Activities

  1. To enrich your understanding of the chapter, check out:

    LearningCurve for adaptive quizzing for the chapter.

    The “Browse Resources for this Unit” tab to view videos illustrating key concepts.

  2. Question

    Think of someone (a family member, a celebrity, a politician, a friend, a professor) who exhibits competent communication in a particular context. What behaviors does this person exhibit that make him or her particularly effective? Would you want to model some of your own communication behavior after this person? Why or why not?

  3. Question

    Keep a log of all the different channels (face to face, written, computer mediated, telephonic, others) you use to communicate during the course of one morning or afternoon. Do you regularly communicate with a particular person via a specific channel? (For example, do you talk with your mother mostly over the phone, your romantic partner through text messages, and your childhood best friend via Facebook postings?) What channels do you prefer to use when sending different types of messages (long and short messages, positive and negative messages, business and personal messages, and so on)?

  4. Question

    Describe two communication situations, one in which the communication was appropriate but not effective, and one in which the communication was effective but not very appropriate. Analyze these situations, considering the situation and relationship.

  5. Question

    Consider a scene from a favorite film or novel. Imagine how it would change if you had not seen the rest of the film or read the entire novel. Would you come away from it with the same meaning if you did not understand the relational context between the characters or the situational context within the larger story?

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