Assignment 1: Self-Introduction Email

Subject: My Self-Introduction and Goals for This Module

Dear Professor Blackstone

Allow me to introduce myself and provide you with a little insight into my interests in engineering, as well as my communication strengths and weaknesses. My name is Ke Ee Chong, and I am a student in your critical thinking and communicating module, in class S21. 

My interest in engineering stems from my childhood. Having a curious mind since I was a child, I was always particularly fascinated by intricate and complicated machinery that could accomplish incredulous feats; Blistering fast cars, excavators the size of houses, planes that can carry hundreds of tons, and the awe-inspiring International Space Station, to name a few examples. I always wondered how amazing it is for humans to create such marvels of engineering and the process behind these creations. As such, after graduating from secondary school, I decided to pursue an education in engineering and received my diploma in mechatronics engineering from Temasek Polytechnic. After receiving my diploma, I had to serve my duty in National Service (NS). However, there was a silver lining as I was posted to the vocation "Auto Tech", and the majority of my duties revolved around servicing and maintaining military vehicles. This allowed me to gain hands-on experience and learn about how these vehicles are designed and built, further piquing my interest.

As I have always been heavily introverted and had struggled with social anxiety in the past, communication has always been one of my biggest weaknesses. However, one communication strength I have is effective listening. I believe I am an empathetic person, and am always willing to listen to others' perspectives and how they feel. I also believe effective listening is important in a work environment, as it allows one to identify points of improvement in a project or environment and provide feedback accordingly. From my personal experience in NS, this is a critical skill, as listening to feedback greatly improves the safety and effectiveness of training. Unfortunately, most of my superiors in the army did not possess this skill.

As for my communication weaknesses, I would say I struggle with public speaking the most. I am very uncomfortable when I have to speak in front of people, especially to large crowds or people whom I do not know. Consequently, I dread having to do presentations and usually end up stuttering and panicking internally. Sometimes this even causes me to lose my train of thought, which ruins the flow of the presentation. Another illustration of this weakness was when I worked part-time at an exposition. I found it daunting to have to approach a stranger and try to persuade them, especially when they were unfriendly.

My two main goals for this module are as follows. Firstly, I wish to gradually overcome my fear of public speaking, and become more comfortable when presenting to a crowd as well as approaching others. Second, I want to improve and refine the soft skills that I have, namely interpersonal communication, writing skills, and critical thinking. I believe that developing these soft skills will not only help me in my career endeavours, but also build strong and genuine relationships with people.

Overall, I am eager to learn more from your module to improve my communication skills and grow as a person. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my email, and hope you have a fantastic day ahead. Take care!

 

Sincerely

Ee Chong