CMS 306M

Fall 2018

Exam 1 Review Sheet

Chapter 1: Foundations of Communication

• Define communication (explain the three parts)
o The process whereby one individual stimulates meaning in the mind of
another through verbal and/or nonverbal means
o Process – continuous, irreversible, systematic
o Stimulation – incites the other person to create meaning; not the transfer of
meaning
o Verbal and nonverbal
• Explain the eight propositions about interpersonal communication.
o 1. Both verbal and nonverbal
o 2. Can’t not communicate, silence can be communication
Intentional (Source) Unintentional
(Source)
Intentional (Receiver) Effective Ineffective
Unintentional Ineffective Effective
(Receiver)
▪ Receiver interprets action as intentional/unintentional
o 3. Expresses both content and relationship
o 4. Meanings are in people
▪ Punctuation – block off effects based on previous behavior or
causes differently
▪ Label – certain stronger words, symbolic meaning to oneself
o 5. Irreversible
o 6. A neutral tool
▪ Quantity and quality matters
o 7. Learned skill
o 8. Context matters
▪ Physical
• The environment can shape what we say and how we say it
• Can affect type of conversation and willingness to engage
• Noisy, social, business
▪ Psychological
• People have unique perspectives
• Who is holding a conversation will change it
• Discuss the verbal and nonverbal (6) components of communication.
o Children rely more on verbal because they are learning language
o Adults believe the nonverbal
o 1. Repeating (second/repeat words) (“that way”)
 o 2. Accenting (adding impact)
o 3. Substituting – replace the words used
o 4. Complementing (supporting, modify/expand/make more
interesting)
o 5. Regulating (pace of conversation)
o 6. Contradicting
• Understand how communication expresses content and relationships.
o Content is the substantive information it conveys to the listeners
o Relationship – affective, emotional information (does speaker like/dislike,
interest/uninterested in relationship, communicates the speaker’s emotional
state and/or the speaker’s view of the relationship with listeners)
o “small talk”
o Verbal component linked with content
o Nonverbal provides mostly relationship information
• Explain the different components of the model of interpersonal communication.
o Source (encode) -> message -> channel (more = better) (e.g. sensory
(expressions, behaviors), air) -> receivers (decode)
o Feedback – simultaneously modifies, each participant decodes/encodes at
the same time
o Noise – affects fidelity, external and internal

Chapter 2: Communication Ethics

• Define ethics.
o The general and systematic study of what ought to be the right and wrong
definition for human behavior
• Understand the aspects of ethical communication in public presentations (e.g.
understand the reasons for citation and ways of making sure you properly cite your
sources).
o Gives credit where due
o Holds accountable
o Makes yourself more credible
o Helps other cite your work and the sources for your work in the future
• Explain the differences and similarities between virtue ethics, consequentialism,
deontology and postmodern ethics. (Page 31)
o Virtue ethics: ethical quality is defined by intentions of speaker, credibility
o Deontology: duty/obligation of actor based on role, important to
understand conflicts of interest
o Consequentialism: good if a good outcome
o Postmodern ethics: combination of all three
• What are conflicts of interest and how can they be managed?
o The situation in which a person/organization has multiple interests at stake
in a decision, and motivations from one of those interests may corrupt or
interfere with decisions made about another
 o Removal
o Disclosure – tell others
o Management – minimize effects
• Understand the different types of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
o Global – take work in full with little change, claim as own
o Patchwork – combine information from several different sources
o Incremental – fail to attribute a specific piece of information to its source

Chapter 3: Working with Teams

• Explain the difference between a team and a group.
o Team – shared leadership, individual responsibility, collective work
products, performance measured by results and quality, cooperate
o Group – strong leader, individual accountability, individual work products,
performance measured by results, delegates
• Identify the advantages of working in teams.
o More info, creativity, system of checks, better decision-making, division of
labor, motivation
• Identify and define the various types of leadership styles and team roles.
o Leadership styles
▪ Transformational vs transactional
▪ Assigned vs emergent
▪ Leadership and decision making
• Authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire
o Team roles (6)
▪ Task leader
• Facilitate decision-making and task completion
• Strong analytical skills and can synthesize others’ ideas
• Me during the team project
▪ Socio-emotional leader
• Sensitive to emotions and nonverbal cues
• Well-liked, supportive, peacemaker
• JR P101
▪ Tension releaser
• Lighten the mood
• OSW
▪ Information provider
• Experience or research
• Often shared among several members
• James, Niels
▪ Central negative
• Devil’s advocate
• Me
▪ Silent observer
 • Doesn’t speak much but gives valuable insight
• Matthew
• Describe types of conflict and ways of managing conflict.
o Types
▪ Procedural
• agree on goal but disagree on process to achieve it
• prioritize research? Move on? Run idea by teacher?
▪ Role
• Who should lead the team
• Who is responsible for a task?
• Someone not fulfilling responsibilities
▪ Interpersonal
• Clashing communication, work, personality
• “that idea will never work!”
• Attacking ideas
▪ Ideational
• Different ideas for what topics to include or what topics
should be given priority
• Pros/cons of an idea
o Conflict management (5)
▪ Competing (win/lose)
• Argue until win
▪ Accommodating (lose/win)
• Let other person have their way
▪ Avoiding (lose/lose)
▪ Compromising (partial win/lose for both)
▪ Collaborating (win/win)
• Work together to find a new, better solution
• Discuss decision-making processes, ways of achieving consensus and avoiding
groupthink.
o Decision-making (64)
▪ Consensus
o Achieve consensus
▪ Common ground – state goal shared by everyone
▪ Go around room
▪ Yes, if – what part should be changed to get agreement
▪ Angel’s advocate – say what like about plan
o Avoid groupthink
▪ Promote divergent thinking
▪ Consider alternatives
▪ Vote anonymously
▪ Reduce stress
Chapter 4: So What's Stopping You?
• How do situational anxiety and dispositional anxiety differ?
o Situational
▪ Normal anxiety people feel when they find themselves in a stressful
situation
▪ Specific high-stress situations
o Dispositional
▪ Anxiety you feel about communicating in most situations, trait-like
▪ Affects in most parts of their lives, pervasive and everyday
• Explain the reasons why some people develop dispositional anxiety.
o Not enough positive reinforcement
o Not enough opportunities to develop skills
o Inadequate role models
• Explain the reasons why someone may experience stage fright. (5)
o They fear evaluation
o Unprepared
o Conspicuous, center of attention
o Rigid rules about good presentations
o Negative self-talk
• Describe techniques for managing stage fright.
o Think
• Discuss ways to treat severe communication apprehension
o Systematic desensitization – help anxious people reduce fears by
associating communication with relaxation
o Cognitive therapy – therapy that helps people alleviate fears through
directed conversation
▪ Cognitive restructuring – changing unrealistic beliefs to more
realistic ones
▪ Visualization = visualize positive outcomes of future experiences

Chapter 5: Listening
• Understand the difference between hearing and listening.
o Hear – the physical sensation of sound waves bouncing off an eardrum
o Listening – To pay attention to sound; to hear something with thoughtful
attention and give consideration
• List the five-step process of listening. Explain each step.
o 1. Receiving
▪ The first stage of hearing and listening; to initially take in sound
waves or a message
▪ Hearing starts and ends here, but not listening
▪ Can receive both verbal/nonverbal messages
o 2. Understanding
 ▪ To grasp the meaning of; to accept as a fact or truth or regard as
plausible without utter certainty
▪ Composed of two parts: interpreting the message and suspending
judgement
• Interpreting the message
o Figuring out what the words mean to you and the
world
o Based on background
o Level increases with both verbal/nonverbal
• Suspending judgement
o Withhold biases
o Relate, PoV, paraphrase
o 3. Remembering
▪ To bring to mind or think of again; to keep in mind for attention or
consideration
▪ Reconstructive not reproductive
o 4. Evaluating
▪ To determine or assess value; to decide significance, worth, or
condition of something, usually by careful appraisal and study
▪ Discriminate between information and propaganda, facts and
personal experience, business and small talk
▪ Personal biases and judgement become influential (similar to
understanding-interpret)
▪ Be aware of biases, remain open minded, use credible sources and
information
o 5. Responding
▪ To say something in return; give an answer; to react in response
▪ Two phases
• Response while the speaker is talking (usually nonverbal)
• Responses made after the speaker has finished the
presentation
▪ Backchanneling cues – feedback from listeners that let speakers
know they are paying attention
• Identify three keys for engaging as an ethical listener. (3)
o Avoid ambushing the speaker
o Avoid pretending to agree or understand
o Ask question or offer constructive criticism
• Describe the six common factors that influence listening. (6)
o Listeners’ purpose
o Knowledge and interest levels
o Command of listening skills
o Attitudes
o Cultural backgrounds
 ▪ Cultural presumptions
▪ Cultural vocabulary
o Surroundings
• Understand strategies for becoming a better listener. (8)
o Adapt to the speaker’s delivery
o Prepare for external noise, ignore internal distractions
o Listen with eyes and years
o Monitor personal emotional reaction
o Don’t jump to conclusions
o Be a selfish listener
o Listen for major ideas
o Identify your listening goal
▪ Pleasure, empathize, evaluate, gain information

CMS 306M
Fall 2018

Chapter 6: Audience Analysis (143)

• Describe the benefits of audience analysis for the presenter and the audience.
o Audience analysis – proactively and systematically gathering and
reviewing information about those to whom you will be presenting your
message to increase your presentation effectiveness
o Helps speakers when creating a presentation
▪ Topic
▪ Evidence
o Verbal/nonverbal deliver
o Greater change to achieve presentation goals, connect with audience, more
confidence, reduced chance of nervousness
o Audiences benefit because they are
▪ Addressed at common level of understanding
▪ Interest
▪ More responsible consumers of information
• Understand that three broad techniques to better identify and account for
audience characteristics (e.g., explain the difference between demographic
and psychographic profiles).
o Demographic
▪ Statistical data about an audience
▪ E.g. age, classification, major
 o Psychographic
▪ Beliefs (true/false), values (right/wrong), attitudes (likes/dislikes),
▪ Interests and what’s important to them, establish common ground
▪ E.g. support open carry legislation, value safety
o Cultural
▪ Culture – a learned system of meaning, which helps us make sense
of and explain what is going on in our everyday surroundings
• What are the cultural considerations you should be aware of when presenting
(4)?
▪ Gestures, self-disclosure, formality, eye contact
• Describe the public speaking guidelines for speaking to multicultural audiences
(e.g., avoid humor, understand local politics, etc.).
o Speak slowly and clearly
o Use multiple modes of presentation
o More formal
o Avoid humor
o Understand local politics
• Explain the important factors to identify when conducting a situational
analysis prior to your speech.
o Location and time
▪ Time and place of speech, type of room, timing of speech vs
audience
o Audience size
▪ Formality increases with audience size
▪ Smaller gestures with smaller size
o Occasion
▪ Helps predict the demographic characteristics, psychological state
of mind and state expectations
o Technological logistics

Chapter 7: Technologically-Mediated Communication (168) (literal)

• Describe how to maintain a professional profile on social networking sites.
o Photos - grandmother
o Personal information – employer in job interview
o Activities – college application
o Interests – offend or repel people
• Discuss the positives and negatives of permanence of records.
o Enables electronic communication, keep records, backup important
documents
o Information lasts forever
• What is a low cues environment and how can you manage impressions in such an
environment?
 o Communication that lacks the nonverbal information of a face-to-face
conversation
• Discuss how to write a professional email and send it strategically.
o Page 174
• Understand the difference between synchronous and asynchronous
communication.
o Asynchronous communication programs allow senders to create messages
to be stored for the receiver
o Synchronous communication takes place in real time

Chapter 8: Sources for Your Presentation

• What are some sources you can use for your presentation and how do you choose
which are the best?
o UT Library Catalog
o Databases – tells what articles are in each magazine, digital collections of
publications
o LexisNexis Academic – newspapers
o Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) – find research articles in
academic journals
o Academic journals
o Books
o Magazines
o Newspapers
o Internet
o Interview
▪ Local issues, topics with eyewitnesses, topics that relate closely to
your audience, can provide vivid quotations, precise details
otherwise unavailable, can add credibility
▪ Time and effort, risk of getting a biased perspective, presentation
time for contextualizing interview
• How do you judge the credibility of a website source?
o Is this source legitimate
o Where does the information come from?
o Does the story have enough information for the reader to evaluate it
o Is the information accurate
• What is a citation style and how do you appropriately cite something in APA
style?
o A method of organization that allows you to integrate research into your
outline and reference page in a standardized fashion
o Parenthetical: (Last name of author, year published)
o Direct quote: add page number
 o Citation styles start on page 215
o Authors
▪ Last name, F. M., & Last name, F.
▪ Title takes its place if no apparent authors.
o Books
▪ Authors. (Year). Title of book (edition). City, State: Publisher.
o Edited books
▪ Authors. (Year). Essay title. In Author (Ed.), Title (pp. pages).
City, State: Publisher.
o Academic journals
▪ Authors. (Year). Article title. Journal, volume, page range.
o Magazines
▪ Authors. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Magazine,
Volume(Issue), page range.
o Newspaper
▪ Authors. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Publisher, pp. page
range.
o News article online
▪ Authors. (Year, Month Day). Article title. Publisher. Retrieved
from URL
o Newspaper article with no listed author
▪ Article title. (Year, Month Day). Publisher, pp. page range.
o Internet website
▪ Authors. (Year). Title. Retrieved from URL
o Website with no author
▪ Title Of The Website. (Year). Retrieved from URL
o Website with no launch date
▪ Title Of The Website. (n.d.). Retrieved from URL
o Blog
▪ Authors. (Year, Month Day). Title of the blog post [Web blog
post]. Retrieved from URL
o Blog with no clear author
▪ Screen name
o Youtube Video
▪ Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of the video [Video file].
Retrieved from URL
o Interviews
▪ (F. Lastname, personal communication, Month Day, Year)
• What are the differences between paraphrasing and directly quoting?
 o Page number for direct quotes, don’t need a page number for paraphrasing
• List and explain the three rules for communicating research in your presentation.
o 1. Mention all sources
o 2. Pair oral citations with a qualifier
o 3. Once #2 is done, do not need to repeat qualifier for same oral citation

Sample Essay Question

Jane is getting ready to give a presentation to an unfamiliar audience and she feels
nervous. She has been preparing for weeks, but as she is waiting to give her presentation
she begins to sweat profusely, feel nauseated and short of breath:
• Identify and explain two possible causes of situational anxiety. (1 point each) •
What two strategies would you suggest she use to manage this anxiety? (1 point
each)