To me, effective communication is crucial at every stage of our life. Be it when you are just a baby making ‘baby noises’ to get your demands answered, or when you have just started schooling and having to make new friends, having to face the whole class to give a presentation, and not to mention, when you advance into the working world. However, this essential skill does not come easily to many people, and it is a skill that requires practice. I am, sadly, such a person with this lack of skill.
I am a person who is stronger in the written aspect of communication rather than the oral, which is unfortunately, also essential and critical when I advance into the working world in a few months time. Excellent communication skills are, undoubtedly, the golden criteria that employers look for. It is time I do something about it, which is why I considered taking this module.=P
Whenever the focus of attention is on me speaking, I am always unable to express my thoughts clearly and coherently. For example, when I am trying to relate a story to my friends, even though I have the gist of the story and how it goes in my head, I often find myself blabbering the story in all the wrong sequences, leaving them with a big question mark in their head and a ‘huh?’ from their mouth.
Many unwanted quarrels can and would be prevented if thoughts are effectively relayed across. I believe there are some out there who, like me, have experienced this: family quarrels. We all can seem to communicate perfectly well to our friends, getting out intended message across, and getting the response we want. However when it comes to family, there always seem to be a communication breakdown somewhere, somehow. Effective communication starts with understanding what the message is, knowing the target audience and how they will perceive the message and to weigh the circumstances surrounding communication such as situational context. Somehow, in the course of the quarrel, all these seem to fail. We fail to understand how the other will perceive the message and to weigh the circumstances (which probably result in a more escalated quarrel), and fail to send a clear, organised, error-free message. I believe none of us wants to quarrel, needless to say with your kin. They are the closest and the dearest to you and quarrelling with them will only bring sorrows and strained relationships. By being able to communicate effectively, we can minimize the number of miscommunications and quarrels, and of course improve family relationships, with all those unwanted quarrels to hurt it.
As I have found in this module, organisation is important as it is supposed to create a pattern for the audience, allowing them to grasp the whole picture clearly and focus on the details, without struggling to understand how you go from one point to another. Failure to understand how the target audience perceive the message will lead to the intended message getting distorted and eventually communication breakdown. Effective communication is only successful if both the sender and receiver understand the same information
Hopefully, by the end of this module, I will be able to improve on my communications skills to get my message across effectively to prevent anymore strained relationships as a result of miscommunication and to be able to use it to climb up the corporate ladder in the future (coupled with other deciding factors of course)
An interesting post. I think our first impression to the employers is created when we send job application letter, so I think written communication is as important as spoken communication.
ReplyDeleteI also don't want to quarrel with people due to communication breakdown, but somehow I've never been able to avoid quarrels... They say silence is gold, but keeping mouth shut won't help a thing as well...
Nice post.
ReplyDeleteI like the comic illustrations. It contrasts with all the technical details you have mentioned in the post. Seems like you already know what it takes to be an effective communicator.
So, I guesss that only leaves the practise part isn't it? Effective communication, especially the oral sort, requires practise. With the peer teaching and the oral presentation, I expect that you would have a reasonable amount of practise with this module, ES2007S, to build up your confidence.
Anyway, if you are one of the Honour's year students in the class, I suppose you would have even more practise when you are presenting your FYP, right?
By the way, good luck for your FYP.
Hey Angelina,
ReplyDeleteLOL! That is a very creative post! Who would have thought of putting comics in to illustrate the importance of effective communication? Haha...=D
What you said is true. Many unwanted quarrels could have been prevented if only both parties had communicated in a better way. Not only in families, but when working with other people, it is frustrating when there is a communication breakdown.
Also, I know what you mean by not being able to deliver something verbally although you know the facts and the gist of things. In fact, I think I could give a good speech in my head, but somehow, sometimes the words get stuck and I start blabbering in all directions. That certainly doesn't feel very good, does it? Maybe that is why we are all here =)
I agree with Jin. If your cover letter and resume is not attractive enough you will not even be called up for interview.
ReplyDeleteI think what you described in your post is especially relevant to everyone. It seems like people tend to forget the principles of effective communication when they are interacting with their kin. I tend to do that too. When my temper flares, harsh words come out sub-consciously and I will regret it after that.
I too hope that after this module I would be able to put the skills learnt into practice.
I agree that communication just seems to fail in the family. We tend to take each other for granted and fare up easily causing unnecessary conflicts that we will often regret. On the other hand, when we talk to our friends, we would often be more aware of what we say. Lets make an extra effort and try to extend what we do to our friends, to our family members...=)
ReplyDeleteLastly, I like the comic strips you have include.