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.