Running head: LEARNING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Communication Is Key LBAR-499-01-Dr. Sean Kottke The Robert B. Miller College Lori A. Shive February 11, 2014

LEARNING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION Communication Is Key Learning to communicate effective can be challenging. Many components are required in order to produce effective communication. The Miller College mission commits a high standard of learning communication, both orally and written. It is evident one must possess the ability to communicate for numerous reasons; however, the mission is clearly designed to prepare students for their careers by teaching them how to communicate effectively and

professionally. The idea of communication is to convey a message, which could be described as teaching the message. Communication only works when both sender and receiver can understand and learn the purpose of the message. At Miller College I have learned to communicate quite effectively through my writing and my presentations. One example of my growth in communication is from the artifact from my Presentation Design and Delivery class, instructed by Dr. Rasmussen. The whole purpose of the presentation was to show the audience my strengths and challenges as a presenter. The class was designed to teach how to give effective presentations, which is a huge demand in the work place today. The only way to be a good presenter is to be a good communicator. Presentations involve the oral part of communication and the body language. In order to deliver an effective presentation, designing and writing is a must during preparation. The artifact I chose was a presentation about a philosophical concept. Trying to communicate a concept is a challenge in itself, which by my choice to challenge myself is showing growth in communication. I picked an interesting quote by Eric Berne. The quote stated The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a Jay and which is a Sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing. The purpose of the assignment was to teach the audience how to do something or learn something, and I chose to challenge myself and the audience responded quite well. I ended up being the only student out of 30 plus students who chose to tackle the concept idea versus a process. When I first started at

LEARNING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION Miller College I would have chosen a process because it would be easier to describe a process rather than a theory. Surprisingly, the artifact was not my highest grade but it did reflect my growth in communicating. I used Power Point and embedded a very powerful video to better capture the purpose of the presentation, by utilizing the video it was a powerful communication tool. Overall, the presentation class, itself as a whole, taught me to better communicate and I increased my writing to communicate better as well. An artifact which represents growth in my writing in order to communicate my idea displays in the artifact for Advanced Composition. The artifact chosen was the titled Death Is Always Neigh. This assignment was designed to teach students how to analyze other peoples

writing. The writing we analyzed was by Edgar A. Poe. I was not familiar with his works at all, in fact, I felt almost dumbfounded. I managed to figure out the message Poe was trying to make and produced a well written analysis. I had to re-read and look up words and use many skills just to figure out what the writings meant. I was very challenged with this assignment; however, I managed to get 20 out of 20. I used brainstorming, outlines, pre- writing, and pre-organized the entire paper. This is a great example in my growth with writing. Overall, my growth in communication is quite evident. One example would be when I requested in writing for the online class to open up again for Research Methods. Somehow the class became availablepossibly due to my written request. I am pleased with my growth in communication skills here at Miller College and look forward to continuing my growth in my career.

LEARNING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION Reference (artifacts) Advanced Composition\Death Is Always Neigh.docx Lori's flash drive\Always Keep Yours Eyes and Mind Open.pptx