Patterns of communication are an integral part of everyday life.

• Individuals must adapt their communication to a variety of settings based on the role they are assuming in the interaction.
• Individuals must also make daily decisions about the appropriateness of the messages they are communicating.
• The methods that individuals choose to communicate their messages have an impact on the effectiveness of those messages.

Because of the complex nature of communication, there are several ways to define it.

• According to a common concept in several definitions reviewed by Dance, communication is a verbal process by which we understand others and reduce uncertainty through the use of symbols.
• The working definition of communication for this text is shared meaning between two or more individuals using a symbol system.
• When individuals communicate with each other, they create a chance for shared meaning.
• Each individual's meaning is made up of experiences, training, and background.
• When there is similarity of experience, training and background, there is a greater chance for successful communication.

• The context is the setting in which it takes place, for example, a personal conversation of a public speech.
• The climate is the feeling or tone of the communication.
• The source is the sender of the message, who goes through an encoding process of translating his or her idea into language the other person will understand.
• The message can be verbal, nonverbal, or even mental.
• The channel is the means by which the message is sent.
• The feedback loop occurs when the sender invites responses to the message.
• The receiver goes through a decoding process of translating the message into his or her experience.
• Interference may occur from physical or psychological distractions.
• Timing can affect the communication process.

Human communication has several key characteristics.

• The process of communication is continuous, ongoing, and dynamic.
• Communication begins with the self.
• Communication is irreversible, or unerasable.
• Communication is reciprocal.
• Communication is unrepeatable.
• Communication is transactional.
• Communication exists in some kind of context, or setting.
• Interpersonal communication involves two individuals.
• Group communication exists among three or more people who have some common purpose.
• Organizational communication occurs in a formal institution with a hierarchy, common goals, and individualized tasks.
• Mass communication with a population takes places through some form of public media.

Several myths are associated with communication. Each can be refuted.

Myth #1: As Long As People Are Talking, They Should Be Able To Understand Each Other.

• Understanding occurs only when individuals attribute the same or similar meaning to the messages.
• Do not assume that "talk" has resulted in understanding.

 

• Be sure to send a message in a way that will generate the desired result.

 

• If you send no message, you are sending the message that you don't want to talk.
• Nonverbal behavior sends messages you may be unaware of.

 

• More frequent communication does not guarantee success.
• Sometimes more talk is not helpful.

 

• Words have meaning only when we agree on the meaning. A word represents its referent (the object it symbolizes) only if we to that representation.
• Because meanings are assigned arbitrarily, there is great room for misunderstanding.

 

• Communication must be learned and practiced.
• Some people are better at it than others; but everyone can improve.

Ancient Greece

1. The Greeks used the spoken word as the dominant form of communication.
2. They developed rhetoric, the art of persuasion.
3. The philosopher Aristotle analyzed rhetoric as having five distinct parts:
• Invention.
• Arrangement.
• Style.
• Delivery.
• Memory.
4. The Greeks recognized the importance of audience analysis.
5. The philosopher Plato stated two principles that increased the importance of rhetoric:
• Power should reside in the people.
• High offices should go to those selected by the people as the best suited for the job.
6. The Sophists were traveling teachers of rhetoric.

1. The great Roman orator Cicero wrote De Inventione and other treatises on rhetoric.
2. The philosopher Quintilian defined rhetoric as "a good man speaking well."

1. Public deliberations disappeared, and those in power made most decisions.
2. Augustine, a philosopher and bishop, applied the classical tradition to the teaching of Christianity in De Doctrina Christiana.
3. Later the classical tradition of rhetoric was lost.

1. Rhetoric was restored and science emerged as important fields of study.
2. Humanism, which focused on human achievement, taught people to combine philosophy and political ideas in their writing and oratory. Sir Thomas More was a leading humanist.
3. Sir Francis Bacon stressed the importance of knowledge for its own sake.

1. The elocution movement (seventeenth to nineteenth century focused on delivery.
2. Literary societies (an early form of debating society) flourished.
3. Well-known Enlightenment authors on rhetoric included John Locke, George Campbell, Hugh Blair, and Richard Whately.
4. In the 1920s and 1930s college English and speech became separate departments.
5. I.A. Richards' The Philosophy of Rhetoric was important work an language and symbol systems.
6. Kenneth Burke's A Grammar of Motives and A Rhetoric of Motives discuss how discourse influences motives.
7. Chaim Perelman and Richard Weaver focused on the ethics of argument.
8. All areas of communication today (organizational, interpersonal, legal, and health-care) are based on analysis of all available forms of persuasion and the impact of messages on both sender and receiver.

Helpful Links!

"How Americans Communicate" - This report, commissioned by the National Communication Association, gives up to date statistics about how men and women view their communication skills.

"Test Your Communication Knowledge" - This quiz, offered by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship will test your knowledge of the many aspects of Communication.
 

At Your Bookstore

Adams, S.(1996). The Dilbert Principle.  New York:  Harper business.
Griffin, E. (1991).  A First Look at Communication Theory.  New York:  
    McGraw-Hill.
Kavanagh, K. H., & Kennedy, P.H. (1992).  Promoting Cultural Diversity.     
    Newbury Park, CA:  Sage.
Tannen, D. (1990.  You Just Don't Understand. New York:  Ballantine Books.
Tedford, T.L. (1985).  Freedom of Speech in the United States.  New York:  
    Random House.