Critical Reflection

At the start of this module, my goal was to refine my writing skills and improve my public speaking skills so that I can present confidently and fluently in front of the class. As mentioned in the descriptive reflection to Professor Blackstone, I get nervous quite easily when I have to present by standing in front of the class. This made my voice trembles and I tended to speak faster, which led to unclear pronunciation during the presentation. Throughout my journey in this module, I feel that I have made some improvements in my presentation skills. When doing the research project, I chose to be the speaker of my group so that I can practice my presentation skills. Besides that, Professor Blackstone always discusses with the class the skills that we should pick up during the presentation. We also have to pitch our project ideas to the class and receive criticism on our presentation skills. All of these helped me to refine the contents that I should present and made me more comfortable to speak in front of the class.

As for my writing skills, I have learned to use the report verbs when writing a summary. I also learned about rephrasing skills and the 7^th edition APA standard for in-text citation and referencing, which I can apply in my report writing. All of these skills help to make my report looks more professional and lower down the percentage of plagiarism. Moreover, we have to review classmates’ works and give them comments. With that, it provided me the opportunities to learn from my classmates’ writing skills and refine my articles based on the comments given.

When doing the research project, I grouped with Raymond and Jingkai. As this is the first trimester, the three of us do not know each other, so I find it a little bit difficult at the start when deciding the project topic. This is because everyone is shy to share their opinions and comments. As we getting more familiar with each other, we are free to talk and the discussions going smoothly. Even though we faced some difficulties when doing the project, such as cannot narrow down the focus for our report writing and do not get any response to the email sent. However, I appreciate having Raymond and Jingkai in my group. They will help me with the research when I have problems to find any information. In terms of report writing, they will also help to correct my sentences while there are any grammar errors.  

I feel that all the skills that I have learned from this module will be helpful to me for lifelong, no matter in writing a report or letter to others or communicating with people. However, I think that there is still room for improving my presentation skills and writing skills. In the future, I will keep writing drafts when doing reports in order to ensure that my writing is appropriate and without any grammar error. In terms of presentation skills, I will practice a few times before the actual presentation so that I can be comfortable and confident when speaking in front of people. As the saying goes, “practices make perfect”.