Prior to this module, I was quite confident in my writing and
communication skills, considering my past experiences in presentations. Though
I understood I may have had some flaws in terms of proper communication of thoughts
and emotions, I still managed to scrap by in the past. University was a wake-up
call that I could not run away from my flaws, and had to face them head-on.
Academic report writing was a tough challenge, citing multiple
sources with accordance to the APA standard, sifting through a mountain of
research articles just to find one that matches your project scope and meeting
deadlines with other modules piling up as well was no easy feat. However, only
through hardship and pressure can a diamond be formed, and that was reinforced
for me through this module. Understanding the challenge and rising to meet it
has taught me to be confident in sharing my thoughts and opinions in class, something
that I struggled with in the past. At the same thing, learning different ways
and methods to process my thoughts helped to refine my points into writing and
presenting my ideas clearly.
Pertaining to the project, the portion of it that I learnt the most was during
the initial discussion of ideas. At first, all of us in the group had various takes
on the direction our project could be taken to. Developing these ideas and
narrowing towards our focus for the project was harder than it seemed at first,
as to explain ideas, we needed a foundation in the topics first. Having to
manage all these ideas, slogging through a mountain of articles, and finally deciding
on the final topic was hard work, which personally thought me to prioritise what
is necessary and what is not.
Time management is an aspect I, personally did not take
seriously until recently, and I realised the importance of having good time
management, even in a simple task as deciding the focus of our project. With
the pace of SIT, wasting time needlessly is not a luxury anyone can afford, and
learning how to prioritise tasks and goals is my key takeaway from this project
assignment.
In retrospect, this module broke down my preconceived
notions of the importance of effective communication on a professional level
and aided me in learning and relearning several new approaches to better
present my ideas to a multitude of different audiences. As I aspire to travel
into the stars, I am reminded that to venture the unknown, one must trust their
own ability and be willing to relearn everything to be a better version on
oneself.
