Self-Introduction

By Ardini At January 17, 2020 7

Dear Professor Brad,

I am writing to you to formally introduce myself as a student in your effective communication module. My name is Ardini, currently a first-year civil engineering student in Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT).

In 2017, I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic (SP) with a diploma in Civil Engineering with Business. Upon graduation, I had to serve a two-year bond that I signed under the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) diploma sponsorship with a civil engineering sub-contractor which specialises on geotechnical testing. Being exposed to reclamation projects, mainly for the Tuas Western Coast project, it has sparked my curiosity on the engineering fundamentals on land reclamation. Equipped with soil testing knowledge and AutoCAD model drawings for clients, I have decided to pursue a degree in civil engineering to broaden my knowledge and to deepen my understanding in Geotechnical engineering. I aspire to specialise in this sector as I believe it is the foundation ground for Civil Engineering itself.

The use of English language has not been my strongest suit be it in written or conversational. I will often face difficulties producing grammatically correct reports and emails. As an assistant engineer, I am referred as main contact person between the client and my team, especially the site team. I have to ensure that information were conveyed accurately. With my limited vocabulary bank I tend to use simple and repetitive words for description and explanation. As most of the people in the construction industry are not local, I struggle with communicating effectively. I often run out of descriptive words to make the people I interact with to fully understands the message I intend to convey. This leads to one of the major factors that has built upon my insecurities.

However, I do enjoy being around people and communicating. I believe its essential for the other party to understand what I am saying rather than use bombastic words to sound smart. Combined that with my ability to listen to details, I tend to be the "go-to" friend for problem sharing and solving.

My goal in this effective communication module is to boost my morale and improve the quality of my writing. I hope to finally be able to write up a more confident and professional report or email. In addition, I aim to widen my vocabulary bank so as to be able to articulate my thoughts and feeling in a more accurate manner.

Best regards,

Ardini

CVE1281 -T5

Edited on 20/01/2020.

Commented on Brien's and Iskandar's Introduction Letter on 20/01/2020.

7 comments :

Brad BlackstoneJanuary 17, 2020 at 10:18 AM
Dear Ardini,

Thank you very much for being one of the first in Group 5 to post your letter. It is both informative and personalized as you share about your educational background, your bond and your view on your comm skills. I appreciate how you leverage your job experience for inspiring your desire to study further. What might have added depth to this disucssion is some reference to your actual job scope and how that actually might have necessitated whatever forms of communication.

There are also a few minor issues to be aware of in terms of language use:

1. sentence structure
-- Being exposed to reclamation projects, mainly for the Tuas Western Coast project, it has sparked... > (dangling modifier--- who was exposed?)

2. Punctuation/Grammar
-- Moreover, my vocabulary is limited which result in... > Moreover, my vocabulary is limited, which resultS (subject-verb agreement error) in
-- I am sensible towards others which makes them comfortable in confiding with me. > ?

We look forward to learning more about you this term.

Cheers,

Brad
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Muhammad HumaidiJanuary 19, 2020 at 7:23 PM
Hello Ardini, Humaidi here. I will do my best to inform you what i thought was great, and anything i feel might be lacking, all in my point of view.

Firstly i felt everything was generally good. I can understand everything clearly, and i feel you managed to answer all the questions in this assignment. Also, although you wrote that your vocabulary is limited, i felt you made an attempt to use more complex phrases, which is great!

In terms of what i felt was lacking, i think i managed to spot several grammatical errors, all of which were minor, and they did not make affect what you were trying to write. Additionally, like you said, mainly simple English is used, which is not bad at all, but of course we want to try to get better and what we do in everything, so i recommend vocabulary as one point which you can use to improve your English and writing skills.

I hope this helps and all of what i said is from my point of view. Thanks!
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Brien CheowJanuary 20, 2020 at 9:59 PM
Dear Ardini,

First of all i would like to applaud you for putting in the effort to write this letter. Please forgive me if i am a little blunt when giving feedback on the letter i sincerely hope that i can help you by doing so.

The flow of the letter was overall ok, and can be improved by choosing more appropriate words to describe what you want.

An example would be:
--The use of English language has not been my strongest suit be it in written or conversational.
(English language has always posed a problem for me. Explain how)

In my opinion, both [strongest suit] and [be it] sounds odd in the sentence and almost sounds forced.

Another example i would like to highlight is also the sentence

--My role as an assistant engineer acts as the main means of communication between the client and my team, especially the site team.

In this sentence [My role as an assistant engineer [acts as] the main means of communication]. I feel that [acts as] makes the sentence sound odd.

I hope that you dont feel too disheartened and continue to work hard alongside me to improve our command of the english language.

Best regards,

Brien
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Brad BlackstoneJanuary 28, 2020 at 1:24 PM
Thanks, Ardini, for all ypur follow up messages.

Cheers,

Brad
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