Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Competent Communication


While thinking about competent communication my younger sisters come to mind. I have two younger sisters that live in Delaware and they both are in college. Talking with one another sometimes is hard because we all have schedules that conflict with one another. Even though texting is an effective way we all communicate, we don’t always get to fully express ourselves through this because we are only able to send short messages.

One way of communicating I love that my sisters started a couple of years back was to send a personalized card that included a current picture of themselves with a short message to inform me of things such as how they are doing, activities they are participating in, exciting things that have come encounter with and so on. Even though these cards are not long they are a little more detailed than the text messages. They are decorative and not dull, have a theme, and a concise message. The words chosen are positive and of a natural conversational tone.


I feel as though this is an effective way of communicating which I have chosen to follow because of their clear understanding of writing. Communicating though writing has its advantage because you are able to write specifically what you mean, which can be clearer than verbal conversation because it helps the reader not to misinterpret. The writer is also able to revise their message as many times as they like before sending and the receiver is able to keep the written message and refer back to it later on. 

3 comments:

  1. Erika, this is a great example because with our world of modern technology so many people are texting. However, texting can be very easily mistaken as convenient as it may be. If you receive a message in all caps its very likely to think that someone is yelling at you. As well, reading through your post it made me think of other formats of communication when you are not close to your relatives, like Skype, Facebook and Tango. These are all methods that are not really intended for you to be long but to be able to check in and let your relatives know that you are thinking of them.

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  2. Erika,
    I also appreciate the opportunity to communicate through a written form as it gives me additional time to reflect and edit my work so that I am certain to send exactly the message that I intended. Sometimes verbal interactions do not always give you an opportunity to clarify what you truly meant to say. However, I am learning to ask for time to reflect and think about some things before answering some verbal questions in that moment. People have been very receptive as they understand that I truly want to give them the best possible answer to their inquiries.
    Sandra

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  3. Erika, I like that your sisters have decided to communicate through hand written letters. How often do we receive anything hand written anymore?! It does allow for a more personal interaction than just getting something that has been typed. However, I agree with Tymeshia's comment. It is hard to correctly interpret intent through written communication. For example, I have a friend who is very sarcastic on Facebook. She commented on a status of mine in a very sarcastic way. I knew it was sarcastic from years of being her friend, but another friend of mine took offense to the way this person was responding to me because they could not detect the sarcasm. A tense situation developed from an inability to correctly interpret intent. We need to be really careful with our written communication and take the time to think about how it may be received by others. Thank you for your post.

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