essay

Tooba Hassan

1/16/19

Communication Skills

I chose to interview, Kelsey Redpath, my mentor. She is an English and literature teacher, and she is well equipped with skills and knowledge when it comes to communication skills. Kelsey is also a mother, meaning she is compassionate and patient enough with me. She doesn't get tired of correcting me as she would like her child and I find this particularly helpful with my overall communication skills. Her vast experience in teaching has provided her with enormous skills and knowledge that she has used to provide viable advice not only on meant to improve my communication skills but also helped me grow as a responsible adult.

Ms. Redpath has divided my communication skills into two fronts, the written and verbal communication. She perceives that I have excellent written communication skills, which I agree with her since I spent most of my free time reading novels and writing texts as I practice to become a writer in the future. With verbal communication, she says that I have room for improvement. I lack self-confidence and the worst comes when I have to speak to a crowd or a group of people. All my nerves freezes. This happens even in situation where I have gone through what I have to present in a group more than once, my mind goes blank, and in most cases, I can't speak. I also find it diff=icult to talk openly to strangers. My lack of confidence to be able to speak in front of a crowd dates back to when I was a child in elementary school. I started school when I was too young, and older children would always find a way to put me down, calling me a kid. I remember even my elementary teacher used to call me a baby. Since then I have had this fear in myself. However, Ms. Redpath says that I have the attributes of a leader, and if I could find that self-confidence and compose my thought, I would not only be able to speak in front of a crowd but would become one of the best speakers she has ever known, and this surprises me the most.

Particularly Ms. Redpath always likes my writing. She says that I should take writing as a career. She once pointed out that writing run in our bloodline. By so she was referring to my dad and me. My dad too is a writer and has received many awards and praises from his writing. His published books are the reasons why he has been given a section on the New York Times which appears on the paper every Saturday. Ms. Redpath values my use of stylistic devices, especially when I am writing poems. She says that they are so imaginative she always wonders if I am a teenager. However, my love for writing started early in life as rather than play around with kids who would bully me; I would accompany my dad to his study room and read some of his pieces, especially the ones he had excelled in. She is so proud of me, and always wishes that she was me at my age as since she always points out that I will become one of the greatest writers in the country. I am always at ease when I present any form of written communication to Ms. Redpath, be it a poem, a short story or imaginative writing. I love when she gives me notes on areas that I should improve on to make my writing even more lovable. She has an afternoon tuition class, which she always asks me to attend for free. In the class, I interact with older people, mostly parents, and once in a while she always invites me to read one of my writing, and this makes me so happy. I also get to exchange ideas with these professional writers. From her dedication to my success in writing, I would say that she is a wonderful mentor, one that I would ask for no more. The efforts she has made for me to improve on my weakness, especially verbal communication shows that she is a caring mentor and would love for me to grow in all sorts of communication fronts.

Different characteristics make a competent communicator. From my research, I found out that a competent communicator is a self-awareness. This means that the communicator has to be aware of their communication behavior, be its verbal or written. A communicator who exercises self-awareness is exercised self-monitoring meant to observe their behavior of communication and to ensure that they are appropriate for the targeted listeners or readers. Secondly, is adaptability, which points out that an effective communicator should have the ability to adapt their written and verbal communication to any environment that they are in? For example, for written communication, a communicator would choose very different approach to children as the approach he would select for adults. Thirdly is empathy, which is a communicator's characteristics to communicating either verbally or written communication by putting themselves in the shoes of those they are talking to. Another consideration is ethical factor when the communicator should always pay close attention to ethical boundaries of the people he or she is communicating to.an example is when a writer conveys to the Muslim, they should be aware of certain ethical boundaries not to mention certain things like Bikini and pork as it Is considered unethical in their culture. Lastly, a communicator should be mindful of the cognitive complexity of their target; for example, a communicator will not use the same communication strategy of campus graduates to primary school kids.

For a long time, I have known that I have a weakness in verbal communication. Like I mentioned earlier my mentor, and I are working hard to rectify this. Through giving me an opportunity to read my piece in front of her class, I am slowly gaining the confidence of public speaking. I have also dedicated part of my time to interact with people from other areas other than the people that I know. Most I go to the beach, community services, church and in school to engage in verbal communication.