Conclusions

From the responses given, Freshman (32 %) and Senior (28%) both had the highest responses to an improvement in communication. Although Sophomores ( 24%) and Juniors (16%) both experienced an improvement in communication. When looking at the difference between results in communication and negotiation, Seniors (60.9%) reported a greater improvement in negotiation than Freshman (8.7%), sophomores (21.7%), and juniors (8.7%). Freshman and Juniors reported the same percentages of improvement in negotiation. The differences in percentages were much greater when looking at purely negotiation improvement was a lot higher with seniors.
There was only two people who reported that their communication and negotiation skills did not improve at all.  After compiling our results, we found that there was a difference in between how freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors viewed communication and negotiation.  

It would be interesting to see with more participants in the future if people gave more detailed answers. Part of the difficulty with coding the data was the repetition of answers or answers that were incomplete. It was also hard to determine what comments were related to negotiation specifically or communication. In a lot of the responses, it seemed that participates combined the two ideas, so it would be interesting to have the questions separated to see if the results remained the same and seniors still commented on negotiation more than communication. With more information it would probably be easier to code the data and further split up themes that are related to negotiation. For example, they might say that being more open minded has improved their negotiation more than their communication. 

Research Question

Does classification affect communication and negotiation? 

We continued to work together for the remainder of the project. We chose this question because we believed that the higher classification an individual was affected their communication skills. Because most participants reported that they communication skills have improved since they entered college, we thought that the change was because of the differences one experiences between college and high school and as they advance in their college career. We wanted to look at if people who were upperclassman reported more positive outcomes related to communication and negotiation compared to those who were underclassman just entering college. We thought this question was important because typically people experience more freedom when they come to college. They become responsible for making their own choices as they get older which could relate to why they are having to communicate more and why the skills are developing. There are also more opportunities for leadership positions for an individual to come out of their shell and participate more on behalf of themselves. When the individual is away from their parents, they may have to look more to peers and those around them to ask for help and guidance. It forces them to communicate with more people than they had to before when they were still in high school. This helps the person become more comfortable with themselves and their ability to communicate with others.

Coding Partner

When coding with a partner, we had to determine if we saw each coding variable the same way. Original variables like more confident were seen twice, but we eliminated one of them since when a person mentioned more confidence in negotiation, they also reported more confidence in communication. Respect for others opinions/ being open minded were also combined with seeing different view points because they were often reported together and described in the same way. It was hard to determine when one was separate from the other. The frequency of response chart helped us determine whether the coding themes we found were actually repeated throughout the data. In several cases, it was difficult to determine the difference between to themes without being bias, so they were eliminated. Originally, the theme of no change and always good at communication were split into two separate categories because more people actually reported that they had no improvement in their communication and negotiation rather than them reporting they were always good at it.  When determining the final coding themes, there were few discrepancies. The ones that we did experience we fixed by eliminating or slightly altering how it was described. Themes that suggested no change, more confidence and more direct were less frequent than the themes that were more general like better communication and more willing to initiate conversation. Some of the themes created were actually reported less frequently than expected once the table was generated. Overall, there were more themes discussing communication changes than negotiation.

·    Communication
A.   Stronger Communication Skills	I
B.    More Talkative/Open	IIII
C.     More Direct / Blunt Straightforward	III
D.     More Social/Outgoing	IIII
E.     Respect Other Opinions / More Open Minded	IIII
F.       Always good at communication /No Change	I
G.     More willing to walk up to people or initate converstion	IIIIII
H.   Not good with communication/ no change	III
Negotiation
A.   Better at negotiation	IIIII
B.     Increased Patience	II
C.     More Confident	IIII
D.     Better/Easier Communication	IIII IIII IIII

College and Communication

When looking at the responses concerning communication, I first highlighted the main idea in each response. I looked for any thing that indicated whether they stayed the same,an increase or decrease. When it increased or decreased, I kept track of each time someone responded with an increase or decrease in communication skills. I also noticed when someone mentioned the skills that affected their negotiation or communication skills. There were almost no responses that indicated people's communication skills decreased while attending college. If anything, their skills stayed the same. People reported that their communication continually gets better during college, and they have become more open with themselves and about others. Several responses also suggested that activities and experiences at college has helped them to make these improvements in negotiation and communication while attending college. Even people who still consider themselves shy, they describe themselves as more outgoing and social than they were in the past. For the most part all responses reported to the question were positive improvements. According to the responses, people have taken more responsibility in their communication which has allowed hem more practice in communication and negotiation. People who reported an increase of communication skills also reported an increase in confidence and ability to make friends. Patience also influenced how they interacted with people. They reported being able to communicate and negotiate better with others because of becoming me patient since college. The repeated themes that were seen throughout the responses were :

·    Communication 

       More Confident

·         Stronger Communication Skills

·         More Talkative/Open

·         More Direct / Blunt Straightforward

·         More Social/Outgoing  

·         Respect Other Opinions / More Open Minded

·         Always good at communication /No Change

·         More willing to walk up to people

Negotiation

·         Better at negotiation

·         Increased Patience

·         More Confident

·         Seeing Different Points of views

·          Better Communication

·         Easier Communication