Formal Letter

09 September 2017


Aloysius Wong Wei Jun
Yishun Ring Road
BLK 450 #05-99
Singapore 789645


Ms Lim Lay Hoon
Professor
Singapore Institute of Technology
10 Dover Drive
Singapore 138682


Dear Ms Lim,

Subject: Strength and Weakness of Communication

My name is Aloysius Wong, and I am an undergraduate pursuing my degree in Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Building Services). I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic with a diploma in Clean Energy and I was actively involved in the school's Bowling team as a Vice President.

One of my communication strength is being observant to the body language of others while having a conversation. When I was working, I had to attend business meetings to interact with entrepreneurs and I noticed the different body language and vibe given out by them. There were times when they were not interested, they would lean towards the backrest and stay out of the conversation. On the other hand, when they are curious about the matter, they tend to lean forward and start asking related questions. Thus, knowing their body language will allow me to understand when to ask the right questions and whether to carry on the conversation.

However, my weakness in communication tend to be speaking up without confidence. A real-life experience was when I tried to advise others to try bowling, they would criticize it, for example, it is expensive and pointless. After I am unable to convince them, I would have no or little confidence to continue talking about the topic.

My goals for developing more effective communication skills are such as being a confident speaker and to be able to empathize others. As a confident speaker, I believe that my actions would allow my classmates to follow through with what I am trying to convey about, and at the same time to be humble and not be arrogant. It is also essential to empathize others because everyone has a different role to play and we are able to understand them better if we put ourselves in their shoes.

Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to read this.

Yours sincerely,

Aloysius Wong Wei Jun
SEM06 Group 1

Comments

  1. Unknown15 September 2017 at 03:51

    Hi Aloysius.

    Having the ability to observe the body language of others would be of great help to you in the future, especially when you are talking to your boss or peers in the future. In my case, I tend to get too engrossed in the conversation that I would fail to realize that my peers might have already lost interest in the topic. Hence, I am envious of your capabilities in reading body languages.

    As for your weakness, I feel that you just need to trust your own suggestion more and make a strong point as to how your suggestions would benefit. You could research more to back up your ideas as to why bowling can be a good choice of sports for keeping fit.

    Jarrod Chin

    ReplyDelete
  2. YJ15 September 2017 at 05:16

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. YJ15 September 2017 at 05:28

    Dear Aloysius,

    I take the same view as you that body language will allow someone to understand when to ask the right questions and whether to carry on the conversation. I recall my time when I was serving my National Service, I was rather new in my unit and I had to understudy one of my regulars on his drug case. He had to interview servicemen who were potential drug offenders. In the interview, he tried to approach the servicemen using a certain theme to persuade the servicemen to confess. From the serviceman's body language, we could tell that the serviceman had lost interest in the conversation. One obvious sign was that he was no longer maintaining eye contact and had leaned towards the backrest of the chair. That meant that the theme was not working and he wasted no time in changing the theme.

    I also empathize with you on your weakness as I am also facing the same situation. However, I have faith that with enough practices, we can overcome or improve on this weakness of ours. And I believe that this module will be the perfect stepping stone for us to achieve that.

    I am glad to know more about you. Let us help one another in our journey to achieve the similar end goal that we are going for.

    Regards,

    Yong Jian

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joelle Kim15 September 2017 at 08:23

    Hi Aloysius,

    I like how you took time to thank the reader for reading your post. It was very polite of you.

    I agree with the importance of body language where many tend to forget how big of a part it plays in our daily lives. Like the saying goes, “actions speak louder than words”.

    With regards to your weakness, I believe that confidence can be built with more experiences. Do not let your past experiences affect you.

    Let us use this module to build our confidence and also in getting enlightenment on the arts of effective communication.

    Regards,
    Joelle

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jason Eng17 September 2017 at 05:20

    Dear Aloysius,

    It was a pleasure reading your post. What I like most about your post, is how you support your points with examples. You never fail to provide clear examples for any claim you make.

    Your post responds to the assignment correctly. The way you word your thoughts was clear and expressive. I am impressed by the way you show instead of tell how a person feels. (e.g. “...they would lean towards the backrest and stay out of the conversation...”) Instead of telling us that he or she is uninterested with the ongoing conversation, you show us by telling his body posture.

    In general, I think your post is concise as you express your thought in a clear and smart manner. The post is also coherent as the parts of your strength, weakness, and goals are all well positioned in orderly fashion. You are also cohesive in by presenting in a unified form.

    Your answer is well complete and respectful, addressing each issue you encounter in life with a thought for others and sharing your thoughts on the course Effective Communication. I agree with your stand on when to asking the right question and adjust to the pace of the conversation by reading the body language of your audience. It is a clever way to read the mind of your audience without having the audience to speak for him or herself. It is a skill that we can impart in our daily life.

    Your command of English is clear and accurate. I understood every meaning of each sentence you wrote in your post.

    I look forward to working with you throughout our journey to become an effective communicator.

    Regards,

    Eng Sheng Cai
    SIE2016
    Group 6
    Trimester 2017/2018

    ReplyDelete

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