Critical Reflection

I like to use this opportunity to share my takeaways for this module and discuss the goals that I set at the start of the course and how it has worked out thus far.

In my formal letter, I expressed my expectations and goals to achieve for this module. I yearned to correct my communication flaws and be more engaging in class. Also, I hope to improve my writing skills and reduce grammatical errors. Language has been my weakness since young, and I would think of ways to improve it. Effective communication enables me to develop and refine my English and communication skills. As mentioned in my formal letter on the goals that I had set have helped me significantly with my flaws. With ample encouragement and support from Prof. Brad and my fellow peers, I was able to see significant improvement in my writing. There were several techniques used depending on the subject and tasks. The few skills that I found most beneficial to me are: paraphrasing and summarizing. These allow me to rephrase words from the source without losing its main content of the message intended. It is helpful as it prevents plagiarism while paraphrasing each sentence structure with in-text citations. Prof. Brad often gives feedback on my mistakes and improves on my grammatical errors and sentence structures.

Another improvement that I noticed was my communication skills. Speaking from my friend's first impression of me, I was reflected as an outspoken and approachable person but realistically, I am the exact opposite of how I looked. In reality, I am someone who lacks confidence and afraid of how I speak in public. Hence, I told myself to actively participate during lessons to be more confident by asking and answering questions. Whether it be giving a speech or presentation, I tend to tense up and at a loss for words.  Prof. Brad encouraged us to enjoy the stage and be passionate about the ideas or topics when presenting. It has helped me tremendously in finding my confidence on stage presenting my ideas. I understand that being passionate about my topic will make the presentation to be more casual and smooth. It also allows me to feel less nervous about what to say, and it will come off naturally to the audience.

In any team-based project, finding the right members is crucial, but it is not the most important. Everyone is different in their ways and has different views and opinions. In all the projects I handled in the past, I learned that compromising with others and listening to every perspective before concluding helps the team progress. Teamwork is equally as important as writing or presentation skills. One of the key benefits of working together as a group is to exchange different ideas to solve problems together as a group.

At the beginning of the research project, my team members and I shared our ideas before deciding on the potential design idea. After a short discussion, we concluded and went with the coffee tumbler as our design idea for the research project. However, due to quizzes, my team and I felt overwhelmed and tired every week. In the end, my team and I decided to focus on the quizzes on hand and complete our report and slides through Google Docs and Slides. We utilized a group-chatting platform, Discord, which allows us to have our discussions online. My team would seize the opportunity to seek advice regarding the report and slides. There were times when our ideas conflicted resulted in tension from time to time and affecting the friendship in the process. However, we would attempt to reconcile after every argument because I understand it is common for friends to quarrel once in a while. Being in team-based projects, I learned to compromise with others and improve on my mistakes. It highlights the importance of teamwork in a group.

In conclusion, teamwork is just one key aspect of a team project. Presentation skills and writing skills are equally as important. It determines an individual knowledge to write a good essay. Likewise, it also takes one to be confident to stand up and present ideas to the audience. I have enjoyed all my lessons taught by Prof. Brad and will apply what I have learned thus far, either in school or the workforce.