Compare and Contrast Essay on "A Worn Path" and "The Road Not Taken"

Miscommunication
Lakeisha Young
COM 200
Prof: Aisha Meeks
September 13, 2011

I was asked have I ever had a miscommunication with someone close to me simply because I assumed that they understood me. In response to the question asked, I can say that I have had miscommunication with someone because I did not fully understand what was said. Miscommunication is a situation that I find happening a lot. There are many ways of miscommunication. “People commonly believe that they communicate better with close friends than with strangers” (Anonymous, 2011, p.1). I tend to communicate with either friends or strangers. Friends make it easy for you to communicate because you know them. While on the other hand a total stranger makes it difficult to communicate because if you do not know a person nine times out of ten, you will not say nothing to them unless they say something first. I have miscommunication with my boyfriend all the time. I can understand miscommunication with the kids because sometimes you have to repeat your self quite often in order for them to get what you are saying. He has his own way of trying to get you to do things for him. It makes me mad when people do this intentionally. For example: one day while eating supper he told me to bring him another cup, so I did exactly what he asked me to do. When I took him the cup he looked at me crazy. He then said, I thought you would know to fix me some more drink instead of bringing me an empty cup. My thing is how would I have known that he meant for me to bring him some more drink instead of bringing him the empty cup. That is a form of miscommunication I have had with my boyfriend. “Listening requires focus and attention, and failure to listen is one of the key courses of miscommunication” (Sole, 2011, ch. 2.5). I have miscommunication with my kids on the regular when it comes to listening to me. My five year old has a tendency to misunderstand me a lot. I do not know if she does this intentionally or not. For example; one day while doing laundry I asked her to bring me the laundry detergent. Not looking to see was it the right kind or not I poured the container into the washing machine when I noticed a funny smell, I then realized that I had poured cooking oil into my clothes. That was miscommunication two ways. She knows the difference between cooking oil and detergent, but somehow she got it confused. If I would have looked at what she gave me the issue could have been avoided. “The interpersonal communication process consists of several key elements. They are the sender (the source of the communication), receiver (the recipient of the message), message (the content of the communication), channel (the medium through which the communication is transmitted, feedback (the response to the communication that a communicator gets from others about the message), communication environment (the external situation in which the communication takes place) and the noise (information unrelated to the message that disturbs or interrupts the communication process” (Sole,2011, ch. 2.5). I plan to avoid this kind of miscommunication in the future. If it comes to the point that it does not happen, I will do the necessary procedures in order for me to not have miscommunication.

References
Anonymous,. Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication. (2011, January). U.S. News & World Report,1. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID:2270370591).
Sole, K. (2011). Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content.ashford.edu.)

References: Anonymous,. Close Relationships Sometimes Mask Poor Communication. (2011, January). U.S. News & World Report,1. Retrieved September 13, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID:2270370591). Sole, K. (2011). Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. (https://content.ashford.edu.)