Formal Letter

Subject: Self-introduction 


Dear Professor Brad Blackstone,


I am Ng Yu Xuan from your Effective Communication class T5 and my purpose of writing this letter is to introduce myself to you. I graduated with a Diploma in Environmental Science from Republic Polytechnic in 2020. After my graduation, I worked for one year to take some time off from the school. Frankly speaking, I did not expect myself to choose an engineering course because I always wanted to continue to further my studies in environmental science and ecology, and in fact, I am quite weak in Physics and Mathematics compared to Biology. However, I started to have interest in engineering, or specifically, in sustainable infrastructure when I was attached to Centre of Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE) under National Parks Board (NParks) during my internship. I was introduced by my supervisor to Building Information Modelling (BIM) and how it could be applied in urban planning as well as urban ecology. Although what he taught me was just fundamental, I decided to apply for Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services) in Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT). 

One communication strength that I have is listening. I believe that I am a good listener as I will always pay attention to the person who is speaking and respond to them. For example, I have many friends that often come to me when they need someone to talk. At the same time, I will also share my thoughts about their problems to them. Communication is a two-way process that involves messages from the sender to the receiver and feedback from the receiver to the sender.

One communication weakness that I possess is lack of confidence in expressing my own thoughts and feelings. Although I might be good at listening, I still don’t feel confident enough to express myself as I am worried if I can express the appropriate meaning to the receiver. There were quite a lot of time where I did not express myself clearly, and that caused some misunderstandings to happen between me and the receiver. The more I speak, the more mistakes I will make.

There are two goals that I would like to achieve under your guidance at the end of this module. Firstly, I hope that I can be more confident in expressing myself with the appropriate meaning. Secondly, I want to improve my writing skills because good writing skills may help me a lot in future assignments or even in future workplace after graduation.

In my opinion, what differentiates me from others is that I can adapt easily to a new environment like how the giraffes have long necks. During my time in poly, I was the Vice President of Conservation Interest Group, so I would always have to be part of the organising committee of the activities, such as clean-up, recycling workshop, talks, forums and others. Taking up the position enabled me, an introvert, to develop my leadership skills as that was my first time to ever be in a position. Now, I will not say that my leadership skill are well-developed but I am still looking forward to witnessing my growth throughout this journey as always.

Thank you for reading my letter.

Best regards,
Yu Xuan.

Comments

  1. Saiful Iman23 September 2021 at 05:05

    Dear Yu Xuan,

    There were not many opportunities to interact among each other beside class discussions. Hence, I am glad that I got to know your better through your this letter. I love how it was detailed and precise. It was an interesting read

    Thank you for the great letter and I look forward to witnessing your growth through the coming years.

    Regards,
    Saiful

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YX30 September 2021 at 05:53

      Dear Saiful,

      Thank you for your comment and the wish! I sincerely hope that you can achieve your goals in the future, too.

      Best regards,
      YX

      Delete
  2. Shafiz Aziz23 September 2021 at 06:39

    Hi Yu Xuan,

    I enjoyed reading your letter, it is clear and fluent.

    Overall, I felt that it could be more concise. Although the content was clear and accompanied by interesting examples, it felt lengthy for an introduction email. In each paragraph it is easy for me to understand and comprehend what you are trying to deliver.

    I am quite weak with my Math and Physics as well, I hope both of us will overcome this together. With the progressed you made and have shared with me, I hope that you will continue with this positive mindset to seek growth throughout any journey.

    Regards,
    Shafiz

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YX30 September 2021 at 05:57

      Hi Shafiz,

      Thank you for commenting on my letter. I will definitely look at the problem that you mentioned in the comment.

      Also, I hope that we can overcome Math and Physics along the journey in SIT!

      Best regards,
      YX

      Delete
  3. Tin San24 September 2021 at 09:09

    Dear Yu Xuan,

    I feel that your letter is clear and I got to know you better after reading it.
    The flow of the letter is okay, and the structure is fine.
    However, I feel that this sentence should be "For example, ....when they need someone to talk to." and the following sentence should be "I will also share my thoughts with them.".

    It is nice to have you as a friend, as I am able to seek help and learn from you, especially on the modules that I am rather weak in. I hope we can survive the school terms together!

    Regards,
    Tin San

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YX30 September 2021 at 06:02

      Dear Tin San,

      Thank you for giving comment on my letter. I will make the necessary changes.
      I am glad that I can have you as a friend, too!
      I hope that we can improve and overcome our weaknesses in modules along the way.

      Best regards,
      YX

      Delete
  4. Brad Blackstone26 September 2021 at 09:03

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brad Blackstone26 September 2021 at 09:05

    Dear YuXuan,

    Thank you for this richly detailed letter. From the clear attention given to each topic and concrete descriptions you provide we readers can see that you are a highly considerate,well focused communicator and a person of considerable thought and social awareness.

    I'm especially impressed by your leadership role as VP of the Conservation Interest Group. It's also interesting to learn of the 'evolutionary background' for your developing interest in engineering. Honestly, I can sense that the engineering field in general and SIE at SIT in particular is fortunate to have you onboard. I know I'm happy to have you in class, though I hope I can encourage you to do more oral sharing. That will be very important as we move to Zoom classes.

    In terms of language use, this is a very fluent effort, with the only point for you to take note of being your overuse of the capitalization function on your keyboard.

    I look forward to reading more of your writing this term.

    Cheers,

    Brad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YX30 September 2021 at 06:06

      Dear Prof Brad,

      Thank you for the feedback! I will edit accordingly for the point that you have mentioned.
      I really appreciate that you always encourage me to speak in class, although I may look unwilling to do so.

      Best regards,
      YX

      Delete

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