Developing real-world communication skills in non-communication classrooms

Because of differences in both the purpose and the audience, most student communication, such as papers and exams, encourages the development of communication skills that are at odds with those useful in the real world. Specific writing and speaking courses can help, of course, but are too often disconnected from the materials students must learn in other courses. Yet appropriate learning activities in these other courses can help students develop effective real-world communication skills. The paper reviews the differences between academic and real-world communication, then proposes guidelines to foster the development, in courses on other topics, of skills that are effective in the real world. As an example, it presents a Web-based philosophy course for first-year engineering students. Whereas students communicate to demonstrate their mastery of a body of knowledge to a single, captive, more knowledgeable audience, professionals communicate to receive attention, be understood, and eventually obtain an action from an unpredictably multiple, less knowledgeable, and unreliable audience. To encourage real-world skills, learning opportunities in the classroom should thus have students explain to other students, not to the teacher; receive feedback to improve their documents or presentations, not to understand their grade; and work under space and time constraints.