Critical Reflection

I have always felt that my communication skills eclipsed those of the average Singaporean student. From structuring formal emails to presenting a project in front of academics, the skill of effectively communicating my ideas, thoughts and feelings appeared to be a stroll in the park for me. On the contrary, I was naively oblivious to how this overconfidence was shrouding me from the colossal areas of weakness in my communication.


The beginning of my university education exposed me to writing formal academic reports within narrow deadlines every few weeks. This entailed the analysis of several research papers and articles to gain a deeper understanding into specific topics. Shortly after, I realized how my writing was lacking under such circumstances. Nevertheless, attending the Effective Communication module enabled me to be more proficient in technical writing and fluent speaking. 


Online resources provided by Professor Blackstone together with the content delivered in classes became my go-to reference materials. They enlightened me on how to properly plan and outline the main points in order to gather my thoughts and ideas before writing. Compared to my old habit of immediately beginning my writings in a disorganized and unsystematic manner, having a thorough outline allowed me to attain a seamless thought process. Another invaluable takeaway from this module was the American Psychological Association (APA) convention of effective scholarly communication. Prior to this module, I was aware of writing conventions, but never saw the need to strictly adhere to these rules in my reports. It was only after I discovered how efficiently the APA convention presented my ideas in a clear, concise and cohesive way that I became much more conscious of my writing. When I conducted proofreading for my research project’s technical report which had followed the APA convention, the sense of satisfaction I gained from being able to easily identify key points, information and sources was almost euphoric. Ultimately, these aforementioned writing skills have nudged me in the right direction as I strive towards continually evaluating and growing my communication competencies.  


I am adamant that throughout the course of this module, I have started to overcome the learning objective of overcoming my speech hesitation with people who may be more influential or older. Observing how Professor Blackstone adopted the use of tone, pauses and enunciation, coupled with mindful body language, in his conversations with us encouraged me to experiment with the same tools during the module activities. More importantly, I learned that not only do these tools aid me in freely expressing my thoughts into spoken words, but they also invite and prompt the other party to provide me with their fullest attention and understand my conveyed messages. This essentially paves the way for me to speak more fluently with people, as they too will be engaged in the conversation with the same, if not more, enthusiasm. 


The research project granted me yet another opportunity to work together with people. I found myself often taking the initiative to spur my teammates towards our objectives. Given our very diverse backgrounds and specialties, it was both challenging and interesting to coordinate everyone’s working styles and capacities. Hence, it was crucial for us to be open-minded, adaptable and empathetic towards every member’s perspective. For this to be possible, I discovered that more emphasis had to be placed on listening to what our peers had to say instead of bringing our own points across to them. After delivering an extremely satisfactory presentation with my team, I feel that learning and performance are optimal when we feel that our opinions and feelings are valued. Of all the modules during my first year in university, it came as a surprise to me that I became more aware of myself and others around me through this one.


Image by Christian Lue

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