Formal Letter (Descriptive Reflection)

Dear Professor Brad,

My name is Kriston Yeo Hiong Tee from your effective communication class. My purpose of writing this letter is for you to know a little more about myself. It has been almost 2 years since I have graduated from my polytechnic as I had to serve my national service. I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in green building and sustainability in 2019. The reason why I chose sustainable infrastructure engineering (Building Services) in SIT was because of the passion I had for engineering during my time in my polytechnic course. I have always had the interest in engineering and knew that I wanted to become an engineer as my career. When I was younger, I was always fascinated by how things worked in this world and soon, I realized that everything in this world is produced by successful engineering solutions.

A communication strength that I possess would be the ability to speak with volume and clarity. During my time in national service, I took on leadership roles which required me to present myself to many people. As I had to speak to large audiences, I needed to project my voice loudly and spoke with clarity to disseminate clear and concise information to them. A communication weakness that I have would be using hesitations and “wimpy words”. Sometimes, I use fillers like, “uh..” and “umm..” during presentations as I require time to think and process what I want to say which makes people perceive me as unconfident.

By the end of this module, I hope to improve my public speaking skills and be able to present myself confidently in front of people. I also hope to improve my written communication skills and be able to write a good report that is able to deliver the content clearly and concisely.

I really look forward to attend your classes every week to learn more about how to communicate effectively!

 

Best regards,

Kriston Yeo 


Edited on 04 Oct 2021

Blogs commented on:

1. Houston

2. Jane

3. Aceline


Comments

  1. Brad BlackstoneSeptember 15, 2021 at 11:27 PM

    Thanks for writing and posting your letter already, Kriston. I'll give comments once your blogging buddies have commented.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SharleenSeptember 19, 2021 at 9:35 AM

    Hi Kriston, I have read through your letter and it is engrossing and articulated well.

    Just a minor issue I have noticed, but I may be wrong. For this sentence "I really look forward to attend your classes every week to learn more about how to communicate effectively!", perhaps you can rephrase to "I look forward to attending your classes every week, learning more about effective communication!". Although it is known that after "to", a verb should always be in the infinitive, in this case, you are using an adjective before the verb, you can use "-ing" for attending.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Houston TanSeptember 23, 2021 at 4:34 AM

    Hi Kriston, I have read through your letter and it is engaging and well written.

    I would say that there is this sentence “ I also hope to improve my written communication skills and be able to write a good report that is able to deliver the content clearly and concisely.” which I think you could use “can” instead of “is able to” as to not repeat the word able twice in a short sentence.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AcelineSeptember 23, 2021 at 6:22 AM

    Hi Kriston, thank you for the clear and concise letter. A little feedback from me, but do feel free to correct me if you feel that I'm wrong.

    1. I think "national service" is suppose to be capitalized? "National Service"

    2. "I was always fascinated by how things worked in this world and soon," can be rephrase to "I was always fascinated by how things would worked in the world and soon, ..."

    3. "A communication weakness that I have would be using hesitations" I'm a little confused at what you mean by "using hesitations". Perhaps, you could elaborate or clarify?

    All in all, I think you did a good job in delivering clarity and conciseness in this letter. I'm sure that by the end of this module, you will see an improved version of yourself.

    Regards,
    Aceline

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kriston YeoOctober 4, 2021 at 5:14 AM

      Hi Aceline,

      Thank you for taking your time to read through my letter. As for point 3 in your comments, what I meant by "using hesitations" was the use of hesitant words/fillers such as "uhh.." or "umm.." during my presentations.

      Delete
  5. Brad BlackstoneOctober 2, 2021 at 1:26 AM

    Dear Kriston,

    Thank you for this fairly detailed, fluent letter. You’ve addressed the scope of the assignment and explained a bit about yourself. Among others points, we learn that you have experience in a leadership role in NS that has helped you develop your spoken communication skills.

    As for your interest in engineering, it's good that you have shared your fascination for "how things worked in this world." I'd like to know how that problem solving might be made more specific in your own career goals.

    In the letter, you also do a decent job explaining the perceived comm weakness in terms of your using too many filler words in presentations, which ties in with your module goals. One way to address that issue is simly by slowing down your speech and becoming more aware of what you actually articulate. I hope that you take the next few Zoom lessons as an opportunity to speak more openly and assertively with the class. Each of those sessions is a chance for you to refine your publc speaking.

    In terms of language use, this is a fluent effort, but there are a few areas of overuse of caps to take note of:
    -- your Effective Communication class
    -- why I chose Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services) in SIT

    I look forward to hearing more form you this term.


    Cheers, Brad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kriston YeoOctober 4, 2021 at 5:28 AM

      Dear Prof Brad,

      Thank you for taking your time off your busy schedule to read through and provide me feedback on my letter. I truly appreciate it. I've noted and amended the issues regarding my terms of language used.

      To address your curiosity, I would want to be an engineer of great innovation that can contribute to society by providing successful engineering solutions to the problems the world has. As we all know, everything in this world is created through engineering and I would want to be part of the technological advancement of society.

      Thank you.

      Best regards,
      Kriston

      Delete

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