Communication is essential

Jarrod Chin - Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering for Building Services
Singapore Institute of Technology
20 Sesame Street
Singapore 124523

11 September 2017

Ms. Lim Lay Hoon
Professor
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive
Singapore 138682

Dear Ms. Lim,

 My Strengths and Weaknesses in Communication

My name is Jarrod Chin and I am currently studying under Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering for Building Services. At 22 years old, I find myself approaching many impending career obstacles and opportunities that could lie in favor with the possession of strong communication skills. Communication is a vital part of a person's life since birth. It is the process of trading information that is not limited to the involvement of reading, speaking and listening. Our brain also subconsciously studies the body language of people we are engaging and draw conclusions from it. This is especially true in interviews where postures and gestures could determine the outcome.

My strength lies in the ability to communicate in an informal situation. I get my messages delivered efficiently and I am always able to say the right things at the right time. I attribute this advantage to my ability to listen empathetically. The ability to listen is a part of communication and it is vital when taking leadership position. While studying during my tertiary education, I was tasked to be a leader of the project group for one of a module. While generating ideas and listening to my peers’ ideas, we achieved excellent grades through our effort.

My flaws lie with formal oral communications such as interviews and presentation. During such occasion, it is inappropriate to apply my usual unprofessional way of delivering information. Unintentionally, I have the tendency to use creole language during important events. Furthermore, without the use of creole languages, I find it challenging to fully express my thoughts.

As I work on expanding my vocabulary pool and reduce my usage of creole language, I hope this module would impart formal oral conversation techniques and knowledge that would help boost my confidence in front of an interviewing panel or audience.

Yours sincerely,

Jarrod
Jarrod Chin

Comments

  1. YJ15 September 2017 at 04:58

    Dear Jarrod,

    It has been a pleasure to have read your blog post. I have to say that your blog post have impressed me to say the least. Your contents were clear and expressed well. I have also expanded my vocabulary pool by reading your blog post.

    I agree with your view that "the ability to listen is a part of communication and it is vital when taking leadership position". I believe that, It always takes two person to communicate. Thus, a good leader must not only be able to give opinions well, but also to take opinions well.

    With regards to your flaw, I am also facing a similar problem in presenting myself in front of people. I think that the reason behind our flaws may be due to our lack of exposure to public speaking. I believe that practices makes perfect, and the effective communication module is a great platform for us to gain valuable experience in presenting ourselves.

    So, let us work hard together to achieve the end goal that we have in mind at the end of this module!

    Regards,

    Yong Jian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joelle Kim15 September 2017 at 07:49

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joelle Kim15 September 2017 at 07:49

    Hi Jarrod,

    For starters, I am impressed by how coherent your post is along with your big vocabulary. This proves that you have a strong command in the English language. However, I feel that your post is inconsistent in terms of the font used.

    I agree with how you described communication as” the process of trading information that is not limited to the involvement of reading, speaking and listening”. Majority tend to focus on the verbal communications that they forget about the other; non-verbal communications. The latter is equally important as well.

    I believe that you will be able to improve on your weaknesses with more exposures to presenting. Fret not to seek for help whenever you have difficulties penning your thoughts down.

    Let us use this module to better our communication skills and improve ourselves as a person.

    Regards,
    Joelle

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown16 September 2017 at 21:18

    Hi Jarrod,

    I am impressed by your command of English and it has certainly allowed me to expand my vocabulary usage. Also, having the knowledge on how people communicate and learning from others’ behavior allows us to understand the different types of people that we will face in the future.

    I agree with you that being able to say the right things at the right time is essential because it allows the person who is doing that to have control over the situation and you are able to avoid conflict.

    I personally believed that through more practices and exposure, you will be able to communicate and ace your interviews as well as presentations in a formal situation.

    We will work hand-in-hand to excel in our communication skills together through this module and thank you for sharing your thoughts.

    Best regards,
    Aloysius

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ms. Lim17 September 2017 at 07:26

    Dear Jarrod,

    Thank you for the interesting post – I really appreciate your frank sharing!

    You have a pretty good descriptive reflection here, where readers can see a clear intro, body and conclusion. The reader can also easily follow your thoughts as you touched on your strengths, weaknesses and goals in Communication skills. Well done!

    That said, there are a few areas that you could work on:

    Ensure that you adhere to the letter format (for instance, the programme you are in should not appear immediately after your name)

    Consider what would be a more appealing (and forward-looking) subject line

    Ensure correctness of the language used. I am highlighting a few examples below:

    • “…currently studying under SIE for Building Services.” >>> “and I am an undergraduate studying SIE for Building Services at SIT.”
    • “At 22 years old…” >>> “At 22 years of age”, or simply “At 22” which is more concise
    • “…impending obstacles…opportunities…” >>> impending has a negative connotation
    • “My strength lies in the ability to communicate in an informal situation” >>> “…in informal situations.”
    • “I get my messages delivered efficiently…” (correctness) >>> “I am able to deliver my …, and I am always also able to…” Ensure parallelism
    • “…The ability to listen is a part of communication…” >>> insert adjective
    • “…studying during my tertiary education, I was tasked to be a leader of the project group for one of a module” >>> “…studying for…”, and “…be a leader for a project group”, “…one of the module.”
    • “…interviews and presentation.” >>> “…interviews and presentations.”
    • “…expanding my vocabulary pool and reduce my usage of creole language…” (parallelism) >>> “…expanding…and reducing…”

    Do ensure that the font type and size used is the same throughout the post (Joelle also pointed that out, so you can see that your readers have sharp eyes) else it would give your readers the impression that this is a cut-and-paste piece of work.

    Don’t forget to thank the reader.

    Cheers,
    Ms. Lim

    ReplyDelete

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