GED 106- Purposive Communication (MIDTERMS)

Lesson 1: Communication Principles and Ethics Communication Barriers

Communication- putting words into thoughts and Another aspect that needs consideration in
emotions. It is done effectively when information is analyzing the audience is identifying and trying to
transmitted without changing both the content and overcome possible communication barriers.
the context of the message. These are not confined to physical noise (cars
passing by, someone pounding on the table) and
-is the art of creating and sharing ideas for a
physiological issues (an upset stomach), but could
specific purpose.
also include cultural difference, varying levels of
Forms of Communication: expectations and experiences, and difference in
perspectives and communication styles.
1. Verbal Communication- includes the use of
language, sounds, and tone of voice. Principles of Effective Communication
2. Non-Verbal Communication- includes body
 CLARITY- This pertains to both the
language and facial expressions.
message and the purpose why the message
3. Written Communication- through journals,
has to be sent. The message should be
emails, blogs, and text messages.
clear by using appropriate language and
4. Visual Communication- involves signs,
communication channels
symbols, pictures, graphics and emojis.
 CONCISENESS- The message should be
Effective Communication is dependent on how rich as brief as may be required depending on
those ideas are, and how much of those ideas are one’s purpose.
retained in the process. In order to be an effective  COMPLETENESS- the message should still
communicator, a number of skills have to be be complete and accurate.
utilized. Which skill one chooses greatly varies and  ORGANIZATION- ensure the systematic
is dictated by the situation, the content or the actual flow of ideas and transition from one point to
information a person needs or wants to convey, another.
and the intended recipient of that information.  EMPATHY- The sender of the message
should be sensitive to the needs and
Audience Analysis
interests of the receiver.
A key element in effective communication is  FLEXIBILITY- to adapt to the varying needs
audience analysis. “Audience” here does not only and expectations of their audience, and
refer to the people listening to you in a public modify the message or the way the
speech. Rather, it refers to anyone who is expected message is sent to avoid misunderstanding
to receive the message you are sending. or misinterpretation.
Knowing the audience, understanding their level COMMUNICATION and GLOBALIZATION
and how they need to receive the information – also
known as skills on audience analysis – are Globalization has been regarded as the key to the
extremely important in “packaging” the message worldwide integration of humanity, where there is
and sending it across. an increased economic, political and cultural
integration and interdependence of diverse cultures
Audience analysis is therefore one skill an effective
communicator must have. It is imperative that you We Filipinos have increased our awareness and
find out who the audience is – who will actually acceptance of the notion that we belong to a
receive your ‘message’ – and what they need to diverse, global community. It is therefore
know. Only in doing so can you properly adjust all imperative that we learn to communicate effectively
the other elements of communication, such as your with people regardless of age, gender, race, ability,
words or registers, your tone, and your religion, sexual orientation, income, marital status,
expressions. or ethnicity.
Communication in the modern world must be
anchored on the concept of diversity, since
effective communication and the ability to
understand cultural differences are skills that have
Showing Commitment and Genuine Interest
become requisites not only for a meaningful social
life but also for a successful professional career.  A key component of ethical communication
Digital technology has erased territorial is showing commitment in the
boundaries among countries and among people communicative situation.
with varying cultures.  Being committed means giving sufficient
time and resources to any discussion or
Multiculturalists – those who are engaged with conversation, and being open about any
and respectful of people with different cultures. issue that may arise.
 Commitment also involves volunteering
ETHICS in COMMUNICATION
important information, even if it puts a
Effective communication is ethical communication. person’s own short-term interests at risk, as
Communication is ethical only when it is genuine, long as it is for the benefit of the majority
open, cooperative and sensitive to one’s cultural especially in the long run.
and social beliefs and practices. If there is an  Encouraging a communicative environment
intent to conceal the truth, or bring damage to any of trust can go a long way in promoting
organization, group or individual person, ethical communication in any academic or
communication is considered unethical. Even in business setting.
situations when there is no intent to harm, but
damage to a certain group is inevitable because “NAVAL LANGUAGE” or the Belly Button
of the message or the channel used to relay the Psyche (1930s)
message, it is still considered unethical. Two major elements affecting ethical
How past Experience and Prejudice Affect communication are:
Communication  the use of words or language, and
 Past experiences inevitably affect people’s  One’s behavior or body language.
communication styles in the future. When The second element – body language – may be
their audience responded positively to their enhanced through the ‘Belly Button Psyche’, or
message, chances of them repeating the the belly button rule, which is believed to
same style are relatively high. However, communicate true interest while engaging in face-
when they were turned down or given to-face communication.
negative feedback, this will definitely
influence how they deliver the message Dr. Albert Mehrabian, professor of Psychology at
next time. UCLA said that the belly button rule is the most
 Prejudices happen when people isolate an important indicator of reading a person’s intention.
experience with one “type” of person or one Simply put, the belly button rule means the
group of people, then behave as if all direction of a person’s navel reflects his/her true
encounters with people of the same “type”, interest.
or at least with the same characteristics, will
Respecting Socio-cultural Beliefs and practices
lead to the same experience. This
of others
eliminates a people’s personal identity and
individuality. There can be prejudice as Globalization also entails changing the way people
regards to age, gender orientation, religious communicate to others, especially those with
belief, race, social-economic status, and different norms, cultures and belief systems.
physical conditions. Ethical communication requires people to respect
socio-cultural beliefs and practices of others, while
Effective communicators view people as separate
at the same time avoiding all kinds of stereotypes.
from any preconceived notions others may have
about them. They see the value of the individual as COMMUNICATION
a person of worth, and thus will respect that
individuality.  Productivity
  Facts Tips for People with a Spirited Communication
 Teamwork Style
 Plan 1. Respect decisions and agenda that have been
 People agreed upon, as well as time limits during
 Idea meetings or any communicative situation.
 Strategy 2. Try to limit your sharing of personal anecdotes
Lesson 2: Local and Global Communication in that may take the discussion off-topic.
Multicultural Settings 3. Make sure you are allowing others to contribute
their ideas and suggestions – and that you are
Communication Styles in Various Multicultural genuinely listening to them.
Contexts 4. Be certain that any request you make is clear
and that you convey the reason for such
Communication style- refers to the choices
request.
people make and the strategies or tools they use in
5. Communicate your appreciation for others’
the process of communication.
work and input.
Tips for People with a Spirited Communication
Style

1. Respect decisions and agenda that have been

agreed upon, as well as time limits during
meetings or any communicative situation.
2. Try to limit your sharing of personal anecdotes
that may take the discussion off-topic.
3. Make sure you are allowing others to contribute
their ideas and suggestions – and that you are
genuinely listening to them.
4. Be certain that any request you make is clear
and that you convey the reason for such
The model, developed by Dr. Eileen M. Russo, request.
shows four different communication styles: 5. Communicate your appreciation for others’
1. Spirited = High Expressiveness + High work and input.
Assertiveness Tips for People with a Direct Communication
2. Considerate = High Expressiveness + Low Style
Assertiveness
3. Direct = Low Expressiveness + High 1. Make an effort to listen carefully to others.
Assertiveness Avoid interrupting.
4. Systematic = Low Expressiveness + Low 2. Allow time for ‘chatting’ at the beginning of a
Assertiveness meeting.
3. Recognize that others may also feel the
need to express themselves.
 HA- tend to tell or instruct others what to do
4. Recognize that brainstorming can be
and sometimes even how to do it.
effective and is not a waste of time.
 LA- tend to be in the receiving end, often
5. Take some time to show your appreciation
asking for guidance, instructions or
for others’ contributions.
directions.
 HE- show their feelings and emotions Tips for People with a Systematic
through facial expressions, tone of voice, or Communication Style
language used.
1. Recognize that for good working
 LE- tend to either hide their feelings or exert
relationships, consideration for others’
some effort for those feelings not to show.
feelings is important.
 2. Learn to ask qualifying questions that will a) FORMAL. These registers are used in
help you get the information you need. professional, academic, or legal settings
3. Make sure you understand the background where communication is expected to be
of the discussion or scope of the respectful, uninterrupted, and restrained to
conversation so no time is wasted. specific rules. Slang is never used and
4. Politely ask other questions about contractions are rare.
themselves if you want to build rapport. b) CASUAL. These registers are used when
5. If you need to ask for more time to know, communicating with friends, close
analyze or discuss something, explain the acquaintances, colleagues, and family
benefit of the information you need to know. members.
c) INTIMATE. Intimate language registers are
VARIETIES and REGISTERS of Spoken and
reserved for special occasions, usually
Written Language
between only two people and often in
In a multicultural society, people must use private.
culturally-appropriate terms, gestures, expressions d) FROZEN. It refers to historic language that
and images in any communicative situation. is intended to remain unchanged.
e) CONSULTATIVE. It is used in
Language Varieties conversations when people are speaking
Also called “lects”, these refer to the different with someone who has specialized
variants of a language that can be sufficiently knowledge or is offering advice.
delimited from one another in terms of social, Language Registers can also be classified as:
historical, or geo-spatial factors, thus forming
language clusters.  FORMAL- are appropriate for professional
situations, such as when speaking to a
a) PIDGIN- It refers to a new language that supervisor or writing an invitation letter.
develops into situations where speakers of  INFORMAL- are conversational and
different languages need to communicate appropriate when speaking or writing to a
but do not share a common language friend or to someone you know quite well.
b) CREOLE- It is a pidgin that becomes the
first language of the children, or the mother The use of one or a combination of these registers
tongue of a certain community. highly depends on the audience (person/s for
c) REGIONAL DIALECT- It is not a language whom the message is intended) and the context
that is not distinct from a national language, (nature of the communicative situation).
but rather a variety of a language spoken in
a particular area of a country.
 NEUTRAL- are non-emotional and laden
d) MINORITY DIALECT- This is a variety used with facts. These are most appropriate for
research or technical writing.
as a marker of identity, usually alongside a
standard variety, by the members of a Improving one’s Ability in Communicating in a
particular minority ethnic group. Multicultural Setting
e) INDIGENIZED VARIETIES- These are
spoken mainly as second languages in  Refrain from forming expectations based
former colonies with multilingual solely on your culture. Knowing and
populations. accepting the validity of cultural differences
are key in communicating with people
LANGUAGE REGISTERS having diverse communication styles. Being
-Is characterized by the way a speaker uses an effective communicator requires allowing
language differently in different social yourself to be immersed in the multicultural
circumstances. society and embracing diversity.
 Remove personal biases or any
-These are determined by such factors as social stereotype that may impede
atmosphere, purpose of communication, audience, understanding. You do not want to be at
and the general context of the discourse. the receiving end of a biased judgment,
 right? You don’t want people avoiding you Kirkpatrick (2007) proposes a scale with two
just because of how they see other extremes:
members of your group or culture.
Extreme 1: The goal of national or regional identity.
Determine how much your family, friends
People use a regional variety of English with its
and colleagues have ‘dictated’ how you
specific grammar, structure and vocabulary to
view or feel about other people or other
affirm their own national or ethnic identity
groups, and identify which among these
pre-judgments are stereotypes that can Extreme 2: The goal of intelligibility. Users of a
damage relationships. regional variety should ideally still be readily
 Make a personal commitment to develop understood by users of English everywhere else in
communication skills appropriate in the world to fully participate in the use of English as
multicultural settings. Your ability to an international language
develop intercultural communication skills
largely depends on how many – and how The challenge is to find a good balance between
much – of these promises you are willing to the identity-intelligibility extremes. Hence, speakers
make: of the English language may resort to code-
a) I will make a commitment to seek switching (i.e., using English and another
information from persons whose language in the same statement).
cultures are different from my own. Multimodality
b) I will try to understand how the
experiences of persons from -is a fairly new concept in the general academic
different cultures leads them to setting, but can be a very powerful tool in light of
develop perspectives that differ from digital and multicultural communication
mine.
- A text or output is considered multimodal if it uses
c) I will pay attention to the situation
two or more communication modes to make
and the context when I
meaning.
communicate with persons from
different cultures. It shows different ways of knowledge
d) I will make every effort to become a representations and meaning-making, and
more flexible communicator. investigates contributions of semiotic resources
e) I will not insist that persons from (language, gestures, images) that are co-deployed
other cultures should communicate across various modalities (visual, aural, somatic,
with me on my terms etc.). Most importantly, multimodality highlights the
significance of interaction and integration in
Lesson 3: Evaluating Messages and Images of
constructing a coherent text.
Different Text Types
A multimodal text can either be one of the following:
EVALUATING MESSAGES AND/OR IMAGES OF
DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEXTS REFLECTING  Paper (books, comics, posters, brochures)
DIFFERENT CULTURES  Digital (slide presentations, blogs, web
pages, social media, animation, film, video
The effects of cultural and global issues to
games
communication were highlighted in previous
discussions, as well as the impact of effective  Live (performance or an event)
communication to society and the world. This has  Transmedia (A story is told using multiple
highlighted the importance of exploring the concept delivery channels through a combination of
of World Englishes, or as defined by Celce- platforms, such as comics, film, and video
Murcia (2014), the regionally distinct varieties of games all working as part of the same story
English that have arisen in parts of the world where with the same message.)
there is a long and often colonial history of English The creation of multimodal texts and outputs
being used in education, commerce and requires a creative design concept that
government. Examples of World Englishes are orchestrates the purposive combination of text,
Indian English, West African English, Singapore color, photo, sound, spatial design, language,
English, and Filipino English.
gestures, animations and other semiotics, all with 4. Whether you're concerned with maintaining good
the unitary goal of bringing meaning to life. friendships or future job prospects, be responsible
in what you post and how it could affect your
In creating a multimodal text, the Purpose,
reputation. Many employers now check up on job
Audience, Context must all be considered.
candidates' social media accounts for evidence of
 PURPOSE- the creator of the text must be bad behavior.
clear on the message and the reason(s) English Language and the New Media
why the message has to be delivered.
 AUDIENCE- the nature, interests and New media -refer to highly interactive digital
sensitivities of the target audience must be technology. These are very easily processed,
considered so the text will not be offensive stored, transformed, retrieved, hyper-linked,
and hurt people’s sensibilities. searched for, and accessed.
 CONTEXT- the message should be clearly
Generally, these can be classified as:
delivered through various semiotic
resources, and in consideration of the  Blogs
various situations where and how the text  Social media
will be read by different people having  Online newspaper
different cultural backgrounds.  Virtual reality
Lesson 4:The Rise of New Media and Technology  Computer games
Aids in Communication Language in new media is sometimes referred to
Social Media Use as Computer-mediated communication (CMC),
though it may also be called any of the following:
The exponential rise in the use of social media can
be partly attributed to the emergence of  Netspeak
technologies that enable modern communication  Computer-mediated discourse
(that is, FAST, CONVENIENT, INTERACTIVE  Digital discourse
communication).  Electronic discourse
 E-communication
These include computers, laptops, and smart
 Digitally mediated communication
phones, among others. In addition, the rise of social
 Keyboard-to-screen communication
media is a unique manifestation of how quickly and
drastically patterns of social behaviors change. This type of discourse or computer-mediated
Responsible Use of Social Media communication (CMC) can be described as:

1. You may not agree with everything or everyone CMC is VERNACULAR- means it uses language
you encounter on social media networks, but treat that is common to people regardless of age, social
each person with dignity and respect. The Golden class, gender, or race.
Rule of treating others how you want to be treated Examples:
is a good practice.
 Acronyms (Lol, yolo, fomo, bae)
2. Do not turn to social media as a way to harass,  Initialisms (atm, rotfl, brb, btw, hbd, idk, jk,
demean, or bully someone else. Sitting in front of a af, nvm, tmi, tldr, ftw, g!)
computer screen does not give you license to  Emoticons/ Emojis
embarrass, intimidate, or spread hurtful rumors
 Expressive Punctuations o
about others.
Hello? VS Hello?!? , No. VS No? VS No!!!
3. Regardless of your privacy settings, keep in mind
CMC is INTERPERSONAL- It is relationship-
that anything can possibly be seen by anyone at
focused rather than subject-oriented. This can be
any time, even by that person that you did not want
explained by the number of Group Chats (GCs) a
to see it. Pause before you post, think before you
person has, and the number of individuals and GCs
click.
a person engages simultaneously.
The interpersonal nature of CMC is characterized 1. To inform
by the following: 2. To persuade
3. To prevent misunderstanding
 Turn-taking 4. To present a point of view or reduce barriers
 Topic development
 Back-channels Steps in Communication Planning:
 Repairs 1. Research and analyze current situation.
CMC is SPONTANEOUS- It is usually unplanned, 2. Establish goals and objectives (short and
unstructured, and sometimes impulsive. This long term).
spontaneity also gave rise to Net Neologisms 3. Identify the target audience (what they
through Lexical Creativity such as: know, what influences them, communication
impediments, etc.).
 B4n 4. Conceptualize on key messages
 F2f 5. Strategize on communication styles and
 Terms such as trolls, meme, hashtag, and platform(s)
meh. 6. Evaluate and anticipate.

These can be described as mediatized stylization Communication Strategies in Tech-based

and popular representation. Communication

CMC is DIALOGICAL- It carries expectation of 1. Keep it simple. Avoiding including too much
continuous exchange. This is why most media information in a graphic or in one slide. The
platforms have a “Reply” or “Comment” option, message should be immediate and clear. By
while some have a “Leave a comment” button, to keeping the visual material simple, you also
ensure continuous interaction. maintain maximum personal contact with your
audience
The English language in the New Media is:
2. Emphasize only on key ideas. When you call
a) Brief attention to ideas with a graphic presentation, make
b) Multimodal sure the graphic clearly illustrates your essential
c) Ideological points and the important supporting data.
BREVITY. How much people put premium on 3. Show what you can’t say. The best use of
length and on the time it would take for them to visual media is to reveal material you can’t easily
read an article describe orally or with written text. Graphics,
MULTIMODALITY. This refers to the layering of photos, charts, and illustrations can accomplish this
different digital media. objective.

IDEOLOGICALLY- MOTIVATED. New media is 4. Keep the number of images you present
inherently ideological, especially in terms of their manageable. Too many images will tire your
political-economies of access and control. audience (so will too much text). Eight to ten
images should be the maximum number for most
presentations.
Communication Planning 5. Combine variety with coherence. If you use
Communication Planning Process- involves several images, vary the design to make them
defining the types of information you will deliver, interesting, but keep them aesthetically consistent.
who are the intended recipients of that information, 6. Use large lettering. Use large text font sizes
the format for communicating it, and the timing of with minimal use of serifs so the audience can read
its release and distribution. the text easily. In addition, do not flood your
The key goal is to make sure everybody gets the presentation with text.
right message at the right time. It serves various
purposes: