Blog Post #6: A Final Reflection on Learning

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”, said William Butler. Admittedly, it was not until I took this course that I ascribed to this view.

My greatest learning points from ES2007S are conciseness and clear writing. My writing has been rightfully subjected to scrutiny numerous times for my choice of words, which I have painstakingly memorized as a result of a module that I took last semester, GEK3005 / PS3260 – Politics and the Visual. In that module, the professor conducted every lecture speaking like this, “The perspicuity of the totalitarian regime epitomizes the political nadir of the Soviet Union and is the raison d’etre for the vituperation of the people, prognosticating its downfall”. Moreover, all his prescribed readings were written in a similar vein of English. Unlike the year 3 political science students taking this module, I understood nothing.

            Like every hardworking student, I hurriedly compiled a list and started using similar words, even managing an A- for my mid terms but only a B for my final grade when I stopped using them. I was left licking my wounds as the students who excelled at this module wrote English I could never hope to comprehend.

This course however tore asunder all my lofty impressions of a good paper. The essence of professional communication is rather Socratic by nature. Just ask yourself “What do I want to tell the other person?” It took a committed effort from my proposal group mates and myself to completely deface our project proposal and rewrite it based on this one principle. I am so proud that we were able to pen a proposal that effectively communicates our heartbeat for the school as students, our passion for the course and a genuine desire to improve on the problem we identified in NUS.

What I like about this course is that it is focused on essential skills that will be prevalent at anytime everyday. While some might argue that it is easier to read the deluge of similar literature available in bookstores, I like it that this course emphasizes on active participation than passive learning. I would definitely recommend this course to everyone.

P.S

"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that. But the really great make you feel that you too can become great", Mark Twain.

I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my classmates and my teacher, Mr. Brad Blackstone for teaching me so much. Thank you for all your constructive criticisms and encouragement. This module has colored my semester with many positive memories and I sincerely wish everyone all the best for your future endeavors! Keep in touch!

We part only to meet again =)

#5 My reflection of the oral presentation

             Throughout my years of education, many have consistently told me that oral presentation is one of my strongest skill sets. Therefore, I felt confident about my delivery of the material once I was able to settle into a rhythm in my presentation. Moreover, the past few weeks saw concerted efforts by my team to organize our proposal, which in turn lead to easier organization of our presentation slides. Every piece of the jigsaw seemed to have fallen into place.

How very wrong I was.

            During the class reflection, my teacher Mr. Blackstone mentioned that I might come off as “a little arrogant” if this were to be an actual presentation to the Deans of various faculties because I did not engage my audience correctly. To my horror, this was met with agreement with the class. Reviewing the video footage of my presentation, I could see what they meant. 

Instead of tactfully engaging my audience, I appeared to show enthusiasm and too much confidence in my presentation, especially on the portion of “Benefits of Academic Mentorship”. The way I presented it seemingly insinuates the lack of cognizance of these benefits from my audience– who have very distinguished titles. In reality, all I wanted was to refresh these ideas and serve as a vector, so that my audience generally knew the direction of the presentation (since our plan of action seeks to crystallize these benefits). 

Due to the logical organization of our slides to give a coherent presentation, the latter objective of my part was met. However, I felt that I should have presented in a more cogent manner. Rather than placing my emphasis on my presentation material, I should have concentrated my efforts on engaging my audience to leave a lasting positive impression.

To this end, my main takeaways from this presentation are firstly, to always absolutely know your audience. More importantly, presentation, like communication is a skill that consistently requires polishing and perfecting. Thank you all for sitting through my presentation and pointing out my mistakes! Although I am disappointed, I think that it is better to make these mistakes in the classroom than in the actual corporate world.