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Goal 3: Demonstrate Excellence in Verbal and Written Communication.
Goal 3: Demonstrate Excellence in Verbal and Written Communication.
As an English education major, I feel uniquely equipped to talk about the importance of communication. It is, after all, my chosen field of study and my chosen profession. At its heart, English education is all about teaching students how to receive written communication through reading and how to produce written communication through writing. That is what it has always been about. On top of those basics of reading and writing is verbal communication. Most of the content that I teach students is delivered verbally; only sometimes is it delivered with the aid of a visual or a handout. My primary teaching mode is conversation. Verbal communication is not only for teachers, however; it is also for students. Students ask questions verbally and learn how to speak and interact with peers respectfully. In essence, this goal is truly at the heart of everything I do as a teacher, but more broadly, it is at the heart of what all honors students do over the course of the program. One’s success as an honors student hinges totally on one’s ability to communicate effectively.
Outcome 1: Verbally present ideas logically and effectively.
Outcome 1: Verbally present ideas logically and effectively.
The first outcome of this third goal is focused on the verbal aspect of communication. Once I learned what this outcome was going to be, I knew that I would be choosing to demonstrate it with my presentation from HON 250, the Foundations of Leadership. My partner and I researched the ethical dilemma surrounding physician-assisted suicide, also known as human euthanasia, and presented our findings to our peers with the aid of a document of notes and Google slides. My partner for this project and I had been very close friends for quite some time, which I feel is a factor in why this particular presentation went well. Because we knew each other so well, we were able to communicate effectively with each other nonverbally, which made verbally delivering our information much easier. We were able to smoothly transition between each other's speaking and cover each other's gaps without losing our flow. We also spent quite a bit of time preparing for our presentation, planning what we would say, in what order we’d say it, and who would say what. Both our familiarity with one another and our time planning contributed to the success of the presentation and my decision to include it as an example of effective verbal communication.
EUTHANASIA .jpgOutcome 2: Present ideas logically and effectively in writing.
Outcome 2: Present ideas logically and effectively in writing.
The second outcome of the third goal deals with the other side of the communication coin: written communication. This aspect of communication is absolutely in my wheelhouse. The challenge for me with this outcome is choosing something from an honors course that I think is a good example of my writing. To be truthful, I don’t think anything I’ve written for an honors course is a candidate to show my writing skill. What I feel could be chosen as my best work lies within English coursework. Nevertheless, those artifacts are not eligible for this assignment, so I have to be willing to concede some things. From what artifacts I have saved, I feel that my paper on Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi is my strongest example of writing from the honors program. I wrote this paper in the spring semester of 2018, and I’ve learned and grown immensely as a writer since then. Perhaps its inclusion can serve as proof of my learning when compared against the writing in this portfolio. Regardless, this piece demonstrates my skill in written communication by showing my ability to create and support a thesis. It also shows my ability to develop and explain a larger idea within the confines of the written word, in this case, the connection between Moody’s book and ideas from a separate, unrelated course.
Anne Moody paper.docxI do not feel the need to parse out the importance of communication into complicated terms. Skills in both verbal and written communication are necessary tools that all students need in order to excel academically, no matter the field of study. However, with the rise of access to and quality of technology, students and teachers have had to rethink the way we approach communication, reading, and writing to incorporate what’s academically known as new media. This means building presentations using electronic slides with images and links embedded on them, creating podcasts to show to peers, using videos from the internet to learn about new concepts, and even using electronic textbooks which encourage students to interact with the words themselves. Communication mediums are ever broadening, and with them, so is our ability to interpret new forms of media. However, that does not take importance away from the simple acts of written and verbal communication. As the foundation of our understanding of communication, it is essential that this goal and these outcomes be met by honors students.
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