In the form of a formal letter to your instructor, you should provide a descriptive
Reflection in which you do each of the following:
1. explain your educational background and interest in engineering;
2. discuss one communication strength and one weakness, with illustrations of both;
3. present two specific goals you have for the module;
4. and explain what differentiates you from others (steps toward a personal brand).
This should be approximately 300 words.
Subject: Self-Introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone,
My name is Yu Siang and my purpose for this letter is to introduce myself to you. I am currently a year one student studying Mechanical Engineering attending your critical thinking and communicating module.
Since young, I was intrigued by technological advances and their potential benefits and ease it brings for our future. This sparked my interest in engineering and since I love Mathematics and Physics subjects, I tend to excel in those modules that has Mathematics or Physics involved in it. In Polytechnic, I studied Diploma in Industrial and Operations Management and decided to pursue further studies in the engineering path. Being a curious minded student, I challenged myself and took up a Diploma Plus in Advanced Mathematics on my own accord to expand my knowledge and mathematical ability. In addition, to prepare for further studies in Industrial and Systems Engineering in NUS when I graduate, which undoubtedly came in handy in future applications such as during my internship. However, it did not went as I had planned out because they require a higher GPA, so I settled for SIT Mechanical Engineering to branch out my potential career prospects.
As an engineer, I agree with the stigma of us being weak in communication, but my strength in communication is non-verbal ques. I am strong in terms of having good body language such as maintaining constant eye contact and good tone as I project my thoughts across to whoever I am speaking to. This enables me to positively impact the other party willingly to be on the same level of communication mood setting and that will easily clarify and share ideas with one and another for better team based projects.
Although, my strength in communication is a valuable asset, I am bound to have weakness in communicating at times which is the inability to prolong conversations. For example, when I debate on a particular topic with another party, I tend to be overwhelmed and unable to keep up with overloaded information which results in being nervous to speak up. The state of nervousness decrease my confidence in speaking as I will be talking off the point and be processing all the information rather than trying to prolong conversations.
Through this module, my specific goals are speaking with confidence while reducing the use of fillers followed by proper sequential structure in writing and speaking. Whenever I speak, I tend to say whatever comes to mind and lack of time to process what I want to say beforehand which results in blabbering and using fillers to buy myself some time to think through on the spot. Without a proper structure of my thought process, I find it hard to stay on the point and side track to irrelevant topics that does not link to the initial idea.
With weaknesses that limits me, something that differentiates me from others is being open-minded and an explorer. I am open-minded in terms of inviting myself to face various challenges such as taking up a Maritime Industry Case Competition by NTU as a year one student back in polytechnic. I refer that as gutsy and willing to try and learn because the competition write up on technological breakthroughs in the future of maritime industry, a sector I was completely inexperienced with. I explored the current and futuristic plans and came up with solutions with regards to blockchain and drone applications although the modules I had back then was not that in-depth into certain industry. I did not make it through the first stage but this competition realise my potential in progressive and self improving mindset still stays in me up till this day.
Best Regards,
Yu Siang
Hey Yu Siang! Your letter is well-written and does state all pointers required. In your 3rd paragraph, your last sentence is not completed by the way. It only shows "For example," and it ends there. Other than that, your flow is good and I enjoyed reading it!
ReplyDeleteHi yu siang ! The letter you had written did clearly explain all the required pointer , but I would like to comment on some parts which might be useful for you.
ReplyDeleteSome of the sentence are too long and hard to have pauses to read it smoothly.
overall, I enjoyed reading your letter!
Hey Yu Siang, I felt that your strength and weakness were not properly explained. You mentioned that your strength was in communication, but what kind of communication skills? Organisation wise, I felt that your letters flow smoothly, it was not messy at any point and I understand the points that you were trying to bring across. However, some of your language use could be better, specifically your sentence structure. Instead of using "one and another", you should say "one another". From your letter, I can tell that you will seize opportunities to improve yourself and I respect you for that. See you around in class :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Yu Siang, for this highly detailed letter. You address all the assignment areas and provide extensive elaboration. In fact, I'd say you really dig deep into each experience you describe and present those with fine precision. If anything, there may be a bit too much explanation as this letter verges on 600 words.
ReplyDeleteWhat's most impressive is how you come across as very curious, self motivated and certainly willing to leave yoour comfort zone as an ''éxplorer." Those characteristics will certainly bode well for you in the future as your many research efforts have already demonstrated. (Kudos to you!)
There are a few language items in this letter that I'd like you to consider in terms of the followiong:
1. use of pronoun referents
-- Since young, I was intrigued by technological advances and their potential benefits and ease it brings for our future. > (number?)
Since young, I was intrigued by technological advances and their potential benefits and ease THEY bring for our future.
2. overuse of caps
-- a year one student studying Mechanical Engineering > ?
-- since I love Mathematics and Physics subjects, > ?
-- ... I tend to excel in those modules that has Mathematics or Physics involved in it. > (overuse of caps/subject-verb-disagreement/pronoun referent) ?
-- Being a curious minded student, I challenged myself and took up a Diploma Plus in Advanced Mathematics on my own accord to expand my knowledge and mathematical ability. > ?
3. punctuation
-- Although, my strength in communication is a valuable asset, I am bound to have weakness in communicating at times which is the inability to prolong conversations. > ?
4. verb issues
-- I did not make it through the first stage but this competition realise my potential in progressive and self improving mindset still stays in me up till this day. > (subject-verb-disagreement/verb tense) ?
Let's talk about these.
I look forward to reading more from you this term.
BrAD