Human beings are one of the many different types of social
animals that exist in the world. Other species include wolf, dolphin, fishes,
etc. The way to communicate between different species vary largely, from the
loud chilling howl between a wolf pack to the inaudible ultrasonic wave by the
dolphins to the communicative chemical secreted by ants and bees in the insect
world. To remove the notion of communication is to render the breakdown of the
function of group living. Among the human race, communication comes in many
forms, verbal versus non-verbal communication or effective versus ineffective
communication. In my opinion, the important aspect of communication is not
about what information is being passed on but rather, how it is being passed on,
and how it is received by the recipient. That is what we define as effective
communication.
Communication is not just about verbally saying out
information to another person. It involves body language, tones, eye contact
and, most importantly, listening. Yes, you heard me right. Listening is an
important aspect of effective communication as well. To communicate effectively
is to impart information accurately and for that to happen, the first step is
to listen and make sure that we receive the information correctly. We are
living in a world where we are all connected in a large inter-connected web.
Rarely are there new information being generated. Most of the time, information
is passed from person to person, like how vibration occurs in a large web.
Without listening, we will just be passing on inaccurate information every time
we open out mouth, and if that is the case, are we not just wasting our and the
recipient’s time?
Personally, effective communication is important in
situations such as presentations. As a final year student, I am required to
work on my final year project, and present my research and findings to my examiner
at the end of the year. Hence, effective communication is extremely important
for me to convey the vast amount of information in the short period of time
given. Also, since I will be stepping into the corporate world soon, I will
expect myself to have to bring across and sell ideas to my colleagues or
clients often. Thus, good presentation skills, and hence effective
communication, are also needed.
These are just 2 examples of situations where I find
effective communication very important. I truly feel that communication is an
important skill, which is why I’ve chosen to take this module! (:
(sorry for the late post guys!)
Got to agree that listening is indeed one of the most important aspects of effective communication- if I'm sending a message but the receiver isn't paying attention to what I'm saying, I'm just having a monologue by myself and communication breaks down, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good luck for your FYP presentations and when you enter the workforce!! Do remember to apply the many soft skills you will learn (:
Baowen
Hi Samantha, I like the way you started off your first paragraph, it was really interesting and got me to continue reading the rest of your blog post. I definitely agree with you that listening is important for effective communication to take place. The part where you mentioned that “we are all connected in a large inter-connected web” and “rarely are there new information being generated” gave me a new enlightenment of the content of my daily conversations, the sort of messages and information I am communicating to others. I agree that most of the time, the information that we pass from one person to another is repetitive. However, I would like to raise a question. If the same repetitive information is being passed from time to time, we actually don’t need very good listeners and effective communicators to pass those information. Everyone has heard the intended message umpteen times and I believe people will tend to skip the details and assume that other party gets the intended message naturally without speaking and attentive listening. This is something I was pondering about when I was reading your paragraph about listening.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you have very practical illustrations about how effective communication is important during presentations. Let us learn more communication skills from this module and I hope that we will all become effective communicators by the end of the module :)
Sharlene :)
Hey Sharlene, what I feel is that although the same repetitive information is being passed, the way we present the information to the recipient allows the recipient to know what we feel about this piece of information. For example, "OH MY GOD! The movie Les Miserables is finally out!!!" versus "The movie Les Miserables is finally out." On the surface, the same information is being passed on - that the movie Les Miserables is now showing in the theaters. However, if we pay attention to the way the message is being carried across, we will be able to obtain other information as well, such as the feelings of the messenger. ("OH MY GOD! The movie Les Miserables is finally out!!!" probably indicates that the person is interested in the movie, whereas "The movie Les Miserables is finally out." will indicate that the person is disinterested in the show.) Good listeners will still be needed to be able to pick up these hidden messages! Thus, effective communication is still very important! (:
DeleteLike Sharlene, I really like the way you started this post. Although for a second I felt you were stating the obvious, as you mentioned chemical secretions by insects I thought here we have a real scientist overviewing effective comm skills! This sentence also resonated with me:
ReplyDelete"To remove the notion of communication is to render the breakdown of the function of group living."
How true!
And I like this as you connect it to vibrations:
" We are living in a world where we are all connected in a large inter-connected web."
In contrast, I find the dichotomy apparent in this phrase false: "... verbal versus non-verbal communication..."
Versus?
I know what you mean to say, but this doesn't say it. Can you explain why?
Finally, I appreciate the way you zoom in on your FYP and the needs related to that. I do hope the module serves you well.
A couple minor language problems:
a) The way to communicate between different species vary largely... >>> The way to communicate between different species varies.....
b) Rarely are there new information being generated. >>> ?
Thanks for the effort, Samantha!
Hey Brad,
DeleteI think I understand what you mean. When I mentioned that communication comes in many forms, I should be listing the various forms of communication instead of contrasting them. "Versus" should be used when comparing two objects. Is that right?
Thanks for pointing out the mistakes!