Aug 242012
Communication: Principles for a Lifetime, Books a la Carte Plus MyCommunicationLab (4th Edition)
Designed to help students see the relationships among the concepts, skills, theories, and contexts of communication, this text anchors all discussion around five fundamental principles: • Be aware of your communication with yourself and others • Effectively use and interpret verbal messages • Effectively use and interpret nonverbal messages • Listen and respond thoughtfully to others • Appropriately adapt messages to others Providing both comprehensive and cutting-edge content ab
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Closer to a 3 than a 5.,
This is certainly a pretty good textbook set for a communication class, and for volumes 1,2 and 4 I have little to complain about. Volume three, however, (Communicating in Groups and Teams) is FAR too enthusiatic about the value of group work. Granted, sometimes it is inevitable that we must work in groups, either because a project is too large for one person to do it well within the time available (a perfectly reasonable reason) or just because whatever company we work for requires it, no matter how pointless (unreasonable, but frequently unavoidable.) But to claim, as this book does, that groups invariably produce better work than individuals (as long as they follow the book’s recommendations for how to communicate effectively, of course) is, quite frankly, to perpetuate a very popular lie.
There are doubtless times that it’s true that a group produces better results than any individual comprising it could have done; this is true if each of the group members are relatively evenly matched for talent (or even if some of them are) and especially if they have different areas of expertise, all necessary to the group function.
But generally, if there is one highly-competent member of a group, that member will carry the group, and could have done a better job doing everything him/herself, given enough time. This is true no matter HOW effective the group is at communication. But this truth is unpopular with the many mediocre group members who would be rendered superfluous by an acknowledgement of its truth, to say nothing of the competent individuals who wouldn’t be able to shift some of the work to their less-competent peers. So generally, everybody pretends to believe that group work is useful and productive, in order to avoid overworking the top people and leaving everybody else unemployed. Understandable, but still a lie, no matter how popular the lie.Given how popular the lie is, I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised to see it boldly asserted yet again (which is why I only docked the book one star for it) but it is annoying.
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As an instructor,
I have been teaching Speech Communication for over 17 years. I have taught a few other communication courses. It is not very often that Professors get to brag about a textbook. I recently had an opprtunity to visit one-on-one with the author. He is the “real deal” and so is the book! Long on substance and short on fluff. This is a book the students can truly learn from and one any teacher can truly create the kind of flow that a seasoned instructor could create. I recommend this book to the serious student of communication or a department looking to give their students a first-class textbook.
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Good look. Good book.,
I review late. But it is a good book with clean cover and inside. Good saller. I love it so much.
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