ES2007S Professional Communication

My First Oral Presentation.......

2009-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

I have just experienced my first ever professional oral presentation in this morning and I will not forget this experience. I was not very satisfied with my performance as I did not present my points smoothly and fluently. Although I could remember my points during practicing, I have forgot some of the important points when I was doing the actual presentation. Besides that, I did a big mistake as I did not introduce my teammates in a correct order. I guess this was due to tI was nervous at that time.

Beside that, I feel that the actual presentation was very different when compared to practicing. I was not nervous at all when I was practicing but I was starting to feel nervous once I stood in front of the class. I feel a bit pressurized when presenting as the previous group did a very good presentation. However, I tried to calm down myself so that I would not screw up the presentation.

The weakness that I have realized after my presentation is I did not keep eye contact with the audience as I just kept looking at Qiying's position. This weakness will give a bad impression to the audience as it shown I am nervous at that time. Another weakness that I had during the presentation is I did not used proper English during the presentation and this will leave a bad impression to the audience. This might be due to I did not prepare any script before hand and I did not practice much. Thus, I find that preparation before presentation is very important for us to have a good and effective presentation.

Personally I feel that my group did a fairly good presentation as Vikki and Jaenette did a very good presentation in conveying the message to the audience. However, there are some minor mistakes that we have made during the actual presentation.

Last but not least, I think I need to improve my presentation skills so that I can convey clear message to the audience as well as convincing them. That's what I think about my first oral presentation!!Thanks for spending your time with us!!!=)

Final reflection........

2009-04-13T03:18:00.000-07:00

Time really flies, now we are coming toward the end of the semester!!!!!=)It's the time for to finalize the things I have learn from ES2007S so that I can recall and remember what I have learned in the last 10 weeks about effective communication as well as professional writing skills.

The purposes that I take this module are to learn effective communication skills and to improve my English level as my English proficiency is very poor as I was studying in Chinese medium based school since primary and secondary school. Besides that, this module which does not have final examination is one of the reasons to attract me to take this module as I do not want to study too many modules during final examination (Sorry, Brad, I think I disappoint you!!!). However, I did not regret that I take this module as I have learned a lot from this modules besides English and effective communication.

Before I take this module, I had an impression that communication is just about talking and expressing feelings to each other. However, after taking this modules, I only realize that communication includes a lot of aspects such as non verbal communication, effective writing etc. Besides that, I also realize that non verbal communication such as facial expression, speaking tone, body gesture and our mood play important roles in conveying message to other people. If we use non verbal communication inappropriately, people might misinterpret it and thus miscommunication occurs. Thus, through this module, I have learned how to use non verbal communication appropriately and effectively.

Besides learning about non verbal communication, I also have learned about effective writing which adopt 7Cs principle and realize that my writing skills do not follow the 7Cs criteria. Through writing blog, job application letter, resume, research report and business letter, I have learned to adopt 7Cs criteria. Besides that, I found that I always have grammar error during writing and I think I need to improve it by reading. Once again, I would like to thank Brad for his advice on my grammar error!!!!=)

Through this module, I have experienced a "scary" mock interview which the "interviewers" looks very serious and unfriendly at all. However, when I was told this situation might be a real situation, I was quite shocked as I thought most of the interviewers will be quite friendly. In addition, I also realized that we must well prepared before interview and present ourselves during interview to impress the interviewers. However, this mock interview allow me to practice myself before the real interview that I will be attending in the future.

On the other hand, I also found that presentation also plays important roles in impressing and convincing people. I had my first time professional presentation through this module and I am glad that I have a chance to practice this type of presentation before I start working.

Overall, I feel that I have learned a lot of knowledge from this module which cannot be obtained from my core module. The knowledge and skills that I have learned not only about communication, they also include time and emotional management. Besides that, I know new friends through this module. Thus, I have gained knowledge, skills and friendship through this module.

That's all about my final reflection. I would like to take this opportunity to thanks my teammates - Vikki and Jaenatte for their efforts that they have put for the research report and presentation as well as the encouragement they have given to me. I would also like to thanks all my classmates for their valuable feedback on my work.

Lastly, I would like to say it is glad to know all of you through this module. All the best in the coming final examination!!!!=)

Pooi San's Biodata

2009-03-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

My name is Wong Pooi San and I am currently a year 3 undergraduate student in National University of Singapore (NUS). I am a student from Faculty of Science, majoring in Life Sciences with concentration of Biomedical Science. I will be graduating in June next year with Bachelor of Science (Honours) and I hope I can enjoy my life and score for good grades for my modules in the remaining one more year in NUS.

I was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and I completed my primary, secondary as well as my pre-university education before I was admitted to NUS for my tertiary education. Before coming to Singapore to study, I was quite worried whether I could cope the pressure here. However, after three year of studies in NUS, I am glad that I am can cope the life here and I am satisfy with my academic results as well as my CCA achievements here. I was studying in a Chinese-based school for my primary and secondary education, thus my English is not that proficient. So that's why I took ES2007S to improve my English!!!!=)

I join Red Cross Humanitarian Network - National University of Singapore Chapter (RCHN-NUS Chapter) since two year ago and currently I am the Vice President of this society. As a Vice President, I am responsible to guide and advise my Management Committee members for various activities such as Blood Donation Drive, Charity Bazaar, First Aid Awareness Workshop etc. Besides that, I was the team leader for International Humanitarian Mission Trip to Hunan Province, China to help the mentally disabled orphans in last December. As a team leader, I led 13 volunteers and make final decisions with the advices of President as well as Singapore Red Cross's staff who followed us to China. Before the trip, I was responsible to liaise with the China local contact and Singapore Red Cross for administrative matters as well as chair the weekly meeting with the volunteers.

I find out that we, normal healthy people are very lucky people if compared to those beneficiaries that we helped during the humanitarian trip. Thus, I strongly feel that we shall appreciate the things we have now!=) Besides, through various co-curricular activities that I have participated from year 1 till now, I have gained a lot of experiences and skills such as time management, leadership, teamwork as well as emotional management. I wish these experiences and skills can aid me in my future career.

I wish to become a teacher after the completion of my undergraduate studies as I have the experience as a relief teaches. I hope I can nurture the future generation by teaching them knowledge that I have learned from my education. Besides that, I have a goal which is to involve in oversea humanitarian and volunteer trip once a year to help the beneficiaries as I feel that helping people is meaningful for me!=)

That's all about me!Hope all of you know me more after reading my biodata!=)

Are they still friend???

2009-03-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

There is a Chinese saying that we depend on our family members at home while friends are the one we dependent on when we are outside. Thus, friends play important roles in our life as we need them for helps, advices when we have problem etc. However, miscommunication and conflicts often occur between friends and these problems will affect the friendship. I would like to describe a hypothetical scenario that shows conflicts between friends.

The characters involved here are Andy and Mandy. Both of them were in the same society and they were really good friends. They used to stay overnight in clubroom together with other friends to study for examination. They like to flirt with each other and in their friends' eyes, they looked like buddy instead of lover.

Mandy was a very stress person when she was in mist of preparing examination since she had high demand on her result. Andy knew about her stress and encouraged her as well as tried to help her destress during examination period. Mandy felt thankful for Andy's action and was glad that she have a such a good buddy beside her.

However, as time went on, Andy has developed a special feeling toward Mandy. He was struggling at that moment of time whether he should tell Mandy about his feeling. Finally, he made a decision to tell about his special feeling. Thus, on the day Mandy treated Andy for a meal as a thank you treat, he asked Mandy for a date while they were waiting for bus. Mandy was shocked, terrified and uneasy when she heard about it as she only treated Andy as her buddy. So she decided to reject Andy's request to avoid any confusion and told him that it was better to be friends instead of go to further relationship.

From that day onwards, Mandy tried to avoid Andy as she thought it was better for them to not meet or talk to each other. Although sometimes they were accidentally bumped up, there was a weird environment surrounding them. However, after a few weeks, Mandy felt regret as she did not want to lost a good buddy but she did not know how to approach Andy to avoid confusion. So people, what you think Mandy should do??

Intercultural Behaviour.........

2009-02-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Singapore and Malaysia are both multi-racial and culture countries as these two countries consist of three main ethnic groups such as Malays, Chinese and Indians. As different ethnic groups have different traditions, religious and cultures, the possibility of having intercultural problem are quite high as not all people will understand the culture and traditions of all the races. Thus, intercultural behaviours such as lifestyle, eating manner etc can cause problem if people do not understand the traditions and culture of different races. The incident that I would like describe is regarding intercultural behaviour and communication between Malays and Chinese which I heard from my friend.

Universities in Malaysia consist of majority Malays and Chinese students as these two races have a higher percentage in the Malaysia's population. As we know, first year students of all universities in Malaysia are compulsory to stay in accommodation so that they can be trained to be independent. As to enhance the interactions between different races and to minimize the gap between them, the universities has a policy to allocate students from different races to share a room so that they have more time to interact with each other. My friend was a student of one of the universities in Malaysia. During her first year in university, she was allocated to stay with Malays and Indian students. My friend was a student from Chinese school and did not understand much on the traditions and cultures of other races since she seldom have chance to communicate with people from other races during her primary and secondary school. Thus, she was not able to adapt herself to share room with students from other races. She had to communicate with them using Malay or English which was not her usual communication language. Besides that, she could not eat her favourite food which is pork in front of her room mates as there is a rule that not to eat pork in front of Muslim as this is a sin for them.

One of the major incidents that show intercultural behaviour's problem was the Muslim prayers' habit. As we know, Muslims are required to pray five times per day and they have certain direction for their pray. There was one early morning when my friend woke up during their prayer time. She was shocked when she saw her Muslim room mates prayed beside her bed with white clothes and head cover. At first, she was terrified by her room mates because she told she saw a ghost. After a few second, she felt unhappy and uneasy because in Chinese's traditions and culture, only dead person will be prayed by people and it is not a good sign if people pray in front of you. However, she managed to solve this problem by communicating with her Muslims room mate and both of them were adapted to each other's culture well and now they are good friends.

I was only aware about intercultural problems after I heard this story from my friend as my social circle is mainly Chinese since I studied primary school. Intercultural problems need to be solved to avoid miscommunication as well as ethnic groups bias. It is important to understand other races' traditions and cultures as intercultural behaviour cannot be avoided in our future workplace.

Correspondence Critique..........

2009-02-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

From:	XXX	Sent:	Tue 2/3/2009 5:07 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject:	ARO position in XXX

XXX(Mr) :: Executive, XXX Undergraduate Program Committee :: National University of Singapore :: c/o XXX Admin Office XXXXXX :: XX-XXXX (DID) :: XX-XXXXXX(Fax) :: XXXXXX@nus.edu.sg (E) :: www.XXXXXX.nus.edu.sg (W)

----- Forwarded Message -----

Assistant Research Officer

An immediate vacancy for Assistant Research officer is available at Plant Systems Biology Group in XXX

Work:
1. Molecular and genetic study on plant stem cell regeneration,

2. Ordering chemicals,

3. Maintenance of laboratory and growth spaces

Requirements:
BSc or higher degree in Biological Sciences or related fields.
Highly-motivated person who is interested in plant developmental biology.
Lab experiences in cloning - design and construction of plasmids, PCR and other basic molecular biology techniques - is essential.
Prior experience in plant sciences is advantageous, but not essential if he/she is enthusiastic about learning plant molecular genetics.

The salary given is commensurable to educational qualifications and working experience of the candidates. Benefits include annual leave, medical and dental benefits, etc.

If you have any inquiry, please contact XXXX@XXX.org.sg.

Interested individuals should send their application, curriculum vitae, and 2 letters of reference to:

Dr. XXXX

Principal Investigator

Plant Systems Biology Group
XXXXX Laboratory Limited

1 Research Link National
University of Singapore Singapore 117604

E XXXX@XXX.org.sg
http://www.XXX.org.sg/itot.asp

This is the e-mail I have received a few weeks ago which is related to the employment of Assistant Research Officer by one of the research laboratory. I think it is a bad example of business correspondence which did not convey the message clearly.

The subject of the e-mail is not clearly stated. People who receive this e-mail may not know the meaning of ARO as this short form can mean other things instead of Assistant Research Officer. Besides that, the e-mail did not state who were the target recipient and this will confuse the recipients as the recipients do not know the purpose of this e-mail.

The opening of this e-mail is considered inappropriate as it consists of the information of the sender. Although it is a forwarded e-mail, the information of sender should be written at the end of this e-mail or before the line forwarded e-mail. In my opinion, the opening of the e-mail should be written in the following way:

“On behalf of XXX Laboratory, I would like to inform you that XXX laboratory is urgently recruiting an assistant research officer. The following are the details and criteria about this position. If you are interested, you can contact XXXX@XXX.org.sg for more information.

With regards,

XXX”

The content of the e-mail is not well written as it did not properly describe the job scope of assistant research officer and this will create confusion to the recipients. Besides that, the requirements for the position was very brief and the grammar used were inappropriate.

Lastly, the closing of the e-mail did not state the person who sent out this e-mail to Mr. XXX, which means that it did not state who the recipient should direct to if there were any queries. Besides that, this e-mail did not state the deadline for the application for the position and this might confuse the recipients.

In conclusion, I think this e-mail is not a good business correspondence and it did not fulfill the 7Cs of writing in effective communication and did not convey the message well to the recipients.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict..........

2009-02-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

Interpersonal conflicts always occur during communication if there is misinterpretation and miscommunication. If these conflicts are not solve properly, the relationship between the persons who involve will become worse and end up become "enemy". Thus, it is important for us to identify interpersonal conflict and try to solve it as soon as possible to avoid losing our family members, friends or colleagues.

The interpersonal conflict that I would like to describe here is real situation which happen in Management committee of a student body. The characters involved which are A and B who is Vice President and Assistant International Special Project Officer respectively. Lets start the story of this complicated interpersonal conflict.

As this student body plan to have a Oversea Community Service trip which during year end school vacation, A and B together with the company of Officers from school went to China to have recce trip during mid year school vacation to observe the location of the trip as well as the feasibility to conduct the trip. Oh,I forgot to mention that A is a guy and B is a girl. A is a very nice guy and treated B very nicely during the recce trip. However, B thought that the way A treated her hint her that he likes her. As B is a simple minded girl, she started to develop some feelings toward A.

Unfortunately, there were rumours that B likes A after both A and B came back from China. Initially, A did not bother about these rumours and still continue to be very close with B. However, as the rumours getting spread out, A started to avoid B and B felt very annoyed and sad. B wanted to confront with A but she did not dare to do so. Fortunately, after a few weeks, A took the initiative to talk with B and clarify with B that both of them are just friends. B accepted A's clarification and decided to treat A as friend. Yet, after the clarification, B found that A is still trying to avoid her. B feel very desperate and then she found out from a friend that A still misinterpreted that she likes him although after clarification.

Thus, from the scenario above, the possible reason which caused this interpersonal conflict is that A still thought that B has feelings toward him and he try to avoid her to minimize the contact between them. What should B do?Should B confront and clarify with A or just stay silent and wait A to take the initiative to communicate with her?

What is Effective Communication for me???

2009-01-24T10:30:00.001-08:00

Communication is an essential component which human beings are practicing now in order to understand each other as well as to express our feelings and concern toward each other. However, I think there are certain challenges we may face during communication such as miscommunications, misinterpretations etc. Thus, it is important for us to develop effective communication skills to avoid or minimize conflicts when communicating with people.

In my opinion, I think it is essential and important for me to develop effective communication skills as it is an important skill that might determine my career and the most importantly, my future life!!!!!!!!!!Maybe some of you may wonder that why I take this module so seriously. For me, a good resume and curriculum vitae play important roles in securing my future career as a well written resume and curriculum vitae can help develop good impression on employers toward me. Besides that, I think effective communication also plays a role in office politics as we must have good emotional intelligence, which is known as EQ to minimize conflicts and competitions between colleagues.

However, after I have attended two classes of Professional Communication, I realized effective communication is not just only needed at workplace, in fact it is needed in our daily life. Besides that, I also realized that communication skills can be divided into many different areas and this discovery really fascinated me.

Thus, from now onward, I think that effective communication not only crucial for my future career, it also plays important roles in order for me to understand my family, my friends as well as to allow me to show my concern and feeling toward people around me. Besides that, effective communication can lead me to a better life as I will learn to minimize conflicts when I communicate with the people. Now I am looking forward to have a fruitful and memorable journey with my classmates in learning effective communication. Last but not least, wish everybody have a Happy Chinese New Year!!!!!!!!=)