Communication Term Paper

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CN 101 W4 D1

Verbal Communication II Intro (2 minutes) Last Time

• Verbal Communication o What is considered verbal communication? o How is verbal communication symbolic? – Part 1

• Remind me: What counts as verbal communication? o Communication that uses language (oral and textual)

Things Due

§ Discussion post is due

Today § Verbal Communication II

o More reasons that we say the verbal communication is symbolic o A way we can analyze verbal communication o Functions of verbal communication

We’re in a Movie! (10 minutes)

§ The movie is almost ready to be released. We are now going to start our interviews to promote the film. What late-night television show (think Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Conan, Trevor Noah, etc.) would you make an appearance on first?

§ So, in your small groups, introduce yourself and share what kind of music you’d like to hear in the film.

Lesson: More Reasons we say that Verbal Communication is Symbolic (20 minutes)

• In addition to verbal communication having denotative and connotative meaning, being relational and being cultural, verbal communication is also symbolic because it exhibits the following characteristics.

o It has frames o It is presentational

• Frames

o What is the purpose of a picture frame? § To hold a photo, a visual representation of a memory. § Also, to draw attention to that image. To indicate what we should be

looking at on a table or on a wall. § It says, “Yoo hoo! Over here!”

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o Verbal communication has conversational frames that are used to help people make sense of communication. These frames draw our attention to

§ How people should be communicating and what meaning people should associate with symbols.

§ They contain our expectations for how people should behave. § You communicate best with other people when you are all recognizing

the same frames. • If someone is being super formal and you’re wanting a more

personable conversation, you might say, “Come on in! Have a seat and make yourself at home” to indicate that you want to move to a friendlier frame.

o We recognize these frames by interacting with other people. § Some frames are culturally specific. Some are related to specific areas. § Have you ever noticed that your conversations feel a little different when

you’re in the classroom versus in a restaurant versus in a car or on a bus? That’s because locations can also be frames!

§ In the classroom, you’re probably not going to wave me over to ask me to bring you the dessert menu. In a restaurant, you’re probably not going to wave over a waiter to ask them about their office hours.

§ You adjust your verbal communication based on the frame. o In addition to adjusting our communication based on a locational frame, we

adjust our verbal communication in response to a frame’s formality. o Additionally, we think about the formality of the frame when verbally

communicating. § If we’re in a situation that demands grammatically correct, polished

communication, we engaged in high code. For instance, some college professors will ask that you provide documentation regarding a class absence. This might be something as simple as a doctor typing a few paragraphs on practice’s stationary and handing you that paper to share with professors, but since this is a more formal frame, we call it written documentation.

§ If we are in a more informal situation, we use low code. So, for instance, after leaving your least favorite class, a friend asks you how it was and you respond, “I actually cannot even with this class today,” you are likely exaggerating. You actually probably can even, but you’re using casual language to make your point.

o Like locations and formality, we also shift our verbal communication in response to other people’s verbal communication. Giles and his co-authors call this accommodation. In their theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, people either engage in convergence or divergence when shifting a frame around another person.

§ Have you ever noticed that around certain people with distinct communication styles, we find ourselves adjusting our voices to speak more like that person?

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• When I’m around my colleagues from Indiana, I find myself changing how I pronounce certain words. (i.e., Oh my gosh)

• When I’m around people who naturally speak warmly and softly, I find myself talking like that.

• When I’m around people who are really expressive communicators, I find myself being more flamboyant.

§ When I’m mirroring other’s communication styles, I’m engaging in convergence.

§ There are other times, though, that I try to distinguish my verbal communication from my conversation partner’s. I typically do this when I want to reinforce boundaries between myself and someone else. For example, you might notice when you go to a doctor’s appointment, the doctor speaks with formality. Even if friendly, she might still use medical terminology when diagnosing you and prescribing you medication. She is using divergence to maintain your professional relationship of doctor- patient.

o In short, we turn to frames to make sense of how we should act and to evaluate how other people are acting. Frames can be related to locations and relationships and we adjust our verbal communication in response to frames.

• So, by this point, we know that Verbal Communication is symbolic because it involves

meaning, it is relational, it is cultural, and it has frames. It’s also symbolic because it’s presentational.

• Verbal Communication is Presentational o It is representational, as well, because we can use verbal communication to

name things and convey information. o But verbal communication is also presentational because it can give us

information about the worldviews of the people interacting with us. o Your textbook talked about the snow example, which is timely for us.

§ If someone said, “It’s [expletive] freezing,” what perceptions might we have about that person’s personality?

• Sarcastic, saucy, doesn’t have an issue with profanity, could be a little grumpy

§ If someone said, “My, what a balmy -15 degrees it is this morning!” what perceptions might we have about that person’s personality?

• Sunny, peppy, optimist, might really like reading and building their vocabulary.

o We also see this presentational characteristic when people are telling stories and narratives because when someone tells a story, they are giving their account, their interpretation of the story from their point of view.

o So, verbal communication is presentational in the sense that we use it to present our interpretation of events to each other.

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• So, there we go! Verbal communication is symbolic because is has the following characteristics:

o it involves meaning o it is relational o it is cultural o it has frames o it is presentational

A Way to Analyze Verbal Communication

• Since we’re on the topic of narratives, here’s a little tidbit of theory for you. Because we’re story-telling creatures and many of our verbal communication moments will involve us telling or listening to a story, one way we can analyze our verbal communication is through Kenneth Burke’s Pentad.

• This pentad is comprised of five elements of story o Act à What happened o Scene à Situation or location of the act o Agent à Who performed the act o Agency à How the act was performed o Purpose à Why the act took place

• We can use the pentad to help us understand the various parts of stories we hear and identify the kind of frame being used in that moment.

• We typically group them together in ratios to better understand what’s happening in that moment.

o Agent:Act à Using a person’s character to explain actions o Scene:Act à Using a situation to justify action o Scene:Agent à Using a situation to explain the characters found there

Functions of Verbal Communication Activity (15 minutes)

§ We engage in verbal communication for many reasons, but two in particular warrant our consideration today: We engage in verbal communication to manage our facework and we use verbal communication to influence others.

§ Facework: o How we manage our self-respect. o We like being perceived positively and treated positively. Typically, we have two

kinds of face wants: positive ones and negative ones. o Positive face wants refer to our desire to be seen and accepted.

§ For ex: We want to hear people we admire say “good job!” or people we like thank us for helping them. We want to be wanted.

o Negative face wants refer to our desire to not be a bother or be treated poorly. § For ex: We might start an email to a professor saying, “I have a quick

question for you” to underscore the fact that you don’t want to take up their time.” Or we might apologize for bothering someone before asking a question. We don’t want to be perceived as a nuisance.

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o You might have heard the phrase, “save face.” Around other people, we want to maintain a positive face and avoid a negative face. In other words, we want to be seen as desirable by other people and avoid being seen as troublesome.

§ We can help each other keep a positive face when we notice someone making a mistake. We might say, “Oh, it’s all good! I do that all the time!” to minimize the embarrassing moment.

§ If we make a mistake, we might do something else to compensate for that moment of negative face.

§ Ex: College chicken coop story • I had a moment where I feared I was losing my positive face, so I

engaged in an action to improve it.

§ And we manage our positive face in different ways. A common way we see ourselves managing our positive face is when we need to ask someone for a favor.

o Brown and Levinson’s (1978) Politeness Theory describes several strategies that folks use when they need to ask for help.

o Those strategies are listed on page 55 of your textbook. o We’re going to watch a 3-minute video of people trying to other people to tell

them a bit of personal information. § There are three main people involved here:

• Paris – Person talking the most with long straight blonde hair • Madeline – Short black hair • Rory – Long brown hair

o As we watch this, refer to those strategies in your textbook and identify which ones you think the characters are using.

o “Paris wants to know Rory’s PSATS scores” (3 min) § https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-oEuBGgTl0

o Analysis § Paris:

• When wanting her friends to ask about her scores, she uses an Off Record strategy to hint at what she wanted.

• When wanting to know Rory’s scores, she’s Bald on Record – “Tell me those scores! I have to know!”

§ Rory: • Isn’t asking a favor, but is definitely experiencing boundary

turbulence and is resisting telling Paris that information. § Madeline:

• Using both negative politeness and positive politeness. • Negative: the story is “totally last minute” • Positive: “I’m trying to compile a list of people’s scores, especially

the top students . . .” • Off record: “I realized I don’t know yours yet.”

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Next time:

• Non-Verbal Communication – Chapter 4 (pp. 60-70) • Group B, you can attend in-person. Group A, I’ll see you on Zoom on Wednesday.