Final Reflection on Learning

"Farewell, for the present."

It is week 13. Whoa. Time obviously flies. At the end of our module, I would like to express my gratitude to my ES2007S tutor, Mr. Brad Blackstone, and all my classmates in Group 3. Without you all, I would not have felt the same excitement every Monday and Thursday. Honestly, this is the most interactive, dynamic and exciting module I have ever taken so far. We did not just sit, stare and listen. We were parts of it. :) More importantly, thank you for all the constructive feedback which really contributed in my continuous improvement in professional communication.

Comparing myself at the beginning of this semester to myself today, I have learnt tons of things in this module:

Delivering an engaging oral presentation - The first time I had to make a presentation was in 7th grade. At that time, I was fascinated by how one of my classmate managed to make a presentation consisted of more than 100 slides and mostly filled by text. In the last six years, presentation techniques have developed and changed. This course has provided me with the latest yet most effective presentation techniques so far. Most importantly, now I understand that the objective is not only delivering the materials, but also making the materials memorable.

Writing a proposal - As a chemistry student, I wrote endless lab reports but I have never written a single proposal. I would not learn a thing about proposal (until it's too late!) if it's not because of this module.

Communicating effectively - I believe that I have improved my verbal and non-verbal communication skill... a lot, and learnt how gestures play an important role in communication.

Improving my writing - I love writing but many a time I only focused on the flow of my writing and neglected the importance of other aspects. This course pushed me to write more frequently and to adhere to the 7Cs and, consequently, improved my writing.

Being visible - One of the takeaway points that I can hardly forget from this course, somehow, is that being visible is important. This successfully encouraged me to take up more responsibilities and involve in more activities (hope I won't bite off more than I can chew!).

Fake it until you become it - This sentence will always linger in my head. Credits to Amy Cuddy!

Last but not least, don't be a stranger! :D

Evaluation of Oral Presentation

Finally, my group and I have done the long-awaited oral presentation. In my opinion, our team had put a lot of effort through weekly meetings and brainstorming. We learnt and strove to do the necessary survey and interview and to analyze statistical data. The most interesting yet challenging part was interviewing the authority (in our case, we would like to thank Ms. May Yee from IRO). It was challenging because, unlike interviews for media that I had done before, we had to convey a problem to the related authority without making it sound like a complaint. Thankfully, the interview ended well. :)


During the oral presentation, although there is a room for improvements, I really feel that my presentation skill has improved. If I had a chance to re-do the presentation, I would try to deliver my speech more fluently. I would also try to be more clear-headed so I would not miss out some minor points. Although I managed to maintain more eye contact, I believe I can still improve on that.


However, I feel that my performance was better than my peer-teaching presentation since I successfully avoided looking at the slides. My practice was paid off since I managed to vary my tone and deliver the important points that I wanted to tell to the audiences.


All in all, through the presentation, I have learnt a lot of things but there are some weaknesses that I still have to work at. Last but not least, I would love to hear your suggestions or comments! :)