YX's Blog

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 taugh...

  According to the article, the purpose of communication is to share our ideas and feelings to the other parties while critical thinking helps us to build the process of communication and enable us to be logical and reflective. To be a good leader in the future workplace, it is important to have communication skills as well as to be good in critical thinking.  Effective communication and critical thinking can enhance the process of decision-making as it encourages us to research the topics to learn the logic and knowledge behind the topics, thus, it helps to reduce the cost and time of poor communication in the workplace. Besides, effective communication and critical thinking encourages us to be self-reflective. Practicing effective communication and critical thinking will assist us in receiving opinions from different perspectives or even are opposed to our beliefs as well as reflecting ourselves by being open-minded to the new opinions. (151 words)

  “I contend that we (engineers) are undervalued because of our widespread inability to explain what we do to the general public (and why it is so important). It is one of the hardest goals to accomplish, to be able to boil down difficult concepts into a short and easily understood presentation or elevator pitch.” Marybeth Miceli, President, Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, USA (2011) In my opinion, this sentence states that engineers are undervalued as the engineers often find it hard to explain what they are doing to those without engineering background. This is because the engineers often communicate or discuss what they do using the technical or professional terms that the general public do not simply and generally understand. It is important to find out a way for the engineers to explain and present the concepts with more brief and easily understood definitions and sentences so that the engineers can be more valued.