Communication Skills

The essence of much university assessment is being able to show other people what you know. Some of this is done through writing, but a large portion is done by other means – oral presentations, visual communication, or discussion of one kind or another. These pages will support you in developing your skills in these different areas.

In particular, they offer information and resources on:

• visual communication, which deals with non-textual ways to put across ideas, such as via graphs, diagrams, or pictures;
• formal presentations, communicating your ideas in oral presentations, either individually or as part of group; and
• dialogue and discussion, or how to respond to tasks that involve talking and negotiating with others.

All these skills overlap with the communication skills you develop through your academic writing, and rely on the learning skills, the research skills, and skills for everyday success in the academic environment. Communication isn’t something you tag onto the end of a process of learning, but runs right through it; these communication skills resources will support that.

For University of Sheffield users, there's a Library resource list that suggests some print materials to support the development of your communication skills.