Communication is the most important of all life skill, a means of connecting people and is key in our daily interactions as human. Imagine a world without a means of sharing our ideas, thought and feelings, a world with no means of interaction.

Putting all these imaginations into consideration, i thought on writing about communication talking about various types and channels of communication, effective communication by understanding the process of communication.

Communication

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Communication is a two way process in which there is an exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction. Since communication is a two way process( involving a sender and an audience/receiver), it requires a communication channel to which a sender communicates to it receiver.

There are several channels of communication ranging from our normal daily face to face conversation to telephone calls, text messages, radio and Tv , written letters, emails, internet, sign language, the speakers body language and lots more.

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These channels are encompassed in various types of communication with our daily face to face conversation, telephone call, radio and Tv channels of communication all comprising the Verbal Communication, channels like text messages, emails and written letters comprising the Written Communication, and sign language, the speakers body language all constitute Non-verbal Communication.

Each types and channels of communication have its advantage depending on the type of message the sender is trying to pass across and the audience to which the sender is trying to address.
For example, giving a long list of directions might not be effective using Verbal Communication, while also broadcasting an event using written letters might convey messages only to one or two individuals but not an effective way of broadcasting to a large number of people.

The primary goal of communication is understanding and communication is ineffective if the receiver or audience is unable to grasp the message the sender/speaker is trying to pass across i.e an effective communication minimizes misunderstanding. Therefore, an effective communicator must understand the basic communication process.

Communication Process

An effective communicator must be able to pass his/her messages across to the receiver without creating any form of misunderstanding and confusion by relaying the message in a very clear, concise and precise way.

The following process are followed in the course of communication.

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• Source: The source is the sender of the message. The source has to have a clear and better understanding on what he/she is trying to communicate to the receiver.

• Encoding: The message to be communicated must be in a form tyat can be easily accessible and understood by the receiver. An effective communicator must have the ability to anticipate different barriers of communication(psychological state, cultural belief of the receiver) thereby elimininating every source of confusion in the process of encoding.

• Channel: The success of an effective communication depends also on the channel to which the message is conveyed. Therefore an effective communicator must be able to find a suitable channel for a message to be properly conveyed.

• Decoding: Audience/Receivers process information differently depending on several factors like experience, cultural belief and psychological state. Therefore, an effective communicator must encode his/her message properly for effective decoding.

• Receiver: This refers to the recipient of the message, the receiver decodes and provides necessary feedback to the source.

• Feedback: Receivers providing feedback is an important step in communication process which gives the source an opportunity to know how well the intended message was understood. Feedback is as important as the message conveyed to an effective communicator. Feedback varies with receiver depending on their understanding.

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Thank you for reading, I'm open to CCC(Criticism, Comments, and Contributions)

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