Writing a research report is definitely not an easy job. From the coming up of the research topic all the way to writing the final report, it was definitely sheer hard work. I believe that everyone have put in their fullest effort in coming up with this final piece of written report and thus, everyone deserves a pat on their shoulders.
Frankly speaking, I’ve never really written a research report before (other than the Project Work (PW) that we did in our Junior Colleges). I believe that through this research process, I have gotten a slight preview of how it is like to do academic research. I’ve also gained insights on how to go about writing a literature review, transmittal letter and what should be included in a full academic report. It was definitely a good exposure.
Effective communication skills are definitely required in a research team. Especially with the advance technologies, communication is no longer restricted to face to face communication. Through emails and short message services (sms-es), messages can be conveyed easily without meeting up with the other parties. However, using web conversations have their disadvantages too, especially for someone who is absent-minded like me.
Last Saturday, our group decided to meet up in school to finish our draft for the project. The initial time to meet was 9.30am, however, as Carolyn had something on in the morning, she can only meet us at 12pm and so I messaged Thomas to ask if he wanted to change the timing to 12pm instead. The conversation was as follows:
Thomas: “Up to you, I’ll be in school at 9.30am”
Apparently, my reply was like that:
Frankly speaking, I’ve never really written a research report before (other than the Project Work (PW) that we did in our Junior Colleges). I believe that through this research process, I have gotten a slight preview of how it is like to do academic research. I’ve also gained insights on how to go about writing a literature review, transmittal letter and what should be included in a full academic report. It was definitely a good exposure.
Effective communication skills are definitely required in a research team. Especially with the advance technologies, communication is no longer restricted to face to face communication. Through emails and short message services (sms-es), messages can be conveyed easily without meeting up with the other parties. However, using web conversations have their disadvantages too, especially for someone who is absent-minded like me.
Last Saturday, our group decided to meet up in school to finish our draft for the project. The initial time to meet was 9.30am, however, as Carolyn had something on in the morning, she can only meet us at 12pm and so I messaged Thomas to ask if he wanted to change the timing to 12pm instead. The conversation was as follows:
Thomas: “Up to you, I’ll be in school at 9.30am”
Apparently, my reply was like that:
“I think I’ll be in school at 9.30am.”
However, being absent-minded and being slow in my thinking process, my mind was still focused on the “Up to you” message. Thus, I had this mindset that I should be in school at 12pm. The next morning, when I received Thomas’s message and to my horror, I realized that I was supposed to be in school by 9.30am. Immediately, my face turned green.
However, being absent-minded and being slow in my thinking process, my mind was still focused on the “Up to you” message. Thus, I had this mindset that I should be in school at 12pm. The next morning, when I received Thomas’s message and to my horror, I realized that I was supposed to be in school by 9.30am. Immediately, my face turned green.
From the above incident, we can see that effective communication is definitely important. And I'm sure that I've learnt my lesson.
I have to say that I had fun working with Carolyn and Thomas. Everything went well. Everyone did their part for the project and there were no major disputes or conflicts within the team. Other than working on the project, I have also gained insights on how to operate certain computer programme. (=
6 comments:
Thanks, Michelle, for the honest review of your research process. I'm glad that you had a chance to do this sort of work and hope that it helps you in the future. Thanks for being so open about the one communication breakdown, too. That certainly was a learning experience, I'm sure.
Now I look forward to reading the report!
Hey michelle! I have to agree with you that this report is a long and tedious process. But i guess we are both glad that we have good members in our team, don't we? That alone made the project more manageable. Come to think of it, we didn't do any letter of transmittal or authorization for our PW back in jc. But PW was enough to kill. Haha. I totally agree with how communication can be a con when we make use of the latest technology to do so. By sending emails, it slows down the process of getting replies or there might not be any replies if we are absent minded. By smsing, you might not get the whole idea (as in travis's case) or might even get the wrong idea of the message being conveyed. Anyhow, i'm sure we have all learnt something from this process of writing a report =)
Now that I'm a bit more free, I can reply.
For me, email works better because I need time to think, phrase and re-phrase my message. Fortunately, email works well with my group members. Instead, I find it challenging to be spontaneous.
Hey sharon,
I'm glad that email works for you and your group! (:
But I also agree with miko that it slows the process of getting replies. This is especially irritating when you need the reply really urgently. The waiting process of getting a reply can be really painful.
Yup! Miko, I'm sure all of us learnt something from the writing process! (:
Hi Michelle,
I have fun in working with you too. Everyone has their shortfall and forte. I admire you that you are really a perfectionist and committed person. You spent one hour sleeping only one day before submission of report just to do the editting and aligning. I could never reach that level. Definitely I am influenced by your determination and willpower. Thanks for having you in group.
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