Final Blog Post

This has easily been one of my best semesters at school so far, and I really think that this communications class has contributed to how smoothly this semester has been. I signed up for this class to get my communications credit out of the way for the pre-pharmacy program, and I didn’t really think I would get much out of this class. However I actually learned a lot this semester, as well as experience things that I would normally consider difficult. My expectations about communications classes were that I would be giving a lot of speeches and practicing speaking in front of people. Although we did practice speaking in front of people the class itself focused more about how technology is changing communications, strategies on effective speech making, as well as the power if social media which I really enjoyed.

I liked both the informative and persuasive speeches. I enjoyed having to pick topics, prepare, and then finally give the speeches because it was a good exercise in organization for me as I hate making outlines and don’t feel that I get enough practice with them. I found out that picking the topics was the hardest part of making both speeches because finding topics that the class would connect to was challenge. I realized early on that I had to get creative with my visuals and facts for my speech to be received well, and that’s something that I struggled with before this class.

An experience that I will remember from this class was interviewing the attorney for our group project. I really enjoyed the experience of researching a law office and looking for someone that would agree to an interview. I did this by focusing on lawyers that went to the University of Maryland first, then I used that as the base for request and was able to find someone who was willing and we set a date. Preparing my questions was difficult because I had to do a lot of research on what being an attorney was, and I didn’t want to seem unprepared, or unorganized so I did a lot of research and asked the most relevant topics of how communications played a role in being an attorney.

The various guest speakers were also very interesting and informative because I learned a lot from them as well. I specifically remember the first speaker on what dressing business casual meant and the rules to dress appropriately in business attire. Another speaker that was particularly interesting was Ernesto and his speech on the various networking websites and how to use all of them effectively to create connections. This speech really stuck with me because of how relevant networking sites are to my daily life and how important it will be to know people for jobs in the future.

My biggest issue with this class would have to be spending money to buy the textbook, because I only used it twice and most the information was on the slides that we go over in class. Other than that the class has been fun and engaging as well as informative and helpful.