Reflections on ES1102

ES1102 has been an enriching learning journey for me since I enrolled in NUS. Taking this module has allowed me to improve my writing skills in terms of content, language, structure and reading.

Before attending this module, I did not understand the proper structure and language to writing an academic essay (e.g. problem solution essay). My writings consisted of only factual information that were directly found in articles and were not analyzed and supported with evidence and explanations. Common grammatical errors were made without the actual knowledge that they were mistakes.

With the aid of this module, I have recapped the basics of the English language, learned the commonly made mistakes as well as to extract important information from reading materials. It has also sparked critical thinking in myself, which allows me to gather information from readings, to analyze the information and to incorporate my opinions in-depth into the information. I found a new knowledge in citation of sources in academic writing, one that I did not have prior knowledge in.

In the few remaining weeks left in the semester, I will like to strengthen my writing in terms of expressing my opinions in academic writings. I have learned how to analyze the information and input my opinions to the inferences. However, I believed that I can improve on better critical thinking skills to display my opinions in a stronger argumentation with supported evidences. My weak point is that writing an explanation and writing an opinion were sometimes similar, which misled readers with difficulty to differentiate between the two.

As I reflected through the comments given for the summary and reader response essays, I feel that they were very constructive and helped to incite me to thinking deeper into the points that I had written. In my essays, I have the habit of using words that only hinted at the topic but not directed to the points. The comments helped to direct myself back to the focus of the topic. I was satisfied with the grades that I had received for both essays, as personally the difference in both scores had reflected on the time and effort input.

While this is the first time that I have received feedbacks in both audio and visual format, I strongly agree that it is beneficial to my learning process. The visual feedback provided as a brief comment to the points while the audio feedback assisted as an in depth explanation to the comments. It also allows me to pause and play to edit the points one after another. I believed that this implementation can be used in other similar modules for an enriching and interesting learning.