Preview

Communication Paper Essay Example

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
799 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Communication Paper Essay Example
Communication Paper
Stefanie Gonzalez
University of Phoenix

Communication paper

No matter what we do, we are communicating whether we intend to or not. Communication goes far beyond talking, nonverbal communication, in its many forms, gives off certain messages to people of different genders and cultures. When communicating, one must understand the importance of effective communication in diverse environments. People communicate in various ways but it comes down to two forms verbal and nonverbal communication. Verbal communication is spoken words among individuals. Verbal communication has three functions, task ordering, process orientation, and narrative. Task ordering ‘involves cognitive meaning that focuses on either/or choices and creates an understanding about the groups purposes and processes’ (Harris, Thomas E, & Sherblom, John C., 2008). Process orientation allows us to address successfully conflicts that arise in the group and last but not least, narrative refers to the way we speak of our group. Our verbal expressions of the group will reflect in the way we act and feel towards the group. Nonverbal communication includes facial expressions, body language, paralanguage, proxemics, and chronemics, along with many other things. Facial expressions refer to eye contact or a smile on ones face. Body language is the message we send with the movement of body parts. Paralanguage is the meaning perceived with the words used to express the message. Proxemics is the individual boundaries people draw. Chronemics is the study of the use of time. Research estimates that between 65% (Birdwhistell, 1970) and 93% (Mehrabian, 1981) of communication is nonverbal. When communicating between genders there is always some sort of challenges. Sociolinguist Deborah Tannen, who has written a book called You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, shows that the differences between the communication styles of men and women go far beyond

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Communication is the process of exchanging messages, which are either verbally and nonverbally. In order to communicate there must be a sender. The sender is the person who sends the message. The sender encodes the message for the recipient to interpret and receive. The message is the key idea that the sender is trying to communicate. The recipient is the person who is receiving the message. This individual has to decode the message in which they interpret or make out what the sender is trying to communicate to them. Verbal communication consists of the words a sender chooses to use for their message. An effective verbal message should be brief and organized. If a sender is rambling or unorganized it will be difficult for the receiver to understand the message. A verbal communicator has to have the right tone and establish credibility in the beginning. An individual must give and receive feedback. When verbally communicating you have to speak objectively, clear, and consistently. Nonverbal communications is shown through feelings, emotions, attitudes, body movements, gestures, eye contact and more. For example, a person may communicate with people through facial expressions. An individual face expression can help a receiver to understand the tone of the conversation. A person’s face is a huge displayer of emotions. The eyes tell a lot about emotions as well. Posture can also tell a receiver how a sender is feeling. Feelings, emotions, attitude and more are displayed nonverbally through body movement, gestures, and eye contact. Its not necessarily what a person says that matters, it is how they say it and how they display it. (Nonverbal Communication 2008)…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    You Just Don't Understand

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Deborah Tannen is the author of the book You Just Don't Understand where she analyzes the different meanings of communication between men and women. Her research shows that women and men use the same words and phrases and yet can interpret and react to those same words and phrases differently. Tannen compares the two sexes to find men use their conversation as a type of competition or to preserve their independence. For example, men talk about their knowledge regarding sports, cars, women, exc. Meanwhile, women try to foster intimacy through communication. For instance, women often talk and relate on a personal level. Throughout Tannen's book she uses "cross-cultural communication" to describe the differences between the language of men and women. Tannen observed that, "For males, conversation is the way you negotiate your status in the group and keep people from pushing you around; you use talk to preserve your independence. Females, on the other hand, use conversation to negotiate closeness and intimacy; talk is the essence of intimacy, so being best friends means sitting and talking. For boys, activities, doing things together, are central. Just sitting and talking is not an essential part of friendship. They're friends with the boys they do things with" (Tannen 95).…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    You Just Don'Y Understand

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages

    That men and women are on different wavelengths when it comes to communicating is probably not news to you. However, "Can We Talk?" the cover story of the December issue of New Age Journal, provides some excellent new perspectives on this age-old problem. The author, Peggy Taylor, interviewed sociolinguist Deborah Tannen, who has written a book called You Just Don 't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. Tannen 's research shows that the differences between the communication styles of men and women go far beyond mere socialization, and appear to be inherent in the basic make up of each sex.…

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Investigations into the differences between men and women and the ways in which they communicate span many areas of inquiry, including psychology, sociology, and business literature. The primary focus of all these fields is on the verbal differences between genders. As most articles point out, both genders use the same language...where then does the difference in use come about?…

    • 2246 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is a large problem when it comes to communication between men and women, whether it is between children, teenagers, or adults; because of a cross gender society. Once both sides understand this "cross-culture communication" problem, so that no gender is blamed, improvement will naturally occur. Deborah Tannen, is an award winning writer and a best selling author for her eccentric essays based on differences of male and female conversations. In the essay, "Sex, Lies and Conversation" she writes on the many distinctions of the style of conversations on both men and women.…

    • 853 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    What is “communication”? Realistically, we can never fail to harass the use of communication because of its purpose in the society. Communication can be either verbal or nonverbal (Carnes.2010). How DO Men and Women communicate differently using body language? That’s the question we would usually ask ourselves and scarcely know the answer. According to Gray, author of the best-seller “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” (1992), one of the reasons that men and women differ in their use of nonverbal communication is that their reasons for communicating are often different (Carnes.2010). This means, in most situations, a man will commonly misunderstood a woman’s language because the perspective of one gender is distributed at a different angle.…

    • 2060 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Conversation is a normal part of every day life. People converse everywhere they go; whether they are with their friends’, at school or even while at the store, a conversation is bound to ignite. While communicating has its ups, it also has its downs; these ‘downs’ can happen especially when men and women are communicating because, according to Deborah Tannen, they have different communication styles. Tannen illustrates this in her video, He Said, She Said: Gender, Language, & Communication, where she talks about and gives many examples of how men and women differ in their conversational approaches. I definitely agree with Tannen in regards that conversation between the sexes is asymmetrical.…

    • 1658 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Every individual is unique and has his or her own way of viewing the world. A common ground all individuals possess are the ability to communicate. However, the way people communicate can differentiate from person to person or even culture-to-culture, the act of communication is a vital role to ensure the…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Even though we have been communicating throughout our entire lives, the process of transmitting information from an individual (or group) to another is a very complex process with many sources of potential error. With all communication, some of the meaning behind the message is lost in the process. This tends to happen the most in cross cultural situations where language barriers come into play. In the communication process it is crucial to be aware of potential errors. It is also very important to understand that a lot of communication is non-verbal. The non-verbal part includes such things as body language and tone. (Fenson, 2007)…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    communication essay

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Looking back, I thought the team presentation assignment was both educational and beneficial in many ways. Throughout the process I was able to gain a better understanding of the importance of team work, get a clear idea of where I personally stand as team member and presenter, and also form relationships with some great classmates along the way. The process as a whole, from the brain storming all the way to the end result, made many of the concepts we have learned in class realities allowing me to relate to, and therefore better understand the communication process. Although there were times of stress, presentation mishaps, and regrets along the way, I feel that each member of the team grew both individually and as a whole from this assignment.…

    • 1297 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Language and Gender

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages

    After reading many authors’ theories on language and gender such as: Deborah Tannen’s book “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation”, Penelope Eckert “Language and Gender”, and many others. I decided to focus my paper on Deborah Tannen’s book. Tannen’s book is a good fit to analysis because it uses examples from her own life and her family, students and friends. Since the examples are from real life, it helps people better understand each concept. The book breaks down each problem men and women have communicating into sections. The sections made writing this paper easier because then I could break down each section for my audience.…

    • 1226 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, men and women approach communication with a distinct set of rules and interpretations of talk. While men focus on status and independence, women in the same time focus on intimacy and connection and this difference might make communication between the sexes problematic. Deborah Tannen states that "communication between men and women can be like cross cultural communication, prey to a clash of conversational styles" (Tannen, 2001).…

    • 514 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    According to Tannen (1995), “communication isn 't as simple as saying what you mean”. The way people say what they mean is crucial, and differs from one person to the next, because using language is a learned behavior: how individuals talk and listen are deeply influenced by cultural expectations. Women and men are like people who have grown up in two subcultures. They have two broad different styles of speaking and establishing social status.…

    • 2422 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    rentA wise man once said "the biggest mistake is believing there is one right way to listen, to talk, to have a conversation—or a relationship." We all know that a lot of things affect the way of communication. Where we're from, or our educational background, or, of course, our gender. thus, men and women differ in their ways of communication, that is, the difference can be seen clearly In their daily conversations and even in their way of complaining about a problem.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Communication Essay

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Building and the Environemnt Introduction A berm house is a house that is banked with earth. The design and building methods that are used aid the building to require less energy being put into the building when construction is complete and the building is being used as its intended. Construction…

    • 1164 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays