Competency in Communication

Upon completion of an undergraduate degree, students should be able to articulate ideas in a manner that peers and colleagues can understand. The first step in this process is breaking down and analyzing an idea related to a certain subject or issue. Then using an original but professional voice, a student should convey his or her claim with conviction and purpose, while making it interesting and informative, as well as suitable for the audience. The end result should be to be able to demonstrate their ability to present ideas and information in such a way that flows smoothly. Most importantly:

• Students should be able to present information that is fully developed and potent.
  
• Students should be able to create work that stands the test of the time.

My first proof of this competency involves a group project I did for my British literature class in which we had to do a mock edit of the Norton (previously mentioned in the Information Literacy competency). As a group we had to present the text that we wanted to include and subtract from the Norton. Our presentation needed to persuade our teacher (the pseudo editor for the Norton) that the texts we wanted to add and eliminate were necessary. This involved communicating our ideas in an articulate and persuasive way. This link is to my part of the group presentation.



My second proof of this competency involves the speech that I will give on May 1, 2008 prior to sharing my personal project for Humanities 499 to the public. In this speech I needed to communicate the origins of the story and the process it took to make it a polished final project. This is a link to the actual speech.