An interview with Terence

We meet with Terence, a year 2 Applied Chemistry student who took ES2007S - Professional Communication in AY10/11 Sem 2 to find out more about the module.

Hi Terence, tell us why did you decide to take this module?

I took this module initially because I was short of 4MCs and I needed to overload one more module for this semester. I looked through all the modules available and there were only a few that could fit nicely into my timetable and one of it was……you’ve guess it ES2007S. I did lots of research regarding this module, looking up Module-review.com, consulting seniors who had taken it before. What I found out was that general consensus for it was a great one although it comes with a heavy workload. I though this module should be useful for me especially in the next semester as I will be going for my industrial attachment so I thought to myself why not? Feeling eager and enthusiastic, I approached my friend to tell them about this module and to “psycho” them to take it together with me. “Crazy ah!” was the reply that I got mostly but I didn’t dampen my spirits because I am confident that I will be able to do it no matter how tough it gets. And so here I am! (*smiles)

You are taking 6 modules this semester. How did you manage to cope with all?

It wasn’t much of a difficult during the start of the semester, but as the weeks progressed, I could feel the stress on me with the increasing overall workload and the weekly assignments that I have to submit for this module. In addition, I also have my hall commitments to juggle with. At I point in time, I began to doubt myself if I would be able to complete this module. There were simply too many things to do and too many datelines to meet. “Was I really crazy to have taken such a module?” Thank goodness I have the support from my closer friends who were there rooting for me as well as my classmates whom we all share the same woes. In the end, we managed to tide it through!

Tell us something interesting about the class.

I would say that my class is a really unique one with people coming from different faculties (Science & Engineering) and also schools (Ella who is from NTU!).  My class has two professional belly dancers (Fahmi & Kelvin), one slowpoke (Aoyun), a pair of siblings (Shawn & Lisu), a bee ( Akash), Snow White (Elaine), a really hyperactive girl (Jacelyn), Night fury! (Doris) and many more.

Your class sounds like a circus! Haha! Is there anything you don’t like about the module?

Will Miss Lim get to read this? (*laughs) Actually I find 8am lessons to be a chore after a while. One really needs a lot of motivation to wake up early in the morning to attend a lesson that’s not a core module. I also don’t like the tables and chairs in the classroom. It is not really suitable for discussion. Other than that, I really enjoyed the module. Never had I attended a class that is so interactive and student friendly. It is like reliving secondary and JC school days!

So which girl do you find most attractive in class?

(*Blushes and laughs) Why do you ask me this kind of question!? All the girls in class are attractive in their own unique way. If you are asking about bubbliness I would say its hyperactive girl. If you are talking about skin complexion, I think Snow White will definitely win. Intelligence level would be Ella and sports champ would be Doris.

I heard that Shawn has a secret crush on you. What do you think of him?

(*Laughs out really loud) Okay… (* Breaks out into a continuous laughter) Hahaha, I’m so sorry. I’m not sure if he really has a secret crush on me but come to think of it, he is the Top Commentator of my blog so there might be some truth to it (* Laughs out loud again). Well I think Shawn is a really great guy. I think he is very cool – he doesn’t talk much but his comments are very interesting. He sometimes stares into blank space though. But I think he is a very friendly person and also a good friend to have.

Which features of the module did you like the most?

I think that would have to be blogging. I enjoy reading other people’s blog post to find out more about their experiences and how they feel about life itself. Blogging also allows me to express my creativity and thoughts in a written form.

If you were given a chance to choose your teammates again for oral presentation, who would you pick?

Wow! Can I not answer this question please?

I promise not to let anyone know.

Okay. If I were to choose again, I think I would to work with Doris, Aoyun and Chen Chen. I have worked with Doris and Aoyun previously and I know that Doris is a very hardworking person and Aoyun is a very good presenter with her own style of presenting and expression. As for Chen Chen, I have never worked with him before, but I have this feeling that he is a very thoughtful and detailed person who will be able to take care of all the nitty-gritty parts in a proposal. I think this team will be equally awesome as well. There are still others whom I have never worked with and it’s a shame that I don’t get a chance to do so.

What is your greatest takeaway from this module?

There’s so many! From being able to craft out professional cover letters and resumes to writing a proper proposal to creating awesome slides and speak confidently in front of an audience. All these transferable skills are extremely valuable to me when I am out in the working world. But the greatest takeaway that I got would be the friendships that had been forged and the interpersonal skills that I had picked up from this module.  

Any last words?

I want to express my gratitude to Miss Lim for being such a wonderful tutor who is so ever encouraging and understanding. I also want to thank my classmates for making these 13 weeks an unforgettable and memorable one.  I wish those who will be graduating all the best in their future endeavors and good luck to everyone for the coming exams. I will miss each and every one of you! And to those who are still deciding if they should take this module or not, I would recommend you taking if you are seeking an alternative to boring lectures, to improve your interpersonal/writing skills and if you live on challenges.

Terence has successfully applied for an internship with Exxonmobil and will be starting his term this coming July. By Terter 

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome to the end of my oral presentation!!!!

Yes! OP is finally over and its time for a breather. Work began to increase ever since the proposal churning stage and many things happened soon after, but that's another story for another day. For this blog post, I shall focus on the things I did before, during and after the presentation as well as how I felt in the process.

We starting our slide designing soon after we submitted our proposal and have been constantly updating and refining our slide. I was in charge of the overall outlook, slide transition/animation as well as compiling of the slides of my other group mates. A few days before the presentation, I prepared my cue cards and got ready for the presentation. Since most teams wore almost the same attire ( not to mention same color as well) I decided to make something cool for my team. I made a name tag with our names and TEAM ENERGY on it. It serves to help the audience identify us during the Q&A assuming they are from URA and have no idea of our names and also to make our team a little more unique.

But what I am most proud of would be the powerpoint slides that I has spent so much time creating. The photos, font size, color were all displayed nicely on the screen and up to my expectations (Yes, I made use of what I had learnt from peer teaching session) . In addition, I am extremely satisfied with the intro video that I edited. I'm sure it grabbed the attention of our viewers! =)

Now comes the part where I talked about how I think I fare for the oral presentation. As usual I was nervous when my turn to present was near, this time was a little different from peer teaching however. I felt.....more relaxed and more confident given that I had my cue cards with me. As much as possible, I tried not to look at my cues which I managed to do so for the first slide, but after that my memory was just failing me. My part was a relatively brief one to make time for the previous speakers who overshot the time. I was quite happy as there weren't any major hiccups and not long after I started, it was over and I almost heaved a sigh of relieve in front of the class.

At the end of the question comes the Q&A. My team answered the questions from the audience according to plan, with Kelvin taking on the 1st question, Aoyun taking the 2nd, me the third and Desmond the last question. It was a good strategy I would say. I think it reflects my team very well to the audience because 

1. There is a smooth flow with regards to who answer the question. We know when it is our turn to answer. As such, the audience will not see the presenters (us) competing to answer the question, avoiding awkwardness and embarrassment . Likewise, it also solves the problem of us hesitating.
2. The audience will knows that we have done our homework well because we need to be able to answer all kinds of questions regardless of whether we are specifically handling that part or not.

To conclude, (Haha! sounds like what we would say in OP) my experience for the oral presentation was an interesting and awesome one. I would like to thank my team mates for without them, all these would not have been possible. Overall I think my team did pretty good! I felt really positive after the presentation and I am looking forward for us to ace this section ! ;) Go TEAM ENERGY!