Choo Ying Jie

Project Reflections
Ive been doing Resource Development projects for the past two years, so this year I decided to
do something different and teamed up with Joshua and Daniel to do a literature project. Many
things went awry almost all of which could be attributed to the fact that I continually
procrastinated throughout the first two terms because I underestimated the level and depth of
research needed to be done for a Cat 2 Academic Research project. I was attracted to the flair
and the flashiness of a literature project, but ultimately failed to display extended interest in the
project as it required extensive amounts of research (due to the fact that I was not very well-
read into the subject at hand) that was not limited to online research, but primarily academic
papers and scholarly articles. Although I did have a number of other commitments I needed to
juggle during the first semester, in retrospect, I shouldnt have used this as an excuse to distance
myself away from the project, nor should I have continually shied away from project meetings
due to myself being afraid of getting scolded for my lack of participation in the project. Although
it can be sometimes daunting to step into unfamiliar terrain when doing a project, it is
important to have the confidence, courage and the initiative to actively familiarize yourself with
the subject of study. Communication between project members is also crucial so that no one of
us feels overtly pressured to take on the bulk of the project work.
Nonetheless, our mentor was extremely patient with us, practically feeding us material when
the deadline drew near and it quickly became apparent that we could not complete the project
on our own. Stress from both the project as well as my grades quickly accumulated due to
procrastination, and I eventually found myself coming to detest having to continue the project.
In retrospect, this was a result of improper planning, and it is now apparent to me that before
even starting to carry out research for any project, it is extremely important to set goals by
actively communicating with ones group members about the specifics of the project direction
as well as what the end-product would be.
We did talk about remedying the project later on in the second semester, and we not only
changed our scope of study to something we found more doable, but also tried to resource for
material for our literature review by going to the Lee Kong Chian Resource Library in NLB (due to
the fact that according to Catalogue, Arjun Appadurais books such as Globalization or
Modernity at Large could be found in the Repository Used Books collection or the Resource
Library). Even though we tried to distribute the workload (Daniel would study Bildungsroman, I
would do background research on American and Japanese culture and Joshua would research
on Globalization), I felt a pressing urge to jump ship and ditch the effort and ultimately chose to
prioritize my other commitments over the project and failed to complete my end of the
workload by the due deadline. Empathy is definitely a key aspect of any project journey as
projects are a team effort and all members need to actively participate in order to ensure
positive relations and an overall enriching experience.