Reflection on Experience in ENG 2003       

 

             My experience in ENG 2003 was very positive, it really helped build my communication skills and illustrate to me how communication is a life long learning skill in that there will always be a new way you need to learn to communicate. For instance, as technology advances or new formats are adapted for reports there may be new ways of presenting information which will require me to continue to work on my communication skills and adapt them. An example of this is creating a brochure to explain a technical concept, this was a new concept to me. This seemed very odd compared to the previous work I have done; however, once I completed the brochure for a technical and non-technical audience; I was able to appreciate the value in creating brochures and their ability to help disseminate information in a unique manner which includes using images. This is just one example of how the course allowed me to broaden my horizons when it comes to communication. It was quite beneficial and helped me gain a lot of valuable knowledge. It was also a course that I truly believe will help me long-term, it is something I can refer back to when I am attempting to provide technical information clearly and create technical documents. Through this course, I have become a strong believer of the notion that communication is about being clear, knowing what you want to express, and being adaptable rather than just conveying facts. 

 

              Upon registering in this course, I had assumed that the course would only focus on writing techniques; however, it covered a lot more content and breadth than just that. I gained knowledge on how to interact with others, make effective presentations, appropriately translate information and utilize the resources available to us to spread our message. This course taught me that communication is about being clear, knowing what you want to articulate and being adaptable rather than just conveying facts. It definitely exceeded my expectations and allowed me to learn how to be mindful of communicating engineering concepts to a variety of audiences and in forms outside of written ones as well. 

 

              Personally, the most useful aspect of the course was learning the 7 C’s of communications. This in particular was helpful because ever since I have learned this, I have been able to see how this structure applies to all forms of communication. Formal, informal, visual, coding and verbal communication because all of these require us to have clarity, be concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and communicate with courtesy. This theory is fundamental in allowing me to evaluate and improve my work. In earlier assignments, for example, my writing tended to be overly detailed and unclear at times. However, by keeping this in mind, I have learned to eliminate non-essential information and present ideas clearly and directly. The assignment that forced me to do so was the technical report. With the peer-feedback, I received that my feedback all directly related to the 7 C’s concept of consciousness and clarity. This served as a key learning point that using this simple theory could help improve my writing and ensure precision and readability are integrated into all my communication. 

 

             The most interesting part of this course for me was allowing me to take time to reflect on my own communication skills as a future engineer and be able to work on those experiences. For instance, I get nervous when interviewing however by applying the concepts learned in this class I was able to overcome my nerves. The particular concept that encouraged me to get over my nerves was learning about the axioms of communication, the notion that you are constantly speaking. This got me thinking about how my demeanour, tone and silence may convey the wrong message when I am nervous and gave me the encouragement I needed to get over my nerves. I am immensely grateful to this course for allowing me to understand the non-verbal cues and their influence, encouraging me to face my fears.
 

Reflection on Growth and Development as a Communicator
 

              Prior to taking the ENG 203 course, I often struggled to avoid scientific jargon and when I would try to remove it would often become overly simplified. However, creating a poster for two different audiences really highlighted to me how to target and arrange my ideas for a specific idea. This is one example of how this course and the concepts learned through this course like 7Cs helped me narrow down how to effectively communicate to these different audiences. I can confidently say this course has helped me better explain concepts learned in class even to my family members and younger cousins as they have now started to tell me that I describe my complex tasks very coherently and comprehensively to them.
 

              I would say my communication skills have improved both orally and writing. Through my writing, I have made significant progress. I can clearly use headings, outline a clear purpose, stick to the point, base my content in facts, ensure grammar and spelling, taking in mind the audience, and ensuring information is complete. For example, I was writing an article for a blog and I was able to concentrate on clarifying my explanations and ensuring that every component of the 7C’s was addressed.  My presentation skills have also improved. Previously, I used to use my notes a lot since I would be nervous. However, ever since learning about the axioms of communication, I have improved my ability to maintain eye contact, engage my audience and I have noticed that it has helped keep my audience engaged. This was reflected in my end of term presentation for one of the courses I took this semester. 

A few areas of improvement for me are learning to quickly adapt my communication style particularly in group chats. Despite being organized in my communication, I find it difficult to speak up on my own when I am under pressure. However, I have started to combine both the 7C’s and axioms to help me deal with this pressure. By ensuring concise, concrete and correct communication integrated with axiom 2 of maintaining relationships and axiom 5 of symmetric and complementary. This has truly helped me improve my communication at work with my co-workers at Code Ninja and lead a new quality improvement project for the kids.
 

             My future approach to engineering has shifted to have communication at the core. I’ll pay more attention to how I express my ideas rather than just communicating specifics. I will recognize the structure and audience of my work to improve comprehension which are all essential for teamwork, client communication and document authorship.