Communication Skills

The official statement of this goal as one of the "six tools" is strong communication skills, including oral, written, listening, comprehension, and understanding of audience (peers and authorities).

My Interpretation

You could be the smartest person alive, but without the ability to communicate, come off looking like the dumbest. Communication is a crucial skill for engineers, and sometimes one that we regrettably ignore. (This is how we have come to the stereotype of the computer geeks who hide indoors all day and mumble at the floor!)

Effective engineers are effective communicators. They must not only understand what they are doing, but be able to explain it to others in ways that make sense to everyone.

My Evidence

Teaching and Presentation Records

I have taught or co-taught a number of courses, and given a number of presentations at national conferences. My ability to communicate my work is extremely important, as I am responsible for helping a large number of people to learn!

I have written a number of Learning Center documents for the First-Year Engineering course, explaining how to use LabVIEW. I must be effective at communication in order to be understood by my peers and students!

Assessment of Strengths and Weaknesses

I believe that my communication skills are quite strong. I am able to both write and speak effectively in a wide variety of situations.

My biggest weakness is currently in ad-libbing; I tend to ramble and get very nervous if I haven't given enough time and thought to something, and I don't want my courses to be rehearsed!

Goals and Plans

Short-term goals: Seek feedback on written communication skills present in e-portfolio; complete instruction of this semester's courses.

Medium-term goal: Get more practice in social and teaching situations outside my current "comfort zone."

Long-term goal: Finish writing and publish that novel I've been working on.

Notes for CBE 20255 students:

This is probably one area in which you have some abilities and artifacts already. However, it's not enough to just post a paper or presentation and say "this shows I'm a good communicator." That... doesn't communicate much to the reader.