CHAPTER 1

1. Evaluate this chapter’s definition of communication. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? If you were asked to improve it in one way, by adding, subtracting, or modifying something, what would you change? Present your answer and explain the reasoning that justifies it in a 100–200-word response. Chapter one states that communication is derived from the Latin word “communis” and means common, general, universal, or public. Communication is also the transmission of information from one person or group of persons to another person or group of persons. The text highlights that the study of communication can be approached in at least tow ways. The expositional approach identifies, analyzes, and attempts to explain the existence of attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors that unify people as a whole. Then there’s the rhetorical approach which also utilizes and encourages, which is similar to that of the expositional approach but it has a different objective. The rhetorical approach strives to identify and explain the steps within communication that people take in their quests to establish points of oneness.
2. Recall an incident in which you or an acquaintance experienced a communication breakdown because of a verbal linguistic barrier. Chronicle this incident in a 100–200-word response. I can recall an incident on my job when one of our lines had to shutdown to what we believed was a tool that was stuck, but it turned out that the preset (the numbers that are manually set in the machine to ensure that the specific tool that is being made is being drilled at the same speed for the next 500 parts) were off due to a break in communication. The team lead delegated a team member to preset the tools, not realizing the individual could not read English, so his presets were based on “hoping” the parts turned our right verses informing