Communication Skills in Journalism - Essay Example

? Communication Skills Learning the art of excellent communication skills, we use language to communicate in the day to day activities to conduct business, to relate well with the loved ones, and in anything that we do we have to communicate with other people in order to enable us to live. We use language to be able to express the emotions to things that are ongoing in the world, to be able to pass the ideas across to other people, to be able to connect well to the other party we are having conversations. I figured out that communication is always necessary when a person is in a relationship. To enable this relationship to flourish, a person has to communicate well with the partner and be able to understand each other properly, this will make the two partners to always know when there is an issue in the relationship between them and be able to solve the problem. The process of communication is a continuous process that never ends (Ferguson 56). There are three main components of communication that people use in their daily activities. People who work together usually have gotten remarkably different ideas and opinions about the work that they are doing, the values of the work that they do, the beliefs of the different cultures in the world differ from person to person, and the needs of the people change and vary with individuals. People have the ability to relate with each other and be able to exchange different ideas, they are able to understand each other despite the fact that we have different opinions about each other in life, people are able to understand the perspectives of other people, they are able to sit down and solve issues among them successfully. They are able to use the processes that are outlined with the communication skills to be able do these things successfully without having hiccups. Getting to learn about the communication processes helps us to be able to have effective and efficient communications with other people. For example, in work places let us say a hospital, the doctors have to learn on how to use effective communication skills for them to communicate well and effectively with their patients. For students studying medicine, they have to learn a unit on communication skills that will enable them to be able to sharpen their communication skills and ensure that by the time they will be out to practice they will have grasped on the importance to communicate well with their patients. At the moment, students should learn on how to communicate among themselves as doctors to be. This is because when they will be practising, they will be required to communicate effectively and consult each other regarding a problem that a patient is facing. For them to be able to consult each other well without letting the patient know the problem the doctors have to learn how to communicate using the scientific terms that will help them to communicate better. For example, when discussing medication they will use terms like Etymology, and antispasmodics. They should be able to have mastery on the use of these scientific terms so that they are able to communicate amongst themselves without letting the patients know the truth on what they are talking about. The patients will be told the decisions of the doctors in a much simpler language (Ellis 45). The process of communication involves the Para verbal components, the nonverbal components, and the verbal components for a person to be able to pass messages better with other people. The Para verbal component of communication is the channel of communication that concentrates on the use of the intonation, the volume that is used in communication, the cadence of the language that used in communication, and also the pace that a person is saying words. Non verbal communication is the use of body language, and the necessary paralinguistics to be able to communicate properly and effectively (Condrill, Bough 56). This type of communication has been a significant centre of interest for quite a lot of time in sectors such as doing presentation skills, in trying to develop the social skills of people, and also as another alternative in the lie detecting test. However, the learning institutions have paid little attention to developing the language teaching of the non verbal communication method. Non verbal communication can be used as a good compliment to the English spoken language. The neuro linguistic programming that has been recently discovered has filtered the non verbal communication in the current research practices of the scientists. This has in turn limited the introduction of the non verbal communication skills in to the curriculum of schools. There are several components of the non verbal communication skills some of which include; the body language of a person communicates quite a lot than the persons words. This is because only ten percent of what the person is saying creates the basis of communication and the rest is created by the non verbal communication. So when a person uses the body language when talking it complements the spoken language a lot. A person can either shrug his or her body, do a foot tap a person can finger drum to enhance whatever he is saying, a person can use the eye movements to compliment his or her words by either winking, or by using facial expressions to show the seriousness of the communication process. Another component of the non verbal communication skill is the use of proximity of a person to the other while communicating with each other. Whenever a person wants to express the secrecy of a conversation they will speak with each other intensely closely. This component is usually used to show privacy of the conversation. Another non verbal component of communication is the usage of touch as a component of communication. People who are engaged in a relationship can be able to use the touch as a form of expressing their feelings to each other. The use of eye contact is a method of how people communicate non-verbally. Eye contact is usually used for people who are well conversant with each other, and they should not be in a formal setting. The use of pausing and waiting is another form of the people being able to communicate none verbally. The use of sound symbols like grunting and mumbling of the people can also show a sign of people using a non verbal form of communication. The use of clothing or the hairstyle of a person also indicates that a one is able to communicate non-verbally, and these components of non verbal communication always pass a lot of information through people. People need to learn on how to use the body language, the use of eye contacts, the use of proximity so that they will be able to pass messages well with one another and be able to avoid the confusions that are always associated with these kinds of non verbal type of communication (Davies 67). Non verbal communication should be introduced to the school curriculum to ensure that the learners are able to get conversant with all the components of this type of communication and that people are able to use the non verbal communication to be able to communicate effectively. The use of verbal communication means that the content of the information that is being sent across to other people is decided by the choice of the words that are made by the people who want to communicate. This is done by a person who is speaking to the one listening. For the verbal type of communication to work effectively, the other party that is being given the message should be able to listen well on what he or she is being told. This will happen if the people will also develop their listening skills as a method of improving their communication skills. The sending of the verbal messages requires a person to be capable to use the messages clearly this is done to avoid confusion of the different meanings of the words that are being conveyed in the messages. The communicating parties have to be able to use the intonations and the pace at which they are speaking well enough to enable them communicate clearly and avoid confusion of the messages that are being conveyed. For a person to be able to convey an effective message, one has to be able to create a short, and well organized message, a person has to be able to create a clear message and be extremely direct to the point more so if the communication is being done on telephone, the speaking party should not confuse the listening party. This will ensure that the information that was being conveyed reaches its destination without any hiccups and in a condition that will enable the receiver to be able to act on the message and provide proper and quality feedback. For people to be able to create a better avenue of communication, they have to learn to be patient enough to enable them to create excellent communication skills (Burnard 89). Works Cited Burnard, Philip. Effective Communication Skills for Health Professionals. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 1997. Davies, John W. Communication skills: a guide for engineering and applied science students. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001. Ellis, Richard. Communication Skills: Stepladders to Success for the Professional. London: Intellect Books, 2009. Ferguson, Richard Worth. Communication Skills. New York City: Infobase Publishing, 2004. Hargie, Owen. The Handbook of Communication Skills. London: Taylor & Francis, 2006. Jo Condrill, Bennie Bough. 101 Ways to Improve Your Communication Skills Instantly. Mississippi: GoalMinds, Inc, 2000. Read More