Category: Effective Communication

Interpersonal Communication is basically the exchange of message, meaning, emotions and feelings either verbally or non-verbally. It is majorly through a face to face communication. For an effective interpersonal communication, the parties concerned have to engage in active listening and giving feedback. Listening process is an action where we make sense, digest and give feedback on what we hear. This process involves, receiving message, try to understand it, take time to evaluate, reason or judge it and finally give a response. In professional situations, for example, in business and organizations, active listening should be employed to attain a good relationship between the clients and the workers. Active listening is a technique applied in training, dispute and conflict resolution and in guidance and counselling. It calls for the listener to give a total concentration to the speaker, understand and contain what is being said. For one to be an active listener. He/she should have a strong interpersonal skill.

Interpersonal skill is a social skill demonstrated by a person ability to communicate well with people, able to manage conflict and disputes with ease, possession a strong sense of empathy for others, have a positive demeanor at all time, be a team worker, patient to listen, ability to negotiate and be a leader with a positive reinforcement. Organizations and businesses consider highly people with such skills, since they attract more clients and hence realization of higher revenue.

The reputation of any organization or a business greatly relies upon the extent to which it values listening skills. Listening enables the business to acquire facts so that it can make appropriate decisions that befits. Listening to a job applicant you acquire information concerning their experience, skills and reason why they want to work with your company. Through listening, there is development and building of trust. For a project to be successful, all the members should listen carefully to instructions. Paying attention to verbal guidelines and deadlines leads to development of trust (Salustri Vol. 84, Issue 3, May-June 2019). To maintain a high reputation, the business listen to its customers. Failing to listen to them, they may not receive the items or services they wanted. If this keeps on happening, it tarnishes the organization’s reputation and the customers might quit the company. Effective listening motivates employees. A listening manager motivates and improves productivity and morale of the employees. He also discovers the challenges the employees are going through and their possible solutions.

Effective listening reduces errors and wasted time, it also saves money. In order to become a more effective listener, you should maintain eye contact and face the speaker while listening so as not to miss any point in the conversation. You also have to be relaxed and attentive. Giving attention to every detail in the conversation makes you not to miss any point. Keeping also an open mind while in a conversation, that is, listening attentively without judging the speaker and not criticizing mentally what they are talking about, this makes you an effective listener. You also have to listen to the words and try to visualize what they are talking about. You also don’t have to interrupt or impose a discouraging facial expression, which will discourage the speaker from speaking openly. In case there is anything not clear you have to wait for the speaker to pause so that you can ask for clarification. Ensure while asking question that you only ask for understanding purpose and not criticizing the speaker. Effective listener tries to feel what exactly the speaker is feeling in their conversation, for example, moving with the conversation wave, feel sad when the speaker feels sad and vice versa. Try as much as possible to acknowledge the speaker positively by giving them a regular feedback. Finally, you have to pay attention to nonverbal cues, for instance, the tone and cadence of the speaker’s voice. Try to detect boredom, enthusiasms or irritation in their body language.

Poor listening in a diverse work place leads to inefficiency and losses. Some of the barriers to effective listening includes; distracted and preoccupied, emotions and mobile phones and visual distraction can make one get distracted. Communicating in a noisy environment is also a barrier since workers cannot actually get the right message being communicated. Individual mindset is another barrier when communicating with more people at the same time, it causes inefficiency in listening. Last but not least, is when interrupting the other person, the person in the work place might not give you their full attention sinc6 the conversation they were in was exciting or interesting, or maybe the person was carrying out a more important task.

Building a conducive, healthy and strong culture at the working place is the first priority of every manager. This is achieved by creating a norm where honesty and timely feedback are valued. A feedback culture is focused on genuine and honest feedback between employer and amongst employees themselves. This culture is of utmost importance in posting employees engagement since it creates an atmosphere for better engagement enhancing loyalty and hard work to the company. It also creates a more positive work place. The presences of a satisfying places have an impact of the employee’s performance. It also encourages team work and punctuality in the work place since no worker would want to be suspended from such a wonderful organization due to absenteeism or poor performance. It decreases turn over and resignation or organizational inter transfer and brain drain of workers. A feedback culture addresses employees issues on time giving them no reason to quit the company.

A constructive feedback culture feedback culture is created through peer to peer feedback, nurturing a growth mindset, providing feedback training, using continuous feedback rather than periodic feedback, emphasizing openness and trust, balancing critical feedback with positive feedback, utilizing multiple feedback channel and finally employers should provide employees with flexibility when giving feedback among others. I will personally apologies for poor communication in my work place to my lecture, take the blame and try to illustrate what led to incidences using the above barriers to effective listening and finally promise him that such case will never happen again in future.

References

Salustri, J., 2020. ‘The Fine Art Of Communicating In The Digital Age’ By Salustri, John – Journal Of Property Management, Vol. 84, Issue 3, May-June 2019 | Online Research Library: Questia. [online] Questia.com. Available at: [Accessed 3 April 2020].

INTRODUCTION

Communication can be defined as sharing of any sort of information, feelings and thoughts through various methods. With the outbreak of technology, ways of communication have changed a lot. Most of the people these days like to use modern methods of communication to make their lives easier and for saving time. Despite of this, the significance of interpersonal communication cannot be neglected. Interpersonal communication can be between two or more people. Effective communication skills are very critical at any workplace. Within any organization, workers need to communicate with their colleagues, clients and their supervisors. So it becomes very important for the employees to have good communication skills. Being a good communist, one can maintain social and workplace relations very well.

EFFECTIVE LISTENING

Effective listening lays the foundation of a fruitful conversation. Any communication is considered as successful only when all the members participating in it listen to every word actively (Abercrombieb, 2007). Listening process can be detrimental when people have totally opposite perceptions in their mind. Listen with the intention of understanding instead of replying (Hagen, 2008). Listening is the important factor that can help in making good relations among employees and managers. It is most often at workplace that people do not want to listen to each other and they find it easy to wrap up the conversation by advising each other. In order to get the best outcomes out of a conversation, silence should be maintained. Everyone should wait for their turn to present their ideas. It is not just an accident that LISTEN and SILENT consist of same alphabetical letters. It can be interpreted as both the words are closely related with each other.

BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE LISTENING

Skills of effective listening can contribute a great deal in personal enhancement in following ways:

• BETTER RELATIONSHIPS: Misunderstandings due to less communication are very detrimental for the workplace relations within an organization. It can end up bothering someone’s feelings. So, it is paramount to reduce these misconceptions by listening actively and making the person in front comfortable to make his points clear and feel free to generate good relations.
• ANSWERING QUESTIONS: For a better performance and productivity, individuals need to participate in every activity happening within the firm and even need to answer some questions. Giving answers become easy if one has some previous knowledge about that thing. Human mind is capable of storing some knowledge that people hear from surroundings but if things are listened actively, it can be even more beneficial.
• PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: Humans grow by learning and listening a lot of things from the environment in which they live. By applying the skill to listen effectively in their day to day lives, people can learn different point of views. It acts as a powerful tool to learn many important lessons of life.

WAYS TO BECOME EFFECTIVE LISTENER

Hearing and listening are two totally different terms. Listening process requires a person to be psychologically active. Following are the ways to become a good listener:

• EYE CONTACT: Maintaining eye contact is the first thing to be focused during active listening. Everyone participating in the conversation should sit straight and make an eye contact in a way that no one feels uncomfortable.
• RESPEONDING: Regular responses and answers to questions if asked can make the conversation more interesting which is only possible when everyone is listening to each other.
• MINIMISE EXTERNAL DISTURBANCES: External distractions can be very irritating and act as a barrier in the listening process. All of the external disturbances should be turned off.
• AVOID ARGUMENTS: As said by Hagen. 2008, listen not to reply back but to understand what is being said and the exact meaning of the statement.
• ASK QUESTIONS: Ask questions if something is not clear but first let the speaker wrap up everything.

BARRIERS TO ACTIVE LISTENING

Listening is very attentive process and there are many barriers to listening:

• CULTURAL BARRIES: Due to globalization, people from different cultural backgrounds and with different linguistic accents work under one roof. This diverse environment can hamper the listening process because of less understanding between the employees.
• BAD LISTENING HABITS: Every person is not a good listener by birth. People develop this skill slowly by improving themselves but there are some people who just pretend that they are paying attention but actually they are not doing so.
• WRONG SUPPOSITIONS: In any conversation, all the participants should participate actively. But some people assume that it is only the speaker who needs to fulfill his duty of speaking whether someone listens or not. These types of perceptions tend most people to ignore the conversation.

CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

In an organization, feedback is generally defined as the evaluation of the work done by workers and supervisors. Feedback is discussing the strong and weak points of an individual or a group. This is not a very frequent process in firms because most of the managers hesitate or they might not want to give feedback. The reason is that most of the times feedback proves fatal for the productivity and performance. But this is not the case always. Constructive and destructive nature of feedback depends on the way it is given and received. There are some points that must be kept in mind while discussing about feedback:

• Points should be made clear. Using indirect language can cause misunderstanding among the speaker and the listener.
• Way of talking should be very polite so that it does not hurt the feelings of the person.
• Along with the suggestions to improve weak areas of work, strengths should be praised to bring confidence in workers.
• Receiving feedback should not be taken as insult. It should be taken as an opportunity to come over the mistakes that need to be improved.

ADRESSING THE SCENARIO

As discussed above, interpersonal communication skills, effective listening and feedback lays the foundation of any corporation. While working in an organization, employees deal with different types of clients. Sometimes customers act possessively due to some reasons. As in the given scenario, customers are unhappy with the services of the company. In this case the responsibility of the employees is to talk politely with them instead of talking back. If I will be the employee, I will listen to client’s complaints patiently and assure them that this would not happen again. I will discuss the issue with my manager and will try to find the solutions to improve the services of the company.

Introductions

Interpersonal communication is an essential practice that allow people of different ages to interact and exchange valuable information with the use of feelings, verbal and non-verbal messages. It is usually a face-to-face communication that involves several components such as the message, noise, receiver, respondent, channel, context, and noise. The interpersonal communication course has been thoroughly engaging and insightful. I have been able to identify the critical skills involved in interpersonal communication that allow people to engage and interact on a personal and professional level. I have understood the essential skills required to communicate: listening, verbal, non-verbal skills successfully. This information is vital in my career development and personal growth.

During this entire period, I was to keep track of all the activities I took part in, both in class and back at home also reflect upon my live experience that have happened to me. I deduced that effective communication relies on the collaboration of every individual involved to be successful. Miscommunications are common, and they usually happen because of many factors. As the course developed, I learned how to identify these factors, which significantly improved my interpersonal communication skills.

The course was divided into weekly studies. The essential skills were divided into 9 entries, which were taught for 11 weeks. Week 2 and week 3: communication barrier and rapport development. Week 4/5: listening skills, week 6: assertiveness skills, week 7: the assertive focus was on conflict, week 8: verbal communication and use of language, week 9: appropriate non-verbal skills, week 10: cultural difference/ diversity in communication, and week 11: the use of silence and power your communication in the future. I kept a journal for each week to assess the new information and how effective it was in practical situations.

Week 2: Communication Barrier

Language barrier indicates the difficulties faced when both the sender and receiver talk a different language attempt to communicate with each other. This week, i learnt about how language barrier can impact my perception of others as well as interpersonal communication at workplace.

I used to work as a waitress at a Malaysian restaurant in Sydney. Working in a famous restaurant will likely encounter many customers from different countries who speak a different language. I remembered a customer complained because he received a wrong order from me. The customer ordered ‘cuttlefish’ and when the was served on his table, he asked me ‘where is the fish?’. Well, I told him ‘that is cuttlefish’. Which made him confused with my respond and began to complain even more, like i was not telling him that cuttlefish is not fish and that i should have told him what cuttlefish is. I felt annoyed and thinking if he was concerned about that, the customer should have asked at the first place before ordering.

Usually we spend more energy defending our own position than understanding others (communication barrier, ppt week 2). I realise now how this situation has changed my interpersonal skills to see other people’s perception from their point of view.

Reflect upon my experience on the situation, I realise I should be more mindful when dealing with the situation to feel and understand other people from their perspective and meaning as well as improve my interpersonal communication skills.

Week 3: Rapport Development

The ability to comfortably engage with different people and establish a good relationship is always an asset. This relationship goes a long way toward forming partnerships that help in achieving new objectives. Rapport describes a relationship between people or groups that have an understanding of each other’s ideas and feelings that enables them to communicate and work together effectively.

One of my teacher noted that students struggled to create new relationships with their peers, which made the learning process relatively slow and even affected the grades of some of the students who could not work on their own. He placed us in groups for assignments, which allowed us to interact and understand each other. After completing the assignments, we started forming study groups that helped us get through the course and understand concepts much better. Friendships were also formed on a personal level that made the class more enjoyable.

Reflecting on my experience, I am now able to form a mutually beneficial relationship with people on a professional and personal level.

Week 4/5: Listening Skills

Listening is more of a process than activity since it involves critical decisions that enable a listener to receive, interpret, and understand the contents of a verbal message. It is the “conscious processing of the auditory stimuli that have been perceived through hearing” (West & Turner, 2010). This week, we learnt about active listening and the difference between listening and hearing. We all spend much of our time hearing other people speak, but not necessarily listening to what they are really saying. When you listen properly, the activity adds a great deal to the quality of your relationships. When you don’t, your communication and relationships both suffer. (Floyd, 2008)

I tended not to listen to people who did not organise their thoughts, properties, or information that I was already aware of in the first place. It had worked for me because I am a quick learner, and I am quick to interpret situations. I realise now that this always have been the primary issue for me to form a relationship, with my peers and sometimes with my boyfriend.

However, my perspective changed after an event during one of our group assignments. My classmate was outlining our responsibilities, and as soon as I heard the primary objective, I immediately switched off and started planning for the next discussion. Unfortunately, I ended up missing vital details that almost made us fail the subject. I realise how my listening behaviour could negatively impact on others. I quickly rectified the mistake but the situation made me reexamine my behaviour. I was able to understand the importance of listening, and I started utilising this skill which significantly improved my output.

Week 6: Assertiveness Skills

Assertiveness allows a person to express themselves while also respecting the feelings and opinions of others. This week, we looked at assertiveness skills and how to express ourselves around each other adequately.

I am an introvert, so sometimes it is a bit hard to express myself. Initially, my friends thought that I was not a people person, but after spending time together, they started to understand me. The interactions between us made me gain more confidence when around my peers, and I started being more vocal and expressive.

Recently one of my peers gave incorrect diet information to customer. He was one of the experienced staff at my workplace, so no one wanted to correct him. I was aware of how I could approach the situation, so I took it upon myself to respectfully highlight the fault in the information then clarified on what was right. He took the information positively and thanked me for pointing it out.

Reflecting on the situation, I am glad that I spoke out instead of keeping the information to myself. I was able to help my friends learn something new and also boost my confidence.

Week 7: Assertive Focus was on Conflict

In a social setting, conflict occurs regularly on a personal and professional level. During this week, we learned how to deal with conflict using the assertiveness skills that we had learned the previous week. Assertiveness involves standing up for one’s rights without infringing upon those of others, whereas aggression involves the use of noxious stimuli to maintain rights. (Richins & Verhage, 1987).

Reflect back upon what happened during staff meeting in my previous job, we had several social groups that often had issues with each other because of sharing different interests. This always led to disagreements that needed to be immediately addressed. Usually, the issues were minor and did not attract much attention. However, during a discussion about cultural practices, one of the staff made a racial joke that was distasteful to another staff. A fight broke out, but before it could get physical, my manager intervened and sat the two staffs down. He let each person express how they felt about the matter, instead of yelling at them and they came to a resolve that was acceptable by both of them.

I was inspired by his act of courage and the use of assertiveness skills. I also learned a lot from him and started practicing some of the measures he took to contain the situation.

Week 8: Verbal Communication and Use of Language

Verbal communication involves the use of language to articulate information. This week allowed us to learn how to communicate using different languages without being misinterpreted verbally.

This was one of the most exciting weeks of the course. We challenged ourselves to learn how to use different languages to communicate. We struggled at first because of direct translations and difficult pronunciations, but the overall experience was much fun.

When learning how to communicate in these languages, the groups ended up becoming more social with each other. We were given a platform to present a form of a speech explaining a subject matter, and in the end, we asked each other questions to see whether we had understood the message.

The unit was exciting, and we learned verbal cues that we can regularly use when talking to each other. I also learned that languages could bring people together.

Week 9: Appropriate Non-verbal Skills

Non-verbal communication accounts for the majority of communication between people. We say a lot by not using our words, so it is essential to learn how to communicate and read such communications. This week we learned how to communicate and interpret non-verbal cues. Nonverbal communication is more powerful than verbal communication in conveying emotions, attitudes and reaction (Dywer 2013).

Recently in my workplace had one delivery guy who has hearing impaired. I didn’t notice at first until i stood behind him and told him that the food was ready and he was not respond at all, so I touched his shoulder, continued saying that the food is ready to be picked up and increase my sound a bit as I was thinking he may had some hearing issues. Which is he turned and replied with sign language of thank you, I noticed his mouth movement and realised he had a hearing impaired. At the same moment, I made eye contact at him and did some of the body gesturers which could be understood as an action sorry. He looked at me again and nodded with his head. I realise how his unit helped me understand a personal situation, which helped me learn how to connect with people better. I pay more attention to non-verbal cues these days than I did before.

Week 10: Cultural Difference in Communication

The society is made up of people who share different beliefs and traditions. Culture clashes are one of the primary reasons for conflict. This week we learned how to engage with these cultures and communicating effectively.

A friend of mine invited me to their home for family dinner, and when I got there, the family welcomed me by hugging me. I was surprised since where I come from Indonesia, people are not affectionate with new acquaintances as it is highly inappropriate physical touch. However, they were very hospitable, and I enjoyed my time there. This also happened at my workplace recently. As one of our team member is leaving to another country and everyone was hugging him and saying goodbye. When it come to my turn i was of course hesitated to hug him, then we shook hand instead and we both laugh. From this reflection, I learned that culture affects the way people communicate and that good communication can happen between people with different cultures if both accept their differences with open mind. The diversity allows us to explore new ways of communicating.

Week 11: The Use of Silence and Power Your Communication in the Future

Communication involves much talking, but listening is also a critical part of communication. In the final week, our course instructor wanted us to learn how to use all the concepts we had learned together. Silence referred to active listening and attention to detail on what was happening around the communication, which enables a listener to earn trust, boost the confidence of the speaker, and emphasising a point.

I recently had to make a pitch on a proposal in our community. I was worried that they would not warm up to my ideas, so I consistently took silent pauses in between my points for the people to digest the thoughts and understand the need for the project. After several silent pauses, people started to relate to the project, and I gained their complete attention and eventually their trust.

The lessons on silence are a bit complex since some people may be hard to read. However, with enough patience, a person can successfully utilise this concept and power their communication to another level.

Conclusion

When I joined the class, I had set learning outcomes that I expected to achieve. Initially, I expected it to be challenging, but on the contrary, it was exciting. I was able to learn more than I expected, which will be helpful in my academic, personal, and professional career going forward.

Keeping the journal has also been resourceful. I can refer back to critical parts of our study when I am faced with similar situations, and that enables me to handle them accordingly. The outline consists of concepts that we are exposed to regularly, and understanding them makes things much more comfortable to handle.

Culture played a vital role in in-class studies and engagements. Diversity is very beneficial in gaining knowledge. It gives people a different perspective, which aids in resolving different problems such as disputes and conflicts. I also learned new languages and exciting traditions. I am considering conducting a based cultural study so that I can learn even more about the world’s cultures.

Ultimately, the main lesson I learned is the importance of communication. It is used in our everyday life, and it allows us to deal with varied situations. Interpersonal communication is a big part of that as well. It makes communication more productive by eliminating wrong perceptions. I also noted that face-to-face communication is very effective, it eliminates misinterpretations, and immediate feedback leads to better understanding and resolve. I plan to continue exploring new communication concepts and using the knowledge I gained from the class collaboratively.

References

1. Fuller, N (2020). COU101A Interpersonal Communication, Week 2: Communication barrier. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://laureate-au.blackboard.com/
2. Floyd, K., Interpersonal communication, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2011, p.218.
3. West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2010). Understanding Interpersonal Communication (Vol. 2nd Edition). Boston, USA: Cengage Learning.
4. Richins, M.L., Verhage, B.J. (1987). Assertiveness and Aggression in Marketplace Exchanges Testing Measure Equivalence. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 18(1), 93-105. doi 10.1177/0022002187018001010
5. Government of Western Australia (2017). Department of health WA, Assertive communication. Retrieved from https://healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Assertive-communication
6. Dwyer, J., Hopwood, N. (2013). Communication for Business and the Professions: Strategies and skills (5th edition). Australia: Pearson.

The enourmous growth in the use of the Internet over the last decade has led to radical changes to the way that people consume and share information. This growth whose effects we mainly see through social media functions as an undeniable factor in the way people communicate.People use the advcancements of technology at an increasing rate to share information through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and so on and the growth in these platforms’ usage over the last decade can be seen if taken Statista’s data of social media users statistics from the year 2010 up to 2021, where there’s a gain of 1.65 billion people up until this year. This increase in the amount of people who use social media is further based in We Are Social’s Global Digital Report of 2018 data stating that 11 people use social media for the first time each second, from which can be concluded that over a decade up until 2018, people’s use of social media has grown additionally.The more users of social media the more connectivity around the globe, and the easier people access to information.

Taking Twitter as an example, ‘’hashtags’’ and ‘’trending news’’ enable users all around the world to reach updates on any important event that takes place in one country to every other. Any user is able to ‘’tweet’’ their opinion on the relevant issue in less than 140 characters. People are allowed to save ‘’memories’’ or ‘’stories’’ on their personal accounts through Snapchat when before last decade when the Internet was not as widespread, they would have to write letters or make dial phone calls in order to catch up with the world. When finding an old friend or even a family member used to take more time, Facebook made them one click away from us, and all you had to do was to type the high school you had graduated from. All in all, the increase in the use of Internet provided an a lot

The enourmous growth in the use of the Internet over the last decade has led to radical changes to the way that people consume and share information. This growth whose effects we mainly see through social media functions as an undeniable factor in the way people communicate.

People use the advcancements of technology at an increasing rate to share information through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and so on and the growth in these platforms’ usage over the last decade can be seen if taken Statista’s data of social media users statistics from the year 2010 up to 2021, where there’s a gain of 1.65 billion people up until this year. This increase in the amount of people who use social media is further based in We Are Social’s Global Digital Report of 2018 data stating that 11 people use social media for the first time each second, from which can be concluded that over a decade up until 2018, people’s use of social media has grown additionally.

The more users of social media the more connectivity around the globe, and the easier people access to information. Taking Twitter as an example, ‘’hashtags’’ and ‘’trending news’’ enable users all around the world to reach updates on any important event that takes place in one country to every other. Any user is able to ‘’tweet’’ their opinion on the relevant issue in less than 140 characters. People are allowed to save ‘’memories’’ or ‘’stories’’ on their personal accounts through Snapchat when before last decade when the Internet was not as widespread, they would have to write letters or make dial phone calls in order to catch up with the world. When finding an old friend or even a family member used to take more time, Facebook made them one click away from us, and all you had to do was to type the high school you had graduated from. All in all, the increase in the use of Internet provided an a lot more immediate way of communication.

As a tool of advanced technology, the Internet led people to communicate and allowed information enabled to the globe in an easier accessible way through social media, gaining a wider audience day by day.

Genre is defined as typical rhetorical ways of responding to a situation that repeatedly occurs within a scene. To help better understand that a scene is a place in which communication happens among groups of people with some shared objectives. Lastly, a situation are various rhetorical interactions happening within a scene, involving participants, subject, setting, and purposes. To further analyze genre, we look to music videos, which is when an artist creates a short film to go along with the lyrics of this song. I wanted to have three music videos that cover a wide range of different strategies, so I selected music videos from the eighties, nineties, and two thousand. One of the most iconic music videos of all-time “Thriller”, by Michael Jackson was my first selection. For my second song I decided on “Under The Bridge”, by The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and lastly, I went with “Feel Good Inc.”, by the “Gorillaz” which is another piece that differs from the others. To understand genre better, we must compare and contrast various kinds of music videos and depict their strengths and weaknesses as well as patterns within one another. Music videos are a huge part of the music industry today they help express the artists message hidden behind the lyrics.

An artist makes a music video to further connect with their fans as if they are giving a final thank you or goodbye to the track, this also creates another outlet for their music to gain more fame and money. Music videos are usually released after a song has been available to a consumer. Many say the reasoning behind this is to spark additional interest in a track when it’s audiences enjoyment begins to fade. Rhetorical situations deal with forms of communication in which someone wants to either persuade, inform, or instruct on a topic. In music videos, it’s responsibility is to mostly inform the consumer of the subjects in the song as well as the deeper meaning behind the lyrics. Many different rhetorical strategies are used in these videos such as emotional, ethical, and logical that assist in persuading the audience of their views. A strategy I found on one of my examples was the use of emotions to persuade the audience. “Thriller” is a great example of this as the video strikes fear in it’s viewers through the use of eerie music, suspenseful scenes, and jumpscares. Michael Jackson wanted to really “thrill” his crowd with this song, which he was successful with this as his music video became an icon around the world and will always be remembered as a Halloween classic. Rhetorical strategies can be found everywhere in music videos from past and present.

The persona created is very important to the artist as they want their audience to perceive them in a certain way. Music videos are made to build up ones image along with their music. A great example of this is the Gorillaz. The Gorillaz are an animated band that wants to portray themselves as rebellious with intentions to educate their audience on issues in America. Their highly recognized song “Feel Good Inc.” represents the evilness of consumerism and how it affects our population. The bands music video depicts how greed and pleasure leads us astray, they want their message to reach the public through their lyrics and music videos. The audience is invited to join this rebellion against consumerism the band was to inform their audience of this issue and overall does a great job of it. Another great example from an article I found is, “A video connects an artist and a listener, as well as connecting a listener to an audience. In many ways, they are an important medium for contemporary pop culture and technology.” (Boardman 2016) Language is extremely important when relating to rhetorical strategies in music it is what ultimately gets the artist’s message across, with the use of a certain tone, one can express the significance of the issue. With my three examples I became aware of many similarities and differences. First and foremost each music video was formatted and constructed very similarly. Each began with an intro, had a main focal point, and then concluded. Each music video contained each band member with other guest stars. I found that each music video jumps around from each scene and contanly changed its setting. This was very effective in keeping me engaged in the music and story behind the video. In terms of style and tone, each video gave off the impression that pertained to the artists views. Each video gave off a unique vibe with a particular message. Another interesting fact I discovered in comparing these examples was the rhetorical appeals. Each song offered a different persuasion method to explain the meaning behind the track. Before doing this assignment I never fully understood how artists convince their audience, as someone who is intrigued by the music industry I found this all to be extremely informative.

To summarize what I have learned, music videos contain many facets of English literature within them. They are the basis of instructing audiences on social issues as well as deeper meaning behind songs. Without music videos I feel like the world would not be as informed as they are, it is a very important aspect of our generation. They help us connect with our artists while even learning along the way. Each genre of music offers a different route for one to take, with there being many to choose from one can always find a place where they can feel comfortable. “Music videos are still an important jumping-off point for directors to hone and explore their creativity. They give young talent an opportunity to break into different areas of the film industry — they are still very much a way in. The media still look at music videos for discovering new talent, and those ideas are then applied to so many other things.” (Boardman 2016) While searching for my examples I came across an article that explains how video is the most effective form of persuasion. The article states, “While video is effective at maintaining the attention of your viewers, its biggest advantage lies in its ability to transfer information more quickly and with higher emotional appeal.” (Krieg 2017) I can attest to this since I consume information much better through videos rather than a book or a teacher. The article gives three facts that show how videos process faster in ones brain than other forms of information. First, ninety percent of the information that is transmitted to the brain is visual, so seeing is learning when it comes down to it. Another fact the piece gives is video information is processed by the brain sixty thousand times faster than text. Lastly, website visitors are eighty five percent more likely to buy after watching a product video. So all-around people learn faster when watching a video. Music videos are an important part of our society that will continue to provide a positive outlook on society.

Have you ever sat in a room where every single person is staring at their phone screen, preoccupied by the world of technology? The room is silent. This silence is not on purpose but is rather a result of the lack of face-to-face communication. Everyone in the room is too fixated on what is displayed on their phone screen. Rather than simply looking up and carrying on a conversation with those present, they’re texting someone who is not present. What is the point of them being together, when they don’t even speak to each other? This sounds silly and impractical, but this situation happens all the time.

With the recent technology that allows us to send messages to others several miles away in a matter of seconds, we obviously use this to our advantage. While this way of communication, called texting, has the benefits of instantaneously communicating with others and can be more practical than a phone call or face-to-face conversation, it takes away from building communication skills and the preferred slang writing style can affect our communication.

Text messaging is fast, easy, convenient, and an easy way to multitask. Texting has, in several ways, has made communication easier. People use text messaging to receive dates, tell people they love them or goodnight, avoid oral communication, coordinate times to meet up, and maintain connection with long distance friends and family. A mass text is a text message that is sent to more than one person at once. Text messaging could simply be used to plan and coordinate with friends for that night or the future. Messages could even be sent while brushing your teeth, singing a song, eating food, playing a game, or at work. One convenience of text messaging is it doesn’t need to be responded to immediately. The message can be answered whenever it’s convenient, like email. Texting encourages rapid-fire, single-sentence thoughts, but this style of communication shouldn’t be conducive to face-to-face communication.

Talking on the phone used to be the means of communication for most people, but over the last 20 years texting or instant messaging has developed into one of the most common ways of staying in touch with friends and family. Let’s face it, with the rise in recent technology we seem to be rapidly losing the art of face-to-face communication. How many times have you seen people out eating dinner and everyone is on their phone? No one is talking to each other. Whether they are surfing social media or texting, they are simply not talking. Don’t misunderstand, I am not anti-texting, but I do believe there is a time and a place. Texting is great for quick short messages and meaningless joking. I, for one, am guilty of texting to arrange to meet up with people and finalizing plans. There are, however, situations where texting is not an acceptable means of communication. It is very difficult to have a deep meaningful conversation through text messaging. This first and most important reason is that the text can be misinterpreted. Through text the tone of voice cannot be heard. Therefore, it can be uncertain whether they’re annoyed, happy or sad, which can result in confusion. Eye contact and body language are very important facets of face-to face communication, which cannot be seen through text messaging. It’s well known that good communication is essential to relationships, so why replace talking with texting?

SMS language or texting language is the abbreviated language and slang commonly used in mobile phone texts, or other Internet-based communication such as email and instant messaging. Features of early mobile phone messaging encouraged users to us abbreviations. Text entry was difficult, requiring multiple key presses on a small keypad to generate each letter, and messages were generally limited to a specific amount of characters. Therefore, text language made it easier and quicker to compose text messages. Once its popularity rose, it was often used outside of texting, such as to write emails or letters. As our messages keep getting shorter, so do the words, neglecting grammar and spelling in the process. Some studies have found a negative correlation between frequency of use of text language and measures of spelling, grammar, and other measuring abilities related literacy. Grammar errors can lead to miscommunication such as comma placement can change the meaning of a sentence.

Society is evolving with each generation to come. Cell phones are no longer large, square blocks and televisions are no longer in black and white, writing itself has also evolved. Once upon a time many wrote and spoke in Shakespearean form of language and over the years it has evolved into something, we call modern English. In recent years, technology has advanced greatly, and cell phones have become one of our primary means of communication. With cell phones came a new form of writing called text messaging. Often text messages involve the use of abbreviations which stand for different things and involves frequent use of emojis as a form of expression. This form of writing is considered informal writing and is not acceptable in academic settings. Knowing the difference between text language and formal writing and the appropriate setting to use them is key in effectively communication.

In 1962, the United States was emerging from a recession and the biggest steel organizations raised its costs by 3.5%. Kenndey, alongside numerous different Americans, was irritated encompassing the choice to raise steel costs. While Kenndey addresses the choice he utilizes numerous instances of rhetorical strategies such as cause-and-effect and comparing and contrasting, to represent his disappointment and irritation with the corporations. He provides the individuals of this nation with the expectation that this national issue will be settled.

Since the large companies challenge the public’s best interest their actions are also very irresponsible and unnecessary. During this time of economic distress, the public at large had more important issues to respond to than the steel company’s raising their steel prices. In the second paragraph of Kennedy’s speech, he dedicates one long sentence to the entirety of the paragraph to account for the handful of interests the public is already involved in. The length of the sentence provokes thoughtfulness and permits the function which is needed to clarify and see why the public interest is affected when steel companies are to raise their prices. Included in the sentence is an emotional argument Kennedy uses when he states in lines 12-13, “four [reservists] were killed in the last two days in Vietnam.” The argument presented appeals to the public’s emotions and evokes them to contemplate how the steel companies defiance of the public’s interest have disregarded the lives lost of the people protecting our country and making it a safe place

According to Kennedy, the steel company’s actions are also irresponsible. He proclaims, “…steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for their interests of 185 million Americans.”(lines 17-20) Kennedy uses this statement to try and get a response from steel executives of breaking their honorable responsibilities. Kennedy makes his argument stronger when he appeals to the steel company’s selfish actions to not just the country, but all 185 million Americans with him. The use of the word contempt describes the actions of the steel companies and provides the audience with more meaning than what it shows. The strong use of words suggests the company’s actions be selfish and show disrespect to the public because of how the steel companies failed to meet their requirements of the public.

These thoughtless actions of large companies challenge the public’s interest which hurts the citizens of this country. This statement given by Kennedy throughout lines 22-26, says that the steel prices are “Imitated by the rest of the industry” the effect will be an increase in the cost of “homes, autos, appliances, and most other items for every American family” as well as an increase in the cost of “machinery and tools” which will greatly impact “every American businessman and farmer, ” is an argument in the form of cause-and-effect. This will inform Kennedy’s audience of the effects. He also makes a point that the increase will “prevent efforts” at stopping and “inflationary spiral” from occurring which would in fact “[eat] up the pensions from older citizens.” Kennedy describes large steel companies as “eating” elderly pensions, which is an example of personification. He utilizes personification when he characterizes the steel organizations as “eating” elderly pensions, which then suggests that the organizations are consuming large sums of cash set something aside for the old residents of this nation.

As the expansion in steel value impacts the residents of the U.S. it likewise harms the nation overall. Kennedy expresses that as per his secretary McNamara, he is educated that the expansion in steel costs would include ‘an estimated $1 billion to the cost of our defenses.’ (lines 33-34) Kennedy makes a logical claim by advising his listeners about the impacts regarding the steel costs being excessive on the national defense system when ‘each dollar is needed for national security and other purposes.’ Kennedy suggests in the fourth section (lines 37-40) that raising steel costs makes it “more difficult for American goods to compete in foreign markets, more difficult to withstand competition from imports, and thus more difficult to improve our balance of payments position, and stem the flow of gold.” He infers the technique of reiteration while posting, by saying the expression ‘more difficult” repeatedly. This is executed to underline the negative influences wearing on our nation’s foreign policy actions as steel prices increase.

Kennedy proclaims the fact that the rise in steel prices was completely unnecessary. He supports his claim with logical arguments proving but that the rise in steel prices was avoidable because the steel companies were already highly successful. Kennedy emphasizes that the large steel industries “ cash dividends have exceeded $600 million in each of the last five years.” (lines 70-71) The claim that Kennedy presents supports the argument that the steel companies are already creating a huge number of dividends at “600 million dollars” which shows that raising prices isn’t essential to their success. Kennedy later declares “earnings in the first quarter of this year were estimated in the February 28 Wall Street Journal to be among the highest in history.” (lines 71-74) He mentions a credible source of one of the most distinguished business magazines in the Wall Street Journal which included details debating futile actions of the steel companies. These facts supported Kennedy’s claims showing that the steel industry’s revenue is close to history’s highest, proving that raising steel prices during this period isn’t necessary to create profit.

Since the expansion in steel costs hurt residents and our nation, Kennedy warrants legislatures mediation on the issue. Kennedy stands up for, ‘The Steelworkers union can be proud that it abided by its responsibilities in this agreement, and this government has responsibilities, which we intend to meet,'(lines 84-87) he is using an example of parallel construction into his lecture. This is then applied to look into the Steelworkers association and government duties. In the next paragraph, Kennedy communicates expectations and urgency as he talks about a few government organizations, for example, the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and Department of Defense, and the activities each have actualized in ‘examining the significance’ of expansion in steel costs. His tone here is authorizing to his crowd that a move is being made upon this national issue.

The steel company’s actions were overall pointless and irresponsible, and continuously challenged the public’s interest. Although steel corporations are built to generate revenue, they still play a big part in the well-being of this country. In spite of making a benefit, they are answerable for serving the individuals and nations with a product that is utilized to improve the proficiency and prosperity of our country. This duty can’t be met if costs are expanded to a point that hurt our economy as well as keep our country from exceeding expectations to be its best.

Reflection

I feel my essay is a 3.5/4 because of my sophisticated word choice, evidence that establishes credibility, and a strong thesis and conclusion. Thesis: I give myself an 8. I do incorporate a thesis that responds to the prompt, as well as listing examples of some of the rhetorical strategies. Evidence: I give myself a 30. My evidence is relevant to my thesis and has direct quotes with specific lines throughout my essay. Commentary: I give myself a 35. The reason I gave myself the highest amount of points for this section was that it explained the relationship between the evidence and the thesis very well, and it is the main point, commentary, throughout this essay, which is to analyze the rhetorical strategies. Sophistication: I gave myself an 8. The reason is that I explain the significance of the text’s purpose, I made effective rhetorical choices, and I utilize a prose style that is especially direct and informative. Overall I thought I was most proud of finding good quotes to support claims, good structuring of topic sentences, and did a good job of connecting back to the previous paragraphs. What I was struggling with, and what challenged me was sentence variety, concluding sentences that wrapped up my paragraphs, and relating evidence to rhetorical strategies.

John F. Kennedy had a very powerful response after the increase of steel price in 1962. In his speech made on April 11, 1962, he is extremely effective in his use of rhetorical strategies to convey his message. Kennedy gives off a disapproving tone and strong diction in order to clearly get his point across. His main goal is to make the steel companies reverse the increase. John F. Kennedy was very skilled at taking situations and allowing all of America the opportunity to truly understand what was happening in their country.

Kennedy’s tone shows his sympathy for his nation but at the same time shows great encouragement that the hard times will get better. He uses many examples to help with his diction. His word choice showed knowledge on the subject matter he was speaking about. Americans couldn’t handle the increase because of the recession. The tone is used to make the steel companies feel guilty. To conclude his speech Kennedy says, “Sometime ago I asked each American to consider what he would do for his country and I asked the steel companies. In the last 24 hours we had their answer”. The tone of these sentences are not angry but very disapproving. This leads to feelings of guilt which was kennedy’s original goal.

John F. Kennedy’s well-chosen diction also contributes to the effectiveness of his speech. It helps create the disapproving tone. In the introductions Kennedy states, “The American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of steel executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of 185 million Americans”. This quote is filled with a lot of exceptional word choice such as “utter attempt” and “a tiny handful”. He singles out the executives alone, making it seem as if they do not care about anything but themselves. He also compares this “tiny handful” with “185 million Americans”. Not only does this make the executives seem inconvenient but it also sets a small group against a national army.

Overall, Kennedy use of diction and tone make his speech very effective. It urges the steel companies to lower the prices. Kennedy does not directly go on the warpath or appear to be aggressive, yet he manages to appear strong and principled without giving the steel companies anything to respond with other than guilt.

September 12th,1962, the height of the Cold War, tensions between the US and Soviet Union were at a high and both nations were trying to outdo the other. It was a common belief that the Americans were losing the ‘Space Race’ since the USSR had become the first nation to put a man in space. John F. Kennedy was determined to not allow the Soviets to go down in history as the pioneers of space exploration, he was determined to put the first man on the moon. At Rice University, on September 12th 1962 JFK delivered a speech talking about how and why the United States will put the first man on the moon. JFK uses pathos and logos throughout his speech to help persuade the American people to support the decision to go to the moon.

John F. Kennedy’s diction and word choice was used to strengthen his pathos by appealing to the audience’s self identity as American people. Throughout his speech JFK will use words such as ‘we’ and “our” and at the beginning of the speech he says “my fellow citizens”. JFK’s word choice in the examples listed is not only helping him appear more relatable to the audience by referring to his goal as a goal that “we” all share, but his word choice is also creating a sense of nationalism amongst the audience. By using the audience’s patriotism and pride for their country, JFK is able to unite them to support his cause of traveling to the moon.

President Kennedy uses logos in his speech by incorporating a question and answer format and using repetition. During his speech president Kennedy asks the audience three rhetorical questions that demonstrate the hard work and eventual positive outcome people have done in the past. He asks, “Why Climb the highest mountain?” and “Why 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic?”; he then relates this back to the decision to go to the moon by declaring “We Choose to go to the moon,We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”. JFK is using logos to compare the other groundbreaking achievements of the past to his goal of being the first to set foot on the moon. By comparing the moon landing to the triumphs of the past, and achievements that were once thought to be impossible, JFK is drawing a connection between these events of the past and the moon landing that will take place in the “decade”.

Conclusion

On September 12th,1962 John F. Kennedy managed to inspire a crowd of 40,000 people to support the cause of putting a man on the moon. His speech is an excellent example of how proper use of pathos and logos can bring people together to support a common cause. After his speech was delivered, the idea of the United States being the first ever nation to put a man on the moon became a huge public interest and had the support of the American people. Unfortunately John F. Kennedy did not live to see what he spoke about that day, but long after he was gone, the emotions he rallied on September 12th 1962 still live on.

Imagine a situation where you were subjected to unpleasant terms or conditions that you never agreed to in the first place. Nonetheless, you must go through the said situations since an individual claiming to be a representative of yours accented to it, thereby making it a binding agreement. Now, imagine not giving up the power to be represented to the imposter who put you in that position. Such is the situation the Native American tribe, The Cherokee, found themselves in 1836 as embodied in the letter from Chief John Ross. The message was meant to address the Senate and the House of Representatives over the implementation of the terms of the Treaty of New Echota on the Cherokee community. The reading provides the views of its author by demonstrating the unfair situation facing the Cherokee community at the time courtesy of the injustice imposed on them by the said treaty. In this essay, I will utilize rhetorical analysis to study the author’s use of rhetorical strategies to communicate his views and persuade his target audience.

The resource to be used for this analysis process is a Letter written by Chief John Ross on behalf of the native community addressing the Senate and The House of Representatives. On September 28, 1836, it was showcased on the Cherokee natives Red Clay Council Ground. The details of the letter reveal an unjust situation that involved the Cherokee natives and the United States government, where a rogue group of imposters supplanted the authority of the natives. The imposters acted maliciously under the guise of obtained permission to represent the local community in any negotiations with the government of the United States. The result of that interaction was the introduction of the Treaty of Echota that imposed harsh conditions on the Cherokee, leading to the Chief John Ross’ letter. Chief Ross’s letter documents the stripping of personal freedoms, properties, and eligibility to defend other people. The chief attributes the treatment of the Native Cherokee to being on par with being stripped of membership in the human family. The Chief expresses his views, in no offensive manner, on the situation facing his people and the role the government in rendering those undesirable complications.

The letter submitted to the Senate and the House of Representatives utilized three distinct strategies to convey the message to the audience and convince them of the author’s viewpoints. The author uses devices from the logos category to convince and persuade the audience members of the validity of his arguments. The letter provides the audience with dates of occurrence for the events that led to the writing and submission of the letter to the target audience. The Chief offers dates such as the date of the formation of the first delegation on October 23, 1835, by the General Council of the nation. The Chief also mentions key individuals in the procession of the injustice, such as Rev. John F. Schermerhorn and his cohorts in formulating the treaty at New Echota. According to Chief Ross, the agreement was concluded in the State of Georgia on December 29, 1835, under the patronage of William Carroll and John F. Schermerhorn. Explicit reference to real individuals, at the time, help to emphasize the arguments presented by Chief Ross because they are veritable.

Chief Ross also utilizes pathos to emphasize his point to the target audience by appealing to their sensibilities as decent human beings who will identify with the plight of the Cherokee community. The letter describes in detail what Chief Ross views as the loss of their membership to the human family. The Chief writes that the Cherokees have been despoiled of our private possessions and indefeasible property of individuals. He also affirms that the natives have been stripped of their freedom as well as the eligibility to defend themselves through legal means. The Chief emphasizes the impact of such infractions by depicting the emotional and physical toll that the action of the imposters and the government have rendered on the local community. Chief Ross’ choice of word appeals to the law-making arm of the government by referring to the inalienable rights of the Native Cherokee community. The Chief alludes to feelings of being denationalized and disfranchised by the actions of a few imposters. Their efforts, in agreement with the government of the United States, imposed injustices on the native community, thereby making their issues emotionally relatable.

The letter submitted to the Senate and House of Representatives was submitted by an individual in the official capacity of the Chief of the Cherokee natives. Throughout the letter, the author does not mention any personal feelings about the subject of their submission. Instead, he opts for a collective outlook on the issues describing them as community-wide issues facing the Cherokee community and the appeal for recourse from the legislative bodies. The letter states that the imposters do not occupy any designations within the community by going through a series of positions such as the Headmen or Chief within the local community, thereby denouncing their authority to represent the Cherokee people. The letter concludes by lobbying the relevant authorities to act in the best interest of the people by defining their being as persons affected by the result. The letter succeeds in conveying the ethos of representing a large community who are facing injustice from the fraudulent actions of a few individuals who entered into a treaty with the United States under the pretense to represent Cherokee interests.

The author of the letter assumes that the target audience can quickly identify him and his credentials, which position him as the ideal agitator for the rights of the locals. As such, the letter goes on without identifying the author to the audience or validating the author’s position as the best-placed representative of the locals. The anonymity of the individuals, compacted by lack of identification within the text, helps to galvanize the message presented to the target audience by not shifting the focus to the author. The author also assumes that the target audience will be moved to action by appealing to their humanity on the atrocities facing the native Cherokees who are victims of a fraudulent treaty. The author assumes that the government of the United States will be willing to rescind the treaty based on the realization that it was put in place by imposters, and it harms the locals. As such, the audience could conclude that the opinions expressed therein as mere suppositions and not actionable information in need of urgent intervention.

The text contains a very persuasive letter that documented the struggles of the Cherokee natives from the actions of a few rogue individuals. The article provided the audience with the premise for the crime against the local community on the back of an agreement with imposters. The author offers context to the actions of the said imposters and the implications it has on the welfare of the innocent Cherokee people. The provision of the names of the participants in the treaty and denouncing the positions as leaders of the community help to drive the arguments forward. Additionally, the letter utilizes other rhetorical strategies to appeal to the emotion and logic of the Senate and the House of Representatives in acting in the best interests of the Cherokees in correcting the injustice identified. However, there is a distinct possibility that the audience might not react in the manner anticipated in the absence of precise identification of the authority or position of the author. Already there are concerns over the treaty with imposters, but it could be worse if the imposters managed to convince the government to renege on a valid treaty.

The analyzed throughout this report portrays a valid submission of a concerned individual to the Senate and the House of Representatives over the poor treatment of the natives. The author utilizes the three strategies in presenting its arguments to the target audience and convincing them to act on behalf of the locals. The use of logos and pathos are particularly impressive in communicating with the government while setting the stage for invoking government support in the prevailing situation. However, the argument might fail in their core objectives by lacking a strong ethos strategy to convince the target audience into action.