Reflection Assignment

Samantha Carr

COMM-2719-P01- Business Writing Strategies

Kimberly Strong

August 7, 2022
When starting Business Communications, I did not think I would intake so much information. Thankfully

after this course, I have learned plenty that I will be able to take with me into my future endeavours. For

our big class assignment, we were asked to create a business report and present it to the class. Doing

this helped me gain skills when it came to my presentation skills. We learned to make sure that we are

being professional when speaking with an audience. Not only did this course help with my presentation

skills but it also helped me develop my transferable skills as well. We learned how to communicate

through all diverse types of writing strategies and how to communicate properly and professionally

through emails and body language. In this class, we had a lot of peer interaction by discussing as a group

the topics we had just learned. Many times, we were also asked to collaborate with another person in

the class to go answer some in-class assignments. Having these discussions in class and being asked to

collaborate helped me be more interactive as I am usually a shyer person. Doing all these things has

helped me when it comes to working in groups. I feel like all the themes that we learned this semester

somehow intertwine, and one helps the other, but these were the three that stuck out to me the most.

The first theme that I will be reflecting on is Presentation Skills. Presentation skills are the abilities that

someone would gain by presenting to an audience and gaining expertise by doing so. You teach what

you are presenting to your audience, and you practice looking professional and making sure that you

understand what you are presenting, that way the audience gains some informative knowledge from

you. (Christian Eilers, 2022). Presentation skills are important because we as students/ professionals

need to understand how to present our knowledge to our peers in a professional manner. Without

presentation skills, you could come across as dull or boring. Someone who lacks presentation skills could

have an audience who loses interest and therefore could miss essential information. When it comes to

myself and my presentation skills moving forward, I will be making sure to keep practicing my

presentations when I have them. I will also be making sure that I am keeping notes to help aid in my

presentation and be sure to practice using enthusiasm to make sure that I keep my audience interested
and focused. Since I have started practicing for my presentations and making sure that I fully understand

what I am presenting, I have found I am much more confident when in front of my peers. Moving

forward I will keep working on my body language that way I do not come across as nervous, I will also

work on my eye contact as sometimes I tend to look down during my presentations.

Secondly, I would choose Transferable Skills. Transferable skills are a skill that you learn throughout your

education and work experience and take with you to all the new opportunities in your life. (McKay,

2020). They are important because we use them every day as we communicate and interact with one

another. Daily I use my time management skills while I plan each day to make sure I am at work on time

for my scheduled shifts. Without this skill, companies would not want to hire me because I would not be

dependable when it comes to being on time for work. Moving forward I will keep working on my time

management skills, especially when it comes to working and going to school at the same time. I found

myself struggling when it comes to getting assignments done promptly because I think I will always have

time to do them later. Managing my time when it comes to work has always been something that I have

had no issue with. It is managing everything else around my work schedule that I struggle with. So,

something that I have been doing to help with this is setting aside time each day for specific tasks that

way it is not all left for the last minute, and I do not feel overwhelmed.

And lastly Working in Groups. Working in groups is when you can work with others to produce a solution

or produce ideas for an assignment. (Dhami, 2020) Being able to work in groups is important because

not everyone will have the same personality as you throughout your life. It is important to be able to

adapt to different people and their needs to be able to be a good team player. A way that I can continue

to improve when working in groups is by collaborating with people that I do not tend to work with.

Doing this will help me continue to gain experience when it comes to collaborating with individuals that I

may clash will and will help me learn to understand where they are coming from. I have integrated
group work into my life by reaching out to other class members that I do not know personally and asking

them to work on assignments with me. As a result, I have gained friendships, and have also gained

knowledge in things that I was not that great at because after collaborating with them they were willing

to teach me how to do the things I was not the greatest at doing. Something that I can still work on

when doing group work is delegating. I have a challenging time delegating work to others and find

myself picking up slack where it is needed. Working on this will cause me less stress by holding the

person responsible for their actions.

In conclusion, all the skills that we have learned and gained throughout this semester are important, but

presentation skills, transferable skills, and working in groups are what have stuck out to me the most. I

learned the most and realised where I need more work when accomplishing these things. These are the

types of skills we will need throughout our entire lives and are the types of skills we will always be

learning and gaining knowledge about. I am thankful for this course and all that I have learned. Not just

the skills I have written about above but everything. We have learned so much and I am grateful to be

able to take it all with me as I grow and move on professionally.

 References

Christian Eilers, C. P. R. W. (2022, May 2). Presentation skills: Examples & tips to improve
yours. zety. https://zety.com/blog/presentation-skills

Dhami, H. (2020, February 1). Group work definition and meaning. Top Hat.
https://tophat.com/glossary/g/group-work/

McKay, D. R. (2020, July 12). What are transferable skills? The Balance Careers,
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/transferable-skills-list-525490