Critical Reflections for UCS1001

Module Learning

Ever since secondary school, I have noticed that I am particularly weak at writing even though I was a kid who read alot of books back in the days. My teachers were telling me that even though I managed to nail most of the points, my content was just all over the place, making my essays really messy. This made me really demoralised and I began to doubt my writing abilities. However, throughout the course of this module, I managed to get rid of that toxic mindset as I was able to put in more practice in terms of report writings. Additionally, there were plenty of resources provided to us which helped me gain more confidence. Overall, it really helped me improve the standard of my writing and also showed me how there is always room for improvement.

At the beginning of the module, I started off feeling unsure about structuring reports and how to effectively communicate complex information over to my readers as I was fresh out of national service and a little rusty even though I have done similar modules to this in my polytechnic. One major challenge to me was identifying what was essential and what could be removed without losing the purpose of my report. In order to address this issue, I consulted my peers and my professor. Their insights helped me see certain patterns in my writing such as the repetition of certain words and information in the wrong section. Hence, I started to make outlines to map out an overview of the topic so that I could visualize it and ensure each section had a clear purpose. Additionally, I paid attention to the well-structured reports provided to us in class. Over time, it really helped me see how they were able to balance the overall detail with it's readability. Therefore, by combining the feedback gathered and multiple practices, I was able to overcome my initial difficulties. Now, structuring reports feel less stressful and I am also able to present my ideas in a way that is both clear and impactful.

Project Learning

As I was the scribe in the group project, I had to take down the minutes of every group meeting we had during every lesson. This made me understand the importance of taking down notes, be it for a project or a test as it really helped me retain the information in my head after the session,  allowing me and my groupmates to focus on what's important and plan out our schedule for subsequent sessions, preventing us from getting too overwhelmed. It really helped the group to stick to the module's schedule without needing to rush. Thus, this project really opened my eyes to the importance of note taking as well as proper time management not just for me, but for my fellow groupmates.

When we first started the group project and had to choose a topic to write about, I found it really hard to keep an open mind and listen to my other groupmate's ideas and suggestions as we all had very different topics and opinions on the topic. However, over the course of the project, I was able to see where each of us was coming from and how we were able to integrate and combine our ideas together. This really helped me see how beneficial differing opinions are as we might be able to end up with something much better than what we came up with at first. Hence, this project really reminded me the importance of keeping an open mindset and to never dismiss a suggestion no matter how ridiculous it might be as it could just end up saving us.