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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Communication Essentials for College by Jen Booth, Emily
Cramer & Amanda Quibell
- 1.1 – Why on earth am I taking another English course?
- 1.2 – Connect With Your Instructor
- 1.3 – Acting Professional in an Online Environment
- 1.4 – Academic Integrity
Except where otherwise noted, this OER is licensed under CC BY NC 4. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) Please visit the web version of Communication Essentials for College (https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/gccomm/) to access the complete book, interactive activities and ancillary resources.
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION | 7
1.1 - WHY ON EARTH AM I TAKING
ANOTHER ENGLISH COURSE?
Learning Objectives
- Distinguish between the nature of English and Communications courses
- Explain the importance of studying Communications
- Identify communication-related skills and personal qualities favoured by employers
- Consider how communication skills will ensure your future professional success
- Recognize that the quality of your communication represents the quality of your company
Communications vs. English Courses
Whether students enter their first-year college Communications courses right out of high school or with years of work experience behind them, they often fear being doomed to repeat their high school English class, reading Shakespeare and analyzing confusing poetry. Welcome relief comes when they discover that a course in Communications has nothing to do with either of those things. If not High School English 2.0, what is Communications all about, then?
For our purposes, Communication s (yes, with a capital C and ending with an s ) is essentially the practice of interacting with others in the academic world, the workplace and other professional contexts. While you are a college student, you will need to interact with scholarly sources and express your learning and ideas at an appropriate post-secondary level. When you embark on your career, absolutely every job—from A to Z, accountant to Zamboni mechanic—involves dealing with a variety of people all day long.
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Communication Skills Desired by Employers
If there’s a shorthand reason for why you need communication skills to complement your technical skills, it’s that you don’t get paid without them. You need communication and “soft” skills to get work and keep working so that people continue to want to employ you to apply your core technical skills. A diverse skill set that includes communication is really the key to survival in the modern workforce, and hiring trends bear this out. In its Employability Skills, the Conference Board of Canada lists “the skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress” in the 21st century workplace. The first category listed is communication skills, specifically how to:
- Read and understand information presented in a variety of forms (e.g., words, graphs, charts, diagrams)
- Write and speak so others pay attention and understand
- Listen and ask questions to understand and appreciate the points of view of others
- Share information using a range of information and communications technologies (e.g., voice, e-mail, computers)
- Use relevant scientific, technological, and mathematical knowledge and skills to explain or clarify ideas (Conference Board, n.d., para. 2)
In other words, the quality of your communication skills in dealing with the various audiences that surround you in your workplace are the best predictors of professional success.
Exercise 2
- Go to the Government of Canada’s Job Bank site and find your chosen profession (i.e., the job your program will lead to) via the Explore Careers by Essential Skills [New tab] (https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/es_all-eng.do) page. List the particular document types you will be responsible for communicating with in a professional capacity by reading closely through the Reading, Document Use, and Writing drop-downs. List the in-person responsibilities and communication technologies featured under the Oral Communication drop-down..
- The Conference Board of Canada’s Employability Skills Toolkit (access for Georgian students provided via the Library) lists 5 fundamental communication skills. Create a checklist document for these essential skills (listed below). Add to it some of the other personal
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qualities listed in the section above. For each skill or quality, write the best example you can think of demonstrating it in your current or past employment experience, academic program of study, or personal life. Conference Board of Canada’s Fundamental Communication Skills:
a. Read and understand information presented in different ways (e.g., words, graphs, charts, diagrams). b. Write and speak so others can pay attention and understand. c. Listen and ask questions to understand and appreciate the points of view of others. d. Share information using different technologies (e.g., phone calls, e-mail, social media, the Internet). e. Use relevant knowledge and skills to explain or clarify ideas. (Conference Board of Canada, 2022, p. 3)
A Diverse Skillset Featuring Communications Is Key to
Survival
The picture painted by this insight into what employers are looking for tells us plenty about what we must do about our skillset to have a fighting chance in the fierce competition for jobs: diversify it and keep our communication skills at a high level. Gone are the days when someone would do one or two jobs throughout their entire career. Rather, if the current job-hopping trend continues, “Canadians can expect to hold roughly 15 jobs in their careers” (Harris, 2014, para. 8) and the future for many will involve gigging for several employers at once rather than for one (Mahdawi, 2017). Futurists tell us that the “gig economy” will evolve alongside advances in AI (artificial intelligence) and automation that will phase out jobs of a routine and mechanical nature with machines. On the bright side, jobs that require advanced communication skills will still be safe for humans because AI and robotics can’t so easily imitate them in a way that meets human needs. Taxi drivers, for instance, are a threatened species now with Uber encroaching on their territory and will certainly go extinct when the promised driverless car revolution arrives in the next 10-15 years, along with truckers, bus drivers, and dozens of other auto- and transport-industry roles (Frey, 2016). They can resist, but the market will ultimately force them into retraining and finding work that is hopefully more future-proof—work that prioritizes the human element.
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and consider how they too will survive the automation/AI disruption.
Communication Represents You and Your Employer
Imagine a situation where you are looking for a contractor for a custom job you need done on your car and you email several companies for a quote breaking down how much the job will cost. You narrow it down to two companies who have about the same price, and one gets back to you within 24 hours with a clear price breakdown in a PDF attached in an email that is friendly in tone and perfectly written. But the other took four days to respond with an email that looked like it was written by a sixth-grader with multiple grammar errors in each sentence and an attached quote that was just a scan of some nearly illegible chicken-scratch writing. Comparing the communication styles of the two companies, choosing who you’re going to go with for your custom job is a no- brainer.
Of course, the connection between the quality of their communication and the quality of the job they’ll do for you isn’t water-tight, but it’s a fairly good conclusion to jump to, one that customers will always make. The company representative who took the time to ensure their writing was clear and professional, even proofreading it to confirm that it was error-free, will probably take the time to ensure the job they do for you will be the same high-calibre work that you’re paying for. By the same token, we can assume that the one who didn’t bother to proofread their email at all will likewise do a quick, sloppy, and disappointing job that will require you to hound them to come back and do it right—a hassle you have no time for. We are all picky, judgmental consumers for obvious reasons: we are careful with our money and expect only the best work value for our dollar. Good managers know that about their customers, so they hire and retain employees with the same scruples, which means they appreciate more than anyone that your writing represents you and your company. As tech CEO Kyle Wiens (2012) says, “Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet” (para. 6) where your writing is “a projection of you in your physical absence” (para. 6). Just as people judge flaws in your personal appearance such as a stain on your shirt or broccoli between your teeth, suggesting a sloppy lack of self-awareness and personal care, so they will judge you as a
1.1 - WHY ON EARTH AM I TAKING ANOTHER ENGLISH COURSE? | 13
person if it’s obvious from your writing that “you can’t tell the difference between their, there, and they’re” (para. 6). As the marketing slogan goes, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. If potential employers or clients (who are, essentially, your employers) see that you care enough about details to write a flawless email, they will jump to the conclusion that you will be as conscientious in your job and are thus a safe bet for hire. Again, it’s no guarantee of future success, but it increases your chances immeasurably. As Wiens (2012) says of the job of coding in the business of software programming, “details are everything. I hire people who care about those details” (paras. 12-13), but you could substitute “programmer” with any job title and it would be just as true.
Exercise 4
Describe an incident when you were disappointed with the professionalism of a business you dealt with, either because of shoddy work, poor customer service, shabby online or in-person appearance, etc. Explain how the quality of their communication impacted that experience and what you would have done differently if you were in their position.
Key Takeaways
- By teaching you the communications conventions for dealing with a variety of stakeholders, a course in Communications has different goals from your high school English course and is a vitally important step towards professionalizing you for entry or re-entry into the workforce.
- Employers value employees who excel in communication skills rather than just technical skills because, by ensuring better workplace and client relations, they contribute directly to the viability of the organization.
- The quality of your communication represents the quality of your work and the organization
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Wiens, K. (2012, July 20). I won’t hire people who use poor grammar. Here’s why. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2012/07/i-wont-hire-people-who-use- poo/
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1.2 - CONNECT WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Learning Objective
- Identify ways to build a good relationship with your course instructors through in-class, email, and office hour communication.
A key to your success at college is knowing your instructors and what they identify as important in each of your courses. Developing good relationships with instructors involves good communication in and outside of class times. They are available to meet, communicate, and talk with you, but you must plan how to connect with them during their available times. It is part of an instructor’s job to talk to learners outside class, and most successful learners take advantage of that option. It is your right to visit instructors during office hours and discuss any problems or concerns that you have in their course.
In-Class Communication
To build your relationship with your instructor in-class, consider ways that you can show your interest in the course material. Some ways to do this are:
- Listen actively during class to determine what is most important to the instructor.
- Avoid arguing with the instructor. If you disagree with something said in class, try to ask questions about the topic after class.
- Read the textbook before class and prepare questions to ask.
- Let your instructor know what interests you about the course.
1.2 - CONNECT WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR | 17
Try It!
If you have already reviewed your course presentation, you will know when and where you can contact your instructor during office hours. Plan to drop by your instructor’s office hours this week. If you don’t yet have a question to ask, consider having a brief conversation with your instructor about one of the following topics:
- What is one thing I can do to / be successful in this course?
- How do the concepts I will learn in this class connect with other courses I will take in the future?
- What can I do to improve my class participation/ writing/ presentation skills?
- What interests you most about your field?
Attribution & References
Except where otherwise noted, this chapter is adapted from ” Connect with your Instructor” (https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/studystrategizesucceed/chapter/connect-with- your-instructor/) In University 101: Study, Strategize and Succeed by Megan Robertson, Kwantlen Polytechnic University Learning Centres licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. (https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/studystrategizesucceed/chapter/connect-with-your- instructor/) / Adaptations include small edits to improve student-friendly language, and formatting. Accessibility updates also included.
Notes
- Study Guides and Strategies. (n.d.). Influencing teachers and improving classroom communication skills. Retrieved from http://www.studygs.net/attmot2.htm ↵
1.2 - CONNECT WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR | 19
1.3 - ACTING PROFESSIONALLY IN AN
ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Learning Objective
- Identify fundamental behaviours to establish professionalism in an online learning environment.
Faculty expect as much from you in an online space as they do in a face-to-face environment. Professional behaviour is necessary for the long-term success of an online student. The basis of this chapter will be learning the fundamental behaviours in an online environment. Moreover, you’ll learn how to exhibit respect in your online lectures, and maintain academic integrity. Following this chapter, you will be confident, prepared, and excited about your online journey.
Online Professionalism
Professionalism during in-person interactions must be equally represented in the online environment. Professional online behaviour includes using the proper tools (i.e. headphones, microphones, camera) to interact with others. This can also include ensuring that you use the “raise your hand” feature and allowing the professor to call on you before speaking. It is common courtesy when in your online lectures to mute yourself until it is your turn to speak.
Online Discussion Boards
In an online environment, discussion boards or chat rooms are a common form of
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Acting Professional in an Online Environment
Acting Professional in an Online Environment (Text version)
- Which one of these should NOT be used in an online environment?
a. The “raise your hand” feature b. Microphone, camera and headphones c. Your home television while you are in a lecture.
- What are some of the proper steps to take when emailing your professor?
a. Using a proper subject line to summarize your email. b. Include a proper closing statement (Regards, Sincerely, etc.) c. Both of the options.
- What is one of the biggest concerns in an online environment?
a. Academic Integrity b. The weather c. What you will have for lunch Check your Answers:^1 Activity Source: “Acting Professional in an Online Environment” InLearning to Learn Online by Bailey Csabai; Bilal Sohail; Jykee Pavo; Kristen Swiatoschik; Maryam Odeh; and Nitin Ramesh, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Attribution & References
Except where otherwise noted, this chapter (text & H5P activity) is adapted from “Acting Professional in an Online Environment (https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/ learnonline/chapter/acting-professional-in-an-online-environment/)” In Learning to Learn
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Online by Bailey Csabai; Bilal Sohail; Jykee Pavo; Kristen Swiatoschik; Maryam Odeh; and Nitin Ramesh, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notes
- c, 2. c, 3. a
ACTING PROFESSIONAL IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT | 23
time and effort into your work, increased your knowledge and developed many valuable skills, such as research, critical thinking and writing skills and more.
Explore Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct at Georgian
College
Read Explore Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct at Georgian College in Plain text
Watch Orientation – Academic Integrity (3 mins) on YouTube (https://youtu.be/ rvvEnW9LdoQ)
Georgian College’s Academic Integrity Regulations
Georgian College’s policies about Academic Integrity are included in the Academic Regulations (https://cat.georgiancollege.ca/academic-regulations/) portion of the college website.
All students are required to:
- Read and understand the college’s Academic Integrity regulations and consequences for Academic Misconduct (https://cat.georgiancollege.ca/academic-regulations/integrity/)
- Submit course work and meet the learning outcomes of each course without academic misconduct
- Ask for help if they are unsure about any area of the regulations or course learning outcomes
Types of Academic Misconduct
7 types of academic misconduct in the college’s regulations are Cheating, Fabrication, Plagiarism, Facilitating academic misconduct, Impersonation, Denying access to information or material and Copyright violation.
Academic Integrity: Terminology
A lot of terminology surrounds academic integrity.
1.4 - ACADEMIC INTEGRITY | 25
Different academic institutions used slightly different words or definitions. In the following videos, you may hear some of these terms…
- Academic honesty or integrity
- Academic dishonesty or misconduct
- Plagiarism, cheating, impersonation, fabrication, falsification… and many more While watching the videos on the following slides, try to match the examples to Georgian College’s definitions of Academic Misconduct [New Tab] (https://cat.georgiancollege.ca/academic- regulations/integrity/). Watch for popups in interactive videos. The video will pause, and you can answer questions to check your learning. At the end of this slideshow, watch a short video that discusses the Core Values of Academic Integrity before continuing on with your reading.
Identifying Academic Misconduct: Interactive Video
Watch Academic integrity #2: Types of misconduct (5 mins) on YouTube (https://youtu.be/9_gwDyvpyf8) and/or read the transcript Academic Integrity Part 2: Types of Academic Misconduct [PDF] (http://bit.ly/41JZ06E) At the following times pause the video and compare the example to Georgian’s Academic Integrity regulations (http://cat.georgiancollege.ca/academic-regulations/integrity/) and answer a question to check your understanding.
- Pause at 0:42: What is another example of cheating noted in Georgian’s Academic Integrity regulations? a. Handing in a paper created by a term paper creation organization; b. Using the library database(s) to find research articles for your paper; c. Using Google scholar to locate research articles for your presentation. 1
- Pause at 1:07: Which citation style does Georgian College’s Academic Integrity regulations list as an example of how one can cite their sources? a. Chicago Manual of Style b. Modern Language Association (MLA) c. American Psychological Association (APA) Style 2
- Pause at 1:31: Under what section of Georgian’s Academic Integrity regulations would you classify this offence? a. 8.2.1 – Cheating
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