Final lap of a awesome journey...

 

 

 

Deciding to take up the module ES2007S seems to be like a “yesterday” decision that I pondered during the semester module bidding period. I remember how I queried my peers and went online to read student’s blog entries about this module; it was indeed an unnecessary worry now that I think back. Therefore, I am going to input this last entry analytically for future student who might stumble across my blog in the future when they are deciding if they should take up this module.

 

Many modules that we as an undergraduate take up during our course of study might be highly specialized and technical with regards to its content which corresponds to our field of majors. Many a time, we will just end up completing the module and seldom or maybe we will never even get to apply what we learnt into our life. Perhaps this is a dilemma in our education system. However, I can honestly say that professional communication is a module where we learnt skills that we can almost incorporate and apply it in our daily life, if not, definitely useful when we enter into the workforce.

 

It provides an insight of what to expect when we enter into the professional working world and equip us with the necessary interpersonal skills which is relevant in all career out there. I believe this is a skill that many graduate may be lacking in our present society. We may have the conceptual knowledge of the relevant field but not the “fundamental” skill that a person essentially need in life.

 

I believe I did grew and learnt many useful skills within my journey in ES2007S. Especially learning so much apart from my usual “adrenaline-rush” style of presentation. I understood the need to adjust the “release of adrenaline” to effectively correlate it to the audience and delivery of the message. Trust me, things that seems “common sense” may not necessary be so common after all, there’s a lot to be learn.

 

One of the common conceptions for student before they take up this module is thinking that the workload for this module is relatively high. But I actually beg to defer this conception. Yes, there is no denying that there is a prominent set of assignment lined up for the module. However, if we would to conscientiously follow closely with the well planned schedule provided, it might not be a big issue after all. Of course, there are times where we will find ourselves choked up with the lined-up assignment especially during the oral presentation and proposal phase, but it a time-management skills that perhaps is a skills instill within this module that is to be transmitted to us.

 

One entry only is rather insufficient for me to state down every single memorable moments that I been through together with the class in this module. These class of mine is indeed a spontaneous class that contains a group of diverse student and professionally led by our ever amiable and friendly coordinator Dr.Radhika who is ever understanding and allow room for discussion and negotiation (even for an extension of assignment è which makes the workload not as heavy as it isJ)

 

Just when the class starts to bond, the module comes to an end… Thanks everyone in the class for making this a memorable module for me before I officially graduate from NUS and of course your ever-patience to handle my “nonsense” in classJ

Keep it touch and forget me NOT!

Cheers forever.

Edmund Yap

16th November 2013

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

Extravaganza - The Oral Presentation

The module “Professional communication” is indeed one module in NUS that provides the student with ample chance to work with different people from different fields, permitting proficient and interacting communication opportunities through projects and allowing peers to learn from each other positively and effectively.

Time really files and now we are already in the stage of finalizing our “major” project for this module - The Oral Presentation.

Believe it a not, I am always blessed with great team members in the group who add spices to my overall working experience. (Though I may always seem to be complaining about them, in actual fact, they are awesome!)

The team member consist of two relatively serious-looking and amiable seniors who have relatively different personalities who came together with me and called ourselves, “SupermEn”

(Hopefully I unleashed their inner humorous side during the project…)

Preparation

The team set aside our common goals for this project and we agreed upon to achieve excellence in this project.

With that common goal set in mind, we set off to brainstorm and come up with our main ideas. Due to many different perspective of view different members have, we faced a situation of not being able to come up with a main idea that was able to substantiate as a strong point for our project. Plenty of ideas starts to flow in, however we were unable to finalize our point to the extend we start to lag behind compare to other teams in the class who have already proceeded on to the next phase of the project.

In order to finalize a plan, the team set up various group discussion platforms according to our convenience using technologies such as GoogleDoc as well as Whatsapp application to aid in our discussion. This was essential due to different schedule of each member; it was relatively difficult to find consensus timings for discussion. The different ideas were then collated in our document which aids the team in effectively identifying the main concern we would like to work upon. Finally, coming to a main point being identified successfully.

After the main idea was developed, the preparation proceeded smoothly and the progress of the project was updated systematically in our communication platform. Whenever the need arises, a face-to-face meet up were scheduled accordingly to the member availability, to some extend over the weekend.

 

Though the process was rather hectic, fortunately the members were of people who are able to take critics with an open-heart and are joyous by nature. Each and every one is able to provide concise and concrete suggestion timely and handled different issue effectively. The process was handled openly and maturely. Overall, the preparation process was enjoyable with work being accomplished yet with constant humors accompanied to lighten the hectic moments.

Delivery

Datelines were set and met for each task assigned to ensure the proper progression of the project. Task allocation was also frequently reviewed to ensure the proper delivery of task.

Fortunately, the team does not really have issue with members who faced major problems and fear with presentation (all members are home-grown Singaporean and “thick-skinned” to start off with) except some presentation-style issues such as unconscious habits when presenting. The team sets aside suffice time to meet-up face-to face to have numerous dry-run practices within our team apart from the one conducted in class where valuable feedbacks were received.

Though the delivery process was not a big issue, the team faced a problem. Due to the more formal presentation style this project adopts as well as the targeted audience group involved in this presentation, the usual light-hearted, joyous and humorous style of presentation style that most of the member in this team prefers has to be omitted, revised and altered accordingly. Slides were also reviewed numerous times to ensure the appropriateness of the theme in order to correspond to our presentation.

 

Presentation Aids

After many discussions, the team decided that we will stick to the conventional PowerPoint presentation however ideas and flow of the presentation were taken into careful consideration during presentation. Pictures and videos were incorporated as an eye-catcher of our presentation to highlight the importance of our proposal. Many pointers and tips on presentation skill taught by our course coordinator, Dr Radhika were applied and discussed throughout the preparation process till the delivery stage to ensure a professional yet persuasive presentation being delivered.

 

Overall

Many of us will have to agree that the oral presentation has the heaviest workload among all the other assignment in this module and also carry a relatively huge percentage in terms of assessment. However on the whole, the oral presentation allows the student to apply what we have learnt over the entire span of the module and apply it in our “final” presentation. Be it in term of managing conflict all the way to handle a professional presentation, the oral presentation covers it all. Although it might consume a lot of time for preparation and to come out with the final presentation, overall I felt that the oral presentation is an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.

Definitely is an “extravaganza” for this module!  

I believe most of my classmates will share this similar sentiment….

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Signing off...
Edmund Yap