After 1 semester of attending this course on professional communications. I have realizes the many aspects of effective communications. They transcend mere verbal communication to those around me, but also encompass the written aspects, such as letters to superiors and subordinates, as well as the non-verbal cues when communicating. I also learnt about the many ways and types of letters that could be written in an organization depending on the occasion and the person that one was writing to. Through learning all these, my understanding of effective communications skills has been broadened and have realised the importance of effective communications as it is in almost every aspect of my everyday interaction with others.
I feel that this module has benefited me as i have become aware of the different aspects of effective communications and was also able to practice my communication skills through the many assignments, such as resume writing and job application letters, and the opportunities to engage in an interview setting.
The best opportunity and experience i have had in this module to practice effective communications is in the group work where we had to complete a project that included report writing and a presentation. This put my communication skills that i had learnt in theory to pratical use. I feel that I have understood the theory taught to me better through this experience. For example, I learnt in theory that when one was not clear in expressing yourself in writing, it would lead to misunderstanding when the reader did not understand you. This happened in my project group as when i did not clearly express myself in emails to my group members, it lead to alot of confusion and misunderstandings. I had to re-explain myself to clear up the misunderstanding, another practical opportunity that was valuable.
Reflection on Learning
16 years ago
12 comments:
Good to hear from you that you had a rewarding “practical” session in this ES class. For me, I also experienced some form of ambiguous situations in my group when informal time terms like: soon, right away, in a minute, early, late were used to describe work pace. This was interpreted differently by different members and undoubtedly, ended up in lots of confusion. Fortunately, this situation did not persist and we managed to keep pace with the schedule. As such, I can relate to you that clarity is a really important C and it is crucial that all of us practice it to reduce ambiguity in future interactions. Also, I am interested in the research topic you girls worked on. Hope to learn more about it when you present your findings tomorrow!
Hello!
It is good to know that you have learned so much from this module. Afterall, we did place a large number of bid points on it! =P
Like you, I have also put most of what I learned in class, especially when it came to the group work required for writing the report and oral presentation.
Before I attended this module, I also thought that effective communication is merely verbal communication, maybe with some physical communication too. I never thought that written aspects mattered just as much. I am sure that now that we have mastered and practised our skills, we will be able to put them into good use :)
All the best for your future undertakings and may the knowledge from this module take you to greater heights!
Hello...
I agree with you that the group work is a good practical lesson for us to hone our communication skills.
It was great working with you. It's our presentation tomorrow! Eeks. Let's work hard together!
All the best! It was great knowing you!
Hello Hui Ming,
It is good to know that you have benefitted from this module.
I agree with Mei Jie that clarity is a rather important aspect of C in effective communication. In almost all of our daily interation with people around us, we have to be clear and put our intended message across. This will greatly reduce misunderstandings.
All the best for your oral presentation tommorrow!
Binglin
Dear Hui Ming,
I agree that the research project gave us an opportunity to put the skills learnt into practice. The project enabled us to practise effective verbal and non-verbal communication, as well as written communication. Hopefully after this module, we can still practise the skills learnt into our everyday interaction with others, so as to hone the skills and make this semester time well-spent.
I feel that it is important to be able to express oneself in both writing and conversation, as it serves as a means for people to assess one's ability and is able to avoid any misunderstanding due to a breakdown in communication. However, if any misunderstanding or even conflict has occurred, the situation has to be dealt with constructively and effectively so as not to leave any hard feelings. This can be difficult to practise at times, especially if one's personality was not likely to voice out his or her discontent to his or her superior (my personal experience).
Hopefully, the skills learnt in this course would help us to cope with interpersonal communication without a hitch in the future.
Jia Yi =)
Dear Hui Ming,
I agree with you that it has, indeed, been a rewarding twelve weeks.
I must point out that towards the end, clarity did help in our communication. Not only were unnecessary arguments eliminated, time was saved and work were very efficiently done.
I also found that the group project provided us with a very good chance to put the theory in our books into practical use.
I am glad to hear that you have benefited from the course. I am certain that it will aid you in your future endeavours too!
Pei Yu
Hello Mai Jie,
I hope you enjoyed my groups presentation as much as we enjoyed preparing and rehearsing for it.
I agree with you that the use of ambiguous and personally defined words is a big contributor to misunderstanding within a group. I thus believe that the communication skills that this module has equipped me with has served to better increase me awareness of the parameters of effective communications and thus increase the clarity and method in which I express myself.
Hui Ming
Hello Yu Yin,
I too have learnt a lot about the different styles of written communication from this module. Indeed I was pleasantly surprised by the number of letter formats and styles there were just within a company.
All the best for the test tomorrow and for your upcoming exams!
Hui Ming
Hello Nicole,
In retrospection, I believe that our late nights, time and hardwork to prepare the presentation paid off. I enjoyed the presentation tremendously, though I was nervous at first. Great job!
All the best for the test tml!
Hui Ming
Hello Bing Lin,
I too share your sentiments. This is especially so when we are dealing with people that we have just met and have to work with. Which is the case for most of us when we embarked on the group report and presentation for this module.
Hui Ming
Hello Jia Yi,
On this last comment, I would like to thank you for commenting on every one of my blogs. I do appreciate the time you have taken :).
I do agree with you that this research project and module has given us an avenue to put what we have learnt in theory from this module into practice. I to share your increased awareness of the number of written and conversational forms of communication there are and both aspects serve to prevent misunderstanding and to clear up conflicts.
Hello Pei Yu,
Yes! I agree with you that there was a progressive positive improvement to our group communications which improved our efficiency in getting work done. This was vital due to the increasing demand of the module as well as from other modules.
I do wish you all the best in your walk-in interview for SIA and for your test tomorrow.
Hui Ming
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