Flashcards › Effective Speech: Intro to Communication

communication is the process of sharing information by using symbols to send and receive messages; you communicate when you share thoughts, ideas, and feelings with others interpersonal communication communication between 2 or more people message consists of the ideas and the feelings that make up the content of communication sender the person who sends the message receiver the person who receives the message feedback a return message verbal symbols are words nonverbal symbols includes gestures, facial expressions, and sounds such as laughter, clapping, hissing, and whistling channels all messages are transmitted through these; the means for sending communication informal settings which are casual, unstructured situations; where most of your communication occurs; communication is usually spontaneous What are examples of informal settings? talking with family and friends, introducing people, giving instructions, talking on the phone, giving and receiving information in class, and asking for directions formal settings situations that your can prepare for ahead of time; allow you to affect the ideas and feelings of people in important positions What are examples of formal settings? job and college interviews, group discussions, public speaking, debate and parliamentary procedure, interpretive situations, and electronic communication What are the 3 different kinds of audience characteristics you must consider in order to maximize effective communication? individual characteristics, cultural characteristics, and sociological characteristics individual characteristics you look at such things as a person's personality, interests, and aspirations cultural characteristics you look at such things as age, religion, and national and ethnic backgrounds sociological characteristics you look at elements such as their affiliations, educational backgrounds, and occupations encoding the process of turning ideas and feelings into verbal and nonverbal symbols decoding is finding the meaning of verbal and nonverbal symbols interference is anything that gets in the way of clear communication physical noise consists of any sound that prevents a person from being heard psychological noise the thoughts and feelings that distract people from listening to what is said semantic noise the interference caused by words that trigger strong negative feelings against the speaker or the content of the speech What are the 6 qualities of an effective communicator? care about your communication success, know what your are talking about, be organized, use language well, use effective nonverbal signals, and listen carefully