Basic Units of Communication - Research Paper Example

 Core Assessment Portfolio Interpersonal Communication Report Outline I. Introduction Communication is the tool to transfer and share thoughts, ideas and views. It helps in expressing the emotions, sentiments and feelings of a person. There are many factors that affect the communication process between people and groups. These factors involve the attentiveness of people, cultural diversity among them, age differences, gender distribution, personal skills including listening and comprehension skills, personal feelings and point of views etc. The communication process differs from person to person. Each person, group or organization has a different approach and technique of communicating ideas, views and messages. The communication process in use depends on the availability of resources, skills and understanding of the members. This paper aims to analyze the fundamental elements of communication, the effect of self-concept, perceptions, listening habits, language differences and non-verbal elements on communication. Furthermore this paper ends up creating a discussion on personal methods to resolve the communication barriers and strategies to promote healthy interpersonal communication and relationships. II. Main Points A. Elements of Communication Process and their Importance 1. A brief intro to the elements and their relevant importance in the communication process 2. Factors affecting Communication Process B. Role of Self-Concept and Perception in Communication 1. Self-Concept and Perception with definition 2. The positive and negative impacts on communication C. Non-Verbal elements 1. The effects of non-verbal elements on Communication 2. The evaluation of environment, noise and other distractions on Communication D. Language Differences & Listening Skills 1. The effects of language differences and listening skills on communication patterns 2. Impacts of these elements on communication effectiveness E. Resolving Communication Barriers 1. Personal Methods to resolve barriers 2. Strategies to promote Healthy interpersonal communication III. Summary 1. The main points covered in the paper and the strategies proposed IV. Conclusion 1. An insight on the effects of factors which influence the communication barriers 2. A list of recommendations to avoid those barriers 3. Strategies to adopt in order to promote effective interpersonal communication Interpersonal Communication Report Introduction Communication is the tool to transfer and share thoughts, ideas and views. It helps in expressing the emotions, sentiments and feelings of a person. There are many factors that affect the communication process between people and groups. These factors involve the attentiveness of people, cultural diversity among them, age differences, gender distribution, personal skills including listening and comprehension skills, personal feelings and point of views etc. The communication process differs from person to person. Each person, group or organization has a different approach and technique of communicating ideas, views and messages. The communication process in use depends on the availability of resources, skills and understanding of the members. This paper aims to analyze the fundamental elements of communication, the effect of self-concept, perceptions, listening habits, language differences and non-verbal elements on communication. Furthermore this paper ends up creating a discussion on personal methods to resolve the communication barriers and strategies to promote healthy interpersonal communication and relationships. Elements and Factors Affecting Communication Process Communication is an important part of our daily life. All dealings of our life varying from the smaller ones to the larger ones involve different aspects of communication process. This communication is either between the family members, close friends, relatives, shopkeeper and buyer, employee & employers or between the employee and the customers. The communication which takes place in different areas of life differs greatly. Verbal or non verbal communications are two forms which are widely used in the workplaces. In verbal communication the person uses the help of his voice to send over messages to the other person whereas non verbal communication is a form in which voice is not used. Non verbal communication includes memos, emails, sign language and other social software. To develop a perfect sort of communication it is necessary that some elements are kept into view. This brief would further take all these elements into view and provide with the related needs of communication at work and other places (Taylor 2001). To develop an effective interpersonal communication network it is necessary for the individuals to keep several factors in mind while communicating. Technological advancements have evolved the communication process by providing a number of easier and effective communication mediums. For e.g. if an employee needs to get a particular good manufactured, it is necessary for him to contact the manufacturer to tell him what good does he need. Thus it is necessary that an effective network is made. To achieve this it is necessary for the person who is communicating to achieve clarity. By clarity here, it is meant that the person who is communicating should be very clear in stating his thesis of the message. The words chosen by the communicator should be very precise which are clear enough for the other individual’s intellect. Thus it is necessary that the communicator does not drag his message up to critical levels where the other listener gets confused by the message. This confusion can therefore lead to several other problems in the work procedures (Taylor 2001). The communicator should make it a point that he is direct when communicating at work. The communicator should not involve irrelevant messages while he communicates as these irrelevant messages can lead to errors at the workplace. The misconception about reaching the point in communication is that the communicator usually thinks that adding up other points may give him an advantage but this rather creates an absurd image in which one can miss out the main points of the original message. So it can be concluded that in communication it is necessary that the main point is laid out firstly so that these points are missed out later on by the relevant authorities (Cragan, Wright & Kasch 2008, p.92). I am personally direct and clear about my instructions and communications at work. This thing, firstly, keeps me an effective communicator and secondly, stops employees/co-workers from being close, too frank or comfortable with me (Student Journal 11-1). Self-Concept and Perception Self-concept is the conceptual understanding and image of a person about himself. It affects the communication process as a person perceives the comments of the other person based on his personal expectations and perceptions. If a person has a negative self-concept he will be more likely to get negative aspects of the communication process by judging the comments to be negative or expressions as irrational (West & Turner 2009, p.39-41). Non-Verbal elements Body orientation, Posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye behavior, voice inflection / tone and pauses, touch etc. are the non-verbal elements which affect the communication process significantly. These non-verbal elements change the entire meaning of the message being conveyed. Facial expressions and tones, for example, are the most easiest to be identified when communicating with a person. An angry, harsh or loud tone may imply aggressiveness, rude behavior and ordering rather than a sympathetic, calm and advising note. The facial expressions expose the actual attitude of a person. Hence these non-verbal elements affect the entire meaning and context of the message or communication process. Environment, noise and other distracting elements also affect the communication process. A more tensed environment affects people’s perception and mental abilities affecting the overall interpretational skills. Noise may end up affecting the communication medium quality as people may not be able to hear the words correctly and may get wrong messages. The attention of a person to the communication process also forms an important element to uphold good communication. If a person is thinking about something else or busy in some other activity, he may miss some important points of the communication process or may interpret them in a wrong way owing to the thoughts or work he was involved in. My personal interest in football, for instance, is an effective example of how interpersonal communications are affected while I am watching a football match. I tend to leave things unnoticed as I am fully focused and concentrate on the football match (Journal 3-3). Language Differences & Listening Skills Language differences or poor knowledge about a language in which the communication is being carried out clearly is a hurdle in the good communication process. Poor listening skills or diversion of attention also worsen the results of the communication process. Firstly, the language barriers form an intense trouble for the communicating people as it becomes quite hard to deliver the exact message with appropriate tone, expressions and gestures when one or both are not good at the communication language. These differences and poor listening skills, hence, affect the overall effectiveness of communication. Poor language and listening skills may end up delivering wrong messages which in turn result in misinterpretations and further leads to misunderstandings between people. Once again, as I referred to my listening skill while watching a football match, tend to affect the effective communication environment. The messages being transmitted during the football match which the communicators tend to believe that they have successfully conveyed are not ever received by me (Journal 3-3). Resolving Communication Barriers In order to resolve the communication barriers, an effective communication medium is necessary. It must be decided if the communication process should be carried out using verbal or written communication mediums. In businesses, written communication mediums like emails, circulars and letters are used to promote effective communication among the employees of the organizations. However, communication in general life is usually based on verbal patterns like voice messages, phone calls, face-to-face communication and so on. Once an appropriate medium is used, it must be well understood that a person we are talking to, may have negative self-concept and may probably not be able to interpret our message. Prior knowledge about the person or inferences made on the basis of his communication may help in developing a good communication style. If negative perceptions and self-concept in a person is identified, he should be dealt with great care and soft language. The points should be clearly explained in order to maintain effectiveness of message being transmitted to the other person. Non-verbal elements like distractions, noise and attention of people forms an important part of effective interpersonal communication. To resolve this issue, an assurance sentence from the person being addressed should be encouraged to make sure that communication process is going on the right track. This assurance technique may be of particular importance to avoid communication barriers that arise due to poor listening abilities. Short conversation runs may help in reducing the listening barriers (DeVito 2007). The conversation runs allows each individual to communicate in short sentences and pass on the turn to the other person. Repetition of important points in such environment may also be helpful to properly communicate the ideas and messages. Keeping the communication process two way but managed in a way that one person speaks at one time upholds the effectiveness of communications. For example, the problems that my wife and I used to face due to continuous speaking to and yelling at each other without listening to what the other person is saying created troublesome situations. However, our understanding about the problem gave us a solution of listening to each other before starting to reject one’s ideas and arguments (Journal 3-4). Lastly, language differences and listening skills may be improved by continuous efforts to learn a language and by concentrating more on what people say and want to say. In business dealings people may use translators to overcome the language barriers and written mediums to overcome poor listening skills. However, in normal life sign language and extensive communication in different ways using synonyms and changed words may help in delivering the right message with the right meaning. To improve the listening skills and combat the outside distractions like football match in my case, I chose to leave the theatre room to be able to understand and concentrate on my wife’s communication and understand both verbal and nonverbal messages that she conveys (Student Journal 4-3). Conclusion In conclusion, we can say that although there are a number of factors which may negatively impact communication process, these barriers may be resolved by giving proper attention to the factors which affect the communication process. A person must know and critically analyze the barriers which exist during communication to encounter those using different methods and maintain the effectiveness of communication process. Works Cited Page Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Cragan, J. F., Wright, D. W., & Kasch, C. R. (2008).Communication in small groups: Theory, process, skills. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning - Academic and Professional Group. DeVito, J. A. (2009). The interpersonal communication book. Boston: Allyn and Bacon/Pearson. Student last name, First name Middle initial, Journal, Week 3, Entry 3 & 4. 16 June 2007. Student last name, First name Middle initial, Journal, Week 4, Entry 3. 02 July 2007 Student last name, First name Middle initial, Journal, Week 11, Entry 1. 02 July 2007 Taylor, J. (2001). Communication at Work. London: Kogan Page. West, R. L., & Turner, L. H. (2009). Understanding interpersonal communication: Making choices in changing times. Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth. Bottom of Form Read More