Chapter Two

Communication Process
3.1. Introduction
Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another.
Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which
share a repertoire of signs and semiotic rules. Communication is commonly defined as "the
imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs".
Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and
progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction.
3.1. Communication process
Communication is a process whereby information is enclosed in a package and is discrete and
imparted by sender to a receiver via a channel/medium. The receiver then decodes the message
and gives the sender a feedback. Communication requires that all parties have an area of
communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and
sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language,
paralanguage, touch, eye contact, by using writing.

Communication is thus a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create
shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and
interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating.
It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.
There are also many common barriers to successful communication, two of which are message
overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time), and message
complexity.

1 Source
As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're communicating, and what
you want to communicate. You also need to be confident that the information you're
communicating is useful and accurate.
2 Message
The message is the information that you want to communicate.
3 Encoding
This is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate into a form that can
be sent and correctly decoded at the other end. Your success in encoding depends partly not only
on your ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate
and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and
missing information.)
A key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who you are communicating
with will result in delivering messages that are misunderstood.
4 Channel
Messages are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including face-to-face meetings,
telephone and videoconferencing; and written channels including letters, emails, memos and
reports.
Different channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not particularly
effective to give a long list of directions verbally, while you'll quickly cause problems if you give
someone negative feedback using email.
5 Decoding
Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (involving, for example, taking
the time to read a message carefully, or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from
errors in encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly the case if the
decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the message.
6 Receiver
Your message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt, you have in mind
the actions or reactions you hope your message will get from this audience. Keep in mind,
though, that each of these individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and
feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your message, and their response.
To be a successful communicator, you should consider these before delivering your message,
and act appropriately.
7 Feedback
Your audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal reactions to your
communicated message. Pay close attention to this feedback, as it is the only thing that can give
you confidence that your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has been a
misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the message a second time.
8 Context
The situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may include the
surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate culture, international cultures, and so on).

In a simple model, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some
form (as spoken language) from an emisor/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/ decoder. In
a slightly more complex form a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally. A particular
instance of communication is called a speech act. The sender's personal filters and the receiver's
personal filters may vary depending upon different regional traditions, cultures, or gender; which
may alter the intended meaning of message contents. In the presence of "communication noise"
on the transmission channel (air, in this case), reception and decoding of content may be faulty,
and thus the speech act may not achieve the desired effect. One problem with this encode-
transmit-receive-decode model is that the processes of encoding and decoding imply that the
sender and receiver each possess something that functions as a code book, and that these two
code books are, at the very least, similar if not identical. Although something like code books is
implied by the model, they are nowhere represented in the model, which creates many conceptual
difficulties. Creating and delivering the effective presentation requires basic understanding of a
communication process Between parties, communication includes acts that confer knowledge and
experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, in
one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on the abilities of the group
communicating together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards
a destination. The target can be oneself, another person or being, another entity (such as a
corporation or group of beings).

3.5 Barriers and Limitations to Effective communication.

To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist
within each of the stages of the communication process.
Let’s begin with the message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganised, or contain
errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. The use of poor
verbal and body language can also confuse the message.
Barriers in context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too fast. When in
doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be mindful of the demands on other people’s
time, especially in today’s ultra-busy society.
Once you understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s culture, making sure
you can converse and deliver your message to people of different backgrounds and cultures
within your own organization, in your country and even abroad.
Noise-is the interference that keeps a message from being understood or accurately interpreted.
External noise: Comes from environment. i.e. loud music, hot sun, babies... Internal noise:
Occurs in the minds of the sender or receiver when their thoughts and feelings are focused on
something other than the communication at hand.
Semantic: Caused by people's emotional reaction to words.

3.6 Types of communication

 Intrapersonal communication is communication that occurs within us; it is also referred
to as Self-talk.
 Interpersonal communication occurs when we communicate on a one-to one basis-
usually in an informal, unstructured setting.
 Small group communication occurs when a small number of people meet to solve a
problem.
 Public communication the sender-receiver sends a message to an audience.
Intercultural communication is communication that occurs whenever two or more
people from different cultures interact.
 Ethical communication is communication that is fair, honest, and considerate of others
rights.
3.1 Types of communication
There are three major parts in human face to face communication which are body language,
voice tonality, and words. According to the research: 55% of impact is determined by body
language—postures, gestures, and eye contact, 38% by the tone of voice, and 7% by the content
or the words used in the communication process.
Although the exact percentage of influence may differ from variables such as the listener and the
speaker, communication as a whole strives for the same goal and thus, in some cases, can be
universal. System of signals, such as voice sounds, intonations or pitch, gestures or written
symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. If a language is about communicating with
signals, voice, sounds, gestures, or written symbols, can animal communications be considered
as a language? Animals do not have a written form of a language, but use a language to
communicate with each another. In that sense, an animal communication can be considered as a
separate language. Three forms of communication are:
 Verbal Communication
 Non-Verbal Communication
 Visual communication
3.2 Verbal or Dialogue communication
A dialogue is a reciprocal conversation between two or more entities. The etymological origins
of the word do not necessarily convey the way in which people have come to use the word, with
some confusion between the prefix and the prefix leading to the assumption that a dialogue is
necessarily between only two parties.
The basis of communication is the interaction between people. Verbal communication is one way
for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication
are sound, writing, speaking, and language.
3.2.1 Sound
At birth, most people have vocal cords, which produce sounds. As a child grows it learns how to
form these sounds into words. Some words may be imitative of natural sounds, but others may
come from expressions of emotion, such as laughter or crying. Words alone have no meaning.
Only people can put meaning into words. As meaning is assigned to words, language develops,
which leads to the development of speaking.
The actual origin of language is subject to considerable speculation. Some theorists believe it is
an outgrowth of group activities such as working together or dancing. Others believe that
language developed from basic sounds and gestures.
3.2.2 Speaking and writing.
Effective verbal communication involves the use of both speech and writing to transmit a
message. While oral communication is more effective in reaching a focused target audience, as it
involves interaction and additional non-verbal cues to augment the speech,