A Short Summary of Intercultural Communication II

Summary

1) Communication is defined as the act of giving and receiving or exchanging of information, opinions or ideas through both verbal and nonverbal forms of communication. The information, opinions or ideas of the sender conveyed must be understood by both parties.

2) Effective Communication is not a one-way process, but a two-way process that consists of the six elements: the sender, message, channel, receiver, feedback and context. 

* One-way communication is when information sends to a listener or a group of listeners which the listener cannot respond to the sender's information, just only listen to or receive information, such as radio, television and signs. 

3) Barriers to effective communication are stemmed from status, roles, cultural differences, choice of communication channel, length of communication, disabilities, use of language, individual perceptions, noise and distraction, clearness of message, and feedback.

4) Written communication

 To produce good written communication, it should include: 1) Planning, 2) Writing and 3) Editing 

5) The pitfalls to avoid in written communication are as the following: 

      5.1 Confusing language

      5.2 Verbosity

      5.3 Poor sentence structure

      5.4 Information overload

6) Written forms of communication can lead to misunderstanding or a lack of understanding mainly because of unclear message, improper use of language and information overload.

Key Words

1. Communication Channel means the medium that utilizes the sender in getting the sender's message into the receiver, such as microphones, TV, phone calls, cell phones and all kinds of communication devices. 

2. Information Overload is the giving of too much information until you get overwhelmed and confused. 

3. Receiver is someone who gets a message from a sender and sends feedback both verbally and nonverbally to show she or he gets the sender's message across.

4. Sender is someone who gives a receiver a message and receives feedback both verbally and nonverbally from the receiver. 

5. Status and Roles refer to the sender and receiver with different status and roles (e.g. teacher / student, seller / buyer, father / son, elderly man / young man) having a  conversation about Sth, and they may possibly end up with communication barriers. 

6. Verbosity means the use of too many words in sentences. 

For example, 

Adam was the winner. (Ok, but too long)

Adam won. (Better, clear and short)