Description
COMM 120 Analysis Paper
Assignment Description
Understanding how to identify and respond to the communicative patterns of others is
necessary when one seeks to improve their interpersonal relationships. However, it is just as
important to develop the ability to understand and adjust your own patterns of communication if
you desire to become a better communicator. Therefore, in this assignment you will be required
to write a 3 to 5 page paper analyzing your own patterns of interpersonal communication. You
will identify and apply specific course concepts and/or theories from the textbook to conduct
your analysis while providing your own personal insights on how you can use this knowledge to
improve your communication skills.
This assignment is designed to get you to reflect on what you have learned about
interpersonal communication throughout the semester and to come up with a plan for how you
can improve your interactions with others. Thus, there should be two distinct parts to your paper:
1.) Your reflective analysis and 2.) Your plan for improvement. The first section, the reflective
analysis, will make up the bulk of your paper. In this section, make sure to explain what aspects
of your own interpersonal communication style you are analyzing by providing relevant
examples. In the second section, your plan for improvement, you should provide a minimum of
three specific ways you plan to improve your communication with others by using what you
have learned throughout the semester.
When completing this assignment, you will choose a minimum of three concepts from the
textbook and utilize them in your self-analysis. You may decide to analyze one specific
experience, or a small set of related experiences, thus you should home in on course
concepts/material that help articulate how you intend to improve your communication based on
these textbook concepts.
You may choose to write about topics such as: a set of work-related experiences you have
had in the past in which you did not communicate as effectively as you would have liked to (i.e.
getting into arguments, unclear communication with co-workers that resulted in mistakes being
made, being misperceived by a supervisor because of something you said or how you
communicated, etc.); your tendency to be a poor listener and how it has had a negative impact on
your relationships; a time when you failed to articulate yourself well enough and wanted to
improve the clarity of your communication with others; etc.
Since you will be choosing textbook concepts for this assignment,
you will need to
provide a reference page including in-text citations in APA style
. Your paper will be judged
according to the following criteria:
1. Your ability to support your analysis through the use of relevant examples
2. Your ability to connect classroom learning to your own patterns of communication
3. The application of appropriate communication concepts and/or terminology from lecture
or the textbook
4. The demonstrated ability to think critically about your communicative style and to create
a specific plan for improvement (quality of your writing/insights)
5. Proper grammar, spelling, and overall format
Learning Objectives
This assignment is designed to help you:
1. Apply interpersonal communication concepts in order to improve your interactions with
others
2. Organize information and facts into a cohesive, coherent essay
3. Improve your critical thinking and writing skills
Assignment Requirements
Page limit:
3-5 pages, double-spaced, typed, 12-point font, with APA-style references
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running Head: INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
Interpersonal Communication
Institutional Affiliation
Date
1
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION
2
Interpersonal communication is that way that individuals exchange info, sensations, as
well as meaning in a spoken or even unspoken manner. Unspoken communication means
gestures, an individual's voice tone, and also one's facial verbalization. One does not need to say
anything to pass across a specific message as the unspoken gestures tell a lot concerning an
individual's response. For easier comprehension, interpersonal communication has been broken
down into various aspects (Hartley, 2002). One of the elements of interpersonal communication
is the fact that it cannot occur without communicators. For a discussion to take place, at least two
people should be present whereby one communicates as the other one listens.
However, in communication, the individual receiving the message also communicates in
the form of nodding or even smiling. By this response of nodding and smiling, it illustrates that
the listener is following keenly. Therefore, communication is a reciprocal process where the
individual communicating also needs the assurance that the other party is listening. Also, there is
the message that is communicated between the parties. A message is passed across by not only
speaking but also in an unspoken manner. One of the implicit ways of passing across a piece of
particular information is the facial expression whereby an individual could use facial expression
to respond to ...