My goals for general communication modules have generally remained unchanged throughout my polytechnic and university life. The goals are to maintain an open mind for the module, learn as much as possible, and apply them in my studies as required. I am glad to be able to say that I was able to achieve these goals and learnt new things such as how to produce a technical report and how to critically analyse an article with the reader response assignment. I was also able to make use of what I was taught on the American Psychological Association (APA) style citations in this module for my reference list in another module, and I expect the other skills learnt in this module to be applicable in the near future. Through the various group assignments and the oral presentation, I was able to hone and refine my communication skills. As the class consists of students from varying educational backgrounds and specialisations, it forces me to abstain from using jargon and challenges me to develop creative ways to bring my points across. My individual assignments have also pointed out my weaknesses in grammar and sentence structure, which have become increasingly tougher to crack down on. Nevertheless, I still strive towards perfecting my mastery over the English language by continually using it.
Of all the assignments in the module, I feel that the technical report was the most notable. At first, I thought that being able to decide the problem to be addressed by my team would be a blessing as we would be able to suggest solutions which would be easy to push for adoption. However, it turned out to be a curse as we were unable to find satisfactory solutions to the problems we identified, leading to us running around in circles in an attempt to find a problem and solution that we feel are able to satisfy the criteria of the assignment. The production of the technical report challenged me to think critically about how the solution can be feasibly implemented in Singapore, how to successfully bring my point across to my members, and also how to identify the point being brought forward by my team members who may have difficulty in doing so. The oral presentation associated with the report also showed me the difference that proper and adequate preparations make towards an engaging and effective presentation. While I was fully satisfied with how my presentation went, I could not say the same for the written report. This is due to my difficulty in describing the information in the scholarly journals in the same concise and neutral way it was presented. While it may be difficult now, I do not doubt that this will become easier to do so over time as I get to expose myself to more scholarly journals as references for my future projects.
Overall, this module has helped me to identify my weaknesses and refine my techniques in communication. It has also boosted my confidence in my communication skills and equipped me with better skills to prepare reports and presentations in the future. Naturally, all of these would not be possible with the help of Professor Blackstone and my classmates, to whom I am thankful for providing a conducive and enjoyable learning environment to learn in.
