In this third reflection, I will summarize all the assignments that have been carried out during this semester in the subject Technical Communication 2. These includes cover letter, resume, mock interview, mock meeting and recommendation report. I think this will be my longest reflection.
A recommendation report describes a general format for a short report, which can adapt to the needs of specific assignments. Overall, my recommendation report was a group effort. As we observed in UTeM, there are not as many parking spaces allocated to cater both its students and staff. Due to this phenomenon, many students tend to park their vehicles at the staff area, on the side of the road, and even double park. Thus, we decided to make a recommendation report about choosing an appropriate solution which is either multilevel car parks or mass car parks. The materials gathered were first hand, as we ourselves are students of UTeM and also facing the same problem. We also obtained materials from other universities, to compare their system of parking and solution.
For the recommendation report, our group consists of 5 persons, thus, we divided the task evenly among each other. The division of task was done mutually and we met once a week to discuss the problems faced and also to add any new inputs or new ideas along the way. So far, every problem has been successfully solved, either among ourselves or we would take it to our lecturer for advice.
Our presentation of the recommendation report was done in 2 different ways. Firstly, we presented the report in a hardcopy booklet. All the information was included in this booklet. And secondly, we did a verbal presentation of our findings and the result of recommendation of our proposal. In this presentation, we summarized the recommendation report to our classmates and our lecturer in a group. Each of the group members were assigned to present about their part whilst constructing the recommendation report. I believe that this was an effective way to present a project, as the lecturer and fellow classmates can ask questions at the end of the presentation in case of any inquiries of our recommendation or about the findings of our research.
On the other hand, I was also assigned to other assignments throughout this semester, such as preparing a cover letter and a resume. I also underwent a mock interview. I believe that all these assignments will bring use in the future. Throughout these assignments, I have learnt different formats on how to present my resume and cover letter, according to types of jobs and their requirements as compared my work with peers and other classmates. Furthermore, I have also learnt how to synchronize the contents of the cover letter and I believe that this has practically prepared me for my future career.
On the other hand, a mock meeting was also held, but in an informal manner as it was done in groups and the lecturer only acts as a moderator and answers our query and others. This mock meeting practice trains me to be a person who is firm, respectable, fair, and also a charismatic person. In this mock meeting, I was chosen by my group members as the chairperson. By now, I realized that a chairperson’s task is not easy. In order to maintain my board of directors from any irrelevant interruptions and also picking useful exchange of views, I had to control and divert my board of directors constantly from small talks and the merging of unimportant issues.
Thus far, I have improved many skills throughout the assignments given. For example, teamwork, verbal and problem solving skills to name a few, are improved tremendously. In the future, I hope that the activities could be more vibrant so that students would not be bored and that the activities could have a larger impact as the students are enjoying themselves and paying attention as well. Furthermore, the activities should mix everyone in the class. For example, having 2 groups as different companies and having exchange meetings to solve certain problems. This will not only make the students interact more with each other, but it also help to increase their communications skills among each other.
My learning in communications skills thus far have increased upon following this course. I can practice my verbal skills as we were encouraged to use English language during class sessions. Thus, by interacting with my fellow course mates, I have observed many flaws of mine and theirs (my course mates) in using the English language. So, I would say that I have found new ways and knowledge in using the English language better. I recognized the changes upon the execution of my recommendation report and also my mock interview. In these assignments, my writing skills and verbal communications skills have improved yet again. Furthermore, I get to communicate more with my fellow course mates via E-portfolio by commenting on their E-portfolio pages.
In my opinion, the E-portfolio has helped me developed in usage of the English language. After a semester of maintaining my E-portfolio, I can see that I make fewer mistakes upon writing my artifacts as I have to repair my mistakes after it is commented by my peers, facilitator and lecturer. In time, I observed that I have also developed the skill to locate grammatical error in my peers’ E-portfolio.
In conclusion, the E-portfolio can be further introduced to other Malaysian students so that they will be exposed to the usage of technology and gain useful experiences as I did for both their studies and further career.
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