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COMMUNICATING AS A PROFESSIONAL

Communication is the cornerstone of human culture. Some of the most ancient writings that have been uncovered and translated are receipts, invoices, and financial accounts. Even thousands of years ago, our ancestors understood the importance of professional communication – the skill of clearly conveying information related to the job. Today, those with poor communication skills are left behind in the workplace. They are simply unable to succeed. Why is this so?

Good grammar, that is, a firm grasp on the syntactical rules of the English language, is absolutely essential in the workplace. In the Information Era, a vast proportion of our communications is over the written word – emails, instant messages, test messages, and so on. Some people we will “talk” to will only ever know us by our words, so it’s important that our words are impeccable (Weins). Writing well implies that we speak well, and a well-spoken person is – usually rightfully – assumed to be educated, thoughtful, and even, as Susan Adams writes, a “good listener”.

There are other conclusions we can draw about a person based on their grasp of grammar. Someone who is careful to make sure their words come out clearly and perfectly punctuated and conjugated can be assumed to be just as careful and exacting in other parts of their work (Weins). Grammar is a detailed set of rules for communication, after all. A grammatically-inclined person is likely to be well-learned – or at least, able to pick up quickly on their own mistakes and correct them without prompt (Weins). With their attention to the details of the rules of grammar and ability to communicate clearly and professionally, these kinds of people are highly desirable in the workplace. Kyle Weins says it with perfect conciseness: “I hire people who care about those details.”

I’ve thought about how this can relate to me, and my aspirations as a soon-to-be professional. My career goal is to become a web developer – a person who helps construct and design websites for people and organizations, and perhaps even acts as a webmaster to keep the site updated and functioning (Bureau of Labor Statistics). When one has a job that involves making things for other people, communication can make or break a contract. A web developer must sit down with a client and discuss the client’s vision for the website. This can be extraordinarily difficult if the client doesn’t know what they want, or is unable to communicate clearly – and given the earlier laments of the dearth of good grammar in the workplace, difficult clients are unfortunately common.

After the client has left, if a web developer has a team, she must pull them together and then relay the client’s vision to them. Depending on the size of the site and the team, it’s entirely possible for the project to become an elaborate game of telephone. Communication will be, as always, key.

This English class will be a perfect opportunity to practice good communication skills in a (relative to the workforce) low-consequence setting. I find that I have any problems with staying on-topic during papers or misreading instructions. That would spell disaster on a project, should it begin to spiral away from the initial plans, or if I misunderstand the client completely. Then the site would have to be redone! I also have issues with sloppy, minute errors. Perfection of punctuation in English would also translate into perfection in code (Weins), which of course, is a critical skill of someone who builds websites.

Outside of class, I have some methods of keeping my communication skills sharp. I enjoy writing tutorials for the forum I moderate – I believe that writing the occasional tutorial not only benefits the community, but gives me implicit feedback on how clearly I communicate in my writing. Although I’m not interested in becoming a teacher, I know that educating others in the office will be one of my occasional duties. If I gave unclear information, I would be no help to my colleagues whatsoever. Should I ever have interns or other subordinates, it will important that they understand the tasks I give them.

For any professional out there, it’s absolutely imperative in any field of employment to have excellent communication skills. The opinion my colleagues hold of me will be based on these skills. My career will rely on these communication skills. Without them, I might gather a negative reputation, one that indicated an inability to listen to clients and understand what they want, or an inability to convey the parameters of a project. The value of communication skills, including good grammar and spelling, absolutely cannot be underestimated for anyone.

Works Cited

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