(Book Speech Communication by Donald H. Alban Jr.)Each analysis requires you to respond to several questions that ask to evaluate or apply core concepts about communication raised by specific sections of the Alban text. You must reply to every assigned question with answers that deliver the exact type of information required and that satisfy any stipulated word count requirement. Your writing must be thorough yet concise. Support your thoughts with relevant information from the textbook and other course materials as well as from personal experience, if required. First person voice (the use of ?I?) is allowed, if relevant. Each posting will be evaluated according to how well you:
Demonstrate understanding of relevant textbook concepts.
Logically sequence your answers.
Rationally explain your answers.
Respect conventional grammatical and stylistic principles in your expression.
Format: Use, APA style to format this paper. Present the question you are answering in boldfaced type, and then present your response to the question in regular type.
Read pages 4?33 in your Speech Communication text. Then, demonstrate your understanding of this content by composing an MS Word document in which you provide clearly articulated, well-reasoned, appropriately documented answers the following questions.
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.
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.
3. This chapter questions the statement that no people can see the same thing because the statement is self-discrediting. If the statement were true, the person making the statement would have no way of knowing that it is true since, by his or her own admission, he or she could never gain access to what other people see for the purpose of determining this. What do you think? Share your thoughts in a 100?200-word response.
CHAPTER 2
1. Words are powerful communicational tools. Consider the following words of wisdom from James 3: 2?10 (NLT):
If we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and could also control ourselves in every other way. We can make a large horse go wherever we want by means of a small bit in its mouth. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life on fire, for it is set on fire by hell itself. People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right!?
Drawing from your personal experience, write a 100?200-word response in which you describe the power of words to be powerfully constructive or destructive.
2. In a paragraph or two, answer the following questions about your use of artifacts to send people information about yourself: a) Which clothing styles and colors you like to wear in public? b) What kind of positive statements about yourself do you suppose you are making to others by choosing to wear these clothing styles and colors?; c) Which clothing styles and colors do you choose not to wear in public? What kind of negative statement about yourself do you suppose you would be making to others if you were to wear these clothing styles and colors in their presence?
3. Consider the following statement by Cornelius LaPide, a 17th century Jesuit priest:
The face, therefore, is the image of the heart, and the eyes are the mirror of the soul and its affections. One finds this principally in tumultuous and vile men who conceal their badness for a long time, but when they are distracted and unaware, it suddenly appears in their face and eyes. Therefore, the face and the eyes indicate the joy or sadness of the soul, its love or hatred; so also, honesty or treachery and hypocrisy.?
State in your own words, in a short, simple sentence, LaPide?s thesis?the main point of the quotation. Then write a 100?200-word response that states your agreement, partial agreement, or disagreement with this thesis. State your position clearly and succinctly, and back it up, as you always must do in college-level work, with properly documented information that supports your position, such as testimonies from experts, illustrations, or examples from your personal experience or that of someone else.
 
4. To be a successful communicator, one needs to know and to use not only the same verbal language as his or her intended audience, but also the same nonverbal language. The textbook presents several nonverbal language types?vocalics, kinesics, proxemics, haptics, chronemics, physical appearance, and artifacts. Using words from the textbook, define each of these nonverbal language types, making sure, as you always must do, to both place directly quoted words inside double-quotation marks and to include a parenthetical reference to the source and the page from which the quoted content derives.
5. Chapter 1 identifies linguistic differences as a potential barrier to communication. Misunderstandings can result because of differences in verbal languages, such as when a speaker uses a word to signify something very different from the meaning the listener associated with that word. Differences in a speaker and an audience?s nonverbal languages can result in miscommunication, too. A speaking tone that communicates happiness to its user may be taken as hostile by its recipient. A gesture that signifies approval to its user may signify something obscene to the recipient. A pat on the back that signifies friendliness to its user may signify romantic interest to a recipient. List the seven nonverbal language types presented in the textbook and then, after each, provide a real-life example of a miscommunication, related to that nonverbal language type, that resulted because the sender and the recipient associated different meanings with the same nonverbal expression.