Effective Communication Can Be Described as \"The

¶ … Effective Communication

Communication can be described as "the use of language and nonverbal signs to create a shared meaning between two or more people." (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009) The processes and components of communication are much more complex due to the margin of error in conveying a message from one person to the next. Although messages or meaning may be quite clear to say, Person A, to Person B. they might mean something else. This can be due to language barriers, upbringing, places of origin, or other factors.

The components of communication include verbal and nonverbal. Nonverbal is generally agreed to be body language, written language, clothing, facial expressions, touching, meanings behind words; for example, sarcasm, indifference, passion, or intensity (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009). Verbal communication is just the words being said, minus other meanings behind them. For example, a simple phrase such as "I'm fine," can be conveyed in several different ways, using both verbal and nonverbal cues; in fact, estimates are that 50 to 80% of communication involves nonverbal components (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009).

The process of communication is quite different from its components, in that it involves the delivering, receiving, media, encoding, and decoding of messages that are satisfactory to the people involved in the process. The delivering of the message comes from the sender, in which the sender encodes their feelings or ideas into language, and it can be in the form of verbal, nonverbal, or a mix of both types of messages (known as media); which then goes to the receiver for decoding (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009). Decoding involves forming "ideas or feelings," about the message, which is then encoded back to the sender as new messages form, i.e. A conversation (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009). The process of communication then becomes more of a loop, instead of a horizontal line, the sender and receiver switch off roles as the conversation continues. For example, Person A is angry with Person B, so Person A encodes their feelings of anger into the media message (furrowed brow, angry expression, and stance) "I am so angry with you right now!" Person B. receives the message of anger, noting the nonverbal and verbal aspects of this message, decodes their feelings about this, and encodes their own response: (dejected, hurt stance) "I don't understand, what did I do?" This is a simple example of how communication is more than just the words spoken, but also about nonverbal cues, which make up a large part of how messages are sent and received.

This brings up the subject of the difference between listening and hearing. Women often complain that their husbands are not really listening to them when they have something important to say; of course, this may be due to the fact that women are more likely to be sensitive and intuitive to nonverbal cues than men are, as they are able to accurately recall and interpret them (Lauer, and Lauer, 2009). Therein lies the difference between listening and hearing; hearing involves only the verbal messages, as if one just closed their eyes and listened to the words, devoid of all nonverbal cues. Listening, however, involves taking in all the media message, verbal and nonverbal alike, and accurately decoding them correctly; in this case, correctly means the way the sender meant for this message to be received. Of course, this is how argument start, usually one person feels the other person isn't really listening, and the other person is just trying to keep up, or perhaps they are thinking about what they will say next, and, in fact, is not listening!

Yet another type of communication is formal and informal channels, most often seen within large corporations and the criminal justice system. The three types of formal communication involve downward channels (from superior persons on down to less superior persons), upward channels (the reverse of downward, though extremely hard to accomplish), and horizontal, which is by far the best method because horizontal channels mean there really isn't a "superior" to report to, but everyone's job is equally important (Sinclair, 2001). The criminal justice system always works within a formal downward and upward channel, with information flowing freely downward, but information coming slowly upward due to the message needing to be carried from one officer to a superior, on upward, until the original message may be distorted, lost, changed to make someone look better, or to cover up a mistake (McKinney, 2008). Informal channels are mostly commonly known as "rumor," "office gossip," or "gathering around the water cooler." These means are messages floating around freely within the environment, but the most obvious problem with this type of channel is that the message can be colored and distorted by many people's opinion of the message (Sinclair, 2011).