Critical Reflection on SIE 2016 Effective Communications

Every ending is a new beginning, as I reflect on the time spent the past few months in the 'Effective Communications' module, I found myself enjoying the process of improving my English and writing skills. Ever since my secondary school days, I have never spent much time writing and improving my English language. I am very grateful that the Singapore Institute of Technology gave us the opportunity to revisit our skills in writing and communicating effectively. Through the 'Effective Communications' module, I realised that I neglected my writing skills over the past few years in the military and polytechnic days. I am truly glad to have been given the opportunity to learn and enjoy the experience of writing once again.

Through the useful documents and 'Symbaloo' website, I realised there was actually so much more to writing. Three months ago, I never even heard of terms such as reader's respond, thesis and APA citations. There was so much more to writing that I never knew existed. I found myself drawing deeper into the beauty of the English language. I particularly enjoyed learning Assertion-Evidence Approach as I learnt how to create a presentation slides and present effectively. I found the concept of building our presentations on key messages instead of topics to be very useful and I definitely felt that it will benefit me in the future.

On top of that, the class was tasked to share with one another the different ways of presenting effectively that we have learnt. I enjoyed the interesting concept of getting our own friends to teach us to be a very interesting. The conversation was like learning communication through communication which was very engaging.

The past three months I spent learning the module 'Effective Communications' has indeed been a breath of fresh air from all the mathematical and scientific modules engineering courses have. I have taken away important skills such as being more aware of the verb tenses and sentence structures in my writing. Learning from Brad has been a great pleasure and his constant feedback has really helped me improve my writing significantly and appreciate the art of writing. My new found interest in writing will definitely go beyond this three months and I will definitely keep this blog to continue writing.

-Thank you, Brad, for all the time you spent helping us improve. You have been a great lecturer and hope to see you around school! Cheers!

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Analytical Reflection on Oral Presentation

About a week ago, my team gave a presentation about implementing a stand-alone photovoltaic system as an alternative source of energy to my class. My team had to come up with a way to translate our technical proposal into a presentation and deliver the idea and solutions to the audience effectively. Although my team's idea was challenging as it was an ambitious proposal, feedbacks from our fellow students on our presentations were positive. Our classmates found our presentation easy to understand and feasible. On top of that,  Brad, our lecturer, found our presentation to be very informative as we were able to present the extensive research that my group had done in our presentation. I was particularly relieved when Brad mentioned that our pitch was well-founded as I spent hours researching on how to deliver a good pitch. Of course, there were moments where nerve got the better of me and I started to halt briefly in my speeches. Fortunately, I was able to stay calm and avoid a nervous wreck. Although it was saddening that my group was not voted as the best, I am proud of the efforts my team had put into the project.

I felt that the reason my group was not voted the best was probably due to the ambitious nature of our project. A major investment would be needed in order for SIT to trial the stand-alone system and my classmates probably felt the difficulty we would face in implementing the project. Nonetheless, I felt our presentation was a success as my team was able to bring across our ideas to our audience effectively. My team spent hours together discussing and drafting our proposal. Even up to the week of our presentation, my team was still researching extensively to ensure that we cover all loose ends and ensure our presentation was flawless. I am fortunate to have such hardworking and reliable teammates to ensure that we spread the workload evenly and always lend each other a helping hand.

In conclusion, although it was disappointing that my team's hard work did not culminate in my team becoming the best in presentation, I feel that through this experience my teammates and I can grow stronger. I strongly believe that as an aspiring engineer, the most important skill to have in life is perseverance and hard work. Whenever the going gets tough, never give up and always look to improve ourselves. Therefore, I strive to ensure that in the future, I always give my best efforts in every obstacle I face and ensure that I have no regrets no matter the outcome of my hard work.

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Final Reader Response (Draft 4) Revised

In the article, "This Detroit house is being turned into a living model of cost-saving sustainable design", Peters (2016) introduced a project named "Motown Movement", an initiative by three architecture students who bought a house in Detroit and converted it into a sustainable cost-efficient house. According to Peters (2016), the three students aimed to help the residents in Detroit find affordable ways to achieve sustainability. Peters shared that before "Motown Movement" started, the three students visited Detroit to gather information about the city. Through the three students visit to Detroit, the students came up with an idea to help teach residents of Detroit more affordable ways to achieve sustainability.  Peters stated that the three students plan to convert the lower level of the house they bought in Detroit into a “training centre”  and the upper-level into a house for a family in need. The three students hoped that through collaboration with their university, "Motown Movement" could become universal and reach out to other countries. However, Peters failed to include the emotions behind the project "Motown Movement" in her article, which I felt would have connected to us readers of the article more.

Firstly, Peters failed to allow us, readers, to feel the emotion of the three students and why they decided to embark on the project "Motown Movement". In Peters's article, she was very detailed in sharing the plans of the three students, such as building a “greywater system” and “septic tank” as sources of renewable energy. Although Peters was very detailed in her descriptive writing, the lack of sharing on the emotions of the three students keeps us readers at a distant from the project. Research studies (Hill, 2011) has shown that readers like to feel emotion whenever they are reading. Emotion's in writing has the ability to transfer from the author and come alive in readers (Johansen, 2015). Readers naturally like to be able to relate to the project the article is sharing and immerse themselves within the article so that they can experience the project first-hand. As such, it is important for Peters to include the emotions of the three students so that us, readers, can connect better emotionally with the project "Motown Movement."

Furthermore, Peters should include the feelings and thoughts of the community of Detroit in her article. Peters vaguely mentioned about the feelings of the community in Detriot by stating that "the people were much more positive". Peters should have elaborated further by adding the emotions of the community in Detroit towards the changes that have happened due to "Motown Movement". A fine example was an article by Olin College, where senior citizens shared their feelings and struggles with the college students to help identify solutions to the senior citizen's struggles. "One project resulted in a team building a device to help elderly people get out of a car more easily" (Olin College of Engineering, 2016). We can clearly see that sharing with the readers the thoughts and feelings of the senior citizens who are experiencing the project first-hand, allows us, readers, to feel for the senior citizens and see how much the project meant to them. As such, It is important to note that the thoughts of the community of Detroit are important as they are the people who are experiencing the project first-hand. The thoughts of the community of Detroit towards the project would allow us readers to recreate their experience and draw us readers directly into the experience of the community of Detroit. (Panuccio, 2016)

In conclusion, although Peters was very detailed in sharing the plans of the three students and giving us an idea of what "Motown Movement" is about, the lack of sharing of the emotions behind the project keeps us readers at a distant from the project. By adding the emotions of the three students and community of Detroit in the article, Peters would have influenced the views of us readers greatly and helped the students receive added support for "Motown Movement." The added support from the readers of Peters article would have contributed to the project "Motown Movement" reaching a global scale.

References

Hill, B. (2011, February 8). Creating Emotion in Readers. Retrieved from http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/01/30/creating-emotion-in-the-reader/

Johansen, J. (2015, February 2). How To Create Strong Emotional Response In Your Reader. Retrieved from http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/02/02/how-to-create-a-strong-emotional-response-in-your-readers/

Olin College of Engineering, Projects That Help Others. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.olin.edu/projects-research/help-others/

Panuccio, N. (2016). Writing For Emotional Impact. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from http://emergingwriters.us/writing-for-emotional-impact/

Peters, A. (2016, 7 July,). This Detroit house is being turned into a living model of cost-saving sustainable design. FastCoexist.com. Retrieved from https://www.fastcoexist.com/3061563/world-changing-ideas/this-detroit-house-is-being-turned-into-a-living-model-of-cost-saving-s

Letter of Transmittal

Email to Estates Division, SIT @ Dover
16 October 2016

Ms Lee
Manager Estates
Singapore Institute of Technology
SIT @ Dover
10 Dover Drive
Singapore 138683
Proposal for implementing solar panels for the future SIT campus
Dear Ms. Lee,

I am Jerry Leong, a first-year SIE (Land) student. A module that I am currently taking requires me and my team to identify an engineering problem and propose a solution. After discussing with our effective communication lecturer, Brad, we were told to seek the estate division to have our inquiries answered.

The engineering problem the team has come up with is that most buildings rely on a main electrical grid to ensure operations daily and if there is a sudden power shutdown, daily operations will be affected until the issue can be resolved.

To solve this problem, the team is proposing for solar panels to be installed so that the solar energy harnessed could be used to replace the main grid while maintenance work is ongoing. This solution will help to ensure daily operations can be carried out even when there is a power failure.

We hope to meet up with any of the planning officers who can share with us the structural plans for the upcoming campus so that we would have a better understanding of the plans and prepare our proposal accordingly.

With Regards,
Jerry Leong (Team Leader)
On Behalf of Team Fudge

Technical Report: Problem & Purpose Statement

Problem Statement

The effects of blackout due to power grid failure can be a real concern to SIT’s new campus. Hence, there is a need to find a way to tackle this issue and ensure that electricity is constantly supplied to the facilities, benefiting future SITizens.

Purpose statement

The purpose of this report is to propose the installation of Stand-alone photo-voltaic system in the common areas located at campus heart in the new centralised campus in Punggol. The proposal will provide an alternative source of energy apart from the existing power grid as the system can operate with just the solar energy generated alone.

Summary & Reader Response Draft 3

In the article, "This Detriot House Is Being Turned Into A Living Model Of Cost-Saving Sustainable Design", Peters (2016) introduced a project named "Motown Movement", an initiative by three architecture students who bought a house in Detroit and converted it into a sustainable cost-efficient house. According to Peters (2016), the three students aimed to teach the community in Detroit different methods of achieving sustainability through affordable means. Peters shared that in the student's house, the lower level will be a “training centre” while the upper level houses a family in need. In-house systems included a roof veiled with solar panels, a “greywater system” and a “septic tank” as sources of renewable energy. Lukkes, one of the three students, hoped that through collaboration with their university, their project can become universal and reach out to other countries. However, the article was rather impassive as Peters failed to include emotional writing in her article, which I felt would have connected to us readers more.

Firstly, the article was impassive because Peters failed to share the feelings and thoughts of the community in Detroit in her article. The lack of emotion in her writing made it difficult for readers to connect to.  In Peter's article, she focused only on the technical aspects of the project such as what the three students wanted to build and what the community in Detroit could improve on. Research studies (Hill, 2011) showed that readers like to feel emotion whenever they are reading. Readers like to immerse themselves within the article so that they can experience new things and step out of their own world. Peters should have known that the writings on her article have the ability to transfer from her and come alive in her readers. (Johansen, 2015) As such, it is very important for Peters to include emotion in her article, in order for us readers to connect ourselves with the project, "Motown Movement."

Furthermore, Peters only vaguely mentioned about the feelings of the community in Detroit by saying that "the people were much more positive." Peters should have elaborated further and included the views of the community in Detroit. The views of the community in Detroit would have connected to us readers and helped us experience how sustainability has benefitted them. A fine example was an article by Olin College, where senior citizens shared their feelings and struggles with the college students to help identify solutions to the senior citizen's struggles. "One project resulted in a team building a device to help elderly people get out of a car more easily" (Olin College of Engineering,2016). We can clearly see that sharing with the readers the process of understanding the needs of others through emotional writing allows us to feel for the senior citizens and see how much the project mean to them.  As such, Peters should have focused more on the feelings of the Detroit community in her article to give us readers a better sense of the emotion behind the project, "Motown Movement."

In conclusion, though Peters was very detailed in the technical aspects of the project “Motown Movement”, more focus should have been on the feelings of the community in Detroit. It is important to note that by connecting to us readers in her article, Peters could have influenced our views greatly and received added support for "Motown Movement." With the added support from the readers of Peters article, it would enable the three students to bring "Motown Movement" to a global scale.

References:

Hill, B. (2011, February 8). Creating Emotion in Readers. Retrieved from http://theeditorsblog.net/2011/01/30/creating-emotion-in-the-reader/

Johansen, J. (2015, February 2). How To Create Strong Emotional Response In Your Reader. Retrieved from http://www.livewritethrive.com/2015/02/02/how-to-create-a-strong-emotional-response-in-your-readers/

Olin College of Engineering, Projects That Help Others. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.olin.edu/projects-research/help-others/

Peters, A. (2016, July 7). This Detroit House Is Being Turned Into A Living Model Of Cost-Saving Sustainable Design. World Changing Ideas. Retrieved from https://www.fastcoexist.com/3061563/world-changing-ideas/this-detroit-house-is-being-turned-into-a-living-model-of-cost-saving-s

Summary & Reader Response Draft 2

In the article, "This Detriot House Is Being Turned Into A Living Model Of Cost-Saving Sustainable Design", Peters (2016) acquainted us with a project named "Motown Movement" which was an initiative by 3 architecture students aiming to achieve sustainability through affordable means. Through the house the 3 students bought in Detroit, they planned to use it as an example to the community of Detroit on how to transform broken-down houses into sustainable buildings. In their house, the lower level will be a “training centre” while the upper level houses a family in need. In-house systems included a roof veiled with solar panels, a “greywater system” and a “septic tank” as sources of renewable energy. Lukkes, one of the 3 students, hoped that through collaboration with their university, their project can become universal and reach out to other countries. However, the article fails to mention the emotional aspects of the project which I feel is key to the project being a success in Detroit before it can become universal.

Firstly, the article failed to bring to our attention the thoughts and feelings of the community in Detroit. This lack of emotional aspect in their project could affect the success of their project even before the students can contemplate about making it universal. The article never mentioned whether the three students immersed themselves in the culture of Detroit to truly understand what the community needed. All the article mentioned was how they visited Detroit and found many improvements required by the community of Detroit to improve sustainability. The three students only focused on technicalities such as what the community in Detroit could improve on. Research studies showed that understanding the culture of the community is so important as it affects them in so many ways. It is stated that culture is a strong part of people's lives. It influences their views, their appraisal, their amusement, their hopes, their loyalties, and their feelings. (Axner, 2016). It is also mentioned that very slight forces, sometimes individuals, can destroy very big ideas and projects (Cohn, 2015). As such, it is very important for the students to focus on the emotional aspects of their project, "Motown Movement" in order for it to be a success in Detroit even before they start thinking about making it universal.

Furthermore,  the article only focused on the technical aspects of their project such as turning the house into a "training centre", where a "greywater system" and "septic tank" were to be installed. The article only vaguely mentioned about the emotional aspects of the project by saying that " the people were much more positive." The three students should have paid more attention to the feelings of the community and let them be the centre of their project. Peters, 2016 was making assumptions such as, ""We thought we should create a sustainable example."" The students should have gone around the city of Detroit and surveyed the residence to get a clear idea of what they desired. A similar article by Olin College stated that they have a program where the over their semesters, their students worked closely with senior citizens to identify their needs and helped to develop concrete solutions to address these needs. "One project resulted in a team building a device to help elderly people get out of a car more easily" (Olin College of Engineering,2016). We can clearly see that by understanding the needs of others through effective communication, projects can be very well received, which the article failed to address. As such, the article should have discussed the views of the Detroit community and what their real needs are instead of their own assumptions.

In conclusion, though the article was very detailed in the technical aspects of the project “Motown Movement”, more focus should have been on the emotional aspects of it. It is important to note that the focus of the project is the community of Detroit as they are the key to its success. As such the article should have catered more towards them. I believe the emotional aspect is key to the success of the project as it helps the community of Detroit to embrace "Motown Movement" and be open to changes and improvements. Through this relationship which they can forge with the community of Detroit, the students can ensure "Motown Movement" becomes a success which would open the door to it becoming universal.

References:

Axner, M. (2016). Understanding Culture and Diversity in Building Communities. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culture-and-diversity/main

Cohn.M.(2015).The Importance of Community Relations. Retrieved from http://www.evancarmichael.com/library/martin-cohn/The-Importance-of-Community-Relations.html

Peters, A. (2016, July 7). This Detroit House Is Being Turned Into A Living Model Of Cost-Saving Sustainable Design. World Changing Ideas. Retrieved from https://www.fastcoexist.com/3061563/world-changing-ideas/this-detroit-house-is-being-turned-into-a-living-model-of-cost-saving-s

Projects That Help Others. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.olin.edu/projects-research/help-others/