STUDY GUIDE (Quiz 1) “Communication: What Is It?” (pp. 5-14)
DISCLAIMER: This guide highlights some of the most important concepts addressed in the textbook readings for which you are accountable in Quiz 1. Review this material as you prepare for the quiz. Not everything in this guide will be on the quiz, and not everything on the quiz will derive from this guide. Indeed, you should carefully review the readings for other noteworthy facts, terms, or concepts that you might encounter on the quiz.

KEY TERMS Communis The expositional approach to the study of communication The rhetorical approach to the study of communication Claude Shannon, Warren Weaver, and Wilbur Schramm Sender Recipient Encoding Decoding Transmission Physical barriers to communication Linguistic barriers to communication Belief barriers to communication Stereotypes Informed generalizations SUMMARY An introductory communication text rightly begins by defining its core concept, communication. After defining communication and showing how it comes into existence, this chapter distinguishes different types of communication from each other. Communication derives from the Latin root word communis. In English, this root word means common, general, universal, or public. When a person believes, feels, values, or acts as one with another person, communis exists. Communication can be studied in two basic ways. The expositional approach studies attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors that unify people as a whole or particular groups of people. The rhetorical approach studies the steps people take in their quests to establish shared attitudes, values, beliefs, feelings, or behaviors with others. Communication is the transmission of meaningful information from one person or group of persons (the sender) to another person or group of persons (the recipient) in a way that generates shared attitudes