Communication Skills Reading. Active reading involves concentration. Select an article comparing and contrasting computer programming languages. Identify the explicit details, as well as the author’s main idea for the article. Draw conclusions about the author’s purpose for writing the article. Retell or summarize this information to your classmates. Writing. Identity theft is a serious threat to gamers who play online and use online gaming resources. Conduct research on online gaming platforms that have been hacked and customer information stolen last year. Write an informative report consisting of several paragraphs to describe your findings of the implications for consumers. Speaking. Create a presentation about current trends in computer technology using your choice of digital media. Include information that describes these trends as well as the outlook for the future of computing. Use examples that will enhance understanding and add interest to your presentation. Present your findings to the class. Listening. Passive listening is casually listening to someone speak. Passive listening is appropriate when you do not have to interact with the speaker. Listen to a classmate as he or she is having a conversation with you. Focus attention on the message. Ask for clarification for anything that you do not understand. Provide verbal and nonverbal feedback while the person is talking. Portfolio Development Objective. Before you begin collecting information for your portfolio, write an objective for the finished product. An objective is a complete e sentence or two that states what you want to accomplish. The language in your objective should be clear and specific. Include enough details so you can easily judge when it is accomplished. Consider this objective: “I will try to get into college.” Such an objective is too general. A better, more detailed objective might read: “I will get accepted into the computer science program at one of my top three colleges of choice.” Creating a clear objective is a good starting point for beginning to work on your portfolio. 1. Decide the purpose of the portfolio you are creating, such as short-term employment, career, community service, or college application. 2. Set a time line to finish the final product. 3. Write an objective for your portfolio. College and Career Readiness College and Career Readiness Chapter 2 Solvi Problems olving Problem 41 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.