Thursday 12 September 2019

Assignment 1: Formal letter


Dear Professor Blackstone,

I am writing to you to formally introduce myself. My name is Chng Joe Hui, and I am a 1st-year undergraduate in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land).

Previously, I was a student from Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) and was one of the students in the pioneering batch of Polytechnic Foundation Programme (PFP for short). After PFP, I went on to complete my diploma in Nanotechnology and Materials Sciences (specialising in Materials for Sustainable Technology) in 2017.

Since I was young, I was always intrigued by the components and mechanisms behind different objects. Thus, I chose to study materials sciences as I wanted to have a deeper understanding of how objects work from a smaller scale. Filled with understanding from my diploma programme, I wanted to look for another engineering field to apply this knowledge. That is when I found out about the news of lacking engineers in the railway industry in Singapore, and as such decided to pursue this degree in SIT.

I believe that my communication strength is speaking with impact. Often, I am tasked to start and end the team’s presentation. In fact, I was complimented by my communications lecturer on how I introduced the content of the presentation while briefly introducing my teammates that was presenting those respective parts.

On the other hand, I believe my greatest weakness is my tendency to speed through content when I am stressed/ nervous. I had never been a confident person, and as such, becomes stressed easily when all eyes are staring intently on me. Even during Friday’s tutorial class, where we had to share content with our tutorial mates, I realised that I was speeding through and not articulating some of the points as well as I could have done.

Through this module, I hope to have better stress management and by extension stop the habit of rushing through content and articulate my ideas better. I hope to develop these skills under your guidance.

Best Regards,
Chng Joe Hui
SIE2016 | Tutorial Group 6


Edited 27/10/19

Comments on others'  letters:
- Angelina
- Christ
- Ray

- Zi You
- Zaki
- Ying Jia

4 comments:

  1. Dear Joe,

    Thank you for this clear, coherent and complete self introduction. You've followed the model presented in class quite closely and produced a letter that addresses all the task requirements with quite a bit of detail. I appreciate the explanation of your interest in materials and then rail engineering, and I applaud the focused, open review of your strengths and weaknesses in communication.

    It is also good to know that you have very specific goals for your work in the module. I'm certain we can address each of those. Of course, refining students' skills of articulation are the heart of this module.

    Toward that end, for this letter, though it is very well written, you need to review the following:

    1. completeness in expression
    -- That is when I chanced upon the news of lacking engineers in the railway industry, and as such decided to pursue this degree in SIT. > (Who is lacking?)

    2. phrasing/word use
    -- one of my greatest weakness > (one of many) ?
    -- Even on Friday’s tutorial class > Even during Friday’s tutorial class,

    3. verb use (+ sentence structure)
    -- I had never been much of a confident person, and as such becomes stressed easily when all eyes are staring intently on me. > I have never been a confident person, and as such, I become stressed easily when all eyes are staring intently on me.

    I look forward to working with you further this term.

    Best wishes,

    Brad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Prof,

      Thanks for the feedback on my writing. I will edit when there are more inputs from my tutorial mates.

      Delete
  2. Hi Joe, I think you did a good job as you included specific examples of your points , and your letter was coherent and meaningful.

    ReplyDelete