Oral History Project Research on Battling Obesity
As learners, communication studies impact our understanding of how to engage with other people and how to hold conversations with them. In addition to this, it plays a major role in helping us improve our listening skills and capabilities. Through communication studies, we are able to become better students because we are able to gain insight into how to accumulate knowledge during lectures. Also, the students are able to be attentive in class to understand the different concepts they learn. I have had the opportunity to take some communication classes that have had a significant impact both on my academic and social life. The two communication classes I took played a major role in shaping my understating of conducting interviews as well as mediation. The communication classes I took include Comms 116P and Comms 111P. Comm 116P focuses on theoretical and communication skills involved in mediation practice, while Comm 111P focuses on the preparation and conducting interviews. The concepts I learned from the two classes allowed me to incorporate them into other classes I was taking at the moment. In one of the previous assignments that I had done, I was able to incorporate the concepts and knowledge I had gained from Comm 111P on conducting proper interviews for my research paper on oral history research on battling obesity.
On my final research paper on the oral history of battling with obesity, I was able to put the concepts I had learned in the communication classes and put them to use during the assignment write up process. I was able to use the interviewing concepts and skills that I had learned in class and incorporate them into the research process during the attainment of data on the assignment. Communication classes help students use their knowledge attained in class and use it to attain information and data for their research papers. For my research paper, I had the privilege of interviewing my friend James Chan about his struggle with obesity since childhood and how he changed his lifestyle to become more fit and healthy. Obesity is a health condition of being overweight past the recommended Body Mass Index (BMI) of an individual against their physical appearances. Obesity has become a serious health issue globally due to the underlying health challenges that are brought about by the condition. In my interview with James Chan, I was able to get a deeper understanding of how serious the issue of obesity can be, especially to a person’s self-esteem and overall well-being. From the research, I was able to gather that keeping fit and watching what we eat is important to avoid becoming obese. Also, obesity is a serious health issue that the relevant stakeholders in the field of health need to create mass awareness explaining to people how to prevent themselves from being obese.
By having an opportunity to take a communication study class, I was able to incorporate and use the concepts I have learned in class to complete my research assignment on an oral history on battling with obesity. I had the opportunity to take two communication studies classes that have well impacted on the success of both my academic and social life. Comm 111P impacted me with knowledge on how to conduct a proper interview as well as engaging with the interviewee while Comm 116P helped me understand better the communication skills and concepts in mediation. Through the concepts I learned on interviews, I was able to conduct proper research on the topic of obesity for the final research paper for the Comm 111P class. I was able to interview a friend of mine called James Chan, who had been obese as a child. Obesity is becoming a serious health issue in the world because of the underlying health issues and complications that arise from the disease such as diabetes and heart complications. The interview helped me gain insight into how James was able to overcome obesity and lead a healthy normal life. I believe that communication studies and the concepts I have learned over time have helped me to become a better student who is able to carry out and conduct proper research.