Assignment 1 Submission 2: Critical Reflection

Dear Prof Brad Blackstone, 

In the 7Cs, concise, coherent, and complete resonated with me the most. On top of being concise, by keeping the message short, simple, and not repeating, it is important to be coherent in communication. The message must have a logical flow of ideas as well as its tone and style must be consistent. I am fortunate to learn the 7Cs before the mentioned experiences as it helped me to shape my thoughts constructively. When I am equipped with concrete thoughts, it allows me to bring the message across without losing my audience’s attention. Furthermore, being equipped with concrete thoughts boosts my confidence when presenting.

Through the process of knowledge seeking and practice, I was able to achieve both goals I have set out to achieve through this effective communication course. My first goal was to be more comfortable in speaking to larger groups of people. I was given many opportunities to present to the entire class. It began with small steps like reading aloud the passages on screen to giving presentations to the class. My final presentation stood out the most as my team had some bumps when presenting. These bumps forced me to set aside my nervousness, critically think of a way to speak off script to conclude the entire presentation in greater detail. I instinctively did so to ensure the audience’s understanding of our presentation.

My second goal was to be more concise in my sharing to avoid overexplaining. When my team was discussing on our proposed modifications, I learnt to write out my ideas and reasons to organise my thoughts. Thereafter, I will be able to systematically share my thoughts to help my teammates understand my point of view. By doing so, we can efficiently come to an understanding for each of our ideas, choose and move on to the next problem.

 

Through the process of completing my research project, I realise the room for improvement in my writing skills. Mistakes like fragmented sentences, run along sentences and ambiguity in my writing. By practicing on the examples in instructional units, it helped me be more sensitive of what I am writing, minimizing the mistakes made. Ambiguity is something that I noticed but still need to improve on. I tend to use words like “it”, referring to what I meant in my head when I write. I must constantly remind myself that the readers cannot read my mind and I will have to refer to things clearly, without ambiguity in my sentences.

As my team was discussing on potential modifications for Pavegen’s kinetic floor tiles, we kept providing solutions on how we can improve the tile’s generation of energy. However, we overlooked the specificity of the modification needing to a physical design that we can improve on. One incorrect modification was to implement the tiles in densely populated areas such as MRT stations. So, more people stepping on the tiles and thus, generating more energy. We were adamant of the idea until I noticed that we kept overlooking the specific requirements, so it forced me to constantly review the train of thought for all our ideas. Therefore, I learnt to constantly review my thought process so that I will not overlook our provided specifications for our modifications.

I have learnt to work with new teammates with different work ethics. By acknowledging their strengths and adapt to their work ethics, we will be able to produce a satisfying project that we are proud of. I am honored to be working in Brisk Walking Club (BWC) with my teammates as we check up on each other and push each other to be the best versions of ourselves.

Best regards, 

Lim Bing Rui