My View of Communication

My motivations for studying communications includes: a desire to increase my communication effectiveness at home and in the work place, a desire to hone my ability to detect nuances in nonverbal communication, and to increase my understanding of communication misunderstandings.  The ability to understand communication and communicate effectively in a workplace setting is beneficial as efficiency between departments’ increases, additionally individual employees may benefit from upward mobility in an organization as a result of an individuals ability to communicate professionally and intelligently.  An understanding of communication is useful in ones personal life as well.  With the ability to implement successful communication in the home and with friends, a multitude of misunderstandings can be avoided and interpersonal relationships can be improved.  

Communication is a subjective phrase.  Of the definitions listed in table 2.1 of the course text, definition 7, “Communication is “the transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc., by the use of symbols—words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc.”^e”, comes closest to my personal definition of communication (Trenholm, 2008).  I chose this definition because communication is so much more than conversation alone; it encompasses the verbal, nonverbal, and written word in order to convey a varying array of information.      

Trenholm, S. (2008) Thinking through communication: An introduction to the study of human communication (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education.