Transcript When completing application exercises, ask yourself:

When completing application
exercises, ask yourself:
 Did I Address ALL Parts of the Assignment?
 Did I Go Beyond Common Knowledge and Basic Explanation?
 Did I incorporate information from the chapter and provide
detailed examples?
 Use examples; go beyond the “common knowledge” response;
anyone can tell me that a person used words to communicate, but a
person who read chapter 4 and studied verbal communication can
tell me about their use of connotative vs. denotative meaning,
strategic ambiguity, etc.
 Are your arguments connected?
 Am I making Dr. G guess what I mean? Are my arguments more
implied than concrete?
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
“I saw a lot of nonverbal communication when the women were talking” –
Such as…? Give me examples of the nonverbal communication; break it
down using what was discussed in the chapter
“In terms of similarities both the men and women used words” – And…?
Remember, you should give me the answer beyond common knowledge.
How did they use their words? Go back to the chapter; what did you learn
about how we use language—how does it match what you observed?
“Culture played a role in a major way” – What do you mean by a “major
way”—what made it major? What role did it play?
ALMOST
The women used a lot of nonverbal communication when discussing their trip
to Cancun. I could apply paralanguage, kinesics, and haptics to this
observation. – Ok, you use terminology from the book, which is great. But you
string them together AND you don’t show me that you know what they mean.
Give me an example of how you can apply paralanguage and see that the
use of their voice communicated they were upset or happy. Consider this, if
I’m completing the assignment 5 minutes before class I could try to string
some words together, right? J Show me you know how to apply those words
correctly.
The guys sat real close to each other, used a lot of hand gestures, and used a
lot of eye contact. – Good, you’re on the right track. Take it a step further for
me and go beyond that common knowledge. What did those hand gestures or
eye contact seem to communicate. OR how can you factor in concepts from
the chapter. For example: “They used a lot of turn taking gestures throughout
the conversation such as when….” OR “they used their gesturing to help
regulate the conversation, which is a common function of nonverbal
communication. For example….” OR “when considering proxemics I could
draw a lot of meaning from the way they were sitting with each other. The fact
that they were close together hints to their closeness”
GOOD
I could tell that the women had a close relationship. This was communicated
through their use of playful touch. For example, they often would slap each
other on the arm and the other person didn’t seem upset or alarmed. They
were also sitting very close to each other—within the intimate space zone-and no one seemed upset, so there was no issue with territoriality. – Here
you provide examples and factor in terminology. You discuss the function of
touch and give me an example; you mention territoriality and your description
helps me see that you know what it means.
While observing, it was easy for me to decode the information because the
women used connotative meaning that I understood. For example, when they
said that “the party got live fast” I knew what subjective meaning they were
attaching to the word “live.” This could be because of the speech community
we share, both being from the same generation. – Again, you factor in
terminology and show me that you know what the terms mean through your
discussion and/or examples.
Remember…
 Don’t add fluff
 Redundancy?
 Organize your thoughts
 Logical flow
 Don’t make reader guess about the connection; make it
explicit