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Report: Communication Skills Needed in My Career Field* SLO 4 + 1, 3, 6

*If you have not declared a major and do not have a focused career goal, use this assignment as an opportunity to explore a career field that you might be interested in pursuing.                                                      

Research the specific communication skills needed in your career field. Use at least three sources. Sources may include books, journal articles, website articles, and informational interviews. Sources can be found using the UT Library resources, scholar.google.com, and websites for professional associations. (Use this assignment to get to know the journals and magazines for your career field.) To search for articles, books, and websites on-line, use keywords for your career title + communication. For example: physical therapist + communication.  It may help to research terms such as listening or nonverbal communication and apply them to your career field. (Example: physical therapy + listening)

Identify specific communications skills needed in your particular career field. Avoid using sources that use general statements such as “needs good communication skills.” Find sources that list specific/detailed communication skills; the more specific the better. Fair/Better/Best examples: oral communication (fair); presentation skills (better); ability to present complex technical ideas, using understandable visual aids, to audience members who do not possess the same technical knowledge as you, the presenter (best).

Actively read the source materials and make notes of the information that captures your attention. Then synthesize (integrate) the information from the different sources. Summarize what you have learned from your research in a typed report. Be sure to write and re-write and re-write. (On average, the best writers re-write/edit six times; I‘m only asking you to improve your writing skills by re-writing your summary report three times.)

Watch How to Write a Summary video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zgKOguRrRs

Contrary to the video’s instructions, you may use personal pronouns (I, my, my, etc.) in this report. You may also include your own ideas in the report.

Give credit to your sources by using in-text citations and list full citations in the Reference section at the end of the report. Use the citation style used in your career field. For example Communication and other Social Sciences use APA style (American Psychological Association style). In high school you probably learned the MLA style (Modern Language Association style) used by English teachers. Health Care professions use AMA style (American Medical Association style).

Engineering and Business use a variety of citation styles, including Chicago. “Google” the style used in your career field.

Save paper: you don’t need a separate title page, instead place your name, course name, class meeting days & times, and the date at the top of the first page. You do not need to use a separate sheet of paper for the references; simply type the references at the end of the report’s text. Reports must be typed and double-spaced. Typical length is 3 to 5 pages.