Wednesday 15 January 2020

Introduction


Subject: Self-Introduction letter

Dear Professor Brad,

My name is Cheng Heng Loong. I am writing this letter to briefly introduce myself and my background. I have graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic with a Diploma in Mechatronics Engineering. During my final year project, I was assigned to develop a software algorithm for biped humanoid robots to accomplish simple tasks. This piqued my interest in robotics, which ultimately inspired me to pursue a Degree in Mechanical Engineering in SIT.

I am of the opinion that communication is one of the most essential qualities an engineer must possess because this enables us to express design elements to laymen. Good communication skills give an engineer the edge in getting their points across smoothly when presenting complex technical designs to people who are not trained in engineering.

Talking in front of a large audience has always been an immense challenge for me as I have problems expressing my thoughts clearly due to anxiety issues. This causes me to stutter at times when doing public speaking and I have to resort to using entirely different words from the ones I initially plan on to hide the stuttering. To overcome this specific obstacle, I would practice beforehand to ensure that I am fluent in my speech.


To compensate for my shortcomings, I would strive to be a good listener. Since communication is a two-way street, I believe that being a good listener is as vital as being a good speaker because good listeners can more accurately grasp the situation and offer solutions to that are more suited to the problem at hand.


My goal in this module is to learn to overcome my anxiety of public speaking and to be able to consolidate ideas faster and deliver them fluently to my audience and also to improve my writing skills.

Best regards,

Cheng Heng Loong





4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Dear Heng Loong,

    Nice to meet you! My name is Daryl, and I'm one of your buddies from the blogging group. I really enjoyed reading your letter and I feel that it's exceptionally well written. I relate to your comments about having anxiety issues, as I too suffer from anxiety related problems when I'm alone in public.I also constantly stutter my words when I were to make a speech or do a presentation in front of an audience. Hopefully we could overcome these tough obstacles together! I would like to highlight some minor pointers I have about the letter.

    1.) The capitalization of "Best Regards" should be "Best regards"

    2.) In your communication strengths paragraph, the line "and offer solutions to that are more suited to the problem..." would probably flow better if you leave out the first "to", changing the line to "and offer solutions that are more suited...".

    3.) Your letter was structured nicely, as I can easily distinguish what each paragraph meant and the theme it's intended.

    Overall, I really empathize with your letter and the hardships you're going through. Let's do our best together to achieve the goals we set for ourselves by the end of this semester!

    Best regards,
    Daryl Chow

    (re-edited on 22/1/2020)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Heng Loong,

    First, apologies for the late response.

    This is a well-focused and finely detailed letter. You address each of the touchpoints for the assignment, doing so with some flair in illustration and fluency in expression. You also do a good job of connecting your background with your present endeavors. However, I especially appreciate how you reveal a certain vulnerability in the examples you give in terms of your communication weakness and the need to refine your skills by overcoming your anxiety. I hope that our classoom activities can allow you to address that to some degree.

    There are also a few minor language issues to address:
    -- This piqued my interest in robotics which ultimately inspired me to pursue a Degree in Mechanical Engineering in SIT. >
    This piqued my interest in robotics, which ultimately inspired me to pursue a Degree in Mechanical Engineering in SIT.

    -- With good communication skills, it gives engineer >
    Good communication skills give an engineer

    -- This causes me to stutter at times when doing public speaking and I had to resort to using entirely different words than the ones I initially planned on to hide the stuttering.
    > (verb tense)
    This causes me to stutter at times when doing public speaking and I have to resort to using entirely different words from the ones I initially plan on to hide the stuttering. (Ask me about this.)

    -- To overcome this specific obstacle, I would practice beforehand to ensure that I am fluent in my speech. > (tense)

    -- To compensate for my shortcomings, I would strive to be a good listener. > (tense) ?

    Let's work on these points.

    I look forward to reading more of your writing this term.

    Brad

    ReplyDelete
  4. Other problems include editing resistance, lack of or significantly delayed communications and lack of professionalism. website

    ReplyDelete

Critical Reflection

My primary goal for this module is to overcome my anxiety of public speaking and be able to express my thoughts clearly and confidently to...