Effective Communication Skills for Academic and Professional Context

This report discusses effective communication skills applicable to academic and professional context, including listening, written communication, interpersonal communication, and public speaking. It also includes a reflection on individual performance and experience in education and employment.

FY026 Preparing for Success At
University: Knowledge and Creativity

Table of Contents
FY026 Preparing for Success At University: Knowledge and Creativity.......................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Effective communication skills applicable to academic and professional context......................3
Reflection.....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Preparing for success at university is very important as knowledge acquired at university
is directly linked and related to the professional life of the learner. This report will discuss some
of the skills for academic and professional context. This will be followed by reflection of
individual performance, behaviour and experience in education and employment.
MAIN BODY
Effective communication skills applicable to academic and professional context
Effective communication skills are important whether it is in academic context or in
professional context (Liberman and et.al., 2017). Communication skills which are applicable and
required in academic and professional context are-
Listening
This is element of communication and one of the skills required to make the overall
communication effective. In academic context this skill is important than any other skill this
enables students to understand what they are being taught. To understand what they are being
taught it is important that they listen carefully and consciously. In professional context listening
is important to take action and effective listening also helps in identifying assumptions, attitude
and prejudice of other person and enables individual to take action accordingly.
Written Communication skills
Written communication skills are important in academic context and as well as
professional context. Written communication skill is skill through which individual can correctly
transfer their thought to the receiver of the message in written format. In academic context
written examination which students are required to perform in suggest that these skills are
important (Riley and Simons, 2016). Effective written communication skills will enable students
to correctly transfer their knowledge regarding what they have learned in their session. Email,
latter are some of the important part of professional life of the individual and success of this
depends in the written communication skills of the individual.

Interpersonal Communication
Exchange of ideas and information on continuous basis and within group is interpersonal
communication. This is most useful in team work and in academic context this enables university
students to learn from various other sources like their peers and team members. This also enables
them to communicate with their teacher so that they are able to solve their queries and doubts in
their subject. In professional context this enables individual to communicate effectively within
team and also helps in having harmonious relations with team members which can simplify their
work. This is also known as communication within group and management communication.
Public Speaking
Public speaking involves that communication takes place in more than two people. This
is important for university students that this will remove their fear when they are required to
address more people and audience and listeners are more in number. There are various events
when university students are required to speak in public which starts from giving presentation in
front of class to speaking in an event (Abella and Cutamora, 2019). University students are most
likely to participate in the job interview and public specking will help them in giving effective
performance in front of the interview panel.
Reflection
On the basis of above discussion about communication I have had experienced that
communication skills are most important and they are only limited to my university and
academic context. Here communication skills will help to better understand what I am being
taught. This is also helpful so that I can increase the area and sources of learning through my
peers and group. These communication skills will also help me during my performance in
university events and later in my interview performance. On the basis of these communication
skills I also undertook an analysis to identify my strength and weakness. I found that listening is
my strength and there are various incidences which have happened during my lectures and other
times while communicating (Wayne, 2016). My performance in exams has been improved and
better than others as I am able to write correctly what I have listened from my teachers. Listening
skills of me have also been proved during class room interactions with my peers and with my
teachers. I also got positive feedback from my teacher about my listening skills.

Other than listening skills my written communication skills are also my strength and best
experience related to this is my written exams. Effective written skills have enabled me to get
good grades in exams. Other than this I have also participated in some of the competition based
on writing skills and I have managed to perform well in those competitions.
On the basis of communication skills I also found some of my weakness and these are public
speaking. I am not effective in public speaking and I also have fear of public speaking. The result
of this is that I could never participate in any event where I need to speak publically for example
university debate etc. Experience like this requires that I work on improving these skills
otherwise this might also impact my performance in future specifically at my workplace.
Regarding this I also experience that my performance in class presentation was not well even
after my knowledge about the topic and I need to work on this. I can improve my public
speaking by attending the workshops which help individuals to improve their public speaking.
Interpersonal and Group communication is another weakness in context of communication skills
(Chan, Yong and Harmizi, 2020). I have experienced from my observation that I am not able to
actively participate in group communication and related to this I have also received feedback that
I actively do not participate. This skill also needs to be improved as this is important for effective
team performance and team management at the workplace. There are some workshops which can
help me improve this skill and at individual level I can improve this skill by participating in
group communication at classroom level.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of above analysis and discussion about the problem it can be concluded that
communication skills are important both at academic level and at the same time at professional
level. Communication skills not only ensure effective interaction but also facilitate effective
understanding and the reflection in the report has included individual experience related to
learning and performance through communication skills.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abella, R.C. and Cutamora, J.C., 2019. APPROACH TO PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT IN AN EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION: A GROUNDED
THEORY. European Journal of Education Studies.
Chan, T.J., Yong, W.K. and Harmizi, A., 2020. Usage of WhatsApp and Interpersonal
Communication Skills among Private University Students. Journal of Arts & Social
Sciences. 3(2). pp.15-25.
Liberman, Z and et.al., 2017. Exposure to multiple languages enhances communication skills in
infancy. Developmental science. 20(1). p.e12420.
Riley, T.J. and Simons, K.A., 2016. The written communication skills that matter most for
accountants. Accounting Education. 25(3). pp.239-255.
Wayne, P.M., 2016. Strategy Instruction in the Teaching of Listening Comprehension: Using
Metacognitive, Affective, and Social Strategies to Develop Listening Skills.