Formal Letter

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 Dear Prof Blackstone

  My name is Izzeddine, and I am writing to you to formally introduce myself. I am currently a first-year student in SIT. I am also one of your students for Effective Communications. I graduated from Singapore Polytechnic in 2018 with a Diploma in Energy Systems & Management.

My time in Polytechnic has piqued my interest greatly towards engineering. I have always had a fascination with the functioning mechanisms behind everyday objects. The challenge of solving practical problems and integrating new technologies in applications are essential skills in this age. 

  I chose Sustainable Infrastructure Engineering (Land) for university as the land transport industry was always something that I wanted to venture in. It’s a thriving industry that benefits millions of people daily. Building a reliable public transportation system is a major priority for a developed country like Singapore, where there is always room to improve transport efficiency.

 Aside from studies, my favourite hobby is cooking as I love to eat and it also helps build my diligence. Oftentimes I like to experiment with recipes and cook them multiple times until I get the perfect dish for me to share with family and friends. One of my favourite dishes to cook is buttermilk fried chicken. It was not an easy dish to cook as there were many aspects I had to balance; such spices, marinating time and oil temperature. It took me multiple tries to perfect the recipe but I managed to in the end.

  One communication strength I possess is listening. I believe I am a good listener because it has always allowed me to keep an open mind. I’m always exchanging ideas in a conversation. I’m also prepared to learn something new and change my perspective during the conversation.

One communication weakness I possess is public speaking. I get really nervous when speaking to a big group of people to the point where I rush my sentences which in turn leads me to stutter.

  In this module, I hope to improve my public speaking skills as I want to be able to speak in public with confidence. I also hope to improve my writing skills especially in report writing. Back in polytechnic, I tend to 'copy and paste' a lot for my reports with little to no paraphrasing as I could never come up with the proper words to use. I feel that this is something that I have to work on.

  I believe what separates me from others is my drive to go the extra mile to succeed. Although I am not a genius, my motivation to do well in my passion and my never-give-up attitude more than makes up for it.

 I look forward to learning more from you in this module. I believe communication is an important life skill and it will help me grow even more as a person.

Regards

Izzeddine

Comments

  1. AlimSeptember 22, 2021 at 8:29 PM

    Izze's reflection is very well written in a sense that he is very clear on the message that he is trying to present. It is very organised, he keeps each paragraph focused on one topic so that the reader can absorb the information before moving on to the next topic. I also think that his use of language and grammar is correct as it was easy to read. Good work!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hairee OmarSeptember 23, 2021 at 4:58 AM

    You write a good letter such that it is very clear and easy to understand. I understand you have problems when it comes to conversing and that is stated in your letter. I really hope you will overcome it by the end of this module. My feedback will be to try to lessen the number of paragraphs. I personally that the whole letter looks like a foolscap paper.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Izzeddine OsmanOctober 4, 2021 at 10:16 PM

      Thank you for the feedback, Hairee! I will try to lessen the number of paragraphs next time :)

      Delete
  3. IrwanSeptember 23, 2021 at 9:00 AM

    Hi Izzeddine,

    Thanks for sharing more about yourself. The letter well structured and can be easily understand by the reader. Each paragraph is written clearly and straight to the point. One improvement you can make is to combine a few of those paragraph into one.

    I hope that we both can achieve our goals by the end of the module.

    Regards,
    Irwan

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alice LimSeptember 23, 2021 at 9:37 AM

    Dear Izzeddine,

    Thank you for sharing about yourself to allow your readers to learn more about you.
    Overall, the pieces of information are clearly written to support your stands. Well-structured details and the message you wish to convey are well understood.
    However, you can suggest possible actions that you would like to consider for addressing your weakness.
    Other than that, this is a good self-introduction letter.

    Regards,
    Alice Lim

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brad BlackstoneSeptember 29, 2021 at 6:08 PM

    Dear Izzy,

    Thank you for this interesting letter. You give clear attention to each topic and provide specific, concrete descriptions. Among other things, you mention this as being the bedrock of your interest in engineering: "The challenge of solving practical problems and integrating new technologies in applications are essential skills in this age." That's precisely why we do the problem-solution project in our module. I look forward to seeing how you and your groupmates address the assignment.

    I especially like learning about your love of cooking and interest in perfecting recipes as well as your never-give-up attitude. My follow up questions are these: what is your favorite dish, and what was the challenge in perfecting that?

    You also clearly explain your perceived comm skills traits and goals for the module. I'm impressed by the fact that you have been self critical in this letter, and you show that you understand how important it is for you to take each opportunity and make the best of it. You can be sure that the goals you mention will be continually addressed in class. The hurdle for each of us as we move into Zoom mode is to make our speaking interactions substantive enough. I'd like to challenge you to help the class do that.

    In terms of language use, this is a fluent effort. My only criticism is the occasional overuse of the capitalization function on your keyboard.

    I look forward to reading more form you this term.

    Cheers,

    Brad

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Izzeddine OsmanOctober 4, 2021 at 11:09 PM

      Thank you for the feedback, Prof Brad! I've made changes to my formal letter according to your comment.


      Delete

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