Submission 1: Formal Letter

Good day Professor Blackstone

I am Nasrul Hazwan, a Year 1 student in Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. I am a student who is attending your effective communication module for this semester.

In 2018, I graduated from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a Diploma in Marine and Offshore Technology. Back when I was still in secondary school, I developed my interest in engineering from one of my subjects which is Design and Technology (D&T). There, I was exposed to problem solving and design thinking to overcome different problems in engineering and create solutions for it. Furthermore, I constantly asked my teachers who taught me D&T, more regarding the engineering industries and to share their own personal experiences. My teachers inspired me to follow their path in engineering similar to my interest and passion.

I believe one of my communication strengths is my tone of voice as I am able to speak with proper intonation and rhythm of my voice that would set the mood of the conversation. I project out my voice well enough to allow everyone to hear my articulation. One of my communication weaknesses is a lack in confidence when nervousness overwhelms me. There were occasions when I stuttered and sweat profusely when nervousness strikes during presentations back in Polytechnic. As a result, it may affect my communication with others.

Goals that I would like to achieve at the end of this module are to further improve my communication skills. I would like to be confident when speaking and be better at communicating in front of audience. On top of that, I would like to take this opportunity to improve on my writing using proper grammar and good sentence structure. I believe attaining these goals will benefit me not just for this module, but also in my future endeavor.  

Warmest regard

Nasrul Hazwan B Sumarno

MEC1281 Group 6

Editted on 8 April 2021

The Importance of Communication Skills for Engineers

In our first lesson in class, we were given a short task of explaining a given quote amongst our peers. The quote that I received is, 

    “I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important). It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.” Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011).

Quote that my peers and I received we concluded that the meaning of this quote is as engineers, we may have difficulties telling people and sharing our knowledge with those who lack have not much knowledge in engineering. therefore it is tough for those to absorb and understand the information that we engineers would like to convey to them. Hence, it is important as engineers to convey our information and knowledge in a simple definition or come up with visual aid to assist them to understand better the information that is passed to them. 

In a nutshell, this would increase the engineering presentation and build more interest in our audience.