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Communication

Effective communication involves understanding your audience, being clear and concise, practicing active listening, and aligning verbal and non-verbal cues to convey your message confidently.

Communication 

 

Man stopping from running to wave into the distance, shouting 'hey! let's talk!' in a friendly manner

 

‘Communication is the most important skill in life. We spend most of our waking hours communicating’

Covey (2022, p.222) 

We all need to communicate to get our message across - as infants we communicated through crying but, as adults, we need to find more constructive and effective ways. 

Communication can take place in multiple formats, and it is a skill that you can develop at any age. Enhancing this skill will improve your ability to work effectively with others at university, in your personal life and in your future employment. 

 

Benefits of improving your communication skills 

Spending time to strengthen your communication skills will have not only a positive impact on your life but also of those you interact with. 

As our world becomes more digitised, it is important to maintain the etiquette of polite and respectful communication, to listen well and to value others. It is the human ability to empathise and understand that sets us apart from artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

 

Learning outcomes 

Our aim is to help you become a natural communicator, to be able to converse confidently both formally and informally with different people and groups. 

We hope that by the end of this guide you will be aware of: 

 

  • What the main methods of communication are. 

  • Situations in which you will need effective communication skills at university and beyond. 

  • Professional communication. 

  • How to present an argument. 

  • Negotiation skills. 

  • How to synthesise. 

  • Storytelling. 

  • Presentations. 

  • Activities where you could develop your communication skills. 

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Pearsall. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reynolds, G. (2020) Presentation zen: simple ideas on presentation design and delivery. Berkeley: New Riders.

Rousseau, D. L., & van Gelder, T. (2024). Teaching Critical Thinking with Argument Mapping. Journal of Political Science Education, 1–17. https://doi-org.derby.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/15512169.2024.2388821