ES2007S Professional Communication

Final Reflection

2009-04-16T21:13:00.001+08:00

As we come to the end of the semester and the end of this module, my understanding of the value of effective communication skills remains unchanged. To me, developing effective communication skills is always important as one is constantly meeting new people and having to communicate to them. By making the effort to upgrade and improve one’s skills in communication, we will be able to better convey messages to people around us and thus achieve more meaningful and happier relationships.

To be honest, I bided for this module initially as it has no exams and I could use my programme points to bid for it (I was using the points in my general account to bid for Natural Heritage!). Although I love to read, I was always intimidated and daunted by the task of writing as I feel that languages in general is a form of art – something that I would like to appreciate and admire but not create. Other than my own diary which I have kept since I was young, I never liked writing in school as I felt that the grading of our work is rather subjective and sometimes depends on the liking of our teachers. For that reason, I have always avoided modules that involve tons of writing in the university (where we had more freedom in choosing the things we learn), and stuck close to things I felt safe with, such as mathematics and science, which are more certain and definite. That is why I am doing engineering!

However, after taking this module (albeit being attracted by the wrong reasons initially), I have gained so much confidence in myself when it comes to writing, be it for formal cases such as reports, business letters, job application letters and email correspondences, or less formal situations such as blog posts. (:

From the whole experience of constructing our survey all the way to our presentation for our research project, I have learnt so much; I am now able to hold group project meetings efficiently and productively by following an agenda and also follow-up easily through the use of notes of meeting. As this was taught at the start of the semester, I was able to transfer the use of these skills to four of my other projects for this semester, which I benefited greatly from and saved me a lot of time. Being an engineering student, I was used to churning out lab reports for the numerous experiments we had to conduct since the start of Year Two. However, I was amazed by how much I learned from the formal report writing as there was so much more requirements to it. Initially, I liked the fact that there was a fixed structure for writing the formal report, which was so much less ambiguous than the lab reports and papers that I usually have to write. But I have to admit that the whole process was quite taxing as Dinidu and I had to stay up the entire night to write our findings and recommendations while trying to be coherent! (Yes we know it is our own fault for being so last minute!!) It all ended with the presentation, which I thought went alright but am starting to have second thoughts after reading the comments on my individual performance. -Cringes =X

I felt that the resume and interview skills were the most important takeaways from the module since these were the practical skills that could determine our future. Ultimately I have learnt that any interview takes with it a huge slice of luck, so it is best not to read too much into all the rejections but focus on the positives from all the interviews.

All in all, I am grateful for being in Brad’s class along with all my lovely classmates (yes I really think each and everyone of you is lovely!) as I am sure everyone has in one way or another, contributed to my learning and made this whole experience such an enjoyable one. Without any of you, the interactions in class or in our whole blogging arena would have been entirely different and incomplete. Thank you all for such a wonderful time, and thank you Brad, for the patience and guidance that you have shown us.

My Oral Presentation

2009-04-14T20:06:00.003+08:00

First and foremost, I would like to thank Sarah, Dinidu and Moses for being such lovely people! It was so easy to work with them, be it for the first part of the report as well as coming together to prepare for our oral presentation, which I felt was not too bad! (:

Overall, I felt that our group’s presentation was quite professionally done not just in terms of our dressing (we were trying to mimic Men in Black with suits and all; and we would have donned shades if not that it would affect our vision and eye contact with the class!) but also in our method of delivery. I felt that each of us were ready and prepared with our parts that we were to present on, and it helped that we rehearsed the night before so as to anticipate any problems that may crop up during our actual presentation. Also, our group knew our project well enough to handle the Q&A session with confidence.

Personally, I thought that I could have been more courageous by not holding on to the piece of paper that contained the list of things I wanted to convey to the audience. Although I was prepared with my part of the presentation, I still held on to that piece of paper as I was afraid I might blank out halfway and forget my points. That has resulted in my eyes flicking to the paper more often than I should have – a bad habit that I have yet to correct. Also, I thought I might have unconsciously rocked back and forth, but then again, I wouldn’t know if I had as it would have been done unconsciously! Aside from that, I thought I had delivered my part quite well with confidence, eye contact and appropriate references to the slides. For the slides, I had created my part while keeping in mind what Brad had told us in class, and tried not to put too many words in it.

In conclusion, I am rather pleased with our group’s (and also my individual) performance and I thought we have delivered our message quite effectively through this presentation! (:

Biodata

2009-03-23T01:18:00.001+08:00

My name is Yeo Wan Yu and I am currently a third year student pursuing a degree in Materials Science & Engineering in the National University of Singapore. Previously, I studied at Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ Primary and Secondary School for ten years before attending Meridian Junior College for two years.

During my time in Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School, I was in the school choir and have represented the school in various competitions such as the Singapore Youth Festival and Sing Singapore. I have also performed in many school events and external performances such as Christmas caroling. In Meridian Junior College, I was in the Modern Dance Club and have participated in competitions such as the Singapore Youth Festival and Danceworks!, along with various internal and external performances.

Apart from the academic education that I am pursuing in NUS, I have been highly involved in extra curricular activities as part of Eusoff Hall. For all my three years in NUS, I have been involved in the annual NUS Rag Day (representing Eusoff Hall), Eusoff Hall’s annual Dance Production and many internal and external events as a dancer and a choreographer. I have also represented Eusoff Hall in Funkamania, an annual dance competition in NUS. Having an interest in team sports, I have played basketball and volleyball for Eusoff Hall and took part in the Inter-Hall Games. I was also involved in various committees such as the External Relations Committee and the Sports Management Committee. Outside of hall, I have participated in the Engineering Freshmen Orientation Camp in my first year and went on to take part as a councilor in my second year. All these have helped to hone my leadership skills and taught me to be a team player with both management and organizational skills.

The work experiences I have to date include doing an internship at A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics, where I dealt with Through Silicon Vias (TSV) and solder bumps between logic dies and memory dies. I have also worked as a temporary assistant administrator in Canon Singapore Pte Ltd for six months before entering NUS. I have taken on various part-time jobs in sales and promoting for Reckitt Benkiser and VM&SD as well. Currently, I am giving private part-time tuition to primary and secondary school students.

I have a strong passion in the performing arts, and have been trained in classical piano, electone and classical ballet. Other past-time activities include basketball, blading and reading. An extrovert by nature, I hope to bring positive changes to the lives of my loved ones through my aspirations and zest for life.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour AGAIN!! (:

2009-03-19T01:50:00.003+08:00

Since my previous post was an utter failure in trying to portray an intercultural observation, I am going to make up for it with this post on the same topic!

Two years ago, I was working at the duty-free shop at Changi airport departure hall as a promoter for Absolut® Vodka for the launch of one of their new flavours. There was an Absolut® roadshow display at the airport for a couple of weeks with lucky draws and a sophisticated-looking bar for passengers to try the different Absolut® flavours.

During one of my shifts at the roadshow counter with a guy partner, there were a couple of Australian guys who came to sit and chat with us. Usually, we would serve the passengers some tasters and try to get them to purchase a bottle or two of the vodka. If there were passengers who treated the roadshow counter as a free bar, we were told to try and get them to leave in subtle ways. However, the two Australian guys bought a couple of bottles after trying the latest flavour and started chatting with us as we were packing their bottles. After finding out that they had a few hours to spare with nothing to do before their transit flight, we offered to make them more drinks as we were also bored on our part due to the slow traffic of passengers at that point of time.

The four of us hit it off really well as they shared with us their traveling experiences and we exchanged our thoughts on different matters. We were comfortable with their company and they even shared with us music that they listened to on their MP3 player. At one point of time, the Australian guys started to tell us about the parties they have back at the place where they came from and one of them took out a magazine to show us pictures of the party scenes. We leaned over the counter to get a better look while he flipped through the pages and little did we know, he was showing us pictures of women flashing their uncovered boobs at the cameras! Both of us got a shock at the same time and literally “jumped” back to our side of the counter and busied ourselves with washing the cups and wiping the counter. It was really awkward as we were genuinely taken aback and yet we had to try to keep up with the conversation to appear normal. While they went on ranting about how hot the girls were over there, the two of us were just smiling on the outside and squirming on the inside and we did not know how to respond. After awhile, much to our relief, they seemed to realise our uneasiness on the topic and dropped it.

This just goes to show the different level of openness on sexual references between people of different cultures, namely the Chinese and the Australians in this scenario.

Evaluating Intercultural Behaviour

2009-03-03T03:15:00.002+08:00

In hall, I have a close bunch of friends who are practically my family; we live in the same wing on the same floor of the same block, eat dinner in hall together every day, do various hall activities together, know the same people (or rather mostly everybody in hall), share the same gossips etc. In short, the nine of us spend almost all our time together when we are not having classes or when we are not out of hall (actually some of us take the same modules together and go out quite often together). Since we are all in our third year, we have been living this way together for the past three years. Although we all come from different backgrounds and culture, which explains the inevitable clashes we have at times, we all get along pretty well and are quite fond of one another.

There was once, Amy had a house-warming during the weekend and she invited just the bunch of us and some others (around 15 altogether) for lunch and an afternoon of movies, Guitar Heros and Wii. Most of us met beforehand somewhere nearby and walked over together. When we arrived, we greeted her mother and said our hellos to her brothers who were around at that time. After we had our lunch and were comfortably settled in the living room playing games, some of the others started to arrive and join us. What I noticed (or rather, only realized at hindsight) is that the ones who streamed in late also greeted Amy’s mum, who was shuffling between the kitchen and the living room, playing the hostess and talking to some of us. However, there was one friend, Melissa, who came in and after taking one look at Amy’s mum, who happened to be near the door, gave no acknowledgement or whatsoever. She simply turned her attention to us and joined in the merriment as if Amy’s mum was a servant and not worthy of her attention. There was an awkward moment between Melissa and Amy’s mum as the latter was obviously expecting a greeting when Melissa simply looked away. No one really noticed it as most of them were engrossed in the game but I happened to observe this seemingly insignificant “exchange” and was deeply shocked by Melissa’s rude behaviour.

Before I go on, I would like to give some background information on Melissa so that it is easier to understand why I was shocked. Melissa comes from a well-to-do family and her relatives are people of stature. Like her family, she is a devout catholic and has been sent to good schools prior to the university. She is amiable and friendly, but can be just a little judgmental and high-handed at times. She is well-liked by her peers, gets along well with people and comes across as mature to those who knows her.

Being brought up in a family where manners and respect for elders were greatly emphasized on, I could not comprehend her lack of manners in this case and was appalled by what I saw. I tried to think of possible reasons for her inexplicable behaviour and even spoke to my close friend (who knew her as an acquaintance as well) about it as it has left quite a deep impression in me. How could someone as refined as her not possess the basic courtesy to greet the parent of a friend whose home she was visiting? After much thought, I concluded that she might have been overwhelmed by the number of people that were already there and forgot her manners at that point of time in a haste to be accepted into the group. But if I was wrong; if the reason for her behaviour was due to the lack of manners and respect, I must say that no amount of wealth, education and status can guarantee one’s upbringing and values.

Business Correspondence Critique

2009-02-17T10:14:00.004+08:00

The email below was sent by a student from a particular department in the Faulty of Engineering to a Management Assistance Officer in the Office of External Relations of the same faculty regarding students helpers for the open house.

__________________________________________________________

From: Alicia Tan
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:42 AM
To: John Lee
Cc: Paul Koh; Shawn Lim; Clara Cho
Subject: Students helping for open house

Dear John,

Here are 4 people that can help out at the open house and their respective details. In summary, its 3 people on Sat, 2 on Sun. Do refer to details below on their available time slots.

Do let us know if you require us to attend any briefing sessions, when to collect the T-shirts and any other details. I've cc them this email as well, so you can easily reply to all of us.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Alicia Tan
__________________________________________________________

Firstly, Alicia should have included her department in the subject title as the reader is a Management Assistance Officer in the Office of External Relations in the Faulty of Engineering and is most probably in charge of more than one department of students. By doing so, the reader would be able to immediately identify that these students would be helping out with that particular department’s booth and not wait to read the entire email before figuring it out.

The salutation used in this case seemed to be inappropriate as John was not a friend but someone Alicia was collaborating with. She should have addressed him as Mr Lee.

The overall content of the email was concise and complete except for some grammatical errors such as “Here are 4 people that can help out…” which should be “Here are 4 people who can help out…” and “In summary, its 3 people on…” which should be “In summary, there are 3 people on...”

Finally, she could have signed off with the department and faculty she was from instead of just stating her name, which may not bear much significance to the reader. Also, it would be useful for the reader as she did not mention her department in the subject title.

The email could have looked like:
__________________________________________________________
From: Alicia Tan
Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:42 AM
To: John Lee
Cc: Paul Koh; Shawn Lim; Clara Cho
Subject: Students Helpers for Open House (MSE department)

Dear Mr Lee,

There are 4 student helpers for the open house and their respective details have been listed below. There will be 3 helpers on Saturday and 2 helpers on Sunday. Please refer to their details below on their available time slots.

Kindly let us know if we are required to attend any briefing sessions or if there are any further instructions.

Thank you very much.

Regards,
Alicia Tan
Material Science & Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
__________________________________________________________

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

2009-02-02T22:34:00.000+08:00

This incident happened to me when I was in Year 2 Semester 1 (3 semesters ago) when I first started taking level 2 core modules in Material Science & Engineering. There was laboratory work for a few of these modules and we were assigned our partners according to our matriculation number. This meant that we had to do all our experiments and reports together with our partners and I shall refer to mine as Jon.

Previously in Year 1, Jon and I were acquaintances and he had seemed like an easy-going person to me. After the first experiment, we had 2 weeks before our first report was due for submission and a viva was to be carried out. For those who may not know, a viva is an oral examination with our professors or lecturers on our laboratory report to make sure that we actually did the report (and experiment) ourselves and that we understood whatever that was done. Even though guidelines were given to us, we were both unsure of what was exactly required and how to go about doing things. Hence, we decided to meet up a few times to churn out the report together. The first viva went SO badly that all I can say now to emphasize the extent of its awfulness is that we might as well have not gone for it. Immediately after the torturous viva ended, he was very cold towards me and he ran off after muttering something about having to rush off for an appointment. We did not talk after that.

The next time I saw him was during our scheduled laboratory session the following week. We were both sitting around waiting for our demonstrator to start the experiment and avoiding any sort of contact when he suddenly came up to me and placed his handphone in front of me. He had typed a message that says “I hope I won’t have to do 80% of the work the next time round.” Imagine how astounded and dumbfounded I was. I simply sat there reading his message, not knowing how in the world to react to this baffling human form.

Let me list down the reasons as to why I was appalled:
1. We did everything together and there was no division of work. So I could not see where his “80%” came from.
2. Our report was horrible; we did not write it in proper format, we gave short answers to the discussion questions, and most importantly, the answers we gave were wrong. I felt that we did not do enough research on the topics and I did not see why he should put the blame on me when things went awry. Our report was very short and we only spent very little time on it. So how does one calculate 80% of that? It probably was not very much.

How was I supposed to react? I definitely did not agree with him, and I really wanted to share how I felt about this with him. But I found it hard to do so without offending him and it would most likely lead to an argument. I did not want to have a quarrel with a course mate (especially when our course had only around 40 people) as it would be very awkward in the future. So what was I suppose to do?

Effective Communication Skills

2009-01-25T17:06:00.002+08:00

Why developing effective communication skills is important to me...

Communication allows us to impart and exchange our thoughts, opinions and feelings through speech, writing or signs with the people around us. By doing so effectively, we are able to express and represent ourselves correctly and accurately, avoiding unnecessary misunderstandings which can be frustrating.

Personally, at this stage of my life, developing effective communication skills is probably all the more important as I am constantly meeting new people whom I have to work with (such as doing projects or carrying out experiments) or live with everyday (such as in hall). Also, as I proceed to enter the working society in the very near future, it would be to my advantage should I be able to articulate my ideas to my employers and colleagues in a befitting manner so as to have an enjoyable experience at work altogether.

As far as I know, I am a rather frank and outspoken person, and this has led me to face many pleasant and should I say not-so-pleasant situations. I try to be tactful and think before I speak most of the time but when it comes to those who are closer and whom I am more comfortable with, I tend to voice out my thoughts as soon as they appear in my head without much deliberation.

I recall one recent incident with my younger brother, when I was home during one of the weekends (I stay in hall on weekdays). My family and I were watching the television and I was being engrossed in the programme when my brother kept bugging me with questions regarding my handphone as he was considering getting one like mine. I answered them with one or two-word answers, neither giving him much attention nor taking note of my tone and gestures. After several questions, he suddenly burst out in an injured tone saying, “Why do you talk to me like I’m an idiot!” and that finally got my head snapping away from the television set to his direction. I was genuinely shocked at his outburst and simply replied that I was not and had no intention of making him feel that way. I could tell that it did nothing to appease his anger and since he did not say anything else, I decided to keep quiet just to give him time to cool off. Looking back, I guess I should have been more tactful and not say things like “that’s rather obvious right (even in a chiding tone)” although I really meant no harm. I think I took it for granted that people close to me, especially someone as close as a brother, would not take offence at anything I say knowing me well and knowing that I would never hurt them in any way. Things would probably have been fine if I had just the sensitivity to turn my head in his direction so he could tell from my expression that I was chiding him in an affectionate and not a condescending manner.

This incident illustrates how important effective communication is to me, when someone so close can misinterpret my intentions, let alone people whom I have just been acquainted with. And this is why we should all learn to develop our communication skills! (: