Communicating Powerfully

My Understanding

In my opinion, Communicating Powerfully means expressing yourself in a way that makes others understand you and your message. There are many ways to express, such as through performances, pieces of writing, and music/songs. However, you should always choose the medium that best suits your audience to further show your message. For example, if your intended audience was a group of performers, perhaps a performance may be the best medium since they will be able to interpret your message much easier than if you performed for a group of writers. 

When you are Communicating Powerfully, it is important to show that you have been listening to your audience along with everyone else who has given you feedback. Feedback is very important because when you use it, you can make your work better. Having a fresh set of eyes can help you because they can notice mistakes or anything else that you may have missed. A time this happened was in my ELA class on multiple accounts. I would write a story, but accidentally type the same word twice in a row without even noticing it! I would write, for example, “I like to play play soccer” and not even notice the mistake. When my peer partner went over my work, they pointed out the problem and I fixed it. 

My Growth

When I first heard of Communicating Powerfully, I thought it just meant talking in a powerful, loud voice when giving a speech. I didn’t yet understand how detailed this Sustainability Skill is. Now I know that Communicating Powerfully covers any sort of medium as long as you are trying to tell/show a message. When writing, you have to use many narrative techniques and detail. A well-written essay or story will help the reader understand your message much easier than if you wrote a bland, low-quality one. I also learned that you have to know your audience and listen to them and your peers for feedback. 

In the future, one way I can continue to grow in this skill is by playing soccer. In soccer, I can call for the ball more, but Communicating Powerfully is much more than just talking. I can show my teammates that I want the ball by moving into the open space, getting away from my opponent, or gesturing where I want the ball (most of the time in front of me). If they haven't seen me by this point, then I call for the ball. I can also let my teammates know my intentions with the ball with the way I position my body. If I am still facing my teammate, for example, she should be ready for me to pass the ball back to her. The angle I take concerning the ball speaks volumes! Lastly, I can point to teammates who are open or opponents who should be marked. It is very important that talking is not all I do. It is useful when playing soccer, but I will not be using Communicating Powerfully to its full potential if I only talk.  

Exemplary Project

An exemplary project that helped my understanding of Communicating Powerfully is my 8th grade Fiction Narrative story for the ELA class Story of Me. This is a multi-aged class, and the first step we took to complete this project was to figure out our core values. We did this by creating a slideshow explaining two of the values that we think are the most important; I chose friendship and trust. 

We hope that once we know what our core values were, we would have a small idea about what we want our story’s purpose to be. The next step was to find our inspiration. What were we going to write our story about? I wanted to write something rather depressing, not because I'm depressed but because I wanted to write something a bit different from what I usually write. Usually, I write about cats and soccer, but those are generally happy/not sad topics, and I wanted to experience writing something new. So I decided to have my story be about a teenager who loses her dad and becomes depressed. She eventually decides to commit suicide, but at the last moment (SPOILER ALERT) she saves herself and survives. 

I then went on to complete my outline, where I would find the basic “points” that my story would hit. For example, some of my points were to have the father die in a car accident and the main character saving herself at the end. 

After this, I started to write my first draft, but this is where I made a mistake. I spent way too much time on this phase and treated it as if it was my final draft. I added too much detail in some spots and overthunk others. Eventually, though, I finished and started revising. 

My peer review partners were my friends, and they gave me lots of feedback. Some of the things they recommended were to make my climax a bit more realistic (since some parts were a bit weird) and have my ending be a bit deeper so as to express my message/core value more. 

After peer reviewing, I edited my piece to make it better and polished it up (so I just fixed some more spelling/grammar errors). Once I finished this step, I was done with my story. 

However, I was not yet done with the project. My final step was to make a presentation explaining my story, the process, GQ’s, and more. Below is a photo of my Guiding Questions page. 

Connection to Communicating Powerfully

This project connects to Communicating Powerfully because I had to tell my character’s story in a way that makes my audience understand the message. I had to use words appropriate for my audience and made sure to not make my story too depressing or light because that would just negatively change it. I partially write from experience (just to show that my character is sad, not the attempted suicide part) because like my main character lost her dad, I lost my great uncle in 2020, and I still miss him today. 

I tried to express my message mainly towards the end of my story when my character decided to save herself and not commit suicide. When she pulled herself onto the deck at the end, the thoughts going through her head were supposed to show how much she had grown and how strong she was, on both the inside and outside. I also expressed my message/core value in my title, Bouncing Back. My core value (I changed it in the beginning) was perseverance, or always being able to bounce back from bad experiences. 

Without all the feedback I was given by my peers and teachers, I would have written my story in a way that neither expresses my message nor hooks the reader; it would have been chaotic and all over the place. I was constantly getting feedback and editing my piece to make it better and better, and that is the reason it looks neat and organized today.