Faulkner-Wheeler 1 Moiah Faulkner-Wheeler Comm. 101 Dr.

Pupchek 14 December 2010 Communication Reflection Paper I have always known that communication was a very important aspect in everyones life, but taking this class I have learned that it is not only important but it is everywhere. Communication is not just the way people communicate with each other, it deals with basically every sense (touch, hear, smell, taste, and see) that we have. Many people dont know this but communication can affect our health, both physically and mentally. It affects both our personal and physical life. After taking this class I learn how important communication is in my life and I appreciate it more. While I was taking this class, I have notice exactly how communication has an impact on my life and in this paper I am going to write about events that happen in my life, which relates directly to communication and our class. On August 31st, in my journal I wrote about sending, receiving, and feedback. Sending is how the sender delivers the message, receiving is how people receive the message, and lastly feedback is the reaction of the people who have received the message. In my journal I wrote about the time my mother (sender) announce to my brother and I that were moving to New York during the summer. Being that my brother and I are two different people (receivers), our feedbacks to her message where completely different. My brother, who was 10 at the time, was excited. When he heard the word New York, he thought about the big city, the flashy cars, how celebrities lives there, and the snow. But my feedback was completely the opposite. I was a sophomore in high school; I literally thought my social life was over. But after the move and

Faulkner-Wheeler 2 actually living in New York, it taught me many lessons and made me a better person. I also wrote in my journal that I learn that a persons feedback can be different from other people and that it is rare for two people to actually have the same feedback. On September 14th, I wrote about one of the keys terms in communications, scripts. Scripts are how we are expected to act in a certain situations. In this journal entry I explain how many people are expected to act a certain but most of the time it never happens that way. The example that I have in my journal entry is someone breaking up with someone. When someone breaks up with someone they expect the other person to miserable for the while and not to move on so quickly. But that is not always the case. There are times where when a person breaks up with a person and the other person is nonchalant about it and they get over it and move on. Since that is not how the script was supposed to go, it can catch a person off guard. Then I wrote down in my journal how I believe that people should not expect a person to act a certain way in certain reactions because no two people are the same and because no two people are the same everyone is going to have a different reaction and my not act the way you expect them to. On September 21st, I wrote about how I learned that it is impossible for everyone to have the same interpretation in communications. Words have too many different meanings and values. As time goes by, the use of a word can be changed. For example the word tight has change throughout time. The word tight can have two possible meanings. It can be mean firm to one person but to another person it could mean stylish, cool, and having everything together. In this entry I concluded that I glad that we have rules that help us regulate our interactions for everyone can have an understanding and a common ground.

Faulkner-Wheeler 3 On October 3rd, I wrote about the forms of ineffective listening and the skills one must have to be a great listener. This was on my favorite topics that wed learned in class. First I describe the activity that we had participated in class. I explain how I was one of the people who were having all the forms ineffective listening demonstrated on them. This activity helped me realize how a person can easily feel ignored or like what they have to say is not important. I also realized that I actually do three forms of the ineffective listening. Those three forms are pseudolistening, selective listening, and defensive listening. Pseudo-listening is when I pretend to be listening. I tend to do that a lot especially when I feel like the conversation is boring or when I dont like what I am hearing in a conversation. I learn that a person can notice when youre not listening to them and that can make them feel insecure or even make them angry. Selective listening is a person focus on only particular parts of a conversation. This I am guilty of when my parents are giving me a lecture about something I did or when they say I can do something that I want but I tend to block out the part where they say I have to do something for them first. I learn from experience that having selective listening can be disrespectful and can get you in a lot of trouble. Lastly, defensive listening is when you perceive a personal attack and get offended when none is there. I tend to do this a lot. I learn that this form is the ineffective listening form that I need to work on the most. My mother tells me all the time that I get defensive for no reason. I guess it is because I take things to personal and I can get overly sensitive at times. But I am trying to work on that flaw because participating in our class activity illustrated to me perfectly how that can get annoying. After writing about all the negative things in my entry I wanted to make a positive turn and talk about what I can do to become a better listener. The skills I need to become a better is to be mindful, to hear and actually listen, attend in the conversation, perceive and organize the conversation, respond to the conversation, and to

Faulkner-Wheeler 4 remember the conversation. I may a promise to myself that I would I would try to become a better listener and communicator. I picked to write about these journal entries because all enlighten me and taught me a lesson. In these journal entries I have learn how to communicate better and how to become a better. Participating in this class has impacted in my life and made me grow as a person!