Wednesday 12 November 2014

Post Course Reflection

On the day i received my QET results, I was very disappointed that I am required to take the module English for Academic Purpose (ES1102). Why did I not practice before QET? Why did I not take QET seriously? But it was all too late for any regrets.

Since my Junior College days, I always had an impression that there is no need for engineers to be exceptional in writing, in fact, engineering students are rarely required to write a proper essay throughout their years of studies. This is still quite true till date. Therefore I found it pointless and a waste of time to be in this course. Everybody labels this module as a 'burden mod' mainly because it is just extra work. However, during the first lesson, my impression of this module changed completely. The lesson was unlike the normal dry and boring English classes where you just sit down and listen to the teacher ramble about grammar, instead, my mentor, Brad, had made it fun and engaging. If you ask me why it was fun and engaging, I wouldn't really know the definite answer to it. Maybe it's because Brad has a good sense of humour, or probably just the way the lesson is designed to be.

Brad focuses a lot on learning from your peers. I too believe in learning from peers. A mentor may not know everything. having more brains means being able to generate more ideas and suggestions for improvement, especially in a very subjective course like ES1102 which revolves around writing. Different people have different preferences for writing styles. Having more feedback on the posts you have written and reviewing the posts that your peers have written allows you to in-cooperate other styles of writing to improve your own. Instead of just telling us how the essay is supposed to be written, we have to look through the essay very thoroughly and spot for any possible grammar mistakes ourselves. This simple activity actually helps in the formation of 'muscle memory' for the brain. When similar mistakes appears again, we will be able to spot is easily.

Presentation have always been my nemesis because I have never been a confident speaker. However, it is very relevant to Engineering students because there is a need for us to be able to present ideas and solutions in a clear and concise manner. Even though there was no mention of having to do a presentation in this course, I was already expecting it to have one partly because when Brad showed us the blog of one of his ex-student, I had a glimpse of the course appraisal and it says that there is a lack of presentation for this course. I was glad that we were required to come up with a short presentation on our essay topic. I felt that I did not do a good job mainly because I was trying to adopt to a new way of creating my slides and I had other tasking to complete, resulting in the lack of preparation. Even so, I got some pretty constructive feedback for my presentation and I have quite a clear idea and direction on how I can do better for my next presentation which is most probably the oral defense for GEK1549.

English is a very powerful tool for conveying ideas. Having a strong foundation in English language is actually very beneficial in many aspects of life. So instead of asking why is there a need to have a strong English foundation especially when engineers are dealing with numbers and formulas, ask yourself, why not?

4 comments:

  1. Thanks, Zhi Kang, for this reflection. I appreciate your effort giving a general overview of the course. This does include a subsection dedicated to the specified topic, but it digresses into other areas (presenting) as well. In fact, in a graded assignment that's a bit of a 'no no.' In terms of having a clear content focus, check out this post: http://eruditewhispers.blogspot.sg/2014/11/the-role-of-peer-and-tutor-feedback.html

    I was also surprised in this essay that you didn't catch some of the common errors that we have been discussing this term. Here's a sentence with an example: "Since my Junior College days, I always had an impression that there is no need for engineers to be exceptional in writing, in fact, engineering students are rarely required to write a proper essay throughout their years of studies." Do you see the mistake?

    As you do realize, and have stated in this essay, your improving your English skills will most certainly have relevance in your future. Soon you will need to take Critical Thinking and Writing. Later you will take the communication for engineers course. In both of these you will need to write. Your work overall this term was quite good, Zhi Kang, so I have no doubt you will be fine. But be careful about checking the fine print. As they say, "God is in the details."

    Enjoy the rest of your learning journey!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brad,

      I think i spotted 3 mistakes, comma splice, preposition and tense.

      I made some amendments, this is correct?

      Since my Junior College days, I always have the impression that there is no need for engineers to be exceptional in writing. In fact, engineering students are rarely required to write a proper essay throughout their years of studies.

      Delete
  2. Thanks for your effort, Zhi Kang. Here is the best version:

    Since my Junior College days, I always have HAD the impression that there was no need for engineers to be exceptional in writing. In fact, engineering students are rarely required to write a proper essay throughout their years of studies.

    ReplyDelete