Define that dimension in your own words and generate an argument for why you are good at that particular aspect of competency.

Objective: To assess your own interpersonal communication competence toward a goal of improving your interpersonal communication skills.

Your paper will focus on this question: How would I describe my interpersonal communication competence? You will use the Interpersonal Communicator Competence Instrument as a starting point for your paper (see p. 23 in Workbook). Note that you should analyze your knowledge of interpersonal communication competence at this point in time. To respond to the question above, do the following:

A. Provide your competency scores on all six ICC dimensions in a table. The table should be placed in the paper after the introduction to the paper as follows. If needed, decrease the font size to make the table fit in the 1-inch margins.

Table 1. My Scores on the Interpersonal Communicator Competency Scale

Adaptability
Conversational Involvement
Conversational Management
Empathy
Effectiveness
Appropriateness
Your Name

B. Define in your own words what effective means. Your definition should be a paraphrased from the definition provided in the textbook or workbook. Provide an argument for how effective you are in interpersonal relationships. If you are unclear about what we mean by interpersonal relationships, look it up in Chapter 1 of your textbook. In your argument, provide examples for your claim that you are/are not effective.

C. Define in your own words what appropriate means. Provide an argument for how appropriate you are in interpersonal relationships. In your argument, provide examples for your claim that you are/are not appropriate.

D. Select another dimension of competency from Table 1 that you scored relatively high on. Define that dimension in your own words and generate an argument for why you are good at that particular aspect of competency. In your argument, provide examples.

E. Not including effective and appropriate, select a dimension from the table above that you score low on. Define that dimension in your own words and generate an argument for why you are relatively weak at that particular aspect of competency. If you score lowest on effectiveness or appropriateness, please choose one of the other four dimensions since you will have already discussed and defined these terms. In your argument, provide examples.

F. Go back to the scoring page of the questionnaire. At the bottom of page 2, you can calculate your scores for communicator competence motivation, knowledge, and skill. Report these three scores and define each competence. Reflect on which of these you are poorest at (i.e., your lowest score). If you do not have a single low score, choose one to write about. Why are you relatively poorest at this aspect of competency? What are your examples for that claim? What can you do in your communication behavior to improve on this aspect? How would you go about doing so?

G. Interview one person who knows you well about one of the issues above (B-F). Make sure you refer to that person in your paper (e.g., I interviewed my best friend Paul about my conversational management competency, and he commented that .). This interview is a great piece of examples to back a claim that you make about yourself. You can, of course, refer to your interview whenever you like (e.g., it can be examples for more than one point), but you only need to refer to it at least once. Note: You cannot argue with this person, denigrate them, or tell them that they are wrong. You are asking them to help you and thus, you should listen carefully to what they have to say and thank them for their help. Also note: You must turn in your contact information for the person you interviewed. Contact information includes the persons name, relationship to you, and email. Attach a sheet of paper behind the reference page (e.g., this will be the last page of your paper) that has that contact information.

When writing your paper:
1. Each time you make a claim about yourself (e.g., I am often poor at conversation management) you must back up your claim with examples. Examples can be a story from your life or from the interview. You need at least two pieces of examples per claim.

a. Stories should illustrate what you said and how others responded. In other words, if your examples/stories are all about your feelings and thoughts, you will not earn a high score because this is a class on communication behavior. Show us what you say, how you act, and how others respond for a good grade. You can use quotation marks as a way to make sure you are doing communication.

i. E.g., In that discussion with Lonnie I said, Well we do it my way or I am not going. I could tell Lonnie was annoyed as she rolled her eyes and she took a long time to respond but she finally said Fine, I guess we have to.

1. Note: It is okay to have an example or two of feelings/thoughts (maybe a story of when you wanted to say something but couldnt get the words out), but your grade will be adversely affected if you have repeated stories of you not talking.

2. You must provide a citation from the book, workbook, or lecture when you are paraphrasing each major term. In other words, definitions should be paraphrases of the definitions offered in the book/workbook/lecture and thus you must offer a citation for the original source of the definition. No citations will result in point deductions.

3. The workbook shows you how to lay out the paper in APA 7 (see sample paper p. 105). It shows you how to properly cite the workbook and textbook (see sample reference page). It gives you ALL the information you need to properly set the paper up. Follow the guidelines explicitly or expect that we will take off points. Our workbook may differ from on-line APA guides. If there is disagreement between the workbook and on-line guides, always follow the workbook. If you do not, you will lose points.

a. The paper should be typed and double-spaced, 12-inch standard font, with one-inch margins (no larger or smaller). The text of the paper should be 5-6 pages; this page limit does not include the title page or the reference page. Anything after page 6 of text will not be read.

b. Paragraphs are at least five sentences long.

c. Give your paper a clever title.

4. Organize your paper by including an introduction, body, and conclusion.

a. The intro should introduce your paper. It should also foreshadow the paper (e.g., a 1-3 sentence overview of the topics you will cover and the order you will cover them in). Have a thesis statement that captures your general ICC.

b. The conclusion of your paper should wrap up and review, in general, what was stated in the paper. No new content should be introduced in the discussion. This paragraph should be at least 5 sentences long. The last sentence should leave the reader with a memorable thought about your interpersonal communication competence. Be creative.

5. Use the information that we have discussed in class, your textbook, and most importantly your workbook to support what you state. The workbook has the best understanding of the competencies.

6. Please proofread your paper. My advice is to print it out and read and edit the paper. You will be amazed at the errors you will find when you read the printed-out version of your paper (versus on the computer).

7. Your paper will be graded on content, organization, and writing. Please see the rubric for a full grading breakdown.

8. Your hardcopy paper is due on Thursday, March 3rd at the beginning of class. Your paper will be scored out of 200 points.

Last Completed Projects