The Email

Come participate in our Part 2 series of our lunchtime interactive workshops, brought to you exclusively by Facilitators@NUS!

We are a newly formed student organization that aims to enhance the learning experience of the NUS community through the framework of experiential learning. We have been trained by external trainers to plan and implement customized, insightful and dynamic training and development workshop which we hope to benefit the student organizations and individuals.

This series of lunchtime workshops will be conducted by our student facilitators through experiential games and peer discussions. Currently, these workshops are free. Come join us for a session of fun-filled learning and sharing!


Name: Knowing your Personality better
Date: 16 February 2009, Monday
Time: 12.15pm – 1.30pm
Venue: YIH Function Room 1 and 2
Know thyself better by understanding your priorities and your reactions to situations. In this workshop, we will conduct a personality test, followed by mutual sharing among participants. The discussion will explain the strengths and weaknesses of each behavioural style, and cover conflict management due to behavioural clashes from different perspectives.

Name: Interactive Learning Workshop
Date: 18 February 2009, Wednesday
Time: 1.00pm-2.00pm
Venue: Lecture Theatrette 2, Central Library
Have you ever considered that people’s differences in learning could be due to their differing learning styles? If you have, this workshop is right for you! Our main activities consist of a discussion based on a short story, followed by an introduction to the various learning styles. If you consider yourself as a serious thinker and enjoy having discussions with other intelligent minds, then join us for an interactive hourly session.


Due to limited vacancies for each workshop, participants will be registered based on a purely first come first served basis. So what are you waiting for? Sign up NOW!

Send an email to us at facilitators.nus@gmail.com by 15 February 2009 with your Name, Matriculation Number, HP contact number, Faculty and Year, Choice of Workshop(s) and we’ll be glad to attend to any queries that you have.

*** Do note that all sessions as indicated above are completely conducted and facilitated by NUS students. We do not intend for these sessions to be a lecture-styled monologue but rather, through the use of experiential games, these are platforms in which students can learn from each other in a friendly and cohesive environment.

The 7Cs
1. Is the opening courteous and is the tone appropriate?Yes
2. Have you stated the relevant information concretely?Yes
3. Is the email clear – whether you have used words and relational pattern of development that can be understood easily?Yes
4. Is the email concise?Yes
5. Is the email complete – whether you have conveyed all the necessary information to the person?Yes
6. Is the email coherent/cohesive in its sentence structure and organization of paragraphs?Yes
7. Is the language correctly used – no errors in usage, grammar, spelling & punctuation?Yes
8. Have you suggested any actions to be taken in the closing section?Yes

Analysis

I think the email is very concise and attention-grabbing. All the required information was stated in a very clear and coherent manner. They had a brief introduction of who they are and stated a concrete background that they have. The short summary of the activities they are conducting allow the readers to know what to expect and hence choose the one that they are most interested in. In addition, an action to be taken by readers who may be interested was also stated at the closing, with all the information stated in a rather detailed and clear manner. The different colours used were also chosen correctly and used appropriately to grab the attention of readers. Orange is a very loud colour, representing that the activity is going to be something really fun and interactive. Lastly, a disclaimer was placed at the end of the email also.

However, the email could have been written more effectively. They left out the salutation, the signature and sender’s name. To enhance the email, they could include those in. Furthermore, since the email was sent out by Office of Student Affairs, I felt that they should have also included the email was sent by OSA on behalf of Facilitators@NUS.

Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

Yan is currently in a student organization that had just started up. As the vice president, the teacher advisor held high expectations of her. There are two vice presidents in the organization and each of them is responsible for different committee in the organization.

During a feedback session, the teacher advisor mentioned that the vice presidents had not been doing a lot of work. He said most of the work had been done by the president and during meetings, he only sees the president doing most of the talking. As one of the vice-president, Yan felt wronged as they have been working hard. She also thinks it is a matter of fact that the president speaks more during the meeting since he is the one chairing it and since the President is the one liaising with the teacher advisor, it may have appeared to him that only the president have been doing all the work. Yan is very sad and disappointed and has since lost her drive in managing the committee.

The teacher advisor has been very aggressive to the team and has not been very polite in his emails. All these had been affecting the entire team’s morale without him realizing it. Yan is feeling really frustrated and is worried about the team. I think it may be because the teacher advisor does not know the team enough hence causing these to happen. What should Yan do? Should she bring it up to the teacher advisor about the misunderstandings and should she bring it to his attention of his actions impact on the team?