Personal Communication Skills

Personal Communication Skills
Dian Powell
Comm/102

The process of communication means a great deal to me. It is the livelihood of almost every moment of every day of my life. I not only communicate during my time with my family, but I also communicate with individuals all throughout my day at work. I have a key role at my job of trying to be the best communicator I am able to be. One part of my job is to be in charge of the customer service department, and this part of my position puts me in the hot seat for being able to communicate with people. I agree with the statement that “studying communication can help you succeed professionally.” (author’s last names, year published, pg. 8***use “p. 8” for indicating page numbers per APA format.) I have done so much studying of communication that I feel I am almost too secure in my own abilities.***need a thesis and signpost/transition sentence to focus the reader.**** When speaking with others, I am able to notice when a person is having different emotions while speaking to me. It is to my advantage to try to calm someone if they are upset with something, or to comfort them when they are unsure if a task got completed correctly in their home. Without having the necessary communication skills to assist me, this could be a difficult accomplishment. I feel that I am good at most verbal communication, although I tend to hesitate to speak with someone that is being verbally abusive to me. This is a point when my communication skills come to a halt. It tends to be a situation I do not handle well. I also do well with grammar, there is room for improvement at all times however. I am not the type of person to use too much slang, profanity, jargon or street language. I like to make what I am trying to say to someone as clear as possible, so that there is little room error. This can lead to arguments and other situations that are usually not necessary. My vocabulary is something that I can always expand on. I do not have a small vocabulary, but I do feel that this is an area that is a small weakness for me. When looking upon my non verbal communication skills, I have to think pretty hard about it. I am the type of person that does like to use body expression and use my hands while speaking. I consider myself an average female when I look in the mirror, therefore to say that bodily appearance is something I use to help myself communicate, I do not think it is needed. I do feel that having a sense of pride and believing in me is something that is essential in non verbal communication, as well as verbal communication. I do feel that one of the biggest non verbal weaknesses that I have is that I do not have a good self esteem. I also have had many people tell me that my facial expressions can almost always lead someone to think that I am angry most of the time. I am the type of person that does not mind too much about sharing my personal space; I tend to like being near others. I do however, have a fear of never having enough time to communicate something important to someone else and often find myself rushing through things.
I tend to think that I am sometimes not capable of doing things or saying things that is usually quite simple. This would probably be one of the biggest areas of improvement that I would like to take care of. I feel that I also seem to put down my writing abilities, when I am really not too bad. The third issue of communication that I would like to see improvement on is my ability to not become so irritable at something that I do not understand clearly. I would like to be able to take my time when listening to things that do not always interest me; this will enable me to become a little more aware of other things that happen around me.
Communication is a subject that I like to discuss, because I feel comfortable about my abilities most of the time. I have found through the little reading that I have done that there is more to the subject than I thought originally. I am looking forward to my future readings and really want to learn more about how all others in society, as well as myself, can communicate in many different ways.

References
Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth & Harter, (2003) Human Communication: Fundamentals of Communication Study, Chapter 1, pg. 8

***indent the second line per APA format. See page 397 in your Little Brown Compact Handbook. Here is what the reference should look like:
Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth, & Harter. (2003). Human Communication: Fundatmentals of communication study. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved November 15, 2004, from
ProQuest Direct database.

References: Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth & Harter, (2003) Human Communication: Fundamentals of Communication Study, Chapter 1, pg. 8 ***indent the second line per APA format. See page 397 in your Little Brown Compact Handbook. Here is what the reference should look like: Pearson, Nelson, Titsworth, & Harter. (2003). Human Communication: Fundatmentals of communication study. McGraw-Hill. Retrieved November 15, 2004, from ProQuest Direct database.