{"id":18811,"date":"2022-10-06T02:46:40","date_gmt":"2022-10-06T02:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/vi\/?post_type=product&p=18811"},"modified":"2022-10-06T02:46:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T02:46:41","slug":"communication-essentials-for-college","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.booksofall.com\/vi\/communication-essentials-for-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Communication Essentials for College"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether students enter their first-year college Communications courses right out of high school or with years of work experience behind them, they often fear being doomed to repeat their high school English class, reading Shakespeare<\/a> and analyzing confusing poetry. Welcome relief comes when they discover that a course in Communications has nothing to do with either of those things. If not High School English 2.0, what is Communications all about, then?<\/p>\n

For our purposes, Communications<\/a> (yes, with a capital C and ending with an s) is essentially the practice of interacting with others in the academic world, the workplace and other professional contexts. While you are a college student, you will need to interact with scholarly sources and express your learning and ideas at an appropriate post-secondary level. When you embark on your career, absolutely every job\u2014from A to Z, accountant to Zamboni mechanic\u2014involves dealing with a variety of people all day long.
\nWhen dealing with various audiences, we adjust the way we communicate according to well-known conventions. You wouldn\u2019t talk to a professor or client the same way you would a long-time friendly co-worker. If we communicate effectively\u2014that is, clearly, concisely, coherently, correctly, and convincingly\u2014by following those conventions, we can do a better job of applying our core technical skills, whether they be in sales, the skilled trades, the service industry, health care, the arts, and so on.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to say that your high school English classes were useless; arguably the movement away from English fundamentals (grammar<\/a>, punctuation,<\/a> spelling, style, mechanics, etc.) in Canadian high schools does a disservice to students when they get into their careers. There they soon realize that stakeholders\u2014customers, managers, co-workers, etc.\u2014tend to judge the quality of a person\u2019s general competence by the quality of their writing (if that\u2019s all they have to go on) and speaking. The topic of Communications, then, includes aspects of the traditional English class curriculum, at least in terms of the basics of English writing<\/a> and critical thought. But the emphasis always returns to what is practical and necessary for succeeding in the modern workplace\u2014wherever that is\u2014not simply what is \u201cgood for you\u201d in the abstract just because someone says it is.<\/p>\n

If you feel that you are a weak writer but an excellent speaker or vice versa, rest assured that weaknesses and strengths in different areas of the communication spectrum<\/a> don\u2019t necessarily mean that you will always be good or bad at communication in general. Weaknesses can and should be improved upon, strengths built upon. It\u2019s important to recognize that we have more communication channels available to us than ever before, which means that the communication spectrum\u2014from oral to written to nonverbal channels\u2014is broader than ever. Competence across that spectrum is no longer just a \u201cnice to have\u201d asset sought by employers, but essential to career success.<\/p>\n

Communication Skills Desired by Employers<\/h3>\n

If there\u2019s a shorthand reason for why you need communication skills to complement your technical skills, it\u2019s that you don\u2019t get paid without them. You need communication and \u201csoft\u201d skills to get work and keep working so that people continue to want to employ you to apply your core technical skills. A diverse skill set that includes communication is really the key to survival in the modern workforce, and hiring trends bear this out.<\/p>\n

In its Employability Skills, the Conference Board of Canada lists \u201cthe skills you need to enter, stay in, and\u00a0progress\u201d in the 21st century workplace. The first category listed is communication skills, specifically how to:<\/p>\n