Effective Communication Blog

The learning journey with Professor Brad in the effective communication module has been a remarkable experience. Since the module was started, he asked to write an introduction letter including weakness and goals. At there, I set my goals to have a greater confidence, enjoy public speaking and make new friends by the end of this module. Now it has already been 13 weeks and I realize that I do improve not only my communication but also reading and technical writing skills. During his class, I was urged to cooperate in class activities like rephrasing with citations and presenting ideas to the class. As I'm a silent person, I barely speak out loud and express my thoughts to the class but these activities encouraged me to improve on my articulation of words. One of the assignment was to write a summary and reader response of an article. As it was my first time writing an analysis, I was hesitant in my work. But with the clear feedback from Professor, I was able to carry out the t...

The NaturalBlaze.com article, "Researchers Turn Waste from Coal Power Plants into Concrete" (2019), reports that researchers from Drexel University have discovered a sustainable solution to protect the natural environment and improve the built environment by recycling coal ash. Coal ash, a harmful byproduct of coal-fired power plants, ends up abundantly in landfills each year. Concrete is one of the most popular building materials in the world but one drawback is that it requires the right atmospheric conditions to allow proper mixing and curing. The article states that by turning these waste coal ash into a special additive,  “spherical porous reactive aggregate” (SPoRA)  and adding them into the concrete while curing process, it will improve the durability and quality of the concrete (as cited in the journal “ Cement and Concrete Composites ”). By using this method, it will reduce the number of coal ash in landfills and benefits the industry. While agreeing with the met...