The Final Reflection

As time flies away, we are now at the end of semester. This is a fulfilling semester and I have learned a lot from this module –ES2007S Professional Communication. This is a good time for a reflection.

I can still remember the time when I first stepped into the classroom, I felt both excited and nervous when I met all of you. And when we took photos together at the end of last session, I felt after one semester, we are all friends. I think this is the most precious thing I have taken from this module.

This is the first time I tried blogging, personally I do not really like it but I must admit this is a good platform to communicate with each other. By reading each other’s blog, we understand each other more. In addition, some posts are really excellent; they give me some hints on how to express myself effectively by writing. By commenting each other’s blog, we actually established a form of communication which allows us to discuss things in depth.

I believe that my communication skills have improved after one semester of training. Although I will still be nervous when talking in front of people, I can feel that my confidence level has already risen. During the semester I also learned that proper ways of using verbal language like emphasis to better express myself.

During this semester I also learned many life skills like how to write a good application letter and resume, how to express myself during interview. One very important point I have gotten is that we cannot ignore small things. For example, as first I don’t think the paper used printing application letter is a matter, now I am convinced that these kinds of small things will left an expression of you on other people. To take notes of these small things can make you stand out.

Of course things I have learned from this module are much more than what I wrote here. Although this is a very heavy module, I can say I achieved more.

Review for Oral Presentation

Last Thursday, I went through the oral presentation of our proposal. It was quite a challenge for me, but luckily I have done it although the actual performance was not so desired.

I feel the power point slide for our group is excellent. We have spent a lot of time to make it attractive, clear and coherent. Especially, for part “Bus – A Permanent Line”, Xiu Qin used appropriate and impressive animation to express our idea very clearly.

Before the actually presentation, my team met twice for rehearsal. But I think we should do more than that as from the actually presentation, there were still mistakes. I was very busy last week, as one of my closest friends in Shanghai visited me on Wednesday and Thursday. The night before presentation, I actually never practice on my own. And this causes me appeared very nervous on the presentation day itself because I knew, I was not familiar with the speech text. From this I learnt, there is always unexpected things, we should start preparing everything earlier.

On the presentation day, our team standardized our dressing. This is very important as this is a formal presentation when we dressed as a team; we express our team spirit and our profession. Everyone arrived school early that day and we tested the presentation slide very carefully.

During the presentation, I was really very nervous. I was not very confidence in presenting in front of a group and the camera actually made it worse. I referred to speech text very often and I also missed a few number to points that I prepared. I think these can be improved by continuous practicing.

The experience of writing proposal and presenting it is very enriching. I have learned a lot from my teammates.