Why are effective communication skills important for me?

Interaction between people in today’s society is unavoidable at any level, be it personal, social or professional. Effective communication skills, thus, are important in my day-to-day life so that I can communicate well to ensure the accurate exchange of ideas, prevent confusion and misinterpretations in a normal conversation. Going further, it is important to be able to work well as a team, collate everyone’s ideas and present them in the best possible way.

I feel the most difficult skill to acquire is being able to deliver good oral presentations confidently without memorizing the script and simply reciting it aloud. I would like to work on this area due to its importance in the workplace as the inability to communicate ideas well through a presentation can make one’s work worthless if one’s ideas are not brought across appropriately and completely.

These skills are more so important in the professional world where one needs to have a good resume, polished job interview skills and following the acquisition of a job, is expected to be able to communicate well with one’s colleagues. Well-written and formatted business letters and the delivery of cohesive and informative presentations are also vital skills to be acquired.

Another obstacle to effective communication is the diverse and multi-cultural society today that requires the understanding and adoption of appropriate communication skills to ensure people of different backgrounds and cultures can understand each other better. I hope to be able to acquire these skills through this module to improve myself.