Importance of Communication

Components of Communication To break it down, in any communication there is a sender and a receiver, a message, and interpretations of meaning on both ends. The receiver gives feedback to the sender of the message, both during the message's conveyance and afterward. Feedback signals can be verbal or nonverbal, such as nodding in agreement or looking away and sighing or other myriad gestures. There's also the context of the message, the environment it's given in, and potential for interference during its sending or receipt. If the receiver can see the sender, he or she can obtain not only the message's contents but also nonverbal communication that the sender is giving off, from confidence to nervousness, professionalism to flippancy. If the receiver can hear the sender, he or she can also pick up cues from the sender's tone of voice, such as emphasis and emotion. Rhetorical Communication—The Written Form Another thing that sets humans apart from their animal cohabiters is our use of writing as a means of communication, which has been a part of the human experience for more than 5, 000 years. In fact, the first essay — coincidentally about speaking effectively — is estimated to be from around the year 3, 000 B. C. , originating in Egypt, though it wasn't until much later that the general population was considered literate. Still, James C. McCroskey notes in "An Introduction to Rhetorical Communication" that texts like these "are significant because they establish the historical fact that interest in rhetorical communication is nearly 5, 000 years old. " In fact, McCroskey posits that most ancient texts were written as instructions for communicating effectively, further emphasizing early civilizations' value of furthering the practice. Through time this reliance has only grown, especially in the Internet age. Now, written or rhetorical communication is one of the favored and primary means of talking to one another — be it an instant message or a text, a Facebook post or a tweet. As Daniel Boorstin observed in "Democracy and Its Discontents, " the most important single change "in human consciousness in the last century, and especially in the American consciousness, has been the multiplying of the means and forms of what we call 'communication. '" This is especially true in modern times with the advent of texting, e-mail, and social media as forms of communicating with others around the world. With more means of communication, there are also now even more ways to be misunderstood than ever. If a message contains just the written word (such as a text or email), the sender needs to be confident in its clarity, that it cannot be misinterpreted. Emails can often come off cold or clipped without that being the intention of the sender, for example, yet it's not considered professional to have emoticons in formal communication to help convey the proper meaning and context.