Interpersonal Communication Project Instructions

The purpose of the Interpersonal Communication Project (ICP) is twofold: 1) To develop an interpersonal communication plan that demonstrates course-related knowledge and a commitment to developing and maintaining healthy, healing, helping, and holy relationships through effective communication. 2) To demonstrate your ability to compose and effectively deliver a message with clear, purposeful, and well-organized content with attention to both verbal and nonverbal aspects. You will produce a 9-10 minute video recording of yourself presenting your communication plan. You will also create an accompanying PowerPoint presentation that highlights your main points and clearly discloses your sources. The video file will be uploaded to YouTube and the PowerPoint presentation will be submitted to Blackboard along with a link to the video. Your presentation must include the following sections/main points:

1. Introduction:
   Introduce your project in an engaging and interesting way. Say your name (but do not provide a biography), then give a brief preview of your presentation’s main points.
2. Overarching goal:
   Articulate an overarching life or career goal that anchors your communication plan. This goal should be succinctly formulated as a single phrase and must not be overly broad or vague. Share why this goal is important to you and explain the role of interpersonal communication within this goal.
3. Behavioral blend and background:
   Briefly describe your behavioral blend as identified in your Uniquely You profile. Also, share about how your background and identity influences your communication patterns, both positively and negatively. This section provides a backdrop for understanding you as a communicator and the challenges and opportunities you have faced.
4. Communication barriers:
   Disclose and discuss the most significant interpersonal communication barriers and issues that you have discovered throughout this course. Define and explain how these currently hinder you and negatively impact your relationships. It is implied that you have identified the specific barriers you will need to overcome in order to reach your overarching goal.
5. Resources and strategies:
   Describe solutions that will help you overcome the barriers discussed in the previous section. Be specific in discussing resources in the course literature that you have found personally applicable and helpful. These may include concepts, principles, models, or metaphors that have given you insight and understanding; techniques that may be employed to enhance communication skills; strategies that you have discovered, etc.
6. Action plan:
   Formulate specific action steps for implementing the resources and strategies described in the previous section within your interpersonal context. Actions may include techniques you will practice, ideas you will continually reflect on, things you will do differently, etc. Explain how implementing your plan will make your overarching goal a reality.
7. 7.Conclusion:

End with a memorable closing statement or quote.

For this project, you must incorporate all the required course texts and two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles in a meaningful, effective, and significant way. Attribution to these sources must be clear throughout, ideally by oral reference. Evidence of self-reflection, critical thinking, immersion in the course materials, and synthesis of the course literature is expected. The language and terminology used in your presentation should be familiar to the audience and appropriate for the setting. When organizing your presentation, make sure each required section/main point is sufficiently developed given the time limit. The sections must be logically connected with a progression of ideas throughout. Transitions between subtopics should be clear and maintain flow of thought. All content should be applied and personalized.

The video must be of sufficient quality for a professional setting and show you speaking, ideally from the waist up. Your PowerPoint should not be featured in the video. Your delivery should demonstrate a willingness to communicate with attention to audience engagement, articulation, pronunciation, tone, absence of vocal fillers, eye contact, posture and movement. Your presentation must not exceed 10 minutes, or you may not be able to upload your video file.

Your PowerPoint presentation should include a total of 15-20 slides that have a consistent look, font usage and style throughout. The slides should effectively and professionally communicate key points and provide visual support for your oral presentation, rather than “stand alone” with an over-abundance of text. Use images, graphic elements and illustrations to add interest, but make sure these do not distract from the overall content. Use the last one or two slides for a complete APA-formatted bibliography.

*Carbonell, M. (2008). How to solve the people puzzle: Understanding personality patterns [VitalSource e-book]. Uniquely You, Inc. SKU#: 1878948.

France, K. & Weikel, K. (2014). Helping skills for human service workers: Building relationships and encouraging productive change (3rd ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas Publisher Inc. ISBN: 9780398081089.

Petersen, J. C. (2015). Why don’t we listen better? Communicating and connecting in relationships (2nd ed.). Portland, OR: Petersen Publications. ISBN: 9780979155956.

Stewart, J. (2012). Bridges not walls: A book about interpersonal communication (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN: 9780073534312.

Uniquely You, Inc. Leadership online profile: Professional expanded. Uniquely You Resources (Latest ed.). SKU#: 1879578.