As a life science
student, the writing I was used to was scientific writing for lab reports. In
such cases, I wrote from a purely qualitative point of view, on a subject I am
familiar with or have had at least a minimal amount of education in (in terms
of lectures). In the case of this ES2007S proposal however, my group chose a
topic we thought was interesting, but where none of us had any formal education
in. Also, the writing style was different in that this proposal was a
persuasive piece. This experience has definitely prepared me for the working
world if I am ever needed to write persuasively.
With respect to
working in groups, I feel that I learnt a few valuable lessons from writing
this proposal with my group mates. I have learnt that time management is
extremely crucial when working on such a proposal. My group had a late start on
our proposal and this had disadvantaged us in numerous ways. We pulled through
in the end, but the journey might have been more enjoyable and less stressful
if we had started earlier. I have learnt that effective timelines need to be
established at the start of any project.
I thought that as a
group, we worked quite well together - playing to each person’s strengths and that
all our strengths complemented one another. This meant that as a team, I felt
that we were quite strong. There were definitely areas that could have been
improved on however, such as improved communication between members especially
during the first phase of the proposal.
All in all, it was
an enjoyable experience, and I am extremely grateful to have two very
cooperative team members who have taught me little things in one way or another.
I agree with you Nazyra! I found it very difficult to change our scientific monotonous writing styles to a persuasive one for this proposal too! But it is a good thing. Adding on to what you have said, this also exposes us to more varieties of writing and makes us more well-rounded science students. Who says science students can't write convincing proposals! =)
ReplyDeleteI liked that you mentioned about the difficulties and strengths of your team. I thought your team did a very impressive presentation the other day and it can only be attributed to good teamwork. I could tell everyone put in a lot of effort. The sense of satisfaction all of you had for your proposal was clearly shown during the presentation. GOOD JOB GIRLS!
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ReplyDeleteHi Nazyra! It's a nice change to write a report that uses language to persuade. I would have thought you would have liked writing it over scientific papers.
ReplyDeleteI think our scientific writing background helped in writing this report. For me, I knew that I should substantiate any claims, because facts and statistics usually sells the point, and that is what we are good at writing (I would like to think so, after 3 years of undergraduate studies).
I know you were stressed over your late start, and how you only secured the interview at the last minute. But you and your team pulled through and you did great!
Hello Nazyra! Firstly, I liked that your group chose 'overcrowding on the MRT' as the topic for your proposal. As I frequently use the MRT as a form of transport, your topic was definitely relatable and relevant to me. Additionally, your group's solutions were really interesting and I particularly liked the idea of the 'women only carriages' (; I agree with you that time-management is definitely important when doing such proposals. My group also started on the proposal late and did not prepare a timeline for accomplishing our tasks. As a result, we were initially quite lost when working on the proposal. Nonetheless, I’m glad that both our groups managed to complete the proposals on time!
ReplyDeleteI felt that your group did an amazing job during the presentation. Not only were all of you well-prepared, your team displayed really good teamwork and dynamics. The presentation had a good flow and each of your parts complemented one another. It was definitely an enjoyable presentation to watch! (: