Introduction to Professional Communication
2 What Communication Skills do I Need?
The list of skills that could be considered a “communication skill” would be extremely long—and with good reason! The list below is only a portion of what could be included.
| Adapting | Crediting | Expressing | Interpreting | Negotiating | Posting | Repeating |
| Analyzing | Debating | Facilitating | Interviewing | Networking | Presenting | Searching |
| Categorizing | Defining | Filming | Leading | Organizing | Printing | Skimming |
| Coaching | Designing | Gesturing | Listening | Paraphrasing | Publishing | Socializing |
| Commenting | Displaying | Highlighting | Managing | Persuading | Quoting | Speaking |
| Copywriting | Documenting | Illustrating | Mentoring | Photographing | Reading | Summarizing |
| Correcting | Editing | Inferring | Moderating | Portraying | Re-enacting | Writing |
All of these skills can be useful in today’s professional workplace and many would be needed simply to be hired in the first place. The words above in bold are part of the learning in this book, but all communications skills in the list are valuable (and those not in bold can be learned in other communications courses, such as those focusing on interpersonal communications).
Thinking of your future career goals, which of the other skills noted above will you want to have? Take a moment to make your own personalized list; you can even add communication skills not listed above. How do you plan to acquire and/or improve those skills? How can you use those skills to make yourself more competitive in the labour market? Chances are, there’s another communications course that can help you with those. The more communication skills you have, the better you can perform in your career.
