Interpersonal Communication Skill Improvement Plan

The Interpersonal Communication Skills Assessment indicated some possible areas of relative weaknesses in your skills. For this paper, select a specific aspect of interpersonal communication that you would like to work on improving. Typical improvement goals include:

• Listening
• Reducing communication anxiety/communicating with confidence
• Using technology to communicate effectively
• Message encoding
• Message decoding
• Channel selection

If you would like to work on another aspect of your interpersonal communication skills not mentioned above, please get your instructor’s approval before proceeding. Your final project for this class involves improving an aspect of your interpersonal communication skills. You will complete some work on this each week during the class. While five weeks is not enough time to develop high-level skills across the entire spectrum of interpersonal communication, it is enough to have a meaningful impact in an area of importance to you.

Brief skill area descriptions as well as reading lists are available for each of the six skill areas previously mentioned in the IPC Skill Area Resources

You will need to find at least three additional sources beyond those in the IPC Skill Area Resources. Sources may include articles, books, videos, interactive trainings, or other materials that have the potential to improve your selected skill area. Because these additional resources will contribute to your progress throughout the rest of the course, you should find them by Week 2. Note that you will not need to identify these resources until your Week 2 journal.

Live Learning sessions are available each week to support you with your IPC Skill Improvement Plan. You can also ask other class-related questions at Live Learning. All students in COM200 are required to attend one Live Learning session during the class but are encouraged to attend more. The day and time of Live Learning sessions will be given in a class announcement. You will confirm your attendance in an element of your Final Paper.

In your paper,

• Identify your improvement goal. (one or two sentences) 
• Provide a motivation statement. Why do you want to improve this area of your interpersonal communication skills? (one-half to one page)
• Review of literature: Identify gaps in the research and information packet about this skill area to extend your understanding and contribute to your skill improvement during the coming weeks. You can search for the resources you identify in this part during Week 2 and will be reporting on what you find in your Week 2 journal. (one-half to one page) 
• List personal goals for Weeks 2, 3, and 4 of the class. There will be weekly journal entries (viewable only by you and your instructor) where you share your progress on these. You should also keep a written record of the work you do on your improvement plan, as this will be a required element of the Final Paper. (at least one page) 
• Describe how you will measure your progress toward your goal for your final paper. Try to be as specific as you can and identify progress you can actually measure or assess. (one half to one page) 

The Interpersonal Communication Skill Improvement Plan

• must be 2.5 to 4 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages and formatted according to APA StyleLinks to an external site. as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA Formatting for Microsoft WordLinks to an external site. resource.
• must include a separate title page with the following in title case:
  • title of paper in bold font
    • Space should appear between the title and the rest of the information on the title page.
  • student’s name
  • name of institution (The University of Arizona Global Campus)
  • course name and number
  • instructor’s name
  • due date
• must utilize academic voice.
  • See the Academic VoiceLinks to an external site. resource for additional guidance.
• must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph.
  • Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & ConclusionsLinks to an external site. and Writing a Thesis StatementLinks to an external site., refer to the Writing Center resources.
• must use at least 1 credible source in addition to the course text.
  • The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible SourcesLinks to an external site. table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source.
  • To assist you in completing the research required for this assignment, view Quick and Easy Library ResearchLinks to an external site. tutorial, which introduces the University of Arizona Global Campus Library and the research process, and provides some library search tips.
• must document any information used from sources in APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center’s APA: Citing Within Your PaperLinks to an external site. guide.
• must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA Style as outlined in the Writing Center.
  • See the APA: Formatting Your References ListLinks to an external site. resource in the Writing Center for specifications.