Reflective Post: A Reflection on Communication Theory and Practice

As known, the purpose of communication is to convey information, so being a better communicator means conveying it more clearly, and something that comes with reflective practice[1].

Leah Dizon,Communication!!! [2008.08.20].
Step Into My World (PV). Retrieved from:
http://desertheart.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/
communication_cd.jpg

ALES 204 is a university course covering the principles of professional communication, including written, oral, and electronic components. It helps students to apply strategies towards developing effective online and offline written work and oral speaking, improve her or his own communication style or skills and demonstrate a through knowledge of and competency in professional communications. Overall, this course is designed to make you be a better communicator no matter online or offline [1].

Except normal lectures, ALES 204 is also offering a Community Service-Learning (CSL) component, which makes learning come alive by connecting coursework with experiences in local non-profit organizations. Students bring their time and talents to community organizations as part of their studies, challenging them to engage with their learning in fresh new ways and to explore relationships between theory and practice [2]. In this winter term, I take part in one of CSL placements, Campus Food Bank (CFB) with Brenda Le. The Campus Food Bank is a registered non-profit organization that distributes food items and toiletries to all members of the university community –students, staff, alumni and their children. As such, the CFB is governed by a Board of Directors those represents the members of the University Community [3]. The main works for Brenda and I are designing newsletters, doing class presentations and managing CFB Twitter.

Brenda L. & Nian L.(me)
taken in CFB office on Apr. 04. 2012
(Personal Collection, 2012)

Now I am going to tell you more about my experience with Campus Food Bank. Firstly, every Thursday, Brenda and I go to CFB office (1-81 SUB) to have a short meeting with our supervisors, Ashley and Jennifer. During the meeting, we evaluate the past-week works and disscuss the next-week projects, which do improve my English speaking and communication skills.  Secondly, every mouth, we should accomplish four class presentations to tell students more about CFB and the upcoming events. The experience of class presentations makes me less nervous to have public speaking in front of a ton of people. Finally, we applied the knowlege of making poster and Twitter learned from ALES 204 lectures to our CFB newsletter and weekly Twitter. Joining in the CFB gives me a chance to connect lectures with experiences, guides me to explore relationships between theory and practice, improves my communication skills and making friends with Brenda. :)

Epic Food Bank

Retrieved from:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gApWXaCTifs

(This is an interesting video to know more about campus food bank, 

we are asked to show the video when we do class presentation, 

but we just showed twice by the limiting time.)

 The Cloud Tag for this blog 'Reflective post' created by Wordle(2012)

In my future, I am going to apply all the communication knowledge learnt from ALES 204 and CSL program to my real professional or non-professional life, like sending professional email to professors or prospective employers, creating business page on Facebook, searching scientific article by google scholar, finding a picture from Flickr, obtaining key words by cloud tag and so on.

If you truly want to be a better communicator, you will be, because you will make the effort to read over and improve what you write or tweet or blog and think carefully before you speak or present [1].


Links to the five blogs I commented on:

1. Brenda Le, by Brenda L
2. LinaMarisH, by Lina H
3. Welcome, by Lina A
4. Green Field, by Yunke X
5. Adventures of an Aspiring Vet, by Jennifer W

References:

[1] Laccetti, J.ALES 204: Communication Theory & Practise:: Winter 2012. Retrieved from: http://ales204-2012.blogspot.ca/

[2] Community Service- Learning, Faculty of ARTS, University of Alberta. Retrieved from: http://www.csl.ualberta.ca/

[3] About Us. Campus Food Bank. Retrieved from: http://campusfoodbank.com/about-us/

My Meander

River meander
Retrieved March 31,2012 from:
http://audrey.yaresse.com/river2-thumb-320x239.jpg

You may be wondering why I write something about “Meander”. Acturally, I don’t know, eiter. But what I can only say that as far as I knew “meander”, I found the defination was not detailed enough to contain its every meaning. As known, in art and architecture, meander is a decotative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated theme; in mythology, Meander is a river god who protects the Maeander River in Turkey; in general, meander is a bend in sinuous watercourse and it is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. However, those explanations are not complete for my meander. I think meander appears everywhere in our life.

Dead Man Cartoon
Retrieved March 31,2012 from:
http://saspellingbee.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/recalcitrant-as-dead.jpg

Meander appears in our talk. If someone died, we are not willing to say he died straightly, for instead, we would say he passed away. This is what I say “meander in talk”. A large number of people would not say something bad in a direct way, so they change a way to express. We can still use “he died” as an example, there are many ways to say “die”, such as, he is sleeping forever”, “he leaves forever” or “ he lives in our memory”. Nevertheless, “meander in talk” cannot be applied for everything. If you make a definition for a word or explan a topic, you are expected to give esstentials in simple language and use a few simple remarks, insteading of using tons of obscure words. At this moment, if you use “meander”, your audiences will be confused.

Writing
Retrieved March 31,2012 from:
http://www.pollsb.com/photos/60/28455-suddenly_great_idea_
written_down_kind_paper_likely_use.jpg

Meander appears in our writing. For one aspect, meander in writing is like meander in talk, people change the way they write and use another way to desicribe.  So now, we forcus on the other aspect. Creating terror is the most important step in the process of creating horror fiction, and “meander” will make it succeed.  When you read a horror story, you will find that author hardly give a clear description to the mysterious character, and everything seems in fog. By the “meander in writing” in horror fiction, readers are thirst for the ending so that they will finish the story soon. Overall, it is “meander in writing” that makes horror stories more attractive.

Meander appears in the whole process of our life. Because of the meander made by river, we get to kown how to enjoy the scenery along the river bank (not the destanation, but the mood of enjoying the scenery along the way); because of the meander in life (like the setback in life), we get to know how to face with seperation between friends or family members; because of the meander in love (like the hinder in being in love), we get to know how to cherish the moment the one stay with us (the blog, happy life:one gal's plunge into the present, shows a great article about love).

Love
Retrieved March 31,2012 from:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hO4Ay21YXTU/TzPytaq3hVI/
AAAAAAAAAhM/L8i6jFFDHaE/s1600/love.jpg

In my opinion, meander appears everywhere. You don’t know, just since you didn’t notice. If you pay more attention, you will find that meander in talk is a way of talking with implied meaning, meander in writing is a way of using “unclear” words to set a “clear” and attrative  atmosphere for a story, meander in life is challenge and hinder during our life.

Communication...?

JasonSWrench,(2009) Transactional Model of Communication.

Retrieved March 23,2012 from:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/

Transactional_comm_model.jpg/320px-Transactional_comm_model.jpg

Communication is defined as the activity of conveying information. There are three parts, which are senders, sources(messages) and recivers. Senders send messages to recivers, and then recivers give the feedback, in other words, somehow, recivers also can be senders. 


Creature can’t live without communication, and it has many types, like face-to-face talk, online chat, and so on. When I was a kid, I just considered communication as simple face-to-face talk. In my opinion, communication is simply talking to someone. There should be at less two people to do this activity. People who are involved in communication say what they want to share with others, and obtain what they like. During this process, everyone outputs messages and inputs information at the same time. For the content, they can talk about what the next season business project is, or how to manage their garden, or even what their pet eat for this moring. People can talk about whatever they like.

Devidy Pet Warehouse
Retrieved March 23,2012 from:
http://www.devidypetwarehouse.com/v/vspfiles/
assets/images/dog%20cat%20bowl.jpg

However, communication should not be as simple as face-to-face talk, but it can be online chat (long distance talk) or other forms of exchanging information. In our generation, everyone is capable of searching internet, we prefer chat with others by Facebook, MSN, or Twitter instead of in person. We can talk with someone we know, or someone who is completely strange to us. Twitter is a good example. On the one hand, people tweet about their ideas, opinions, or what they are doing, on the other hand, they also gain new information they interested from reading tweets. By searching with # hashtag, I can know how a restaurant is, where to buy a cheap fancy shirt and the result of a dodgeball game and so on. My friend Brenda is sharing her experience about Twitter in her blog named "Confession of a Twitter Skeptic", if you are willing to read, you can go and enjoy.

In addition, reading and writing also can be considered as a type of communication. An author writing an article is a way of showing his opinions or feelings about something, while a reader reading this article is to obtain the author's opinions or feelings. Based on what he gains, the reader may have their own idea about this certain thing and he may make feedback to the author. In a sentence, communication should have the exchange of information.

Now, I am a CSL student and volunteering with University of Alberta Campus Food Bank(CFB), I  should do four class presentations per month to let more students know about our CFB. I think class presentation is another way of communication, since students know more about our services and how to get involved after we presenting.

All in all, communication is sending and receiving information, it has many forms, and we can't live without it!


Watch out ! You are reading my blog, so you and I are having communication NOW !

Sephora.(2009) Funny Hello
Retrieved March 23,2012 from:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9hZgtwqwUio/TndEmHHfFeI/AAAAAAAAAIY/
v8zDLKapiSE/s1600/hello.png

Facebook Resume !

Generally, Facebook and a lot of other social media are considered to be strictly for communicating with friends and family. However, with the development of Internet and the advantage of so many social media, more and more businesses are becoming to focus on online services and work. It is very common to see that many companies use email, Twitter and Facebook to provide updates to prospective clients. For instance, girls may receive emails about new items or discount from Victoria’s Secret weekly or even daily; clients of a nutrition consulting company may get the latest news about nutrition technology from this company’s official Twitter or website.

Nowadays, we have the ability and access to many resources by Internet, and we can use our advantage to find a job or different opportunities in our field of study. In order to give other’s attention, you should “show off “ yourself at first, and Facebook gives us a stage to make our unique show. Recently, I made a business page on Facebook for ALES 204 class! In the blank named “Biograph”, I have my academic history (for introducing the process of my education), volunteer experience, skills (for showing my advantage) and contact information. By writing this information on Facebook, it’s easier for people who look for employees to evaluate the potentials, and very convenient for me to get more career chances in my field of study.  In plus, I also wrote something about my interests, and added my links to Twitter and Blog on my professional profile, so that my prospective boss may know me more about my life, character and working abilities. Employers may decide whether I am suitable for the job or not, depending on the information supported on my page. 

It is not very hard to make a business page; you just log in to your Facebook account, click “ Create a page” on the bottom of your homepage and edit your information (fill in blanks like doing a survey). 

It is ALES 204 that changes my idea on Facebook. I find that it is not only a simple chat tool, but also a space for us to gain more career opportunities. I want to learn something more about social media and communicating skills in this amazing course. Now, I am looking forward someone will have access to view my online resume, and I think my ALES classmate Brenda also wants her professional profile to be viewed. Let's go check out! ! ! ! 

Nian Liu Facebook page, Screen Shot.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nian-Liu/310391189013075?sk=info

Who is Nian Liu...?

Hello everyone, 

My Chinese name is Nian Liu, and you can also call me Livy!  I like traveling dancing, photographing and playing piano. and I want to try the all kinds of food around the world. 



(From my iphoto)

In 2009, I attended the "University of Alberta & Wuhan University International Program". I took one year on preparing for studying abroad including materials for student visa, IELTS (International English Language System). Now, I am a second year student in University of Alberta, but a first year student in Nutrition and Food Science program and majoring in Food Science and Technology, because I tansferred from the Faculty of Arts in 2011 fall. Communication is playing an very important role in my life, it helps me make friends, change major successfully, study and so on. I can't live without communication, and no human being can live without communication.



(Created by myself with Microsoft Word)



I think the internet is a very valuable and convenient tool for communication and information exchange, but my current use of social media is fairly small: Facebook (I always forget to check it…), Google(for searching information ), YouTube( for keeping up on the latest news) and Skype (for communication with my parents in China). I just signed up for Twitter several days ago for the ALES 204 course, so there are still many new things for me to learn. 



http://www.sya.org.hk/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/facebook_icon.jpg
http://img.china-code.net/newspic/201002/07/20100207085857895.jpg
http://www.kentbusiness.co.uk/images/youtube-logo-lg_m.gif
http://iphone.soomal.com/images/doc/20100918/00007285_02.jpg



The social media I always use is Tencent QQ, generally, we call it QQ. It is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in mainland China. QQ is like MSN, but not quite same. Except for chatting function, we also can make video calls, play mini games, share photos or interesting news in QQ zone. It seems to be the mixture of MSN and Facebook. QQ is the only way for me to keep in touch with my friends in China.



(http://img9.3lian.com/c1/vector2/03/07/14.jpg)

It’s really cool to communicate with our professor with Twitter! In plus, I take part in CSL (Community Service-Learning) program, and I'm going to volunteer in Campus Food Bank with Aimee and Brenda. I am looking forward to gaining more knowledge about Twitter and learning lots of new communication strategies in ALES 204 this term!

(http://pic10.nipic.com/20100930/575755_174804095924_2.jpg)