Communication

Communication

Thursday 28 September 2017

Summary + reader's response draft 1

Summary with reader's response (draft 1)

In the article “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road” Tan (2017), states that LED strips installed in walkways creates safety awareness by helping smartphone addicts to stay alert on the road. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be introducing a half-year pilot program on the pricey LED strips at two different junctions due to large number of pedestrians of “different demographics”. The LED features are conspicuous in the day and resemble the conventional red and green man signals of the traffic light. This project will allow the authority to evaluate the suitability and the functional use of the feature in Singapore’s climate conditions. 
Reports from the Traffic Police indicates a rise in the number of pedestrian injuries and fatal accidents, such initiative will make road crossing convenient and handy for all pedestrians and smartphone addicts. Although statistics have shown the surge in traffic accident involving pedestrians, it is uncertain if most of the accidents are actually due to “smartphone zombies” phenomenon, which is highly debatable.
Firstly, there are no specific statistical data to substantiate the evidence in Singapore, but there are news articles that reported on the accidents involving pedestrians. According to an article “Using your phone as you walk may get you in an accident” Lee (2015) reported that a group of four undergraduates from Nanyang Technological University conducted a survey on distracted walking. A total of 419 youth aged 17 to 25 were surveyed and 598 accidents were disclosed. From their findings, the three main causes of distractions are listening to music, texting and talking on the phone. Other consequences include trip and fall and horned by vehicles. The consequences stated by these students are just minor, what happen if the consequences are severe? 
As the use of mobile gadgets have increasingly become part of everyday life, taking eyes off from the road and being unaware of the surrounding can threaten your life. In the article “Caught on dash cam: Girl, checking phone, is hit while crossing road at green man” Ho (2015), a video of a girl knocked down by a taxi during midnight circulated rapidly. In this video, it can be seen that the young girl was crossing the traffic junction while using her phone, oblivious to the on-coming taxi approaching her making a right turn. As the taxi did not stop in time, she got hit. Although the traffic light was in her favour, I feel that she should be alert and pay more attention to her surroundings instead of assuming the vehicle will stop for her while crossing the road.
From the two evidences shown above, engrossing in using mobile devices will cause divided attention, reducing vision field which will result in endangering the safety of the road users and oneself.

Lastly, from the article “20% jump in number of accident involving elderly pedestrians” Ng (2017), reported that elderly pedestrians are at a higher risk of danger, as according to the Singapore Traffic Police. 268 accidents cases were reported in 2016, an increase from 19.6 per cent in 2015. Accidents which results in death was 28 per cent, of which 16 cases are due to jaywalking. The reason being that elderly pedestrians have a slow reflex and hence not able to react to fast incoming and outgoing traffic. Additionally, they find it a hassle to cross the road at traffic junctions, where they will take short cuts to cross the road, therefore resulting to the increase of traffic accidents. 
In conclusion, the main cause to the increase in traffic accidents is largely due to the elderly pedestrians jaywalking and not the “smartphone zombie”. LED strips might be effective in tackling smartphone addicts, however the responsibility still lies on individual to keep a lookout in order to stay safe.


Reference:

Lee, P. (2017) Using your phone as you walk may get you in an accident. Retrieved, September 26,

Ho, O. (2015, April 24). Caught on dash cam: Girl, checking phone, is hit while crossing road at green

Ng, K. (2017, February 16). 20% jump in number of accident involving elderly pedestrians. Retrieved

Monday 25 September 2017

Summary draft 1

In the article “Floor lights help ‘smartphone zombies’ keep eye on the road” Tan (2017), states that LED strips installed in walkways creates safety awareness by helping smartphone addicts to stay alert on the road. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be introducing a half-year pilot program on the pricey LED strips at two different junctions due to large number of pedestrians of “different demographics”. The LED features are conspicuous in the day and resemble the conventional red and green man signals of the traffic light. This project will allow the authority to evaluate the suitability and the functional use of the feature in Singapore’s climate conditions. 
Reports from the Traffic Police indicates a rise in the number of pedestrian injuries and fatal accidents, such initiative will make road crossing convenient and handy for all pedestrians and smartphone addicts. Although statistics have shown the surge in traffic accident involving pedestrians, it is uncertain if most of the accidents are actually due to “smartphone zombies” phenomenon, which is highly debatable.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Formal Email: Self Introduction

Subject: Self introduction

Dear Professor Blackstone,

I am writing to you to formally introduce myself and to let you know more about my background in communications. Firstly, communicating in english is not my forte as I come from a mandarin-speaking family where I do not have the luxury to practice speaking at home. Secondly, I have an introverted personality where I don’t speak much in school. This habit adversely hinders my ability to communicate well with people.

I understand that communication skills are important in today’s world and it is of paramount importance to be equipped with such soft skills.

Personally, I feel that my weakness is lacking confidence in public speaking. When speaking to a large crowd or even a small tutorial class, I tend to get nervous at times. Being unable to clearly express myself, I will stutter on my words which causes me to lose my train of thoughts. For example, during a class presentation in polytechnic, I had prepared myself beforehand. When it was my turn, I got butterflies in my stomach. I lost focus and the words coming out from my mouth were disorganized. My classmates and lecturers sometimes may not understand what I am presenting and thus it adversely affected my results.

In contrast, being a good listener is my strength. I always find myself engaged in a proper conversation with my friends. I believe that active listening is a form of good communication because it shows my willingness to enter a conversation with the speaker, paying close attention to what the other party has got to say, and I could respond to them appropriately. Many times, when my polytechnic project mates are voicing out their opinions on a problem, I will listen attentively to their ideas and not interrupting them, giving them a chance to express their thoughts.

By the end of this module, I hope to be confident at public speaking and probably writing communication as these soft skills are beneficial not only in academics but also for future work purpose. I look forward to attending your class and hope that I can learn something new every day.

Thank you.

Regards,
Hong Yu
SIE2016 Group 5



Edited:
22/09/17 21:20
20/09/17 23:40
19/09/17 00:46
13/09/17 21:00
11/09/17 23:05
07/09/17 13:40



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