Arkansas newspaper cooperates with the University of Arkansas to hold a half-day School for Rural Correspondents, followed by a lunch at which the correspondents were guests of the newspaper. Cash prizes offered for the best rural correspondent's work in the next six months.
18 pages., via online journal., Meeting the demands of a proficient scientific workforce depends on students’ communication skill preparation. To describe students’ self-perceptions of their communication skills, we surveyed 315 students in Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Participants noted they were most proficient in their ability to listen effectively and least proficient in asking effective questions. Each communication skill characteristic showed a statistically significant difference before and after college engagement, but we found no statistically significant difference in the overall communication scores of students. Therefore, we recommend: 1) interviewing employers to understand their perceptions of entry-level employees; 2) investigating when students transition from false sense of confidence to actual confidence; 3) conducting a longitudinal study to investigate students’ perceptions of communication skills throughout their college experience; 4) evaluating faculty’s communication
teaching methods across disciplines; and 5) investigating the influence of self-reflection on students’ attained communication skills. Conducting such studies could lead to stronger connections between the academy and the industry, especially as faculty strive to align their teaching with needs of the industry.
Author reports that Kansas State has offered a news writing course for agricultural students for more than a decade, and with good results.. Believes a course in news writing should not be a universal requirement in the agricultural college curriculum, but emphasizes skills in English.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C29954
Notes:
Posted at http://agnews.tamu.edu/saas/2009/irlbeck.pdf, Presented to the Agricultural Communications Section, Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists, Atlanta, Georgia, January 31-February 3, 2009. 19 pages.
Edgar, Leslie D. (author), Edgar, Don W. (author), Cox, Casandra (author), Pennington, Kristin M. (author), and Bills-Hunt, Beth Ann (author)
Format:
Paper
Publication Date:
2012-02
Published:
USA
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 188 Document Number: D01501
Notes:
Paper presented in the Agricultural Communications Section of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists annual meeting, Birmingham, Alabama, February 5-6, 2012. 21 pages.
