Developing Strong Communication Skills

Communication skills connect directly to the 21st century skills and the skills most desired by employers. With a little thought you can develop and gather evidence on your eportfolio to demonstrate these skills. Read the three basic questions below. After you've looked through the prompts below the questions, you might write a paragraph in your eportfolio journal on your plans to improve your communications skills or summarize those plans on your Initial Thoughts page.

1. What are your strengths in communication?

2. What needs to be improved?

3. By the end of the semester what evidence might you add to your eportfolio to demonstrate your growing communication skills?

Use the prompts below to help you make your plans:
1. ND communication survival skills:
(These skills demonstrate evidence of organizational skills, the ability to pay attention to detail, and general competence)

Do you know how to manage your email so that you read all the important emails?
Do you know how to use InsideND to look up your schedule, etc.?
Do you know how to communicate with advisors, professors, rectors?
Do you know how to find phone numbers and office numbers online?
Do you know how to use the ND library research web page?
Do you know how to write a formal letter (to request a recommendation, for example)?

2. Verbal skills:
(These skills demonstrate leadership skills, logical thinking, and the like.)
Are you reasonably comfortable talking with your professors?
Are you reasonably comfortable giving in-class presentations?
Are you reasonably comfortable leading or organizing groups?
Have you ever been asked to give a speech, to tutor, or to teach?
Are you good at communicating one-to-one with others?
Do you feel reasonably comfortable talking with people who aren't from the same ethnic group, religious background, social or economic group?
Do people generally find you verbally persuasive?

3. Writing skills:
(These skills demonstrate logical thinking, weighing of evidence, and the like.)
Do you feel comfortable with your grammar when you are writing a formal essay?
Are you comfortable with your essay writing skills in general?
Have you written an essay you might add to your eportfolio as evidence of your writing skills?
Do you have any presentations that might show these skills?

4. Research skills:
Do you know how to look up books and articles in the ND libraries and in reliable web sources?
Do you know how to paraphrase and quote from paper and web-based sources?
Have you written a paper you might add to your eportfolio as evidence for this skill?

5. Languages:
Do you read or speak or sign another language?

6. Computer skills:
What are your computer skills? Can you use Excel, Google Apps, Photoshop, PowerPoint, etc.?
Can you put together a good PowerPoint or multi-media presentation?
Do you have any web presentations that might demonstrate this?