Electronic World, Communication Has Become Divergent, Filled

¶ … electronic world, communication has become divergent, filled with different meanings and contexts. As an increasing amount of people have become computer literate and have gained access to the Internet, written communication has become an important part of not only business relationships, but also more informal connections, such as those among family and friends. This new medium of communication, and especially the fact that it tends to be immediate, has created its own set of challenges. One of these is the concept that the context within which words are presented is no longer as important as the words themselves. In other words, the fact that words have certain meanings tends to be assumed as a solid, unchangeable fact rather than a fluid one. In this context, it is easy to believe that paragraphs are not necessary for words to make logical meaning. However, it is also true that a well-written paragraph provides not only a logical context for the words being written, but also a solid basis for supporting the ideas being communicated.

In addition to controlling one's ideas, one of the most important functions of a paragraph is to provide concrete examples, reasons and illustrations for an idea (Brooke, 2012). Words that are spoken at random, for example, will hold less power than those written in the context of strong reasons and examples. As an example, one might take the simple sentence "I love you." It is true that the words themselves hold a certain meaning. The way in which this meaning is interpreted, however, depends upon whether they are presented in a well constructed paragraph or simply as part of a long and disjointed piece of writing. Good supporting points for the sentence may be to offer reasons for the love. For example "You are a beautiful, loving person." This idea creates a context for the words "I love you." It strengthens the meaning of the words, since it provides reasons and examples, rather than just being spoken in isolation. Simply saying "I love you" without any context or reasoning behind it may create a sense of doubt in the receiver of the message, which in turn may alter the meaning of the words in a subtle way. The hearer may think that the speaker is saying the words to gain something instead of meaning them sincerely.

A different set of support sentences for the same sentence may also alter the meaning of the words. While the first sentence may remain "I love you," some of the support sentences may imply frustration. A person may, for example, add something like "I wish you would love me too" or "I do not, however, love you when you do this." This places a different meaning on the words "I love you" than would have been the case with positive support sentences.

In this way, it becomes clear that words in isolation and words in context do not necessarily have precisely the same meaning, and that such a claim cannot be made within reason. Paragraphs provide extra substance and meaning to words. Depending upon how the main ideas are placed into context by means of support sentences, the meaning of words can gain extra meaning, as seen above (Freedom Personal Development, 2009).