Principles of Communication Essay

Submitted By jcooper88
Words: 651
Pages: 3

Joseph Cooper
2/9/14
Henderson
Principles of Communication For my speech class we are supposed to pick a communication principle and use an example of how it was used by our communication partner. The communication principle that I have chosen is that of, it’s impossible not to communicate. This principle states that both intentional and unintentional behaviors both send a message. Many theorists agree that it is impossible not to communicate and that whatever you do; whether you speak, remain silent, confront or avoid, act emotional or keep a poker face, you are still sending a message regardless. In the book Looking out Looking In it states that in this way humans are like transmitters that can’t be shut off. Upon reading this I instantly saw a correlation between this principle and some of the interactions between my partner and myself fitting into this category that made me realize just how powerful each of the times that we talk or don’t are and how this often leads to a communication breakdown. One specific example that I can think of happened back on October 13, 2013 which is actually her birthday. I’m not exactly sure what she did for her birthday but I do know that it was not spent with my family which is fine. As we are getting older now we both have a tendency to kind of do our own things and I can respect that. I went ahead and gave her a call singing her happy birthday over the phone which is kind of a big deal because I don’t ever sing period. At the end of the message I said to go ahead and give me a call so we could catch up and so that she could let me know how she was doing. I’m guessing that my message fell on deaf ears because I did not receive a phone call back from that call ever. This in itself was really not too big of a deal but it was the fact that this was the third time in a row where she had either broken up plans at the last moment or not called me back entirely. Just like it says in the book “It’s impossible not to communicate” this is true and apparent in this situation that I was facing. By not getting any kind of a response and by being stand off-ish I am getting the message that she does not want to communicate with me. I am not exactly sure what to get from