of the benefits and limitations. Through this process, I realized the importance of teamwork. Both my classmates and I are all staying at a different location, hence, the three of us must plan a location that is convenient for us and make time for each other. All of us have different attributes which could benefit each other, for example, Diyanah was fantastic with her research skills and Aasiq was great with his writing and presentation skills. Three of us came together and help each improve on our weak points. I have always been loud and confident, but after working together with both Aasiq and Diyanah, I realize there were so many rooms for improvement. Aasiq helped me tremendously with my writing skills and the choice of words during presentation and Diyanah help me with the research project report which requires in-depth evidence and primary research. However, halfway through the project, a problem arises, we realized that the proposed solution was not feasible at all. I was amazed by how Diyanah and Aasiq handled the problem because they were calm and handled it professionally. The three of us brainstormed and came up with a solution within a day which made me proud and delighted to be in the same team with them.

The unique thing about this module was that Professor Brad wanted us to improve as a class and help each other, this would then make school a less competitive environment and to my surprise, I was excited to attend classes every week. My key takeaway from this project was the learning experience I had with not only my group mates but my classmates as well, helping one another grow and learning from our mistakes to get better grades.

It was a great pleasure being Professor Brad's student and I would like to thank him for making classes such an enjoyable learning process for me.