My Final Reflection

I still remember the night while i was walking out of NUS with Jiwei after our peer teaching group meeting, he told me that completing this peer teaching presentation was just the tip of the ice berg of the course. Looking back, i think that time really flies when i am already writing on my final blog post. Throughout this course, i can say that i have honed not only communication skills but also other important life skills which are relevant to my future.

Frankly speaking, i had chosen this module because i could not get any other breadth modules as the bid points were too high. Also, the name of this module, " Professional Communication" caught my attention as i feel that it would be useful when i step into the working industry. I did not regret my choice when i went through the first lesson. I was surprised by a different kind of teaching style where ideas could flow freely without walls in the classroom. I enjoyed the interaction with my fellow classmates when we were tasked to do exercises. This is because we could share our ideas and learn from different people. This is especially so when we would often change discussion groups, hence exposing ourselves to unique working styles. I believe that this is an unconventional teaching method which i feel is both fulfilling and enriching for me.

Most importantly, besides enjoying the course, i have defintely picked up several new skills. With regards to the 7Cs, i have learnt to be more concise. From my long blog posts to long winded presentations, my peers would point out that i tend to ramble my sentences which could be summarised to give the reader or listener a better idea. Hence, i have learnt to cut short my words while making sure that the main idea is being retained. This would defintely be an essential skill when i need to write concise reports and give presentations to my bosses.

Other than the 7Cs, i am also able to practise on my communication skills through the various interactions with classmates as well as the oral presentations. I find that the feedback on my oral persentations given by my fellow peers especially useful such as cutting down on my use of words ' actually'. I cannot imagine if i continue to be unaware with my 'actually'while speaking to a large crowd when i am in my workplace.

The team project has allowed me to learn how to write a proposal. Having been in army for 2 years, i guess my writing skills have grown rusty. In particular, i have learnt about the basic structure of the proposal as well as writing the abstract. And again, being concise while relevant is important here as well. Most importantly, i have learnt to write professionally such as the application letter. For instance, minor details such as printing the resume on a presentable paper is crucial as this is would increase my chances while i am applying the job.

Having completed this module is only the tip of the ice berg for me, i still have a long way to go in my varsity life. Though official learning for this module has stopped here, i am glad that i could still apply these life skills in my future modules as well as in my life. Lastly, i would like to thank brad and my fellow classmates for making this module enjoyable!

Reflection On Oral Presentation

The Preparation

Expectations rose after we had done rather well in the peer teaching session. We were further stressed to produce an extraordinary oral presentation after Brad listed out what he had expected of us. I still remember that he had mentioned we are the focus rather than the slides, this really drilled into my brain. Being the last group to present had also added on to the presentation standard, i can say that the groups before us did really well. Of course the journey to prepare the oral presentation was brain intensive as we want to give our best for the last shot.

The first question that came to our mind is "how do we create something out of the box that will trigger the audience's mind with relation to our life skills topic?" As usual, our creative director, Jiwei brought in his experience from all his previous presentation ideas. One of his preliminary ideas that we had decided to embed in is how to connect nine dots (lined up in a square) with four straight lines without lifting the pen from the paper. We thought all the ideas we have embedded in would really create an 'out of the box' presentation. However, after sitting through the other group's presentation, we realised that we had focus too much on the presentation itself and not the content. I guess we were carried away to make our presentation stand out so we decided to focus more on the content. This traced back to our main objective of the presentation that is to convince the audience of our proposal.

By working as a team, i learnt valuable communication skills when we need to accomodate each other's schedule for project meetings. I can say my project mates were very understanding towards each other when we had tests ongoing and hence would avoid conducting meetings before the test date. Most importantly, i have learnt how to work more efficiently when we usually spend a productive 2 hours preparing and rehearsing the whole presentation. Many thanks to Xiuling and Jiwei, i really learnt a lot from them.


The Presentation

I can say that my presentation started off with a 'big bang' as proclaimed by the people sitting right in front as my voice was too loud relative to Xiuling's presentation. I initially thought they were laughing at something else perhaps my facial expression when i tried to smile. To my surprise, it was actually that my voice was too loud and this had given a shock to the people sitting in front. I apologised for that and i will improve on this, that is to coordinate the tone of my voice with my team members. Frankly speaking, i was quite nervous at the start and my way of reducing the anxiety is to project my voice out loud. This would actually remove the fear in me. ( Jiwei, this could be a suggestion for you to reduce your nervousness)

I was quite pleased when Jiwei noticed that i had stopped saying the words 'actually' repeatedly during the presentations. This is really an improvement from my peer teaching sessions. I guess this is due to the amount of preparation i had put in so that i am familiar about what to say and not hesitate by saying 'actually'. This was also due to the increased in self-awareness during presentations so that i would not have this bad habit of saying 'ok' or 'actually'. I should also give credit to the amount of interaction i was exposed to in classes, that is to practise speaking distinctly. Hence i am glad that i have achieved one of the most important outcomes of the course that is to communicate professionally.

I am glad that our group presentation turned out to be smooth sailing and the project is finally over. I can say i have picked up a lot of positive attributes from this project be it writing the proposal or giving the oral presentation. Once again, i would like to thank my project mates, Xiuling and Jiwei for the great work together!