Personal Communication Context - Essay Example

Communication The internet was originally developed as a means of improving and increasing communication for scientific and academic purposes. It grew because of its supreme applicability in every aspect of life. Governments were able to connect systems, communities were formed by interest groups and business interests, products and services were made available at the click of a button and suddenly the internet was an indispensable element of life on the academic, business and personal level throughout the modern world. Ask anyone of any age what they would do without the internet and most would respond with a look of horror and no ready answer other than a variation on ‘I couldn’t live the way I do.’ As a result of this widespread usage, though, there is also a set of agreed upon rules of communication that are followed as a means of facilitating connections. These rules, like the rules of written communication elsewhere, can often be different based upon the context in which you are writing. It is important to remember, though, that no matter how close of a connection you feel you’re making online within a personal communication context, any online communication is written and therefore should follow some basic rules developed specifically for use on the internet. When communicating through email, on newsgroups, blogs, chatting or through other forms of connection, the language you use and format will depend on who it is you’re trying to contact. Personal emails usually don’t need the typical greetings and salutations used with paper letters. It is assumed that the To: address bar serves as the formal greeting while the From: box provides the salutation without wasting additional space. More and more, these are also being dropped from business emails, or the salutation is replaced by what is known as a signature line, a sort of electronic rubber stamp containing name, business and phone number or email address. This is intended to provide the business correspondence an easy copy and paste contact that can be dropped easily into the electronic address book. Another important element of email communications is the use of the subject line. By including a general idea of what the communication is about, the writer gives the reader a chance to decide whether to answer the email now or later and is considered proper ‘netiquette’, although emails should be responded to within 24 hours to avoid being considered rude. To facilitate easy communication, it is helpful to keep emails divided by several paragraph breaks that make reading ideas easier on the reader’s eyes and assure the message can be read in natural chunks on a single screen. It is generally agreed that the use of all capitals letters constitutes screaming and can only be used when extreme emotion is intended. Another helpful element that has been developed as a means of attempting to express emotion is the increasingly popular emoticons, small smiley faces that depict various facial expressions to indicate sarcasm, laughter, sadness or other emotions. While these are great ways of expressing emotions within the body of an email or in a chat situation, they are perhaps not the best form of communication when attempting to discuss serious issues with your boss. One final note regarding online communication and that is the use of abbreviated language. Although it is quick and easy when you’re chatting with your friends, it is not a good idea to use it in business emails because not everyone might have the same understanding of these abbreviations. Dear Mr. Watson, When a person has worked hard for a company for a length of time, they sometimes get bored with the same old routine and might have a need for change. This is not to say that they necessarily want to leave their job, but maybe they just need something different to do. If they’ve worked hard and have done a good job, they should be able to ask for this without worrying about risking their jobs. And they shouldn’t be given new duties that are the same or less than what they had before. You wouldn’t move someone from a desk to a janitor position unless they’d done something very bad but you didn’t want to fire them. Instead, someone who has worked hard and has done a good job might deserve a bigger desk or their own office instead of working in the cubicles. When I first began working for you, Mr. Watson, I was very inexperienced and needed a lot of instruction and help to make sure I did my job right. But I learned fast and I don’t need any instruction now to be sure my job is done completely and well. You have even asked me to train two other people who have been hired since to help them learn about their jobs. One of these people was promoted to an inner office within a few months even though I was here first. But there is a new office available now and I know you are going to need a new person to fill the position. I have worked hard and done a good job for you, I have proven that I can learn fast and that I can work with others. I hope maybe I can have the new desk. Dear Mr. Watson, I am writing to you today because I have learned that the position of office manager has recently opened. I would like to be considered for the job because I bring a set of skills to the position that would be difficult to find elsewhere and would thus be able to benefit the company. As you know, I have been with the company for two years, having been hired as an inexperienced college student. Although I knew little about the business at the time, I learned quickly and rarely made mistakes. I brought many new ideas to the office that helped us increase productivity and employee morale without reducing traffic flow or our ability to operate. Employee morale is, of course, vital to maintaining a productive office with limited absenteeism. In addition, I have been instrumental in the training of two new workers who were hired into the company shortly after I was hired. Despite my own newness, my training of these employees was effective in providing you with a new distribution manager and a reliable and competent secretary. Both of these individuals indicated that the training I provided them was instrumental in their smooth transition into the company and was efficient and effective in getting them oriented and productive quickly. To sum up, I already possess the necessary knowledge of company business to take up the position on my first day and I have already demonstrated my usefulness to the company. I can install new changes that are beneficial and work well with other people. I have the education necessary for the position and already have a working relationship established with many of the office employees. Should you wish to discuss my qualifications for the position further, I will make myself available to you any afternoon this week. In working through some of the perception exercises on the website, I discovered that I have a pretty decent approach to memory that allows me to retain much more than I might have expected. For example, in working through the first exercise on the page, the memory game, I was presented with 20 images that I was to look at for 2 minutes and then, on a separate piece of paper, I was supposed to write down as many of the objects as I could remember. While I looked at the images, I found myself making connections between them naturally. For instance, the first image was a large capital C and another image nearby was a cat. This reminded me of storybooks when I was a kid that attempted to teach me my letters. In my head, I thought ‘C is for Cat’, then a saw a dog, which is the animal most often associated with a cat and under him, a butterfly, making me think of the song ‘Dog and Butterfly’. I made these sorts of small connections for the remainder of the objects during the long 2 minutes and then was able to list 19 of the 20 objects. I couldn’t remember the last one, but I knew it had something to do with a boy’s plaything – it was a yo-yo. The perception exercises, though, were insightful in demonstrating how there was often more than one way to look at things and that we can’t always believe what our eyes try to tell us and sometimes our mind can fool us into thinking something is different from its reality. Read More