#1 Effective Communication Skills

What I anticipate from ES2007S

By the looks of it, it's indeed a very comprehensive course packed with several topics which give us insight not only into our future professional lives but also shed light on the preparatory steps prior to it. I think an overview of this course would be done best by splitting it up into 4 sub-categories:

1. Fundamentals of Communication
   This section lays down the scaffolding of the entire course. We'll learn about the breakdown on what communication really is, the importance of listening, story-telling and questioning effectively, how to facilitate intercultural communication, all about nonverbal communication and how to foster interpersonal communication.
2. Position Search
   This section deals with the job-searching and job interview process with regards to the actual scenarios and the necessary preparations in advance. We'll learn about how to search for a suitable job, how to write effective resume and cover letters, how to prepare for and perform at job interviews and also about effective personal branding.
3. Project Communication
   This section concerns skills related to project work. We'll learn about how to write a good proposal, the necessary steps to conduct effective meetings, the employment of collaborative work platforms, data analysis and results presentation skills and how to give an effective oral presentation.
   
4. Written Communication
   This section covers important skills that can be applied in our written interaction with others in the workplace. We'll learn about the 7 C's in writing, how to produce effective business letters, e-mails and other business writings and how to construct bad and good news messages.

That's a lot of ground to cover!!! It's amazing how many skills we can expect to take away from this course, all of which are sure to be relevant not only in our future careers but are also applicable to our personal interaction with people outside the workplace.

Why effective communication skills are important for me

In my opinion, one who has effective communication skills has the ability to express one’s thoughts and articulate one’s ideas in a manner that is easily understood by the receiving party while remaining appropriate and sensitive. My personal contention is that the main importance of effective communication lies in its fulfillment of a fundamentally human desire to express ourselves and be understood, be it in a professional or personal context.  I hope to experience more often that boost in self-confidence when people acknowledge that they have grasped the message that I had hoped to convey from the first go.  From a social point of view, I believe such skills are important as they will help me expand my social network by forging better relations with people comfortably, ranging from acquaintances to close friends. Not only will widespread social connections undoubtedly come in handy in my career but getting to know people from varied walks of life would also be value-adding, perhaps even exciting, to my life in general.  In terms of career life, equipping myself with effective communication skills is vital to ensure that I am in the best position to clinch my desired job and upon employment, maximize my value to my organization by cooperating and interacting well with both my colleagues and clients. This includes being able to pitch an idea or verbalize my opinions clearly in an oral presentation or a staff meeting. Let's not forget that effective communication does not only involve self-initiated interactions. I feel that effective communication is essential also because it will allow me to internalize information relayed by others, both explicit and implicit, which depending on context, can help me to acquire knowledge, strengthen relationships or align my job performance with my organization’s objectives.

A Hopeful Transmission

I can't figure out where the little excerpt that we went through in class on Monday came from. I'm referring to the short paragraph in which the author claimed that communication was an art, not a science. The reason I brought this up is that this exercise got me thinking outside of the main objective of the exercise. Seeing how other classmates had picked up on the debatable nature of the author's opinion made me ponder over why the thought to challenge the author's opinion had not occurred to me at all.


This came just days after I had attended an ethics module for engineering students in which the lecturer lamented that engineers often do not have a mind of their own outside following instructions, to which I responded with violent objections in my head. Of course the ethics lecturer had been talking about things on a much bigger scale such as the implications of blindly following instructions ultimately leading to human casualties but it certainly made me realise the importance of actively thinking on top of following directions. I thought about how long it has been since I've been academically engaged in something that required me to have an opinion and exercise it.


Perhaps the last times would have been a critical writing course for engineers back in year 1 sem 1 and prior to that, GP in JC but come to think of it, even then, there were certain cues that limited the open-endedness of every question from which I could systematically approach a question and tackle it according to a certain format. In short, the little exercise on Monday made me realise how different a module ES2007S is from anything I've done in a long time. No formulae to digest, definitions/laws to memorise. No answer key. No rigidly structured correct answers.

It's a refreshing change but at the same time, in a lot of ways, this module is forcing me to step out of my comfort zone and into somewhere that makes the introvert that I am feel awkward and contrived. Yes, I do have opinions and I do like to share them but the context in which I am comfortable with sharing them is in a one-to-one basis or via a faceless portal (e.g. blogging here now) and so presentations, however brief, freak me out. When I think presentations, I think about my many bad experiences with them. Most presentations are rehearsed in my head from days before the presentation itself but for some reason on the presentation day itself, I manage to spaz out such that I come across as someone who free-rode for the entire project.

However, the fact of the matter is that presentations/interviews/nerve-wrecking situations are part and parcel of working life and so I'm embarking on this journey hoping to improve myself and I know that's going to require me taking the metaphorical bull by its horns. So here goes...

Fight Test

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