Subject: Self Introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone,
My name is Casey Cheong and I am writing to introduce myself to you and my fellow peers in the class. I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in integrated facilities management. During my time in polytechnic, a few speakers from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) came down to promote several courses offered by SIT, Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (SIE) being one of them. As sustainability is a trending topic around the globe, I felt that SIE is a relevant course to enrol in.
My goal for this module would be to be proficient in both writing and speaking. In the work environment, communication is indispensable no matter the profession, which is the reason for my desire to improve on my ability to communicate with others. Furthermore, I am introverted in nature which results in discomfort when speaking to a large audience and sometimes even being unable to convey my message across. I once had to conduct tours for my company that I was fulfilling my internship at, sharing information to small groups of people about green features that the company was practicing. Through this, I found that rather than memorising a fixed script to present, it was better to know the key points of the presentation and form my sentences at the same time as giving the speech.
As opposed to speaking, I am far more comfortable in writing out my intended message. The main advantage is having ample time to think of what we want to say and constructing our sentences accordingly. It also gives us the opportunity to try a different approach to how we form our sentences, as well as looking up synonyms for words that we use often that will help in our daily conversations.
I believe that effective communication is a lifelong skill, that can always be refined to improve to our everyday lives, and attending this module will definitely aid in bettering myself.
Thank you for your time in reading my introduction.
Kind regards,
Casey Cheong
Edited: 08/09/17
13/09/17
Read & commented on
Amos', Arthur's, Luke's and Lewis' blog posts.
Hey Casey,
ReplyDeleteI think it's nice that we are in the same group as both of us graduated from Temasek Polytechnic and here we are studying in university together. I feel that your email is good in a way that you have proper sentence structure, you know the task at hand, you write straight to the point and you put in your own life examples to allow us to better understand.
Some suggestions:
I feel that you should also include an example for your writing paragraph. For example, whether you have encountered any difficulties in writing before. I know it is tough as we have a tight word limit but maybe you can think about it.
If I am not wrong, task D also ask for your professional interest. Maybe you can look into that as well.
Thanks,
Luke.
Hi Luke,
DeleteThank you for your time in reading my post and commenting on it. I feel that with a word limit, it is difficult to express my strengths and weaknesses effectively as I tend to repeat my points often. Hopefully by the end of this module, I will be able to convey my messages more effectively.
Cheers!
Casey
Hi Casey,
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, the reason why I signed myself for SIE is the same reason as you. SIT came down to Singapore Polytechnic during my time there as well, to give a brief introduction to us about the course. I found the course to be highly prospective and thus, here I am. I’m sure we made the right choice. Also, when you mentioned how we should understand the key points for a presentation as opposed to memorising a script in being more productive, to be very true. This will also help us to take on any unforeseen questions posed by the audience.
With regards to your second paragraph, I think you can consider improving on it by better segmenting your goals into the last paragraph and just focus on weaknesses for that paragraph. I found it to be neater and more polished. This will in turn help you to develop your last paragraph too.
I hope to be able to work on our weaknesses together during this module. Hopefully my two cents worth of opinion can help you better your blog post.
Thanks for sharing.
Warmest Regards,
Arthur Sam
Hi Arthur
DeleteThank you for your suggestion to improve my writing. Improvising have always proofed to be a difficult skill for any individual to possess. When put on the spot, I still need time to think of a response when it comes to answering to an audience. Given time, I believe that we will be able to deliver presentations with less difficulty by the end of the module.
Cheers!
Casey
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Casey,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this formal letter and for the edits you have already done to date.
In terms of this post, I appreciate how you clearly and concisely describe your background and the short reflection on your perceived communication strength and weakness. To take one of the areas you mention, small group presenting is indeed impotrtant, and it is a skill we'll be working on in SIE2016.
In terms of your stated goals, they are quite general. Could you articulate specifically another area of speaking, say, that you'd like to improve?
Regarding your other current skill levels, the info you present here is fluently presented and well organized. I can see that, as you state, writing is already one of your strengths. That will certainly be an advantage for you as we move into the writing-heavy tasks for this term.
I look forward to working with you.
Brad
Hi Brad,
DeleteThank you for your time in reading and responding to my post. Public speaking has always been hard for me due to being unable to connect my ideas together. I tend to repeat my points multiple times whilst trying to buy time for myself to think of what to say next.
I hope that I can improve on my speech by the end of this module.
Cheers!
Casey