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 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 second, successful marriage to June Carter Cash.

In studying communication, our goal is to become competent communicators. We do not mean merely adequate or “good enough.” Indeed, communication scholars use the term competent communication to describe communication that is effective and appropriate for a given situation, 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.