Reflective Writing: Communication Incident (Reaction Paper Sample)

REFLECTIVE WRITING
By Student’s name
Code+ course name
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date
Communication Incident 1
It was at the middle of the second semester of our first year at the University, when all the first year Accounting students were called by our professor in the Lecture room for advice on improving our grades. Interestingly at that moment, the national elections had just been concluded the previous day and everybody was waiting to hear the presidential election results. The two contestants of that election had shown an aggressive competition during campaigns such that, it was hard to predict the winner. Therefore, the supporters of both contestants were optimistic that their candidate was going to win the elections. Therefore, everybody in the country was thinking of the election results including the students in my University as we all had voted in that election.
When the Professor rose to give his speech, the students could not actively listen and many times they kept on whispering to each other. Worse still, some other students concentrated on their phones where they could search for the election results. At one moment when one of the students found that his preferred candidate had been defeated by few votes by his competitor though the tallying was far from over, he gave a loud cry. What ensued were loud noises and throwing of objects in the air as the students thought that, the election tallying was over and they were eager to know who had won the presidential seat. When the professor attempted to calm them down, some students threw chairs to him, injuring him as they never paid their ears to what he was saying as they thought he was their rival. This led to closure of the meeting and we were suspended for that undisciplined action.
As a matter of fact, there are a number of reasons that made that communication incident difficult. First and foremost reason that made this communication incident difficult was low concentration (Sundararajan, 2005). In this scenario, the students did not pay close concentration to the professor as they were busy concentrating to the presidential elections of the day. Therefore, communication turned so poor such that nobody could understand each other. The second reason that made communication difficult in this incident was poor prioritization (Adubato & DiGeronimo 2002). In this case, the students prioritized the national elections to be more important that time than what their professor had to inform them. They therefore resolved to fully engage themselves with elections than learning, an idea that they compelled themselves to use chaos and force to fulfil their wishes.
The other cause of making communication incident difficult was poor judgement (Adubato & DiGeronimo 2002). In this case, the student who produced a loud cry after getting the provisional election results made poor judgement that his preferred candidate was defeated which was wrong as the tallying was not completed. Additionally, the other students’ emotion got aroused by the weeping of one of their colleagues. Some of them made a poor judgement that their professor was their bitter rival, thus took a decision of throwing chairs to him. The other cause of making communication difficult in this incident was feelings and emotions (Weller & Weller 2000). In this regard, the presidential elections made some students angry as they thought that their candidate had lost the election, reacted angrily, thus never gave a hearing ear to the professor.
On the other side, some students were made happy by the presidential elections, reacted happily and made a deaf ear to the speaking professor. Eventually, feelings and emotions caused shouting and throwing of objects and hurting of the professor and some students. The other cause of communication difficulties in the incident was evaluation of the presidential election (Weller & Weller 2000). In this case, majority of the students stopped listening to the professor’s words as their minds were largely drawn in evaluating the presidential elections. The other cause of communication difficulties in the incident was sluggishness (Sundararajan 2005). In this scenario, the students allowed their minds to wander thus they were unable to concentrate and listen to the professor. As such the students’ minds were partially concentrating with the professor’s advice and partially with the presidential election results.
In an attempt to arrest the mixed reactions of the students in the communication incident, we tried to involve some strategies. First, we tried to make the students listen to what everybody was saying. Second, we tried to inform the students to avoid totally being taken over by the emotions of whatever kind.
Communication Incident 2
It was at the middle of the second semester of our first year at the university when our professor called all Accounts students for a meeting on how to improve our grades. All the students had prepared well and were eagerly waiting for the professor’s arrival. The meeting begun well after the professor’s welcome. After the meeting, the students cheered happily as they had learnt skills that would enable them improve their grades. Interestingly, they carried the professor high on their shoulders calling his name and dancing. There were a number of reasons that made the communication incident successful. First and foremost, all the students were keenly listening to all what was being said from the beginning to the end of the meeting .The other reason was maintaining eye contact (Sethi & Adhikari 2010). In this case, all the students faced the professor directly while sitting at an upright posture that ensured their attentiveness.
The other reason for the incident’s success was minimum external distractions (Santrock & Halonen 2010). In this scenario, all students had switched off their phones and there was zero movement or dropping of objects in the room. That ensured a consistent attention to all what the professor had to offer us. The other cause of the incident’s communication success was responding appropriately (Newman 2007). In this case, we used to nod and murmur in display of our understanding. In some instances, the students could even raise eyebrows and utter words like, interesting. The other reason for the incident’s communication success was self engagement (Newman 2007). In this scenario, students could ask questions on areas that required clarity, but they waited until the professor had concluded what he was saying.
That ensured zero interruption to their thought train. Importantly after asking questions, the students could paraphrase the professor’s point to ensure they fully understood his point. The other reason for the incident’s communication success was empathy (Sethi & Adhikari 2010). In th...