At the beginning of the semester, I was quite puzzled that Effective Communication was required as part of my core subject.

I could not find a connection as to why this module was made compulsory for every engineering student and thought that it was quite pointless. However, as I progressed through the lectures and tutorials, I realized that I had made a poignant mistake in thinking that Effective Communication was pointless. In fact, through this module I have realized the importance of communication in our daily lives. Throughout the period of the course, I have learnt useful topics such as communication models, channels and the types of noise, ways to produce good academic writing pieces and presentation speeches. Effective communication has introduced me to the fundamentals of speaking and writing, which as we know are essential elements in our daily lives. After attending the lectures, I have discovered ways to communicate with other people effectively. Moreover, this course

provided me with a good guide line in order to write essays or prepare for a speech. I realized that purpose, audience, channel and the organization are important components that need to be considered. In academic writing which was my first assignment, I learnt to analyze the effectiveness of an electronically-mediated business messages which in this case, we had analyzed a corporate blog. For this assignment, I worked in a group of five people. We analyzed the blog in different perspective such as the context for the blog, the purposes of the blog, the channel that the blogger selected to convey the messages as well as the noises that were made in the blog. After the assignment was completed, our group had learnt to communicate properly with each other. We also realized that a good academic writing requires a good argument, organized structures of the essay and a suitable method to present the ideas in an orderly manner. Additionally, I have learnt how to present a speech in front of audiences effectively.

Throughout the lectures, I realized of the many elements that may affect my speech. Eye contact, body orientation, gestures, voice and articulation all affect the way I convey the speech. Furthermore, I have learnt that organization in a speech is very important as it will provide a hook for the audience compared to an unorganized speech. Confidence is also an important factor when one is presenting a speech. In a nutshell, I am now able to equip myself with fundamental skills of communication thanks to studying this subject. I am sure that the skills that I have learnt from this course will benefit me in my daily life as well as the daily life of the many students and students yet to come.
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