techniques for improving communication in groups

In the Small Group Communication book, there was a section titled “Techniques for improving Communication in Groups.” I think this section of the book is really important because we have all been in a situation and will be in more of these circumstances where we will need to work with people and improve the communication between us and our peers. One of the ways to help improve the communication is for everyone to have individual roles. For example, when you are at a study group, and everyone has their own roles (Bob does chapter 11, Jane does chapter 12, Fred does chapter 13, etc.), it makes it easier when everyone does their own part. It’s frustrating when someone is assigned a particular task and does not end up fulfilling it. Another thing the book mentioned was deliberation and participation. In order for a group to work best is for everyone to participate in the discussion or whatever is going on. Don’t just let other people think for you. Everyone needs to think on their own and actively share their thoughts and opinions so that everyone can work through things together and have a more improved communication in their group.

what i have learned..

Although this was an online class, and I did not expect to learn much, I actually did! I learned a whole lot more than I would have ever imagined just through reading about other people’s insights on their blogs, as well as writing my own blogs every week. I can’t list everything that I have learned because there are just so many concepts, but I will focus on just the group facilitation final project. That project really enhanced my learning and grasping onto the concepts that I have learned throughout this semester. It was fun to know what my friends thought of each individual candidate, what their reasoning behind each claim was, and how so many of their critical thinking analysis remind me of the concepts I have learned in this class. Some of the concepts they used included arguments, contradictory of a claim, false analogy, unsupported generalizations, effective leadership, etc. I realized how extremely important it is to have a good leader within a group. Otherwise it is hard to get anything done. I really liked how I saw so many of these concepts while my friends were discussing, and it was interesting to know that they don’t even realize all the things they are using during their discussion. This final project has really helped me be able to recognize the concepts not only in the book, but also in our daily conversations.

generalizing and sample size

Chapter 14 in the Epstein book was really interesting—talking about many generalizations, specifically stereotypes, that occur on a daily basis. While reading through this chapter, I was reminded of many things I have heard other people around me say. That means people generalize frequently, and are not aware of it. One of the main rules for distinguishing a generalization is the sample size. Often times people just assume one group acts or does things a certain way because they have met, heard about, and/or seen a few people within that group, that act that way. For example, “All Asians are bad drivers. I’ve gotten into 3 accidents, and each time, it was because of a collision between an Asian driver and me.” That statement sounds like a generalization, but is it? That is not a very accurate generalization because those are only 3 people you have met that have that problem. One cannot judge a whole group based on only a small portion of that entire group. In order for it to be more accurate, one must have a representative sample.

the cause precedes the effect

One section of the book that caught my attention while I was reading through chapter 15 was “the cause precedes the effect” concept. Basically, it’s pretty self explanatory, but the cause comes before the effect. For example, if someone gets into a car accident and people come to rescue him and wonder what caused the accident, and realizes he’s holding onto a phone, they can’t be certain that the phone was what has caused the accident. They can accuse the phone and think all they want to think about it, but unless they check to see if the cause precedes the effect, nothing is for sure. They have to check to see if the cause (perhaps the phone) precedes the effect (car accident). If not, then it’s pretty clear that the phone was not the primary cause of the accident. In order to do that, they’d have to check his recent calls and/or text messages to see if the times recorded is during the time period in which his accident occurred.

mission critical

Similar to the cause and effect website, the mission critical website was also very helpful, if not more helpful. It was a review of all the concepts and key terms that we learned this semester. And I admit, I have forgotten a lot of them already! So reading over the mission critical website was a very refreshing start for prepping for my final. Everything was thoroughly written, but also very concise at the same time. I liked how everything was all together and organized because it made it very clear where everything was located at and where you could go back to review a specific concept you may have been unable to comprehend earlier. It’s a lot more useful to read through this website rather than constantly flipping through the book, trying to find a concept. one of the most useful thing about these websites is the quizzes and how they have an explanation as to why you might’ve gotten something wrong. It really makes this online class a little easier because something is actually being explained to us in detail.

cause and effect

The cause and effect website reading and exercises were definitely helpful when it comes to understanding the concept of cause and effect. I thought I pretty much got the gist of the subject and idea when I was reading this in the book. However, when I got onto the website, I read so many new information about it that the book did not talk about. I guess the book was just letting us know the overview and the very basics of cause and effect. So it was definitely interesting to find out so many other aspects of the concept. I really liked how the website had quiz questions to test us on our knowledge. It was extremely helpful when I would get a question wrong, and the website would let me know why the answer I chose was not the correct one, and then it would allow me to take another guess as to what the answer was. That was my favorite part of the exercise because many times, when I get questions wrong, I don’t know why it’s wrong, because to me, it sounds correct. But when they explained to me why it’s wrong, it was very helpful and gave me the chance to sit there and think about it more, and then to try again. It also helped that there was no time limit, because when there is one, I get nervous and don’t allow myself to read thoroughly and to think critically.

daily examples

it's not difficult to find advertisements that use the different appeals to emotion that there are because salespeople always use these types of techniques to attract customers. however, it is much easier to find just day-to-day examples of these appeals to emotion because they're found everywhere, and i admit, i get caught up in these sometimes too. one time i was babysitting, and the mom of the girl i babysit never gives her daughter too many sweets because of health concerns. the kid knew that and came up with a sneaky "appeal to emotion" that made both the mom and me surprised. she went up to her mom and said, "mom, i like your hair. can i have a cookie?" that is an example of an appeal to apple polishing. the girl was trying to flatter her mother by saying something sweet to compliment her (whether it was true or not) in return for something she wanted--a cookie. it worked! maybe i should try that sometime too! ;)