Formal Letter (Descriptive Reflection)

Dear Professor Blackstone,

My name is Mohamad Zulfadli, and I am a student from T5 in your Effective Communication module. I am currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services). The purpose of this letter is to provide a descriptive reflection of myself.  

I have graduated with a Diploma in Mechatronics from Temasek Polytechnic. After that achievement, I was enlisted into the Singapore Armed Forces to serve my National Service.  After serving the nation, I have attained a Specialist Diploma in Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Engineering from Nanyang Polytechnic in parallel with working as an Assistant Quality Engineer. After my stint as an Assistant Quality Engineer, I have worked as an Assistant Technical Support Engineer. My passion for learning engineering comes from my uncle as he has constantly shared with me his exciting projects while working as a Civil Engineer. In addition, a show called “Mythbusters” has further propelled my interest in engineering and therefore, I have decided to choose the engineering pathway for my academic and career. I look forward to career prospects in the engineering field, which will enable me to shape the world around me for the future and possibly affect people’s lives.

One communication strength that I possess is listening effectively. I believe it is imperative for everyone to acquire this skill as it will improve our ability to connect with people. I have gained this skill due to the language barrier faced while I was working in a diverse working environment. In addition, online meetings with site engineers from other countries have honed my effective listening skills.

Public speaking has always been my greatest weakness since young. I am not able to execute it well due to my fear of facing an audience. As a result, I will struggle during a meeting or a presentation due to the inability to control my nerves. In addition, my critical thinking skill is poor, and it is a contributing factor to my poor public speaking skills.

Two specific goals I have for this module are to improve my critical thinking skills and public speaking skills. I hope under your mentorship, I am able to achieve these targets. Acquiring these skills will definitely be a launching pad for me to become an effective communicator. Therefore, your kind assistance is greatly appreciated.

Before closing this letter, I would like to commend that you have done a great job at making the class interactive.

Thank you for your time in reading this letter and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Regards,

Mohamad Zulfadli


//commented on Hairee's, A'lim's, and Zahid's letter

Comments

  1. Brad Blackstone18 September 2021 at 23:57

    Thanks, Zul, for posting your letter. I'll gve more detailed comments after your bloggng buddies do a review.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Zahid21 September 2021 at 10:29

    The reflection done by Zul is excellent as he displays the 7 Cs of Communication through it. His objective is clear as he shows his experiences and direct that he wants to improve his weaknesses. He specifically stated what he wants to improve in and his language used is correct and the reflection flows logically. The message contains everything it needs and a plan on how to overcome his shortcomings. He is tactful and polite in his message. Excellent reflection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zulfadli3 December 2021 at 22:20

      Thank you Zahid for the reply. Apologies for the delayed response and I wish you well for your final exams!

      Delete
  3. Alim22 September 2021 at 09:16

    I think Zul has written a great reflection. He gave an in-depth explanation of his interest in engineering through his various experiences and sources of passion. He utilized organisational writing to ensure that his explanation has a logical flow structure, which allows for coherence in his message. I would also like to commend him for being courteous throughout his letter, it exudes a professional aspect and was pleasant to read. Great work Zul!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zulfadli3 December 2021 at 22:20

      Thank you Alim for the reply. Apologies for the delayed response and I wish you well for your final exams!

      Delete
  4. Brad Blackstone23 September 2021 at 23:42

    Dear Zul,

    Thank you for this detailed and fluent letter. You’ve covered the scope of the assignment and managed to demonstrate quite a bit about what makes you special. Among others points, we readers learn that you already have quite a bit of experience both in terms of advanced study and prior work in engineering. It's also interesting that your discussions with an uncle partially informed your passion for the field. It's especially good to know that you see a connection between your learning in the area of engineering and having an impact on others' lives.

    In this essay, you also do an admirable job of explaining your intertwined comm skills strength, listening, and a perceived weakness, presenting, which could be seen as two sides of the same coin. I can assure you that we will be honing presentation skills from many angles this term (as you must sense already), and I have little doubt that you will give stellar performances once you take onboard a few tools of the trade.

    At the same time, in this letter, you generally express yourself with good language fluency, which makes reading this reflection a pleasure.

    I look forward to learning more from you as the term progresses.

    Best wishes,

    Brad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zulfadli3 December 2021 at 22:24

      Dear Professor Blackstone,

      Many thanks for the insightful reply. I would like to apologise for the late reply. I believe you have done a great job imparting your knowledge to the students. Kindly read my critical reflection that has been posted on my blog recently.

      Thank you once again Professor Blackstone.

      Cheers,
      Zul

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR ENGINEERS

"Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership. The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn't even matter." Gilbert Amelio, former President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp Effective leadership requires a leader that has excellent communication skills and can connect with the team members. It is essential to possess excellent communication skills as it inspires positivity towards the team members. A leader can inspire positive change and align with the team by imparting knowledge and ideas. Poor communication skills may lead to misinterpreted information and lowered employee productivity and morale.
Read more

Critical Reflection

  Module Learning The initial goals that I have set myself at the beginning of the module are to improve my public speaking skills and my critical thinking skills. The first step that has improved my public speaking skills is the opportunity given to speak in every session of the module. Professor Blackstone will be calling each student once to read a portion of the instructional units. Hence, this has allowed me to be more comfortable and confident when facing an audience. In addition, impromptu presentation in class has further solidified my improvement in public speaking skills. The module has introduced me to many resources such as “Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Tips” for example. There was one impromptu exercise where the students must read up on different sections of “Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Tips” and had to present the key takeaways to a breakout room. This exercise has allowed me to understand the importance of presenting key points. This exercise can be applied at work...
Read more