Post 7: Reflection..

Before the beginning of the course ES2007s, I always thought I had sufficient knowledge on the different types of communication skills. However, as time passed, I was proven wrong as my understanding of the value of effective communications skills deepened.

The same word can become a double edged sword when they are used in different settings. For example, the use of “guys” is perfectly alright when we are addressing our friends in a more casual way. However, when it comes to addressing people of higher positions, “guys” becomes a disrespectful address. With this, the intention of using the word could be twisted.
In written communication, the choice of words is the key in conveying a message accurately. But the use of different font and font sizes , CAPS, italic, underline, bold, highlighted, coloured words , and emoticons do give an additional meaning to the content.

On top of the more obvious forms of verbal communication, there is the non-verbal communications. In this form of communication, people get to understand one another better through the use of non verbal cues such as gestures, facial expression, dressing attires, cultural practices (i.e hand signs, types of food we eat, dining etiquette etc). With an inappropriate use of the non-verbal cues, misinterpretation and miscommunication can result.

Through ES2007s, I have learnt how to adopt the 7Cs to choose the appropriate words to speak and write so to avoid any confusion and misinterpretation. Among all the skills I have picked up, I found the job search skills (writing CV, application letter, interview etc) especially beneficial as I start to embark on my job searching process.
Though it is coming to an end to the course, I believe that it is not the end to mastering communication skills as there are still more to learn.

Post 6: Biodata

Chau Ting is a Year 3 Chemistry undergraduate from the Faculty of Science in the National University of Singapore. She expects to graduate with a Bachelor in Science in July 2009.

She is hardworking and disciplined. Her self motivation is what pushes her to fight on when faced with an obstacle. Perseverance and determination has seen her through the competitive and stressful university environment.

Although there is limit to the number of years spent in school, she believes that there is no end to the learning path. New skills may not be easy to pick up, but she believes that a strong will would help to overcome any difficulties along the way. This is why she is currently teaching herself the guitar, even though she does not have any music background.

She enjoys doing things that gives her a great sense of satisfaction. This may explain her liking in beading. Through beading, she develops patience.

She would like to pursue a career in the health care sector, especially the allied health professionals like physiotherapists and occupational therapists as it is very fulfilling to see patients returning back to their normal lives. Although it may not be related to her area of study, she believes that she can learn the relevant skills and contribute significantly as she strongly believes in making a difference in someone else’s live.

Post 5: ALL CAPS..?

In English grammar, we have leant that there are times whereby we need to use capital letters; for example, the first word of a sentence, a person’s name, a proper noun etc. At times, all caps are used as well. In a passage of mixed words, the sudden appearance of short string of words in all caps naturally appears bolder and louder. Therefore, all caps are used for emphasis and they are commonly seen in the titles on advertisement billboards, newspaper headlines and book covers.

However, in our usual written form of communication like emails or Short Message Service (SMS) or Windows Life Messengers (MSN), there might be a very different meaning attached to the capital letters for different people. For example, a reply such as “YES?” when asked for a favour may suggest skepticism and unwillingness to help. But the speaker may actually mean that he is very concern with how he could help and he is more than willing to do so. From this, we can see that all caps can have very different interpretation.

As we all do agree that reading a passage with everything capitalized seems like being shouted at and it is difficult to read, this may suggest that we should minimize the usage of call caps. However, if so, have you ever wonder why there is a “CAPS LOCK” key in our keyboard? Besides the ease in filling up an application letter that requires information to be in block letters, is there other purpose to this key?

Post 4: Cultural difference

Scenario:
Yuki had left Japan for a two weeks overseas business trip to America alone. Besides it being her first trip there, it was also her first time attending meetings chaired by an American.

When Yuki attended the first meeting, she was shocked. Back in Japan, meetings usually started off with a short causal chit-chat session before they got down to serious work. In America on the other hand, serious discussion started as soon as all participants were seated.

At first, she thought that the issues being discussed in that meeting might be urgent and hence they could not afford to waste time. However, she noticed that the same thing happened again for subsequent meetings. In addition, her American colleagues started using words that were deemed as impolite in Japan.

Although no actual conflicts occurred during her business trip, Yuki did not really enjoy her stay in America as she found the Americans too straight-forward and serious.

My thoughts:
Even though there were no exact conflicts between them due to their cultural differences, their working experience with one another did not turn out good either.

Yuki did not enjoy her stay in America because she could not adapt to the sudden change of meeting style. While Yuki found the Americans too straight-forward, her American colleagues might feel that she wasted too much time by beating around the bush.

In order to make it a pleasant and fruitful trip, besides getting prepared for her role, Yuki should have spent some time to find out more about the American culture before she embarked on her business trip. This would enable her to get a rough idea of what to expect when she go over there.

Upon arrival in America, Yuki could also try to adapt to the new working style since it is always easier for one person to change compared to a big group. Furthermore, it should not be too difficult to do so as she was only staying there for a short period of time.

Post 3: Letter

The email that I received
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FINAL EXTENSION OF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY DEADLINE TO 8 FEB 2009, SUNDAY, 6.00PM

Dear Lau Chau Ting,

Didn't have time to register because of school or work?
Still wish to give your Executive Summary an extra shine?

We've got good news! In view of the immense number of requests we have received with regard to extending the deadline, there will be a FINAL Extension of the deadline for the submission of the Executive Summary to 6.00pm, Sunday, 8 Feb 2009.

Teams that have already submitted their executive summaries may continue to edit and improve on their submissions during this period. Do note that you are able to submit your Executive Summary as many times as you want, and only your latest Executive Summary submission as at the deadline will be judged!

Interested participants who have yet to register can still upload their executive summary to the Judging Portal by this Sunday. It's still not too late!

We hope you will be able to draw on the weekend to spruce up your Executive Summaries.

Register now at www.abcdefg.org.sg
For enquiries, please email abcdefg@hi.org.sg

Best Regards,
The ABCDEFG Team
Make Ideas Happen | www.abcdefg.org.sg

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Background of this email
It was a business plan competition organized by an entrepreneurship society of a local university. In this competition, participants are required to submit a 3-page Executive Summary. The ordinary deadline for the submission was 3 Feb 2009. But an email was received on 3 Feb 2009 regarding the extension of deadline to midnight (2359 hrs) of 6th February 2009 (Friday). Then, one day after the updated due date (7 Feb 2009, 1.05pm), another email was sent out to notify us about a further extension of deadline to 8 Feb 2009, Sunday, 6.00pm.
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My thoughts
By looking at the alignment and the subject line in this letter, it can be observed that it has adopted the block format with mixed punctuation. However, the subject line should come after the salutation.

As this email was to convey good news, it was started off with the good news in the opening paragraph and details were listed in the middle paragraph to support the good news. The writer had made use of capital letters and bold words to emphasize on the word final due date. Also, the email was kept concise and concrete.

However, instead of saying “Do note that you are able to submit your Executive Summary as many times as you want, and only your latest Executive Summary submission as at the deadline will be judged!” I believe that it would be better if the writer broke it up into two shorter sentences, with the second sentence starts with “But”. This way, the point could be made clearer and any unnecessary misunderstanding could be avoided.

Contacts like email address and websites were given at the bottom of the email. However, I think that it would be better to include the name of the contact person. Otherwise, participants might not know who and how to address the person responding to their enquiries. In addition, a contact number could also be included to allow a fast and immediate response.

Like the previous emails, it would be better to include a brief introduction of the competition and the general guidelines for the Executive Summary. This would serve as a reminder to existing participants and also as an easy reference for new participants.

Another point to note is that this email was sent out quite late. It was sent out one day after the new deadline and the final deadline mentioned was actually the day after the email was sent. This extended time would definitely benefit the existing participants as they now have more time to improve on their entries. However, this short notice might not be sufficient for new participants to come up with a 3-page Executive Summary. If extension of the due date was meant to encourage more participants, I feel that it should be extended by more than one day.

Post 2: Resolving conflicts

Although it is just the start of a new year, I have already come across several quarrels, be it within family members, neighbors, or even strangers. Just a few days ago, a conflict between two of my neighbors broke out.

On the night of Chinese New Year Eve, my family got together to chit-chat and play mahjong after our reunion dinner. It was in such a harmonious atmosphere until shouts were heard from our corridor, “Hey fatty! It is good that you finally cleaned up your area, but why did you sweep your dirt to my side!?” “What did you tell my wife? You cheated her...” “Your existence is so worthless that you should just die.” A string of vulgarity followed from a sophisticated looking man. On the other hand, a usually chatty but sarcastic man, who was being scolded, was at a loss of words. Their wives tired to interfere and stop their quarrel, but it was to no avail. The quarrel lasted for approximately fifteen minutes until one of the wives successfully persuaded her husband back to their house. Few seconds later, two policemen came to their doorstep to mediate. The shouting and screaming were finally replaced by a police warning.

Although we did not know the full details, we guessed that it may be because the sophisticated looking man believes that sweeping dirt to his doorstep on a Chinese New Year Eve may bring him bad luck. Hence explaining the sudden 180 degrees change in his behaviour.

As we are concerned that they may not want anyone else to witness such a scene, we chose to remain silence. However, choosing such a stand made us feel helpless. If you were caught in such a situation, would you step forward to help resolve the conflict? If yes, how would you approach them without affecting your relationship with them or causing further misunderstanding? If you were either one of the involved parties, how would you react to avoid such an undesirable consequence? What would you do so as not to affect the people around you?

Post 1: Effective Communication Skills

While it is important to master effective communications skills, I believe that the skills required varies with the stage of lives we are in. As a student, our academic performance is usually judged by written examinations. If we were to write in a way such that the examiners do not understand what we are trying to convey, it will led to a misinterpretation of our ideas, resulting in a poor grade. In this case, the written communication skill is important.

As we age, we will eventually step into the working world. Before even landing a job, we have to draft resumes, fill up job application letters, and go through rounds of interviews. Therefore, it is crucial to equip ourselves with the job search communication skills. Being in my final semester of studies in NUS, such skills will be especially critical for me as I have to start on job search really soon. In addition, I may not be pursing a job that is directly related to my field of study (Chemistry), and hence I will have to learn how to convince the company to recruit an amateur like me.

As we work, we are going to meet people from all walks of life. Not everyone will be pleasant to be with, and easy to communicate with. When dealing with people of different personalities, backgrounds or status, an effective use of oral communications becomes crucial. For example, when we are having a face-to face feedback session with someone with higher rank, we may want to speak formally with the right tone, appropriate words and gestures to convey our thoughts correctly. The same applies to drafting minutes, emails, letters and preparing reports to internal or external parties.

Of course, I am not saying that oral communication skills become important only after we enter the workforce. In fact, it is important to all of us, regardless of age. As long as there is human interaction, oral communication skills are needed. However, it becomes significantly important as we enter the work force because it gets harder to predict someone’s thoughts and motives.

In conclusion, failure to communicate effectively will inevitably create unnecessary misunderstandings and problems in all stages of one’s life. Just like everyone else, I dislike the feeling of being misunderstood; therefore, mastering in effective communication skills is important to me.