A Simple Reflection To begin a reflection at a particular milestone, one should look into the mirror and look past the concrete image into what lies beyond. The particular milestone here is the completion of COMM 1015 and my progress over the semester is what lies beyond. Certainly, change is evident over my first semester of college; the debate here is whether the change is positive improvement or not. This has indeed been an enjoyable semester for me, but as I begin to gather up the ends of my first semester communication skills education, I will illustrate and reflect on my progress. Writing has always been one of my stronger suits, gliding with ease through English classes that others may find difficult. I have always been able to easily throw together a captive introduction, state a thesis, provide support, and conclude well. Even though it is very easy for me to develop a good piece of literature, there are still areas for improvement. I have never been very keen on the entire writing process until this year. I now use a quick brainstorm and free write to create a detailed outline making my papers much more logical and organized. Also the peer editing process is something that I have improved on greatly, learning to edit the papers’ of my classmates and taking their feedback to mind as well. I selected the nonverbal paragraph, speaker analysis, and common book essay as my personal best writings this semester because in all three I included the writing process and it helped me develop well organized, all-inclusive pieces of work that were fun to read. I also had them edited by Ms. Emilie and students taking all feedback and corrections into mind, effectively perfecting the writings. I am proud of them more simply because the assignment allowed me to put together my ideas in a unique way that I thought was interesting. I think my major weaknesses, though, fall more into reading comprehension and critical thinking.
The structure of Ms. Emilie’s teaching helped my reading comprehension skills improve significantly through the course of the semester. Material was to be read from the book and a subsequent quiz would be provided to prove understanding of the material. I ended up doing very well on these quizzes illustrating my improvement throughout the class. These acquired skills helped in every other class where reading was necessary to capture certain material. Critical thinking came more subtly during the course. The group conflict project improved my critical thinking as I had to examine all of the aspects of my stakeholder to find solutions to the common problem. Also the conflict resolution letter incorporated critical thinking as I had to come to a mutual solution between two parties where neither takes a loss. In both cases, research was necessary to establish a common ground and find the solutions that work best for every party involved. I understand now, in detail, the steps to solving a conflict; stating the problem, analyzing the problem, brainstorming solutions and choosing the best one. I am now able to come to a plausible solution when faced with a conflict as opposed to a one-sided close-minded solution. My listening and communication skills have also greatly improved over the semester. I have never been a very effective communicator demonstrated through my weak relationships with my family and friends. The material in the textbook and the corresponding quizzes forced me to learn a ton of things I did not know about being an effective communicator. I learned how to use listening skills, nonverbal communication, feedback, and many more strategies to communicate appropriately with people. I also learned how to register feedback and make changes in the way I am communicating based on the message being communicated to me. The communication environment involving kinesics, occulesis, haptics, proxemics, chronemics, olfactory, and vocalics is much more vivid to me as my knowledge