Many people do not understand this distinction in school, but when they get into the 'real world' they will often discover it. I liked this essay a lot because it was very true to life, and because Baker was not afraid to say what he thought about the issue instead of trying to make sure that he kept everyone who read the essay happy with his beliefs. Since he was not trying to please everyone, his honesty came through and was quite valuable.
Men and Women Talking on the Job' was written by Deborah Tannen and deals with differences in communication between the genders. It is written in the block style. The main thesis of the essay is that men and women have very different communication styles and this often leads to problems and misunderstandings. The author makes her point very well, and the way that she does this is by story-telling. Whether these stories are fictional or real does not really matter, because they are well-written and very important to getting her point across. In these stories, she shows how much difference there is between the communication styles of males and females, and how quickly problems can arise if people with different styles begin to talk to one another. Especially if these same people argue about something, there can be many problems with understanding what one person is trying to get across, because the other person would not argue in the same way. Tannen makes her argument very effectively by using these stories and examples...
She also adds credibility to her argument by saying that not all men and women fit the typical patterns of communication for their genders. Without making this claim, it could easily sound more like Tannen believes in strong stereotypes and does not believe in individuality. With the claim that not everyone fits this mold, however, the importance of the essay is seen and it has the credibility that it needs. I liked this essay for several reasons. It was very well-written in that it made sense and was easy to understand, while still being intelligently written. It did not talk down to the reader in any way or indicate that it dealt with a problem so complex that the reader would not be able to understand it, whether that reader was male or female. Another reason that I liked the essay was that Tannen did not seem to 'pick on' either women or men as having a problem with their conversational styles, and instead talked about the differences only, as opposed to saying that there was something 'wrong' with one style or another. I found this very interesting, and also appreciated it. Another thing that I liked about the essay is that it was long enough to really explain what the author was taking about. In other words, it was in-depth enough to clearly talk about the issue without just skimming the surface, which would not have done justice to the subject matter.
