Sunday, October 7, 2012

Don't Take My Word for It...

Throughout the semester, Jessica and I have been stressing to you the importance of being able to clearly express yourself in writing and in conversation.  No matter what type of job you have, the ability to clearly express your ideas is like gold.  It will earn clients for you, help secure promotions and raises for you, and generally help ensure that you are more successful.  But, don't take my word for it...Instead, check out these testimonials from professionals in the field and see what they had to say when they were asked why communicating clearly is important in their job.


"Practicing medicine requires extensive listening and communication skills.  Most of my diagnoses are made the first 15 minutes of the patient's visit: just listening to all they have to say, watching the body language in which they communicate their concerns, and asking pertinent questions in language that they can easily understand.  My English classes taught me to use critical thinking and evaluation.  I remember that even book reports required me to look at a story from many viewpoints."
 
-George, doctor
 
 
 
I’m a lawyer.  In college, I took many English classes—composition, poetry (all good writing is poetry), creative writing, literature.  Knowing how to use grammatically correct spoken and written language builds confidence.  My brilliant boss thinks I’m smarter than I am.  I’m not talking about using big words.  I’m talking about conveying concepts clearly and concisely.   As a manager of support staff, I know how hard it is to find people with good critical thinking and communication skills.  The ones who can do that are gold to me, and I push for their advancement whenever I can. 
-Cheryl, attorney

26 comments:

  1. Even, in an office environment sending emails back and forth to your fellow colleague is highly important. Without clearly being able to communicate a problem or express your thoughts, shows your boss or fellow colleague’s job performance. This is a reflection on your yearly reviews in most companies. Especially, if you’re sending emails to clients and you’re not proof reading your work. This not only reflects on you, but on your company. April C

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    1. That's a fantatic point. As companies move toward more electronic communication and less face-to-face communication, the ability to express oneself is so important. Great point!

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    2. I agree with you, with my own expierence working with my dad in the office. I sent emails, talk to customers, schedule appoinments and many othe task. it is really importnt to know how to pick your words. and also proof reading the emails is also really important. you always want to make sure you sound proffesional. The hardest part of all, is talking to customers that are mad, because you have to be really careful with what you say. You dont want to say anythingthat will only make things worst. I believe talking as many english classes as possible in college is great for any carrer that you go for.

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  2. I can relate to that testimony George said because i as well am learning critical thinking and evaluation which is a higher level of thinking. My professor told me in my english 48 class that people who pass his class go on to be successful people in society. It looks like what I'm learning in that class is really necessary material to know to be successful in college!

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    1. That's a great attitude to have! Every day, you can learn something new that will benefit you and improve your standard of living. You just have to be on the look-out for those lessons. Great point!

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  3. I belive that in any profession you need to know basic english. My major is Criminal investigations and there is alot of reports that need to done.

    Crystal Welker

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  4. English helps out in some many ways it really is hard to imagine life as we know it without. Just a simple taske of cooking. You need to be able to read instructions, or if your writing a new recipe you must be able to write clear instructions. Read and writing is one the most life tools as humans we could have and use. My mom always told me. "If you can read and write you can do anything." April C.

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  5. I have the perfect quote for this section.

    "The aim of education should be to teach us how to think, rather than what to think."

    April C

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    1. I like that quote a lot. I also agree with the quote you posted before that because it's true. Every job requires reading some sort of writing and communicating in English. Therefore, to talk with our coworkers and boss we need to know what is the appropriate way to communicate.

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    2. April, your quotes reminds me something that a famous British poet (William Butler Yeates) said: "Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."

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  6. Communication skills are very important especially big time jobs such as being a nurse, dentist, police, attorney and etc. My major is criminal justice and that takes a lot of skill and learning to communicate properly is key.

    Jasmine J

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    1. Effective communication seems very important in criminal justice, where people's futures are on the line after an arrest. Great point!

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  7. In a Programing career good skills in language are needed, because the programers need to get info for the users of the programs he happens to maintain. This is useful for features people want, getting out software bugs, and more.

    Michael S.

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    1. Michael, you have a great point. Even in careers where people might think there is very little communication, being able to convey your ideas and understand others' needs is still very important.

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  8. I can relate being in the retail industry, not only having to get along with your coworkers but how to communicate is key as well. It goes for everything dealing with everyday life. Communicating with your teachers, students, boyfriend/girlfriend, parents and even friends. People react to the way you communicate with them. As long as everything you say is open and honest, I can guarantee success is along that road.

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  9. Effective communicating isd key to success, I hope mine increases as I learn throughtout the rest of the semester.
    Josh

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  10. Part of the requirements for me to get my A&P license is to be able to read and write English.

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    1. Just out of curiosity...what's an A&P License?

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  11. Communication is key. I'm actually kinda quiet and I know that won't hep me in life so I'm working on trying to communicate better with people espically going into Law Enforcement.


    Desalle J.

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  12. In any major i believe you'll need writing and effective communication along with common sense in the world today. You don't have to be a genius but just have those traits. Cyrus I

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  13. Learning English grammar and writing are both very important skills. While mastering these skills, it will create opportunities on a person’s social life. For example, it will improve a person’s social skills in getting a job, and create opportunities for social necessities. Some social necessities are communications and networking with other people to accomplish a certain goal.

    Lisandro

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  14. The more you knowledge your grammer and writing and reading, the power you have, it will be your confident in the working world.

    Erica

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  15. The more knowledge you have in critical thinking classes along with various english class will help tramendously in any carrer you are pursueing. It's just the more advanced of a communicator the higher your chances fof becoming really successful are.
    -Nicholas Coulter-

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  16. i agree with cheryl the attorney. you need to be able to know this skills to have confidence in your self which later it means you become a successful person.

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  17. Communication will always be the key to success in the economy today. You have to have knowledge and be able to understand what your doing and who you're talking about in a professional way. But another key thing is you gotta have common sense. Intelligence isn't always key. Cyrus I

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