Communication in Practice PDF
Preview Communication in Practice
COMMUNICATION IN PRACTICE TONY ASTLE BARRY JACKSON CHRIS WEBB Tony Astle 1976 Barry Jackson 1976 Chris Webb 1976 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. First published 1976 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD london and Basingstoke Associated companies in New York Dublin Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras SBN 333 18834 9 ISBN 978-0-333-18834-7 ISBN 978-1-349-02736-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-02736-1 This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book Agreement. The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being impo~ed on the subsequent purchaser. EDITOR'S NOTE This workbook in Communication is intended for young people in the last year at school and first-year students in Further Education, whether they be operative, craft or technician apprentices or following some other course. The book aims to combine the basic elements of Communication with ample provision of work for the students to reinforce their learning. The points are underlim'ld by pertinent illustrations. We hope you will enjoy using it. Henley College of Further Education, HARRY SPENCE Coventry General Editor ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to Caroline Eaves and Ann Webb for assistance on layout to Jerry Poole for pages 79 and 80 to Arthur Bowes for the photograph on page 7 to Zen it h Books (Hodder & Stoughton} for perm is s.i on to use an extract from "Industry and People- Cars" by Graham Turner III CONTENTS SPEAKING AND LISTENING 1. First impressions 2. Paying attention 3. Better speech WRITING AND READING 4. Why write at all? 5. What do I want to say? 6. What reader am I writing for? 7. How much do I have to write? 8. What does my reader know already? SHOWING AND LOOKING 9. Pictures or words? 10. Pictures as words 11. Pictures and words NOW······CONNECT! IN THIS BOOK • MEANS SOMETHING TO D 0 • MEANS SOMETHING TO REMEMBER SPEAKING AND LISTENING Speaking and listening are the most common uses of language. The idea of this section is to show that there is more to these two activities than some people think. The famous Elizabethan playwright, Ben Jonson, made one of his characters say to another, "Speak, that I may know thee!". Jonson meant that most of us only start to understand what a person is like once he begins to speak. Other things about him may influence us - his colouring or height for instance - but his speech will be crucially important in helping us to decide just what sort of person he is. And this, of course, is true in reverse. Other people constantly judge us by what we say and how we say it. It is not intended that we give you in this section a series of elocution lessons, if that were possible in book form! Nor is it intended that we concentrate on "correctness" in grammar and vocabulary. What we ore going to do is to examine the process of human speech through a series of exercises. By doing these exercises you should not only learn something about human communication, but also about your own strengths and weaknesses of speaking and listening. We then hope you will be able to translate this understanding into more effective speaking and listening, both at work and at play. To do all of these things we need to start at the beginning, when people meet each other "face-to-face" for the first time. 2 1. FIRST IMPRESSIONS We are all influenced by our first impressions of others, but we are not always sure just what impresses us, what has an effect on us, what sometimes prejudices us against people . • For this exercise, work with a partner. Sit down and face each other, but do not speak. List your partner's reactions to you, timing the experiment at a maximum of one minute. l. 2. 3. 4. It would need more space than we have avarlable in this book to give all the reasons for the reactions listed, but one of the causes is EYE CONTACT. We are not used to looking closely into people's eyes for any length of time. Children are taught that staring at people is "rude" because adults find their stares embarrassing. 3 Their stares are embarrassing because they are frank and open, telling us very honestly what the children FEEL. These feelings may be ones of approval, or disapproval. Either way the adult will know exactly what the child feels, and this emotional honesty may well confuse him, living as he does in the adult world where many people have to conceal and disguise what they really feel • • Make a Ii st of the different ki-nds of feelings, both approving and disapproving, you think you can convey through a look. Aperoval Qill:lpP.rova I 1. e.g. admiration 1. e.g. contempt 2. 2. 3. 3. 4. 4. 5. 5. 6. 6. I • louR FACES sHow ouR FEELINGS Of course it would be quite impracticable for adults to be as open as children. We need the qualities of TACT and POLITENESS to develop the kind of rational adult relationships which are not important to children. 4 • Return now to the "pair" situation. Keep looking at your partner without speaking, but this time vary the distance between you. What is the most comfortable, i.e. least embarrassing·, distance for you? • Make a survey of the physical distance you observe between people conversing. Vary the people and the situation. ~perox i mate Situation Conversational Distance l. e.g. students in common 3 feet room 2. 3. I 4. 5. 6. • DISTANCE AFFECTS SPEAKING, THE RELATIONSHIP INFLUENCES THE DISTANCE 5
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