For the next few posts at least, I am going to be focusing on communication. The information is mostly from a book called "Couple Communication I: Collaborative Marriage Skills" by Sherod Miller, Phyllis Miller, Elam W. Nunnally, and Daniel B. Wackman. This book is from my Marriage and Family course from USU, and while the book is meant to be used to improve marriage skills, the communication information is good for anybody in any situation!
For this post, I'm only going to share a brief idea about communication. It is just something to think about before I share more detailed information in following posts.
When you talk to people, your message contains two parts: What you say-the content and How you say it-the style. Most of us know that how you say something can change the meaning of what you say. To communicate well, we know that you do need the what part, but it is often the how, or style, that determines how good of a communicator you are.
How you talk and listen to someone falls into one of four major communication styles. Each of the talking styles corresponds to a listening style, and every style has typical behaviors-unskilled or skilled-associated with it that have a highly predictable impact upon a conversation. The four styles are small/shop talk, control/fight/spite talk, search talk, and aware talk. Next time, I will begin sharing more detailed information about the different talking styles of communication.
