Communication and Vector Graphics Basics

Communication Skills

• Communication is a process of exchanging information, ideas, and feelings between individuals.
• Effective communication involves understanding the audience and tailoring the message for clarity.
• Communication can be verbal (oral) or written, and often involves non-verbal cues such as body language and tone.
• Communication is crucial in achieving goals, resolving conflicts, and building strong relationships.

What is an Engineer?

• An engineer is a professional who applies scientific and technical knowledge to solve problems and develop solutions in various fields.
• Engineers create designs, build, improve, and maintain structures, systems, or processes.
• Engineers employ mathematical and scientific principles to create efficient and safe solutions.

Engineering Personality

• Personality is how a person feels, looks, thinks, and behaves.
• It encompasses a person's traits, beyond just their appearance.
• Personality development involves enhancing both inner and outer self for positive life changes.
• Key aspects of personality development include self-awareness, goal setting, creativity/innovation, and human values.

Individual Competence

• Individual competence involves applying knowledge, skills, and abilities to achieve desired results.
• Knowledge refers to collected information and experience.
• Skills encompass specific technical abilities.
• Abilities refer to the delivery of knowledge and successfully managing a project.
• Hard skills are technical, acquired through formal education and on-the-job training.
• Soft skills include teamwork, communication (critical thinking, effective communication), time management, and problem-solving.
• These are key skills essential for success in engineering.

Soft Skills

• Personal skills include creativity and professional skills.
• Social skills include communication and leadership skills.
• Examples of communication skills are listening, writing, speaking, and non-verbal communication.

Communication Process

• The communication process involves a sender, message, encoding, channel, receiver, decoding, and feedback.
• Encoding is converting the message into symbols or language.
• Decoding is interpreting the message.
• Feedback is a response from the receiver that confirms understanding.
• Communication is essential for sharing information, promoting understanding, and achieving results.

Characteristics of Effective Communication

• Communication should be clear and self-explanatory.
• Information should be complete and avoid scope for questions.
• Information should be factual and not just based on impressions.
• Effective written communication should save receiver time.
• Business messages should clearly clarify and condense information, frequently using tables and diagrams.
• Messages should clearly state responsibilities. 
• Persuading and recommending should be part of messages.
• A good message results in creating goodwill for the sender.

Tools of Communication

• Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are crucial communication tools.
• Listening is a mental process that requires effort and attention to understand the message. 
• Speaking effectively involves using appropriate language, considering the audience, and conveying clear and concise messages.
• Reading involves actively engaging with the text, identifying key ideas, and critically evaluating information.
• Writing involves organizing thoughts, structuring ideas clearly, and conveying the message using appropriate language and style.

Speaking Skills

• Speakers should be mindful of their word choice and tone to avoid causing irreparable damage.
• Speakers should also be aware of and adapt to their audience.
• Asking effective questions (open-ended and close-ended) can help to gather more information, clarify ideas, and encourage creativity.
• Using probing or leading questions can help to explore topics and gather relevant information.

Reading Skills

• Effective reading involves engaging with the text, actively processing, and critically evaluating information to gain deep understanding.
• Reading strategies include selecting what to read, understanding the purpose of reading tasks, seeking answers to relevant questions, and comparing individual experiences to ideas in texts.
• Effective readers are mindful of main ideas and evidence. They evaluate conclusions, take notes, discuss materials, and reflect after reading.

Writing Skills

• Essential elements in written communication for work include structure, layout style and tone, and clear content presentation.
• Different areas of communication include verbal communication (what we say) and non-verbal communication (visual, body language).
• The distinction (or advantage) of face-to-face communication is the ability to see the other person. The disadvantage in comparing face-to-face communication to other modes of communication is it may not be suitable for large organizations/groups, nor for nervous/poor communicators, and poor retention by listeners.
• Communication is difficult to hold someone responsible for.

Success of Verbal Communication

• The effectiveness of verbal communication depends on verbal and non-verbal actions.
• Positive attitudes such as positive thinking, cheerfulness, and optimism are important for effective communication.
• Using appropriate body language, such as eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures, is essential for engagement and clarity.
• Maintaining appropriate personal space distance is important for successful communication.

Communication Barriers

• Physical distractions such as noise, environment (lighting, temperature, surroundings), and timing are common barriers.
• Emotional factors, like prejudices, attitudes, and assumptions, can also hinder communication.
• Language differences, especially when technical jargon is used, can create problems.
• Misinterpretations can arise from body language discrepancies during decoding (e.g. between sender and receiver).
• Problems with translation can create barriers in terms of semantic issues.
• Organisational barriers can include hierarchical structures, rules, regulations, or policies.
• Unwillingness to communicate, or a lack of proper incentives, can hinder effective communication.

Importance of Communication

• Communication is essential for making decisions, fostering cooperation, improving control, Motivating staff, and managing leadership effectively.
• The importance of communication has increased as business activities have become more complex.
• Communication in the workplace needs to account for individual differences and abilities.

Categories of Communication

• Communication is categorised based on formal/informal channels, the level of people interacting, and the direction of the communication flow.
• Examples include interpersonal communication (individual exchanges), intrapersonal (exchange of info between oneself), inter-organization, etc.
• Vertical communication includes communicating between different levels of an organization.
• Horizontal communication occurs between people/departments on the same level.
• Diagonal communication occurs between people/departments on different levels.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Communication Methods

• Different communication methods (e.g., oral, written, and non-verbal) have their own advantages and disadvantages.
• Oral communication is flexible, can allow faster feedback, but is less reliable.
• Written communication is more reliable, and offers better documentation, but can have poor feedback.

Presentation Skills

• Defining Presentation Skills;
• The purpose of a presentation;
• Planning a Presentation [Audience precedence, Content relevance, and effective impact];
• Structure of a Presentation [Logical Flow, Headline Structure];
• Preparing necessary material;
• Delivering a presentation [Voice Tone, Presentation Style, Questions, Practice];
• Ways to make presentations effective [Content, Organisation, Delivery];
• Flaws in effective presentations.

Poster Design

• Why posters are effective as a visual communication platform.
• Essential components of a poster.
• Designing the visual layout of a poster.
• Essential equipment needed to produce a poster.