Communicating Competently

Communicating is inherently complex because people and situations vary. For example, in the classic film Walk the Line, singer-songwriter Johnny Cash is thoroughly at ease in front of an audience but falls apart when communicating at home. Cash’s relationship with his wife Vivian seems marked by a lack of

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understanding, dishonesty, and an inability to connect on a personal level. The Academy Award–winning film reveals that Johnny Cash has a set of useful and unique talents but that he must adapt them to suit the needs of different people and situations. He does this in his personal life in his successful second marriage to June Carter Cash.

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While Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix in the film Walk the Line) had a great connection and rapport with his fans, his first marriage lacked those communication qualities and was unsuccessful.

In studying communication, our goal is to become competent communicators. By competent, we do not mean merely adequate. Indeed, communication scholars use the term competent communication to describe communication that is effective and appropriate for a given situation and in which the communicators evaluate and reassess their own communication process (Wiemann & Backlund, 1980). We examine each of these aspects of competent communication in the following sections.