COM 212: Interpersonal Communication

Davis Foulger

Communication Journal/Interpersonal Communication Resume

The Communication Journal in COM 212 is worth 18% of your final grade.

It should take the form of an Interpersonal Resume, organized as follows.

Personal Information:

Name: Normally you'd put your name, address, and phone numbver here in a resume, but your name will do

Self Description:

Who I am:

A self-description, in paragraph form. Your index card assignment 5 may provide a good start.

Who I want to be:

In paragraph or a series of bullets, talk about who you want to be. Your index card assignment 3 may provide a useful starting point.

Relationships:

The Most Important Person in my life:

Who is the most important person in your life. How did they help to make you the person you are? Your index card assignment 1 may provide a useful starting point for this section.

My closest friends:

This is, in effect, the work experience portion of your interpersonal resume. Going back to your childhood, who were your closest friends. How did each help make you the person you are. Your index card assignment 11 should give you a good start on this. I'm not going to offer my full interpersonal resume here (at least not yet), but here is an example of the kind of thing you should be aiming to do here:

1961-1971 Gary Zeevi A good friend (and sometimes best friend) through most of elementary and high school. With Gary I learned that you could have smart friends who had interesting ideas and who thought reading was exciting stuff. I haven't seen Gary since high school, but I know that he's a doctor practicing medicine in Virginia. I keep meaning to look him up again.
1958-1964 Jonathan Sayward A good friend from church who lived about a mile away. I used to play "war" at his house with his huge collection of toy soldiers. From Jonathan I learned why one shouldn't fight if one doesn't have to. People can get hurt far worse than anything you intended. I learned this when Jonathan and I had a fight over whether we should stop playing ware. The fight got violent, and I hurt Jonathan pretty bad. I never willingly fought with another person again, and by the end of junior high school had ceased altogether. I'm now duly recognized by the U.S. Government as a conscientious objector. It started that day: which was also the last day I ever played at Jonathan's house.
1956-???? Steve Schwartz My best friend through most of my childhood. A best buddy who lived right down the street and who had a huge train layout in his house. With Steve and the other children in my neighborhood I learned how to play well with others. Steve and I were fast friends through elementary school, grew somewhat apart during high school, but kept our friendship intact for a long time. He was the best man at my wedding. It has been years since I last saw him, but I'm sure we are still fast friends.

My Interpersonal Skills:

You'll get no help from your index card assignments here, but you have a whole book of possibilities to work with. What are your interpersonal skills? Are you a good listener? Well, that's a start anyway. Probably best handled as a list of some sort.

Ways I Can Improve Myself:

Your index card assignment four may give you a good start on making a list of things that you could be better at. Your text (and the things you didn't count as interpersonal skills) may give you other ideas. Probably best handled as a list of some sort.