As the often-used line from “Meditation XVII,” by the English poet John Donne, goes ” No Man is an Island”. Humans are social creatures and tend to congregate to fulfill their need to belong. With communication being a way to convey information for companionship and survival, it has become a very important part of our lives. This is especially true in the workplace where communicating effectively with people e.g. superiors is essential to career success.
Of course, being a student, I am not at that stage of my life yet. However, I am currently in my final year of university and will be embarking on a job search very soon. Knowing this, I decided to take ES2007S so as to improve on essential job-hunting skills. With the module covering topics including “Effective Business Letters/E-mails” and “Performing at Job Interviews”, I feel that the class will be particularly useful as these are areas that I think I sorely lack knowledge in. What was added incentive for me to take ES2007S were the favorable reviews that my friends gave on the module. In particular, I liked the part where I needed to set up a blog and post regularly as part of my assignments. I had always wanted to start blogging but never found the discipline to actually get round to doing it. This was the perfect opportunity for me to finally get started and actually post content that is more meaningful than just a mundane description of my everyday life.
The ES2007S Blog 
Posted by nicole on January 25, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Oh hey! That’s why I decided to take ES2007S too!! Aside from the favorable reviews, the other incentive for me was that there aren’t any final examinations for it, only continual assessments.
I totally agree with you on how being equipped with effective communication skills would be useful for work, be it from preparing to enter the workforce or communicating with others within the workplace.
Blogging is easy! I’ve been blogging for years now. To be honest, I find it hard to post content that actually means something or sounds somewhat educated because you have to put in a lot more effort to think and come up with something constructive. Due to my laziness to think, my blog consists mostly of a “mundane description of my everyday life”, but it means something to me and that is a good enough reason for me to justify the existence of my blog. Do have fun with blogging for this module!
Regarding your post, I can see why you registered for this module, maybe you could have elaborated more on how Effective Communication is important to you. You have also included what made you decided to do this module which I felt could have been placed in a new paragraph.
These are just the thoughts that came to mind after reading your post.
-nicole
Posted by Hou Zhisheng on January 25, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Hi Jie Ren. From the reasons you stated, I can tell you are a very pragmatic person – a true blue Singaporean like myself. Like you, the “job-hunting skills” which I hope to acquire were a major plus factor when I chose this module.
However, I feel that it may be better to elaborate on how the topics of the modules would help enhance your application when you look for a job. Also, be careful about using cliches as openers as it may potentially put the readers off.
Just as a side-note, can you put up a short profile description (I couldn’t find your name and was worried I addressed the wrong person) and blog links? I’m sure the rest would appreciate it too.
Posted by Goh Chern Diana on January 25, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Dear Jie Ren,
This might not seem impressive to you but I thought you made a very smart move by drawing back the essence of communication being in the fact that “no man is an island”. Definitely that is the most fundamental nature and use of communication. Homo sapiens of the primordial era have already began to communicate though not in the form of language as a medium. Inspired by what you have written, I checked out the first form of human communication in the course of evolution and this is what I found: http://www.ibiblio.org/hollerin/hollerin.htm .
Do check the site out; I found it particularly interesting to note that human communication started with hunting cries known as Hollerin!
Posted by kun lin on January 28, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Yes, I agree with you as I am also in my final year too. Professional communication will come in handy for us pretty soon.
Posted by Brad F Blackstone on January 30, 2010 at 2:26 am
Thanks, JieRen, for this clear an concise post. I like the way you open it with the quote from Donne and the explanation. I also like the way you explain the value of effective comm skills to you in specific, although you seem to have gone off on the minor tangent of explaining why you took ES2007S (of course, the context of doing so is clear).
One comment you make is that comm skills being vital is “especially true in the workplace where communicating effectively with people e.g. superiors is essential to career success.” It’s interesting that you mention this in regard to superiors. I actually heard from an engineer/human resources guy recently that one of the biggest areas of concern at his company was the way young engineers failed to relate to the workers on the floor of their factory. That’s something you might want to consider as well.
I look forward t your next post!