Descriptive Reflection : Introductory Letter
Subject: Self introduction
Dear Professor Blackstone,
My name is Chermaine, and I am writing to introduce myself as a student in your critical thinking and communication class. Taking a gap year after graduating from polytechnic with a diploma in Food and Beverage Business, though risky, was an exciting venture. During that year, I travelled, worked, researched on degree courses, hoping to find one that I’m interested in. Seeing my friends pursue engineering degrees in university largely influenced my choices, and that is how I came to choose civil engineering.
The gap year ignited my passion for video editing, which I often pair with my enthusiasm for travel by creating vlogs to capture memories and share my experience. I also enjoy learning new languages and dialects as it allows me to explore different cultures and escape from the English language, which I find challenging. Always struggling to form sentences and write essays, being unable to find the right words that best explains the ideas I wish to convey to others.
As mentioned previously, I prefer staying out of the spotlight and often hesitate to speak up as I feel self-conscious about my language skills. However, I’m determined to work on this with the help of my peers and professor from this module. Though communicating in front of a crowd might not be my strongest suit, I could say that I am an active listener. I believe that being able to listen, empathize and think in the speaker’s point of view largely contributes to effective communication.
Therefore, my goals from this module is to gain more confidence when addressing large groups and to improve my English communication skills. This will prove to be beneficial in the future when there are presentations and pitches to be done, or even in daily life. With these goals in mind, I’m looking forward to your lessons as they provide an opportunity for my growth!
Best regards,
Chermaine
Hi Chermaine, I enjoyed reading your self introductory email and interesting to find out that we actually have few things in common, which are the totally unrelated diploma, and are introverts. I see that both your hobbies are quite unique, and I think it's definitely worth the time investment to become a content creator in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the overall email is clear and concise. However, one small mistake in paragraph 3, u stated "As mentioned previously", but you did not say anything about your self confidence before that. I think you forgot to edit that part out.
Hi Kai Sheng,
DeleteThank you for reading my blog. Its nice to know that we have quite a few things in common, I also graduated from NYP. I’ll keep in mind about being a content creator, we shall see how it goes. Also, thanks for pointing out my mistake, I’ll be sure to correct it next time.
Best regards,
Chermaine
Hi Chermaine ! Your letter was really interesting to read ! especially on how you went from Food and Beverage Business Course to exploring and finding interest in video editing !
ReplyDeleteOverall your letter is understandable but I think it could be better for the first sentence it could be more concise and professional such as for example, "I am a student in your Critical Thinking and Communication class, and I am writing to introduce myself." Additionally, I think your flow of sentences could be better :D
I hope you get to achieve your goal at the end of this module !
Hi Jannah,
DeleteThank you for reading my letter and correcting the mistakes I made. I’ll take your feedbacks and improve on my next letter! I hope that you’ll achieve your goal too!
Best regards,
Chermaine
Dear Chermaine,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this clear, concise and fairly informative letter. You address the points of the brief quite well.
I appreciate learning, for example, that you took a gap year and I'm happy to hear that travel was part of that. You seem to be one of the rare students who actually brave such an experience, so kudos to you. It would have been interesting for us readers to learn something more about your trip, even if the details were presented briefly. I'd like to know where you went and how you travelled.
I also appreciate you sharing about your background, and I took note in an assertive statement that you like to "escape from the English language, which I find challenging." One more detail about that situation would have complemented this statement. For instance, it would have been nice to know why you find English difficult. In which situations do you experience embarrassment while using English?
In your letter, you do explain in some detail your perceived comm skills weakness, presenting, and the area you have confidence in, listening.
It's interesting to me that these skills (or lack thereof) are often paired by students. Hopefully, in the next few months you'll be able to take a chance to step out of your comfort zone and speak more in class. Let me challenge you to do that!
In terms of your language use, while this letter is a very fluent effort, there are a couple areas of language use to take note of:
1. Taking a gap year after graduating from polytechnic with a diploma in Food and Beverage Business, though risky, it was an exciting venture. > (dangling modifier)
Taking a gap year after graduating from polytechnic with a diploma in Food and Beverage Business, though risky, was an exciting venture.
2. As mentioned previously, I prefer staying out of the spotlight ... > (Did you really mention your preferences earlier?)
I look forward to learning more about you this term.
Best wishes,
Brad
Dear Prof Brad,
DeleteApologies for the extremely late reply to your letter. As I dread writing a response, not because I refuse to reply, but rather due to my mindset where I must write an ‘essay’-like response to ‘wow’ you. I know it doesn’t have to be an extremely formal or a long winded reply, but somehow, in my mind it has to be. Well, I hope this letter finds you well as it brings me peace to know that I have finally responded to you(quite literally at the end of the term, again, I’m sorry).
Yes, I’ve been on many trips and I’m very grateful for those opportunities given to me. I would be very glad to share my experiences with anyone who’s interested! And a little secret but I also created a blog a few years back solely for the purpose of sharing my trips & experiences! (though it is still underway for now :), but I actually do have another one created to share my poly life during year 2 & 3). Side note: I also like sharing the short video clips I made but I don’t really want to come off as bragging? So anyone who's interested can always talk to me about stuff like this!
As for the English language, I dislike it. You can’t even fathom the amount of stress this particular language has given me throughout my education life. Grammar, verbs, nouns, adjectives, idioms, tenses, I could never seem to grasp the understanding behind all these ‘terms’. Writing compos during secondary school was a nightmare and the oral examinations probably contributed to why I fear speaking to new classmates (those judgy eyes from the examiners are fear-inducing). Also, let’s say I learned a new ‘tough’ word/phrase from books/movies, I’m always afraid to use it as I’m afraid of the wrong pronunciation, or using it in the wrong context. Sometimes forming sentences is also quite tough for me (I partly blame it on the daily use of singlish). And that is why, I am escaping to a new language, German, which is quite the irony as its grammar is even more insane than the English language.
Thankful for the many opportunities you gave me in class, to practice speaking, to get me out of my comfort zone of my friends and form new friendships. Though I’m still nervous to speak/present in front of a crowd, I do feel more comfortable as compared to the very first lesson whenever you ask me to read the sentences during class. I’ve never had a module like this before in poly so this is a first for me. I am glad to have you as a professor for a module like this, you really embodied the essence of this module and make lessons more intriguing. Thank you.
Best regards
Chermaine