By Nur Diyana
The Collaborative Experiential Space (Level 4, Central Library) was launched last year and its inaugural exhibition had books relating to gut health and mental well-being. This semester, we look at communication, which shapes every aspect of our lives, from personal relationships to professional environments and academic research. The books currently on display have been refreshed to cover these aspects.
Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters, explores how our daily interactions influence our connections, while Talking to Strangers examines the complexities of engaging with unfamiliar individuals. Someone to Talk To underscores the importance of close relationships for emotional support.
For those seeking deeper understanding, How to Know a Person offers insight into truly seeing others, while Surrounded by Idiots breaks down the four types of human behaviour to improve communication. Effective communication in the workplace is also essential, and Simply Said provides practical strategies to improve clarity and trust in professional settings.
In academia, They Say/I Say teaches the art of engaging in intellectual dialogue, while Creative Research Communication highlights methods for conveying complex research to wider audiences. For scientists, The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science also offers guidance on making scientific ideas accessible.
Listening, often overlooked, is the focus of You’re Not Listening, which emphasises its importance in all forms of communication. Meanwhile, A World Without Email by Cal Newport challenges us to rethink how we manage work-related communication in the digital age.
Ultimately, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know encourages us to embrace open-mindedness and challenge our assumptions, enhancing our ability to communicate effectively by staying receptive to new ideas and perspectives.
These books collectively share how to improve our interpersonal, professional, and academic communication, highlighting the importance of understanding others, listening deeply, and conveying ideas effectively across various contexts.
We encourage you to visit the Collaborative Experiential Space to check (and borrow!) these books out. For those interested in looking deeper into the subject, do check these out:
Wood, J. T. (2016). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Small, M. L. (2017). Someone to Talk To (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Blastland, M. (2019). ‘Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know’, by Malcolm Gladwell – review. In The Spectator (London. 1828).
Brooks, D. (2023). How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen (First). Allen Lane.
Susman, S. (2023). Breaking Through: Communicating to Open Minds, Move Hearts, and Change the World. Harvard Business Review Press.
Sullivan, J. (2017;2016;). Simply Said: Communicating Better at Work and Beyond (1st ed.). Wiley.
Anonymous. (2011). HBR’s 10 Must Reads: The Essentials. Harvard Business Review Press.
Murphy, K. (. (2020). You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters (First). Celadon Books.
Erikson, T., Pender, M., & Bradbury, R. (2019). Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood). Vermilion.
Marmion, Jean-Francois: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF STUPIDITY. (2020). In Kirkus reviews (New York, N.Y. : 1991).
Donald, D. (2021). ‘Think Again’ by Adam Grant: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. Residential Systems, 22(4), 11.
Newport, C. (2021). A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in An Age of Communication Overload. Portfolio / Penguin.
Graff, G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. K. (2012). “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: Wth Readings (2nd ed.). W.W. Norton & Co.
Wellman, H. M., & Lind, K. (2021;2020;2019;). Reading Minds: How Childhood Teaches Us to Understand People (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, M. (2024). Toxic humans: Combatting Poisonous Leadership in Boards and Organisations. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Mulder, H. A. J. (2017). Creative Research Communication: Theory and Practice, by Clare Wilkinson and Emma Weitkamp. Research for All, 1(2).
Kelly, A. (2020). How Scientists Communicate: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Knowledge (1st ed.). Oxford University Press.
Hutchinson, A. R. (2017). Montgomery, Scott L.: The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science. In CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries (Vol. 55, Issue 1, p. 44).
Hoffman, A. J. (2021). The Engaged Scholar: Expanding the Impact of Academic Research in Today’s World. Stanford Briefs, an imprint of Stanford University Press.
Hofmann, A. H. (2016). Writing in the Biological Sciences: A Comprehensive Resource for Scientific Communication (Second). Oxford University Press.
