{"id":4065,"date":"2019-07-11T18:31:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T18:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wcc-collegesuccess2\/?post_type=chapter&p=4065"},"modified":"2019-11-15T21:53:09","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T21:53:09","slug":"what-is-communication","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-wcc-collegesuccess2\/chapter\/what-is-communication\/","title":{"raw":"What is Communication?","rendered":"What is Communication?"},"content":{"raw":"
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Defining Communication<\/h3>\r\n

communication<\/strong>,\u00a0n<\/em>. The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium. The successful conveying or sharing of ideas and feelings.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Oxford English Dictionary<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

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Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to another.<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n

Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message, and a recipient. The transmission of the message from sender to recipient can be affected by a huge range of things. These include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and even our location. The complexity is why good communication skills are considered so desirable by employers around the world: accurate, effective and unambiguous communication is actually extremely hard.<\/p>\r\nAs this definition makes clear, communication is more than simply the transmission of information. The term requires an element of success in transmitting or imparting a message, whether information, ideas, or emotions. A communication has three parts: the sender, the message, and the recipient.\u00a0The sender \u2018encodes\u2019 the message, usually in a mixture of words and non-verbal communication. This communication is transmitted in some way (for example, in speech or writing), and the recipient \u2018decodes\u2019 it.\r\n\r\nOf course, there may be more than one recipient, and the complexity of communication means that each one may receive a slightly different message. Two people may read very different things into the choice of words and\/or body language. It is also possible that neither of them will have quite the same understanding as the sender.\r\n\r\nIn face-to-face communication, the roles of the sender and recipient are not distinct. The two roles will pass back and forwards between two people talking. Both parties communicate with each other, even if in very subtle ways such as through eye-contact (or lack of) and general body language. In written communication, however, the sender and recipient are more distinct.\r\n

Categories of Communication<\/h2>\r\n

There are a wide range of ways in which we communicate and more than one may be occurring at any given time. The different categories of communication include:<\/p>\r\n\r\n