Contents

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 2
The Communication Process................................................................................................................ 2
The Listening Theory and Comprehension ...................................................................................... 22
The Reading Theory ........................................................................................................................... 44
The Individual as a Communicator................................................................................................... 82
The Nature of Critical Thinking ........................................................................................................ 93

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Introduction
Welcome to Human Communication (COMM 1104) in the Bachelor of Communication
course of the Communication Studies Department, Mzuzu University. This course is
intended to equip students with knowledge and skills that will enable them display effective
communication abilities, both verbal and non-verbal. Since university studies are
concerned with high comprehension abilities, this course will further enhance
communication abilities in both written and oral forms. These will be achieved through the
enhancement of listening and reading skills.
By focussing on the individual communicator, it is expected that individual communication
skills would be greatly improved. This will be considered in line with the development of
self-concept that has reflections in different communication modes.
Through studies including critical thinking and fallacies, the communicators will be
expected to develop rational communication skills and let alone strategies for effective
interpersonal communication.
Visual Icons

Unit 1

The Communication Process

Introduction
It is important that we appreciate communication as a general phenomenon among living
things including human beings. Specifically though, human beings communicate using
different means which include verbal and non-verbal means. Beyond these general
perspectives, you will be advantaged to understand the different definitions of
Communication and discover the strengths and weaknesses of each definition. The

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stages in the communication process will also allow you to appreciate what actually
happens at every stage of the communication activity.
The communication process is then discussed in terms of the different theories that help
us understand what really happens in this subtle process. How to make our
communication become effective is discussed through unpacking the human
communicative skills. This is followed by the direction of the flow of human communication,
principally, in terms of power and authority. As the topic drives toward the end, barriers to
communication are discussed in view of their different types and the resultant negative
effects.
Areas of emphasis
 Definitions of the term “Communication”
 Elements of the communication process
 Stages in the communication process
 Theories (models) of the communication process
 Specific human communication skills
 Directions of communication
 Barriers to effective communication
Key Words and Terminologies
Communication, Verbal, non-verbal, transmission, information, interactants, channel,
noise, encoding, and decoding
Pre-requisite knowledge
As a university student, you have been exposed to strenuous listening and reading
activities including a lot of investigative tasks through assignment activities that demanded
discussions. This knowledge and experience is important to help you appreciate what
human communication involves. Thus, you need the same skills in the pursuance of
studies in this course.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
 Define the term “Communication”
 Explain the components of the communication process
 State the stages in the communication process
 Explain the theories of communication
 State how human communication would be made more effective
 State the different directions that communication takes

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  Explain the different barriers to communication

Time required
You will need 6 hours to study this unit.

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009). Effective Technical Communication. New Delhi:

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992). Introduction to Human

Communication. USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel-Joan, A. (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.

1.1 What is Communication?

In defining “Communication”, we are invited to consider each of the following definitions

and take note that there is no single definition that is absolute, and you need to consider
each definition in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. Here are the definitions
according to different authors:
a). According to Cooper and Simonds (1999), Communication refers to a verbal and
non-verbal transaction between or among people. They recognise that the term
“Communication” is abstract and has several meanings.
b). According to Hornby (1989), Communication refers to the exchange of information
regularly with somebody or with other people usually by letters or verbal or telephone
symbols, radio or TV codes.
c). According to Chikoti (2008), Communication is the transmission of information, ideas
and feelings among people with an aim of informing, influencing and initiating action.

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NOTE: We advise you to take note of the need to establish the differences in emphasis
among these three definitions. Human communication is centred on the use of verbal and
non-verbal means as tools of human communication. Have you noted these in the three
definitions? Which scholar among those three above has captured this position?
At this point, we wish to introduce to you the communication process as a distinct element
that deserves special attention. Communication process refers to the course in which
information passes through from the sender to the receiver. On the other hand, there is
need to understand the term “information”. In this context, information refers to the material
that exists in one’s mind. It is this material which is communicated to the receiver.
Components (elements) of Communication
In order for us to communicate, several components are necessary. Three most important
components (elements) include:
 the sender,
 the receiver, and
 the message.
a). Interactants: These are people involved in the communication process. Thus, people
serve as both, sources/senders (encoders), and receivers (decoders) of messages. A
source initiates or encodes the message while a receiver or decoder is the intended target
of the message, who interprets it. Then there is -
b). Message: which refers to the substance that is the object of the communication
process. This may be verbal, sign, symbol or non-verbal form of the idea, thought or feeling
that one person (the source) wishes to communicate to another person or group of people
(receivers). In addition, we have -
c). Channel: which refers to the way in which or through which the message is sent and
received, which may be air (hearing), light (sight), print, etc. There is also -
d). Feedback, which refers to the message that is sent in response to other messages. It
can be either verbal or non-verbal, and can be positive (in agreement) or negative (in
disagreement). Furthermore, there is-
e).The Environment, which refers to the situation, thus, place and time in which
communication is taking place. The environment can either support (enhance) or disrupt
the communication process. For example, ‘asking a lady to enter into a love relationship
with you at a funeral ceremony’, would you say that the environment was conducive for
such advances? What do you think? The last component is -
f). Noise, which refers to any signal that disrupts the accuracy of message being sent or
received. Noise may be physical like ‘banging a desk, tapping a pencil on a desk;

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Psychological noise could be like day-dreaming, attitudes, personal problems, like worries
of school fees etc. These are distractions that can cause inaccuracy in communication.
Stages in the Communication Process
There are five stages which include:
a). The impulse to communicate: This is where the encoder realises the need to
communicate. Thus the sender feels a strong desire to express his or her feelings or views.
The sender could be a writer, a cartoonist, a fine and performing artist, a preacher etc.
Depending on the issue, this desire may also come with the choice of medium for sending
the message eg. after seeing an advert, an applicant may write a letter to apply for the
job.
b). Encoding the message: This refers to the creation of information in such a way that
it can be sent and understood by the receiver. After encoding the information, it becomes
message. Thus a message is information that has been encoded eg. a cartoonist presents
ideas in form of a cartoon, or a poet will write a poem.
c). Relaying the message: This involves sending the message to the receiver (decoder)
and through the right channel. A channel is anything that can carry the message between
the sender and the receiver or vice-versa eg. postal services, notice board, radio,
newspaper, television, letters are all channels of communication.
Factors to consider when choosing the right channel
i). The cost of the channel
Ensure that you use a channel that can deliver the message at a reasonable cost. Some
channels are more expensive than others. For example, a face-to-face interaction is
cheaper than written communication that needs paper, pens and other resources.
ii). The urgency of the message
Some messages are more urgent than othersFor instance, funeral messages will need
the telephone rather than posting a letter.
iii). The nature of the message
Some messages are private and confidential. For example, medical reports, intimate
messages between lovers need to be sealed (not exposed) as they are confidential. As
such they need channels that are equally private such as private meetings, registered
mail.

iv. The distance between the sender and the receiver

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Some channels are limited by distance eg. face-to-face (oral) communication.
v). The viability of the channel
Some channels are subject to abuse and distortion eg. oral messages, posters which
could be torn/distorted. Therefore, use channels that can deliver the message in its original
form.
vi). Need for interaction
Consider whether or not the sender and the receiver have to interact for immediate
feedback for decision making purposes. As such, face-to-face (oral) channel could be
convenient.
vii). The need to keep written records
Some information may need to be kept for future reference or for legal purposes.
Therefore, such information might need a special written channel.
d). Decoding the message
This refers to the process of getting the meaning out of the symbols that were used during
encoding. This may take the form of reading a letter, a memo, appreciating message
from/through caricatures in a cartoon etc. It involves interpreting information, which goes
beyond the spoken or written word to understand hidden meanings attached to the
message. This is ‘reading between the lines’. Effective communication involves re-
establishing information in the mind of the receiver as it existed in the mind of the sender
at the time of sending it.
e). Feedback
Is the reaction or response from the receiver of a particular message such as a response
to a letter or an answer to a question. Two types of feedback include:
 Positive feedback – when it is in line with the senders’ expectations.
 Negative feedback- When it is contrary to the sender’s expectations eg. Think
about this: provoke a mad person, he beats you up or provoke a mad person and
he/she smiles. Is this positive or negative feedback?. OR talk to someone and
you get zero response (is quiet), would that be regarded as negative or positive
feedback?
NOTE: Feedback completes the communication process. In response (feedback),
feedback is encoded and transmitted to the sender who now becomes the receiver.
Hence this process of communication is cyclic in nature, hence the term
“Communication Circle”.
Activity 1
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1. In your own view, which definition best explains the term “Communication”? Why?
2. Mention the three major components of the communication process and explain each
component.
3. What are the logical stages of the communication process?

Theories or Models of communication

In this sub-section, we are going to introduce you to theories that have been advanced by
different scholars in order to explain what actually happens in the communication process.
You are invited to participate fully in order to positively appreciate the different views that
attempt to explain communication as a complex activity. As such you are required to pay
attention to the four basic models that explain what and how communication has to be
appreciated.

Thus the four basic theories help us to explain and understand what really happens in the
communication process. These models include: Linear model, Interactional model,
Transactional model and Constructivist model.

a). Linear or Action model: which refers to the theory which considers that
communication is a sort of action where one person sends (encodes) a message and
another person receives (decodes) it. This model is also known as the ‘Simple Model’.
See its diagrammatic representation below:

Sender
Recipient
encodes
Channel decodes
message
message

The linear model is also called Mathematical Model or Inoculation Model or Bull’s Eye
Model - because it seems to depict a speaker injecting an audience with a message. This
model is referred to as ‘linear model’ because it is uni-directional. Thus the movement is
in one direction only as a Bull’s Eye sees (see direction in the above diagram).

The Linear or Action model is faulted (found weak) because it fails to reveal anything about
how audiences (receivers) influence speakers or encoders. Audiences influence or affect
speakers through non-verbal and verbal feedback, none of which is reflected in this
model.

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b). Then there is the Interactional or Ping-Pong model which adds another dimension
to the action model. In the interaction model, one person sends a message to a second
person, who receives it and responds with another message. This is evident in the diagram
representation below.

Message
Recipient
Sender decodes
Channel
encodes message
message

Feedback

This model depicts a conversation between two people in which the communicators take
turns, sending and receiving messages. Just as a basket-ball cannot be thrown back until
it is caught, in the interaction model, the receiver cannot return the message until the
speaker’s message is received.

c).The Transactional or Spiral model – Rather than act exclusively as senders or

receivers, in this model of communication, communicators simultaneously send and
receive messages. Thus sending and receiving are no longer separate activities, and they
do not occur one at a time. See the diagrammatic representation below:

Encoder Encoder
Communicator A Message
Decoder Communicator A
Decoder

According to this model, people are continually sending and receiving messages, they
cannot avoid communication. Individuals do not have to take turns in this view because
messages are everywhere. Whatever is happening around you are all part of the
transactional model, that is, the person talking to you on the sidewalk can also be nodding
to a passer-by. Where the circles are over-wrapping entail shared/common experiences,
culture, social values and norms or in general.

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d). The Constructivist model - The first three models (Action, Interactional, and
Transactional) – are mechanistic models that are limited in that they simply show the
direction of communication movement: thus source to receiver; source to receiver to
source; or source and receiver simultaneously.

In the constructivist model, the focus shifts from sources, messages, receivers and
feedback to what occurs in the minds of the communicators interpreting meaning. The
constructivist’s model posits that receivers create their own reality in their minds. The
sender’s words are symbols to be interpreted and the receiver constructs his or her own
meaning. However, the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s message may or may not
be the same as what the sender intended it to be. The only way to reach an agreement
about the message is by discussing what the sender intended, and what the receiver
interpreted. This is called negotiation of meaning.

In this model, the encoder’s message may be something else by the time it is received
and interpreted by the other person (decoder). Under the best communication
circumstances, the two people involved learn to manage meaning by negotiating what
each believes the message to be.

NOTE: Constructivist model:

This is a theory of communication which posits that receivers create their own reality in
their minds.

Characteristics of Human Communication (From Harmer, 1983: 43)

Now, let us look at the characteristics of Human Hommunication by using the components
or elements of the communication process:
 Interactants – Whenever human communication takes place, there is a speaker
and a listener or writer and reader interacting as summarised below:
Speaker/Writer - Wants to say something
- Has a communicative purpose
- Selects from languages and channels available
Listener/Reader - Wants to listen to something

- Is interested in communicative purpose

- Processes the language in which the message has been
encoded

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  Purpose – Human communication is always for a purpose, thus the speaker has
a purpose while the listener is interested in discovering the purpose. Such
purposes could be to gain information, to impress, to inform, warn and others .
 Send signals - Through communication we are able to send intellectual,
emotional, social etc. information to others.
 Result oriented - Human communication has intended as well as unintended
results or effects. For instance, a joke may be interpreted as an insult, or simply a
friendly gesture. Thus what we say / do may not always be interpreted in the way
we intended.
 Turn taking – Communication involves both the sender and the receiver, so they
engage in turn-taking when communicating. They give each other turns.
 Feedback – Communication invites / involves feedback. This is the signal that
communication process has been complete. This feedback could be verbal or non-
verbal.
Symbols – Human communication involves the use of symbols that must be integrated
eg. language both oral and written, and body language.

Types of Communication
Following the discussion of characteristics of human communication, we now turn to the
two types of communication which include verbal and non-verbal.
A). Verbal Communication
This involves the use of words, either oral (using voice) or written. The oral form is as in
face-to-face interaction, radio, TV, phone, assemblies, churches, public rallies etc. On the
other hand, written communication as verbal too, include letters, newspaper articles, texts
etc.
i). Oral Communication
Advantages of oral communication
 Feedback is immediate / instant. Hence any signs of misunderstanding are
dealt with on the spot. Thus corrections, amplifications or explanations can be
made on the spot.
 Setting or context enhances meaning. Thus, the way the message is interpreted
is also influenced by the situation / context. The setting/context becomes part of
the message. For example, issuing verbal reprimand to a junior
worker/employee at a bar may be taken lightly than issuing a letter on the same
issue in his/her office.

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  Paralanguage helps make the message clear such as gestures, body
movements, and also paralinguistic features help in making the message clear
eg. tone of voice, loudness of voice, pitch (high /low), tempo etc.
 Problem solving – Oral communication is ideal for establishing relationships and
for solving problems or resolving conflicts ie. reconciliations.

Disadvantages of Oral Communication

a). Transitory in nature: It has no permanent record that one can refer to at a
future date.
b). Prejudicial in nature: Its effectiveness depends on the mood of the listener
at that particular time (considering) impatience, anxiety, environment and other
psychological elements.

ii). Written Communication

This is the second type of communication after oral communication and it includes any
form of text that is written down such as notes, memos, letters, reports, notices, minutes,
circulars, newsletters, leaflets etc. as used by different organisations.
 Advantages of Written Communication
a). It provides a permanent record: Thus ideas expressed in writing achieve the
permanency that fixes responsibility. It makes possible the verification of essential
information such as dates, times, figures, names etc. It is because of this
advantage that people insist on having written information to confirm oral
conversations, message authentically, authority and validity.
b). Viability: Thus written information can be read at the convenience of the
recipient when he / she is in a more receptive mood, time etc. Also it can be read
over and over again if not understood.
c). Aids memory: Thus people tend to remember better what they have seen in
print. What affects more than one sense in your body is better understood and
remembered.
d). Orderliness: Thus written messages are often better structured by their
composers. Words, phrases and sentences are often carefully chosen than they
are in oral communication. Thus the process of writing forces the composer to think
clearly and present ideas logically. He / She has the time to proof-read and edit his
/ her work.
NB: Written communication is best for those serious matters which we want to keep
a record of such as policies, procedures, timetables, technical and statistical
information.

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  Disadvantages of Written Communication
a). It is not certain that what has been sent in the written form will receive the
attention we think it deserves.
b). Feedback is slow therefore not good for solving problems especially urgent
ones.
c). There are no non-verbal aids to help the reader get the meaning. As such, the
message may not be understood as intended.
d). Language errors in form of poor grammar, poor punctuation, poor spellings,
poor diction and others may make the message vague or altogether make
communication impossible.
e). There is danger of confidential messages falling into wrong hands or being
delivered at the wrong time.

Activity 2
1. Which theory convinces you in explaining what actually happens in
communication? Justify your response.
2. What is meant by the term “interactants” in the communication process?
3. What advantages does oral communication enjoy over written communication?
4. Distinguish the two forms of verbal communication as used by human beings.
B). Non-verbal communication: refers to the communication which does not use verbal
language. It is a form of communication in which a message is encoded using non-verbal
signals. It comprises of seven main categories namely:
i). Kinesics-which includes all forms of body language e.g. facial expressions, gestures,
body movements, posture, dancing styles etc.
ii). Proxemics- refers to the message given out by considering the relationship between
two or more people or objects in terms of time and space e.g. two people who are always
together may be said to be friends, a boy and a girl sitting very close to each other may
be said to be in a love relationship etc.
iii). Tacesics- refers to the messages given out considering different ways in which we
touch one another e.g. caressing, hugging, scratching, fighting etc.
iv). Paralanguage- refers to the non-spoken behaviours that accompany the language we
speak e.g. tone of our speech, pace of speech, manner of articulation of words, silence
behaviour accompanying speech.
v). Time language- refers to the way we relate to agreed times e.g. coming before the
agreed time(s), coming on agreed time(s), or coming after the agreed time(s). The way we
relate to agreed times may show our seriousness, commitment or our lack of interest in
the meetings.

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vi). Physical environment- refers to the way a place looks or feels which may give a
message about what happens at that place. Physical environment discloses the status of
the inhabitants. It also reveals the inhabitants’ seriousness or lack thereof in what they are
doing.
NOTE: Ambience- refers to the general atmosphere of a place; thus how the place looks
like, i.e. its lightings, smell, backgrounds, ventilation, etc. thus an aspect of body physical
environment is called object language and it refers to the meanings you attribute (attach)
to the objects with which you surround yourself. The clothes and the jewellery you wear,
your hairstyle and the decorative objects in your house are all objects of language.
vii). Visual communication– This refers to the use of symbols, graphics, pictures, tables
and others to convey information. Although some of these may carry words on them, the
main message is carried by the visual itself e.g. road symbols, graphics and pictures of
very sick people as a way of showing the dangers of HIV & AIDS, etc.
Body language (kinesics)
(From Little, p. (1977). Communication in Business (3rd e.d.). London, Longman.)
1. Body language is a convenient generic term for communication by the use of parts of
the body other than the tongue e.g. by hand gestures, facial expressions, mime, touch,
posture and others.
a). Gestures can be useful in noisy places/ environments such as in a foreign country
where one does not know the language. Gestures are extensively used in many parts of
the world to supplement (add on) and intensify (magnify) speech in Malawi, Zambia, China
and other countries.
b). Facial expressions: These communicate mostly emotions and attitudes such as
friendliness, affection, dislike, suspicion, anger, content, bewilderment, anxiety etc.
Research has shown that facial expressions are almost universally used (across countries
of the world). These should be examined closely in communication.
c). Posture often unconsciously communicates much in for example, business and social
situations ie. how a person stands before another issuing orders, how he sits in a
committee/ gathering, what he looks like before his desk/ table etc. can give good and
important indications of his/her attitude to his job, friends, clients, to a specific proposal
being put to him etc.
NB: When you are a receiver, it is worth remembering that the message that comes from
body language (if different from the spoken words) is the one to believe for it is usually
being communicated unconsciously.

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2. Dressing and Grooming: it is important to dress so as to suit the occasion. Clothes
and decorations on the body, like body language, send messages about us. All the times
we dress to indicate the kind of person we wish to be thought to be and the sort of role we
wish to play in life.
Quite often, difficulties and misunderstandings arise at workplaces because the messages
we try to send through our dressing and grooming are in conflict with what we really
are (at workplaces). Since we cannot keep changing our clothes, hairstyles etc. during the
working day, we have to decide which takes priority, (our private aims or our business
role). Peter Little(1977:226) claims that most people realise perhaps a little sadly that it
must be the business role that should be given priority; and that means learning to
dress and groom to suit the job.
NOTE: The more casual attitude towards dress and grooming these days poses special
problems. One needs to decide who the expected clients are and what interpretation they
will make of you and your organisation in view of your dress and grooming, which is as
subject to misunderstandings as verbal communication; and can lead to distortions at
both encoding and decoding levels/ stages. As there is no dictionary to turn to, there
might be more subjectivity in dressing and grooming than in verbal communication.
Activity 3
1. What is meant by non-verbal communication?
2. Mention any three categories of non-verbal communication.
3. How would dressing affect communication success in the human society?
4. Provide an example on how facial expressions may influence communication interaction
among people.
Channels / Directions of Communication in an Organisation
At this point, let us discuss the different directions of communication. There is
always a connection between the producer and the receiver. Thus the interaction
between different individuals working, for example, in a company or organisation,
takes place through different channels which could be formal or informal. Below
are the different channels/directions of communication:

 Grapevine: which is the first one and it refers to the informal channels through
which people transmit official news via unofficial and informal communicative
interactions. This informal communicative network includes: tea-time gossip,
casual gatherings, lunch time meetings, etc.
The grapevine channel is not reliable because they may be company or organisational
rumours or just gossip. They are very active (common) in organisations that are not
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 transparent since employees want to know what is going on in their
organisations/company, so they seek out unofficial sources of information.
The grapevine is not always negative for an organisation. It sometimes helps in positive
group building by acting as a safety valve for the pent up emotions. It may help in
building up organisational solidarity and harmony.
Formal Communication Channels
The other but formal communication channel which refers to the formal methods of
communication that are followed in management include the following four different
communication channels that are used within an organisation:
 Downward Communication
 Upward Communication
 Horizontal Communication
 Diagonal Communication
We here below provide more details about each of the named communication
channels:
a). Downward Communication – which refers to communication from the higher level
in the managerial hierarchy to the lower ones. For example, communication from:
 The General Manager to the Branch Manager
 Annual confidential reports
 Performance appraisals
 Notices
 Project feedback
 Announcements of company policies
 Official instructions
The forms of downward communication may include:
 Notes, Memos, Notices, Voice mails, Face-to-face Conversations, Emails,
Telephone Conversations, etc.

NOTE
 This type of communication channel is essential for the functioning of any
organisation since it involves the transfer of information, instruction, advice,
request, feedback and ideas to subordinate staff.

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  It also increases staff awareness and facilitates implementation of new
policies, guidelines, decisions, and evaluation/appraisals of performance of
employees.
NB: Too much downward communication can lead to reaction from
subordinates and can hamper better employee-employer relationships.
b). Upward Communication
This refers to communication from subordinates to superiors. Its main
purpose/aim is to provide feedback on several areas of organisational
functioning eg.
 Business report from Branch Manager to the Managing Director
 Business proposals
 Suggestion box
 Exit interview
 Grievance committees etc.
NOTE: It involves the transfer of information, requests, feedback etc. from subordinates
to seniors. As such it promotes better relationships within an organisation by giving the
subordinate staff opportunities to share their views and ideas with their superiors. It
facilitates employee involvement in the decision making process.
NB In any organisation there has to be a balance between downward and upward
communication channels.
c). Horizontal Communication
This refers to the communication that takes place between professional peer groups or
people working on the same level of hierarchy in an organisation. Its main objectives are:
 Developing team work
 Promoting group coordination within an organisation
NOTE: Horizontal communication is less formal and structured than both downward and
upward communication. It may be carried out through informal discussions, management
gossip, telephone calls, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, memos, routine meetings,
etc.
d). Diagonal Communication
This refers to the communication that occurs between people who do not have to follow
rigid norms of communication protocol, and it flows in all directions.

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NOTE: Diagonal communication is the product of modern changes in information
technology and management. It is the result of the growing realisation of fraternity and
equality in the corporate sector. It is basically a response to market needs that demand
speed and efficiency.

Barriers to Communication
In all these channels of communication, there are challenges that may impede
communication effort. Such challenges are referred to as noise or barriers. They are
caused by different factors in different contexts.
Now let us focus on the definition of the term “barrier” in communication. From a literal
point of view, how would you define it? Barrier is anything that blocks the message from
being passed from one person to another. And be informed that there are different types
of barriers to communication which include:
 External barriers: whose noise can drown the message or distract the
receiver altogether.ie. car noise, banging of a door, hooting of car horn,
banging of desks, etc.

 Verbal barriers: These may include linguistic, factual and semantic

barriers/distractors. The source needs to use vocabulary (lexis), sentence
patterns, pronunciation or phonological representations, stress etc. that are
of the receiver’s level. Thus technical terms/material should be clearly
explained.

 Emotional barriers: These may include mental and psychological barriers.

This includes things like sadness, excitement, anxiety etc. In this case, one
needs to avoid being harsh and speak confidently.

 Social or Cultural barriers: These include differences in values, norms,

beliefs and prejudices among others. These vary from society to society
depending on the ethnic group the society constitutes or is made up of.

 Mechanical barriers: These include faulty gadgets as the case may be with
cell-phones when one gets cracking noise rendering communication
difficult, similar noise in the public address system could block the message
from being passed between the speaker and the audience. That is typically
about faults in the machine that is used for executing communication.

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 Improper encoding:
This is a recurrent barrier in the process of communication. Since there is
lack of understanding on the part of the receiver, it leads to confusion and
misunderstanding. Messages should be presented in a linguistic code
familiar to one’s audience. The sender must consider the cognitive
knowledge the receiver has of the communicative code that is being used.
If the audience is not able to follow the language or dialect, a communication
breakdown will definitely occur. In addition, selection of an appropriate
medium or linguistic form also leads to communication breakdown due to
misunderstanding or confusion.
 Bypassing: The term ‘bypassing’ refers to misunderstanding resulting from
missed meanings because of the use of abstract words and phrases on
which both senders and receivers do not agree. Bypassing is probably the
most common communication barrier that you have to deal with. Words
mean different things to different people. Age, education, and cultural
background are the three of the more obvious variables that influence the
language a person uses. In order to avoid bypassing, you should use
familiar words with concrete meanings so that there is no room for
confusion. Moreover, it is also necessary to know the background of your
audience.

 Frame of reference: Your weakness in viewing others within your frame of

reference may also lead to confusion and misunderstanding. The moment
you interpret other’s point of view from your angle, you allow your
preconceived notions and prejudices to start working for you. Your frame of
reference is individual to you as it is based on your experiences, exposure,
level of education, personality and several other elements peculiar to you.
In order to avoid communication failure, you have to be sensitive to this fact
and try to put yourself in the person’s position.

 Physical distractions: These can easily disrupt communication. For

example, you are trying to give an oral presentation in the classroom but
the room temperature is very high and there is no air-conditioner or fan in
the room. Your discomfort may cause communication failure because a
person who is physically uncomfortable can neither be a good speaker nor

19
 a good listener. You should avoid any physical discomfort during
communication.

 Psychological and Emotional interference: Any psychological or

emotional turbulence or disturbance can prove to be a barrier to effective
communication because it leads to lack of interest and concentration.
Feelings of sadness, fear, anger, anxiety or jubilation influence our
reception and receptivity to others’ ideas. Communication is a purposeful
activity based on rationality and reason and people must assure themselves
that they are not emotionally charged ( eg. very excited, angry, nervous)
before they take part in a communication interaction. One may find it difficult
to concentrate on the content of the message if one is emotionally charged.
Over-arousal of emotions may adversely affect both encoding and
decoding. Whether you are a sender or a receiver, it is necessary that you
try to focus on the content of the message.

 Intercultural differences: It is the receiver who assigns meaning to

message cues and meanings are assigned in terms of the receiver’s frame
of reference. This interpretation of meaning can create misunderstandings
during intercultural communication when the sender and the receiver belong
to different cultures and share different values. In fact, our values are our
personal guides to thought and behaviour, and exert a strong influence on
us. We should be sensitive to cultural differences and take into account the
values of our listeners/readers while communicating with them.

Activity 3
1. Why are some channels of communication considered as informal?
2. How is upward communication different from downward communication?
3. What is meant by the term “noise” in communication studies?
4. How would the following affect messaging in group communication:
a). Frame of reference?
b). Bypassing?

Unit summary

20
This unit has brought to light the definitions of Communication which include transferring
of information from one person to another or between audiences. Communication has
further been described in terms of interactants, thus people involved in the communication
process, with the other elements including message, channel and noise, among other
components. The communication process has also been described through theories such
as the Mathematical (Linear) theory, Interactional and transactional theory. Interestingly,
Communication has also been explained in terms of direction of the targets or receivers
like the upward direction (from juniors to seniors), downward direction (from bosses to
juniors), and diagonal relationship among others. The definition of barriers as obstacles to
communication has been discussed. This has included the types of barriers such as
physical barriers, like banging of desks and hooting of car horns, psychological barriers
which include anxiety, sadness, and technical barriers which include rough or distractive
sound due to faulty machines like crackling sounds on cell-phones. The ways to
overcoming noise to improve communication has also been discussed.
Unit assessment test
1. Discuss the three most important elements of the communication process.
2. State any four reasons why the choice of a channel for communication activities requires
a careful approach.
3. Draw the similarities and differences that arise in explaining what the communication
process entails in the perspective of interactional and transactional theories of
communication.
4. Why do juniors find it advantageous to use the grapevine as a channel of
communication in any given organisation?
5. How would the following types of barriers affect your attention in any serious meeting?
a). Psychological barriers.
b). Semantic or verbal barriers.
c). Strange sounds.

21
Unit 2

The Listening Theory and Comprehension

Introduction
This unit discusses the art of listening and how it leads to understanding materials. In an
attempt to achieve this, listening is sharply separated from hearing. Then the process of
listening is discussed in terms of the three phases namely: Awareness, Reception and
Perception. The types of listening are considered together with their specific orientations
in terms of functions. Among several types of listening are critical or attentive listening
where judgement and dissection of issues is critical, and appreciative listening where
enjoyment remains the goal. Effective listening strategies are then drawn just before the
barriers to listening are discussed. Finally, as a matter of testing listening ability, the
process of note-taking and note-making is considered both theoretically and practically.
The different types of note-making approaches are discussed and drawn to ensure that
students’ listening abilities and skills are improved.
Areas of emphasis
 The distinction between listening and hearing
 Phases of listening
 Types and purposes of listening
 Effective listening strategies
 Barriers to listening
 Note-making techniques
Key words
Listening, hearing, awareness, reception, perception, appreciative, evaluative,
therapeutic, strategies, predicting, barriers
Pre-requisite knowledge
It is obvious that all of you have been subjected to listening tasks in various activities. This
entails both, the oral form as well as the written form where reading is involved. At your
level, you have been subjected to public speeches in various forums as well, be they
political or otherwise. This background forms a good basis for appreciating material that
is handled in this topic at both levels, spoken as well as written.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit, you should be able to:
1. Distinguish listening from hearing.
2. Explain the three phases of listening.
22
3. Mention and explain how the speaker/listener could be motivated.
4. Mention any four barriers to listening.
5. Explain how to improve listening in human beings in any given context?
6. Show how the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs relates with motivation.

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009). Effective Technical Communication, New Delhi:

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992). Introduction to Human

Communication, USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel, Joan, A. (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.

Time required: You will need 5 hours to study this unit.

Listening Theory and Comprehension

In the first place, we begin by attempting to distinguish the terms ‘listening’ and ‘hearing’.
The term listening refers to:
 Making sense of what is heard.
 The process of receiving, attending to and assigning meaning to aural stimuli.
 An active process involving the construction, retention and reaction to meanings
we assign to information.

Hearing and Listening

We should take note that ‘hearing’ refers to the act of receiving sounds. This is made
possible by our ears. Indeed sounds go into our ears but that does not necessarily mean
that the brain has interpreted those sounds or that the message has been stored. On the

23
other hand, ‘listening’ is an active process of receiving and constructing meaning from
and responding to the spoken or non-verbal message.

Why study listening skills? (the rationale)

It is important to study listening skills because it is the heart of personal, religious,
academic as well as corporate success. Sometimes we fail to respond to issues
accordingly because we did not listen in the first place. Listening is one key to effective
communication.
The process of listening
We are now going to discuss what constitutes the listening process. This will be
discussed by way of considering the phases that any listening activity goes through.
To be precise, the listening process consists of three phases which include
‘awareness, reception and perception’. In other words, these phases are called
‘stages’ of the listening process as discussed below:
 Awareness- where the receiver becomes aware that he/she should listen and
so becomes attentive to what is being said. Once listeners are attentive to what
is being said, they are in the right frame of mind to be receptive to what is to be
said.

 Reception- The attentive receiver gets the message through the senses of
hearing and sight: he/she hears the verbal signals (words) and observes (sees)
the non-verbal signals (gestures). Once people are aware (attentive) and
reception has taken place, they can begin to perceive.

 Perception – After the attentive listener gets the message, the brain interprets
what has reached it through the senses. This is called perception or
understanding. Perception occurs with oral, written and visual messages but
our area of concern in this context is oral perception.

In details, the three phases are discussed as below, phase by phase:

Phase 1: Developing awareness

There are some basic principles for making people aware, thus getting their attention so
that listening takes place. Both the source and receiver of the message have some
responsibilities in developing awareness. The responsibilities of the source / producer
/speaker etc include:

24
The responsibilities of the source or producer
1. Motivate the receiver by adapting the message to meet his/her goals, objectives and
needs. For motivation to succeed, there is need to follow the tenets as stipulated in the
Theory (Model) referred to as Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Abraham Maslow
developed this theory in the 1950’s. In the model, Maslow contends that people are driven
by needs to act as they do and that such needs have to be satisfied in order for our lives
to be complete. According to Maslow, the following are the basic human needs which are
presented in a hierarchical order (in a pyramid form) as in the diagram below followed by
discussions at every level of the hierarchy:

Self-Actualisation needs

Self-Esteem needs
Love and Belonging needs

Safety and Security needs

Safety and security needs

Physiological needs

 Self-actualisation needs
(this concerns Self-fulfilment, Creativity, Imagination).

 Esteem needs
(this concerns status, reputation, and personal competence).

 Love / Belonging needs

(this concerns desire to belong to someone/some group(s), desire to be
loved or be accepted by others ).

 Safety / Security needs

(this concerns the need for protection from danger, the need for law & order,
need for personal/group security and the need for freedom from harm).

25
  Physiological needs (this concerns the most basic needs that have to
be satisfied in a human being which include food, shelter, clothing, water,
air, sex). If these needs are met (satisfied), then the person is ready to be
motivated to act in a certain desired way.
2. Arouse curiosity in the receiver.

This can be achieved through presenting a startling fact, and telling a joke related to the
topic under discussion.

3. Speak loudly and clearly, thus being audible enough to be heard by the receiver.

4. Ask Questions: This makes the receiver to be alert in case they are the next to be
asked what they think about what you are saying. This in a way forces them to participate
and therefore be attentive. You can also ask rhetorical questions.

5. Avoid barriers to listening. A barrier is any physical, cultural or mental condition that
reduces the likelihood of the message to be received or heard or understood as intended.
Thus we should be aware of the distractors in our environments and endeavour to
eliminate or reduce them so as to communicate successfully. Such barriers to successful
listening include:

i). External barriers like physical barriers whose noise can drown the
message or distract the receiver altogether such as car noise, banging of
a door, hooting of car horn, banging of desks, etc.

ii). Verbal barriers which may include linguistic, factual and semantic
barriers/distractors. The source needs to use vocabulary (lexis), sentence
patterns, pronunciation or phonological representations, stress etc. that are
at the level of the receiver. Thus technical terms/material should be clearly
explained.
iii). Emotional barriers which may include mental and psychological
barriers. This includes things like sadness, anxiety etc. On this, one needs
to avoid being harsh and speak confidently.
iv). Social or cultural barriers which include differences in values, norms,
beliefs and prejudices among others. These vary from society to society
depending on the ethnic group the society constitutes or is made up of.
v). Mechanical barriers which include faulty gadgets as the case may be
with cell-phones when one gets cracking noise rendering communication
difficult, similar noise in the public address system, etc. That is typically
about faults in the machine that is used for executing communication.

26
vi). Improper Encoding
This is a recurrent barrier in the process of communication. Since there is
lack of understanding on the part of the receiver, it leads to confusion and
misunderstanding. Messages should be presented in a linguistic code
familiar to one’s audience. The sender must consider the cognitive
knowledge the receiver has or is being used. . If the audience is not able to
follow the language or dialect, some communication breakdown will
definitely occur. In addition, selection of an appropriate medium or linguistic
form also leads to communication breakdown due to misunderstanding or
confusion.
vii). Bypassing: The term ‘bypassing’ refers to misunderstanding resulting
from missed meanings because of the use of abstract words and phrases
on which both senders and receivers do not agree. Bypassing is probably
the most common communication barrier that you have to deal with. Words
mean different things to different people. Age, education, and cultural
background are the three of the more obvious variables that influence the
language a person uses. In order to avoid bypassing, you should use
familiar words with concrete meanings so that there is no room for
confusion. Moreover, it is also necessary to know the background of your
audience.
viii). Frame of reference: Your weakness in viewing others within your
frame of reference may also lead to confusion and misunderstanding. The
moment you interpret other’s point of view from your angle, you allow your
preconceived notions and prejudices to start working for you. Your frame of
reference is individual to you as it is based on your previous experiences,
exposure, education, personality and several other elements peculiar to
you. In order to avoid communication failure, you have to be sensitive to this
fact and try to put yourself in the person’s shoes (position/situation).
ix). Physical Distractions: These can easily disrupt communication. For
example, you are trying to give an oral presentation in the classroom but
the temperature in that room is very high and there is no air-conditioner or
fan in the room. Your discomfort may cause communication failure because
a person who is physically uncomfortable can neither be a good speaker
nor a good listener. You should avoid any physical discomfort during
communication.
x). Psychological and Emotional interference: Any psychological or
emotional turbulence or disturbance can prove to be a barrier to effective

27
 communication because it leads to lack of interest and concentration.
Feelings of sadness, fear, anger, anxiety or jubilation may influence our
reception of and receptivity to other people’s ideas. Communication is a
purposeful activity based on rationality and reason and one must assure
that one is not emotionally charged ( eg. very excited, angry, nervous)
before one takes part in a communication interaction. One may find it
difficult to concentrate on the content of the message if one is emotionally
charged. Over arousal of emotions may adversely affect both encoding and
decoding of the message. Whether you are a sender or a receiver, it is
necessary that you try to focus on the content of the message.
xi). Intercultural differences: It is the receiver who assigns meaning to
message cues and meanings are assigned in terms of the receiver’s frame
of reference. This interpretation of meaning can create misunderstanding
during intercultural communication because the sender and the receiver
belong to different cultures and share different values. In fact, our values
are our personal guides to thought and behaviour, and exert a strong
influence on us. We should be sensitive to cultural differences and take into
account the values of our listeners/readers while communicating with them.

The receiver’s responsibilities

Having discussed the responsibilities of the source or producer, let us now turn to the
responsibilities of the receiver or listener. The receiver/listener should consider the
following in order to be successful in the communication process:
 Compensate for any physical hearing problems. This could be done by moving
in closer, sitting in front rather than at the back ie. (classroom situation), and asking
the speaker/sender to raise the voice where necessary.
 Get ready to listen: Be in the right posture for listening (standing or sitting) ie. -
straight up, eyes on the speaker. There is connection between the body and the
mind when it comes to listening.
 Keep an open mind: Avoid blocking out ideas you do not like or do not want to
hear. Avoid the tendency to resist ideas of no personal interest and jumping into
hasty conclusions.
 Use extra thinking to summarise and analyse what is said. This can be done
by listening for ideas and meaning. You need to understand the key issues in the
words and details presented to you. You can get such meanings with the help of
both verbal cues (words) and non-verbal cues (facial expressions, voice projection,
body movement, etc.).

28
 Concentrate on what is being said. This can be done by directing all your
thoughts on what is being said. At most avoid mind wandering.

Phase 2: Reception
Having discussed the awareness stage of the listening process, let us now focus on
the reception stage. For reception (understanding) to be effective), the listener /
receiver should be able to do the following:
 Direct all your attention to what is being said. Do not give room to any other
thoughts that may distract you.

 Listen with more than your ears, thus observe the sender’s non-verbal cues
such as facial expressions, gestures, pauses, the stance, voice tone and
others.

 Hold your fire: Do not be quick in expressing your opinion on what you hear,
instead hold your opinion to the end of what is being said at that particular time
so that you can gather enough information to make the correct evaluation
(judgement).
If you make too early a judgement you could be so affected by your opinion that
you may stop listening. Try to concentrate on what the speaker is saying rather
than your reaction to it.

Phase 3: Perception
Let us now turn to the last phase in the listening process which is ‘Perception
or Interpreting’. That is, giving meaning to the message that has been received.
Therefore, perception results into understanding. This depends on both the
verbal and non-verbal message(s) received so far. In addition, context
(situation) also contributes to the interpretation of message.
Since perception depends on the message received, the requirements for
improving reception also applies to improving perception. Such factors include:

 Concentrating on the message: Thus you need to avoid mind wandering while
focussing your attention on a specific point or issue.

 Observing paralanguage: Thus messaging does not just depend on the spoken
word but also on other linguistic elements such as pauses, stress, pitch and
intonation among others.

29
  Being an active listener, where as a listener, you need to be fully involved by
making observations, questioning and fully engaging the material being
communicated.

 Holding one’s fire. This is where patience is highly demanded before levelling
responses on any issue. Thus one needs to control himself/herself in making
contributions, should never rush.

Activity 1
 1. In what ways is listening different from hearing?
 2. State and explain the stages that the listening activity has to go through in
any communication business.
 3. Explain how you would use the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as a source of
motivation in the listening activities.
 4. How would you enhance success in the listening activities in a given
environment? Provide any two points in your response.
Additional Requirements
 Judge the content and not the delivery.

Do not be taken by the sender’s pleasant personality. Beware of the popular speaker who
has ‘a way with words’! Often, such people have very little of importance to say, but they
speak in such a way that the listener cannot disagree with what is being said.
 People tend to perceive/interpret/understand by relating what they hear to
what they have experienced, what they already know and the attitude
(feeling) they already have towards things. This tendency will cause people
to give different interpretations to the message. To avoid this, the listener
should try to perceive what is being said in the same way as the speaker
perceives it. This however, calls for empathy, (the ability to share another
person’s feelings), which can only come with positive reception.

Types of listening and their place in studies

At this point let us discuss the different types of listening. These arise because of the
different purposes for which they are used. These include:
a) Superficial listening – This is where the listener has little awareness of the content
of what is being said. The output in this type of listening is zero because the listener

30
 tends to ignore the message, and is not able to concentrate on the theme, main
points, and supporting details of the message.
b) Appreciative listening – where the main purpose is to get enjoyment and
pleasure. For instance, listening to songs, entertaining stories, jokes, anecdotes,
etc. The output may be taking part in the entertainment process. For example, a
music lover may listen to the latest hit, pick up the chorus and tune, and try to sing
along.
c) Focused or lnformative listening - that involves listening for a specific purpose.
The main purpose is to get some specific information that might be used to take a
decision. This is the most common type of listening that we practice in non-formal
oral communicative situations such as listening to the radio, watching and listening
to TV programmes, listening to railway and airport announcements etc.
d) Evaluative listening – This involves evaluation of the oral message or
commentary and developing a line of thought. The listener interprets and analyses
what he or she listens to in order to understand both the explicit and implicit
meaning of the oral message. The main aim of evaluative listening is to judge the
content of the oral message to select appropriate information. The output would be
an oral response or summarising and recalling information at a later stage such as
listening to structured talks, classroom lectures, workshops, seminars and others.
e) Attentive listening – demands the complete attention of the listener. It is basically
active and intelligent listening in situations such as group discussions, meetings,
job interviews, etc. the listener pays attention to all parts of the message, that is,
the central idea, main points, supporting details, examples, and illustrations. There
is no selective dismissal of any part of the oral message. Attentive listening is
interactive and productive, therefore demands the listeners conscious effort,
concentration, involvement, and responsibility eg. listening to administration
instructions, formal conversational interaction, suggestions, requests, telephone
calls etc.

f). Empathic or Therapeutic listening – This is listening not only to what the speaker is
saying but also to how he/she is saying, that is, his/her feelings, emotions, and the state
of mind. The listener has to understand and respond to the effective signals that the
speaker might make, and has to be alert to the speaker’s implied meaning, intention, and
attitude. Moreover, he/she has to understand and interpret non-verbal cues and the body
language of the speaker.

Empathy refers to the capacity of a person to put himself in the shoes of another, to see
things from another person’s viewpoint. You have to strive to thoroughly and accurately

31
understand the person communicating. This does not direct the conversation but
encourages the other person to share his/her ideas and feelings.
Effective listening strategies: We are now going to discuss the listening strategies and
how to listen effectively. We are all called upon to appreciate each listening strategy and
see how we could best use the strategy in order to achieve best results. We need to be
aware that complete comprehension of an oral message is more challenging than reading.
A text can be re-read if there is any problem in comprehension but there is no such
scope/chance in listening. Since listening is a major aspect of academic and professional
interaction, mastering the art of effective listening is essential. Moreover, listening is a
communication opportunity and taking advantage of such opportunities makes a person a
dedicated professional.
Most students who do not have a systematic approach to listening face difficulties in
understanding a lecture, a seminar, or a discussion. They suffer from lack of concentration,
boredom, ineffective listening, and poor comprehension. As one has to ensure a high
degree of understanding and remembrance, one should follow a systematic approach to
listening. This means that one needs to follow a systematic listening method and apply
appropriate listening strategies for better comprehension. In order to improve our listening
comprehension, we will need to follow the basic tips on good listening and active listening
techniques. Listening strategies should be developed for specific listening tasks such as
lecture comprehension, two way interactions, group interactions, student-teacher
consultations, student-student negotiations, seminars, discussion sessions and many
others.
i). Ten Thumb Rules for good listening
The ten thumb rules are actually a list of rules that are expected to help us listen
effectively. They promote good listening where one is able to understand what he/she
listens to. In order to improve our listening effectiveness, there is need to observe the
following rules of good listening:
1. Stop Talking: Thus do not talk while listening. One cannot be a speaker and a listener
at the same time. You need to accept your role (to listen) and allow the speaker to talk.
He or She should concentrate on the speaker’s words.
2. Stop Thinking: It is not enough for the listener to keep his mouth shut while listening.
He/She should stop thinking as well, because he/she cannot listen effectively while
thinking. He/She may not focus 100% on what the speaker is telling/saying.
3. Remove Distractions: To concentrate on what the speaker is saying 100%, the listener
should not allow any kind of distractions. So should not create any distractions for
himself/herself and should not allow others to interrupt.

32
4. Do not let your mind wander: One of the main causes of listening inefficiency is the
slowness of the speech. This ‘lag time’ may make the listener’s mind wander or day-
dream. This can be avoided by concentrating on each word spoken by the speaker.
5. Put the speaker at ease: A conducive environment should be provided to the speaker
in order to enable him/her to be at ease. If the speaker is not comfortable, he/she will not
be able to speak clearly.
6. Do not prejudge: Give the speaker a chance to complete what he/she has to say. Pre-
judgement closes the mind and does not allow you to perceive the speaker impartially.
You can make a proper judgement only after you have fully comprehended the
information.
7. Be patient: The speaker should be allowed sufficient time without being interrupted
until he/she makes a pause and invites the listener to do so/ come in. Patience is key to
good listening even when one may be in a hurry.
8. Do not be angry: The listener should control his/her temper while listening. He/She
may not like what the speaker is saying/telling, or may completely disagree with his/her
point of view. One should listen calmly without making any fuss.
9. Empathise with the speaker: In order to understand the speaker’s perspective and
appreciate his/her point of view, the listener should try to put him/her in the speaker’s
position.
10. Take notes: The listener should take notes if he/she wants to keep a record of what
was said, and wants to use it at a later stage.
Active Listening Practices
Listening can be passive or active. When passive, the process is just about absorbing the
message encoded in the spoken word without any involvement. The listener plays no role.
On the other hand, active listening is a dynamic, interactive communicative process in
which the listener:
 Pays attention
 Shows interest ion the speaker and speech
 Takes note of the speaker’s body language
 Avoids distractions
 Responds non-verbally to encourage the speaker
Active listening is therefore interactive and productive. It facilitates proper interaction and
produces new understanding. It promotes more effective listener-speaker relationships,
and helps us take advantage of opportunities we might miss by being a passive listener.

33
Active listening requires conscious efforts on the one’s part and demands concentration,
involvement and responsibility.
Guidelines of the Active Listener
 Attentive listening
This is evident when the active listener shows interest in both the speaker and the
speech. He/She should show the desire to listen and be interested in what the
speaker is saying/telling. He/She should not show non-verbal signals that show
lack of attention ie. audible snoring, or rolling eyes that indicate lack of interest or
attention. One’s body posture should reveal/reflect the interest to listen or the
keenness to listen. Active listeners should listen to speakers patiently and carefully,
and should pay attention to both content and the presentation so as to understand
the speaker better.

 Using non-verbal skills

Non-verbal skills may be used to indicate interest and understanding. For example,
maintaining eye contact with the speaker. Also provide positive body signals such
as positive nod or a smile which may encourage the speaker. These may indicate
comprehension. Also pay attention to the body language of the speaker in order to
understand him/her through body language interpretation of non-verbal clues for
signs of stress, anxiety, excitement, enthusiasm, or boredom. Thus, the listener
may analyse the verbal message in the right perspective.
Improving speaker’s contribution: Should take appropriate steps ie. An active listener
should encourage the speaker to express his/her ideas clearly by indicating understanding
and appreciation of his/her point of view.
 Asking questions
This leads to building of rapport between the speaker and the listener. By asking
relevant questions, we can get maximum information from the speaker. Moreover,
asking questions shows that one is listening and this encourages the speaker. The
listener must readily ask relevant clarifying questions. He/She may ask Open–
Ended or Closed Questions. Open – Ended questions provide the speaker with an
opportunity to elaborate a point. They also ask the speaker to be more exact and
specific.
Examples:
Open-Ended questions
1. What are the advantages of this deal?
2. What do you think about this proposal?
Closed questions

34
 1. Is this deal acceptable to the management?
2. Will they accept this proposal?
Tips on how to ask questions
 Questions should be asked at the appropriate points. Do not interrupt the speaker.
 Questions should be chosen carefully. Its aim should be to get clarifications and
indicate comprehension.
 Use simple language to phrase the question.
 Ask one question at a time.
 The listener should wait for an answer patiently.
 The listener should listen carefully to the answer and not jump to conclusions.
Clarifying
 Clarify what the speaker is saying by paraphrasing what has been said, or
summarising one’s understanding of key points. This way the listener can show
that he/she is listening carefully and paying attention.
 Analysing
As an active listener, one should interpret and analyse what one hears in order to:
Understand both explicit and implicit meaning of an oral message
Differentiate between ideas, opinions, feelings, and facts as expressed by the
speaker.
Infer the meaning of unfamiliar words from contextual or internal clues and:
draw inferences and conclusions from the speech.
Activity 2
1. Mention three types of listening that you would utilise in your studies. Justify your choice.
2. What is the major purpose of observing the ‘ten thumb rules’ in your academic life?
3. How would questioning technique help you to improve your listening ability?

Note – taking and Note – making

As already pointed out, listening is a very important activity in any given academic or
professional institution. The success of a college student is dependent of how well one
has developed the listening skills in both oral and written transactions. Thus the listening
skill will determine the student’s success since the student has to keep listening to
lecturers and books or documents that have to be read almost every day. In order to

35
appreciate this skill, let us discuss what such a skill entails. In the first place, we discuss
what note-making is all about.

 What is note – making?

It is a systematic method of writing down quickly, briefly, and clearly the important points
of a reading or oral text.
The word ‘note’ refers to brief written record as an aid to memory. There are different types
of notes depending on the purpose, like:
 Concept ordering notes
 Revision notes
 Research notes
 Comparative notes
 Analytical notes

Why make or take notes

Generally, students prepare notes in order to help them remember the information they
have acquired in reading a text from any source or listening to a lecturer or indeed
anybody making an oral presentation or speech. Specifically, there are several functions
of note – making, viz:
a) To keep a record of the main points of a reading text for future use and reference /
or to provide hooks on which to hang ideas for later development.
b) To revise or use for an examination or a writing assignment.
c) To update information.
d) To reinforce or compare information contained in different textbooks / the textbooks
and lecture; and
e) To analyse a text.
f) To remember and make sense of the material.

Note – making and what it involves

Note – Making is a productive skill which integrates both reading and writing skills. Note –
Making involves:
a) Reading Strategy: a careful reading plan to identify the central idea, the main
points, and the important supporting details.
b) Note – Writing Techniques: These include topicalizing, copying, transcribing, and
schematising.
36
 c) Reduction Devices: These include the use of abbreviations and symbols.
d) Organisation Techniques.
e) Methods of sequencing: These involve the use of numerals & letters, and symbols.

Note – writing techniques

There are four different techniques in writing notes, viz:

a) Copying – which refers to writing down verbatim what is written ie. from a book or
any text.

b) Transcribing – which refers to writing down verbatim what is said ie. from a speech
(orally) delivered.

c) Topicalisation – This refers to writing down a word or phrase to represent a

section of the text. Thus after reading a passage carefully and identifying the
central idea, the main points, and important supporting details, these should be
rephrased. They should however be written as they appear in the text, but in word
or phrase form to represent an entire section of the text. In this process,
unnecessary or redundant words / phrases should be removed eg.

Section of a text Topicalisation

1).Petroleum is enormously important ------- .Economic importance of petroleum
from an economic standpoint.
2).The fractions of crude oil include gases, ------.Fractions of crude oil: gases, gasoline,
gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and lubricating kerosene, diesel, and lubricating oils.
oils
d) Schematising – is the method of using graphics to organise notes. This is common
for scientific and technical texts which may contain information in form of figures,
classifications, contrasts, processes, etc. Hence, it is sometimes more convenient
to schematise notes, that is, organise notes in the form of tables and diagrams for
accurate and easy read-back.

Note: The choice of a non-verbal method largely depends on the nature and kind
of text eg.
.Nature of information in the .The diagrammatic form in

37
text / kind of text which notes can be organised
1. A description of a substance . Table
2. Description of processes . Flow diagram/chart
3. Classificatory information . Tree diagram
4. Contrastive description . Table/list

Reduction Devices
These refer to the techniques used to shorten expressions in order to save time while
making notes. They help to give an organised picture of a passage by excluding repetitive
and unnecessary information. Thus appropriate and standard abbreviations and symbols
should be used and even be understood at a later date so that there is no room for
confusion and misunderstanding.
a) Use of abbreviations – There are standard abbreviations Such as those used in
science and technolog like:
Word Abbreviation
Sulphur S
East E
that is i.e.
Oxygen O
Page p, etc.

b) Use of the first letters of the phrases eg.

Kilogram kg
Centimetre cm
Electrostatic unit esu
Central nervous system cns
Curriculum Vitae cv

c) Use of the few letters of the words/phrases eg.

Approximately approx..
Professor prof.
Edition ed.
Temperature temp.

38
 Especially esp.

d) Use of the first few letters of words/phrases (use the first letter plus one or
more other letters) eg.
Magnesium Mg
Hour hr
Month mth
Year yr

e) Use of symbols eg.

% - percentage. & - and. @ - at the rate of.
→ - leads to, causes. ↑ - increase,
up, upward,
go up.

˃ - greater/more than. $ - dollar. = - is equal to,

˂ - less than. consist of.

≠ - is different from,

is not, not equal to,

does not consist of.

Organisation techniques

The nature and organisation of notes depends largely on the type and length of a text.
When the text is small, the notes may contain just a few phrases. When the text contains
a lot of information, the notes have to be organised in terms of headings and subordinate
points. This is important so that you can easily recall the information when need arises
later. Thus;

 Provide a suitable title to your notes- which helps in recalling the main subject
and central idea of the passage. These generally form the title of the text, and
should be underlined to make it clear.

39
  Prividing headings and sub-headings – Thus the notes may be organised in
terms of headings, sub-headings etc. An appropriate heading should be provided
for every main point. Similarly, appropriate sub-headings may be given to
important supporting details. Supporting or subordinate points are placed under
the heading with the indentation in order to indicate that they are dependent on
the main topic. Subordinate points may be independent of each other or related
to each other.eg,

Electrochemistry
I. Introduction
II. Some important terms
A. Conductors
1. Types of conductors
a) Metallic conductors
b) Electrolytes
B. Non-conductors
III. Electrolysis
A. Definition
B. Application of Electrolysis
a) Aim of electroplating
i). Decoration

ii). Repairs

iii). Protection

b) Procedure
c) Theory of electroplating

2. Electrochemical preparations

Methods of sequencing

Sequencing refers to the process of making a clear layout for fast and accurate
interpretation of notes. It is an important part of note-making as it is used for the visual
organisation of notes. Thus sequencing provides:

 Visual organisation of notes

 Coherence to the notes
 Accurate and easy read-back

40
The sequencing of headings and subordinate points can follow any of the standard
practices ie.

 Use of numerals
 Use of letters
 Use of decimalisation

Note: Two standard practices for sequencing notes are the use of numerals & letters,
and decimalisation.

a) Numerals & Letters

The letters and numerals in a formal pattern of notes show the writer’s analysis of
the theme eg.
Numerals Use
I, II, III, IV, V,VI, … May indicate the main ideas or divisions
of the text.
A, B, C, D, E, F, G,… Capital letters, together with proper
Indentation, indicate the main sub-
divisions of the ideas of the text.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,… Arabic numerals, together with proper
indentation, indicate the major
divisions of the subdivisions.
a, b, c, d, e, f, g,… Small letters, together with proper
indentation, indicate further sub-
divisions.
i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, …. Small Roman Numerals may be used
for further subdivisions of the minor
points, or to indicate examples,
illustrations, etc.
NOTE: Consider the example already given for such an application.

Decimalisation
Decimalisation may also be used as an effective technique for sequencing in note
making eg.
Types of Rocks
1. Igneous rocks = solidification or crystalisation of magma.
1.1 Fine-grained extrusive
1.1.1 Balt
1.1.2 Obsidian
1.2 Coarse-grained intrusive

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 1.2.1 Granite
1.2.2 Gabbro
2. Sedimentary rocks = Compaction and Cementation of
sediments into a solid rock.
2.1 Elastic or fragmental
2.1.1 Sandstone
2.2 Chemical
2.2.1 Gypsum
3. Metamorphic rocks = Change of solid state in mineralogy or
texture resulting due to changes in
physical conditions.
3.1 Dynamo – thermal
3.1.1 Schist
3.1.2 Gneiss
3.1.3 Marble
3.2 Thermal
3.2.1 Hornfelsic
3.2.2 Rocks
3.2.3 Marble
3.3 Dynamic
3.3.1 Mylonite
3.3.2 Augen

Branching notes: This takes the shape of forming branches from a topic eg.

Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) Organogram

Chancellor

Vice Chancellor

DVC DVC DVC

(Academics) (Admin.) (Finance)

(Deans) (Human Res.) (Finance directors)

(HODs) (Registrars) ( Finance Officers)

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 (Lecturers) (Admin Officers) (Accounts Officers)

(Students) (Management staff) (Accounts Clerks)

Activity 3
1. Mention the three approaches to note-making that you could use.
2. Explain the major elements to focus of when taking notes.
3. State the two numbering approaches recommended in note-making.
4. How would your skills in note-making help you survive at this college?

Unit summary

This unit has sharply separated hearing (which involves the receiving of sound

through the ears), from listening (which involves interpretation of meaning). Listening
goes through three stages which include awareness, reception and
perception. The unit has also discussed activities that help to enhance listening
abilities. This has extended to particular approaches to note-making techniques in
an attempt to draw summaries as evidence of successful listening. In addition, the
different barriers to listening have also been discussed which include psychological
barrier (like worries), physical barriers (like people booing and laughing very loudly)
and bypassing. The unit also discussed how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs relates
to listening efficiency in view of satisfying the motivational needs. Unless the
human motivational needs are satisfied, effective listening may not be achieved.

Unit Assessment test

1. Explain how your knowledge and understanding of reception process in the listening
theory is of any value in spearheading you academic success at this college.

43
2. How would you reduce most of the barriers to listening while attending lectures so that
you succeed in your studies?
3. What is meant by focussed and evaluative listening?
4. Why is prediction an important element in the listening process?
5. In what ways would you find your note-taking skills important in your studies? Explain
any three ways.
6. Mention and explain the two styles of presenting a summary of the notes in the note-
making skills.

Unit 3

The Reading Theory

Introduction
We should be informed that every college or university institution demands a lot of
independent learning. It is for this very reason that all college students are subjected to
studies of both theoretical and practical reading skills. This is intended to quip students
with the needed skills for academic survival in such precious studies. In an attempt to
prepare ourselves for this challenging task, detailed discussions will be made about
reading as a process, active and passive readers, purposes of the different strategies of
reading, how graphic information would be processed or read.

Areas of emphasis

 Reading as a communicative process

 Stages in the reading process
 Active versus passive reading
 Processing word/structure meanings
 Reading strategies/methods
 Interpreting texts

Key words

Prediction, Vocalisation, Sub-vocalisation, Scanning, Scheming, Intensive reading,

Extensive reading, Passive reading, Active reading,

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Pre-requisite knowledge

Students are already aware of reading different materials for different purposes. They are
also aware of how to work out meaning from texts and how to find meanings of strange
words and expressions. They also know different styles of writing that may demand
different reading strategies for different purposes.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this unit learners should be able to:

a). define the term ‘Reading’

b). state the different stages of the reading process

c). explain the different reading strategies

d). differentiate between active and passive reading

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009). Effective Technical Communication. New Delhi:

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992). Introduction to Human

Communication, USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel, Joan A. (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.

Time required: You will need at least 5 hours to complete studying this unit.

Reading as a communicative process

Now we shall discuss the term “reading” and what is involved in the process of
reading. You should pay attention to what actually takes place when one is reading.
This is important because on one part you have the advantage of explaining it

45
better since you have always been reading as a student. So you should know better
what reading entails.

Now we come to the question-‘What is reading?’ The definition says ‘it is a

complex communicative process of receiving and interpreting the written word.’
Thus reading involves recognising what is written and comprehending the matter;
that is, understanding the main and subsidiary points, as well as links between
different parts of the written material.

Factors concerned with reading

Reading is concerned with four factors which include decoding, comprehending,
text analysis, and response. Reading is an important communicative process and
reading skills are probably the most important language skills required for
academic and professional purposes. Quick, efficient, and imaginative reading
techniques are essential in order to achieve academic success, because academic
performance depends on the quantity and quality of reading.

 Decoding or interpretation in reading refers to the process of changing

the coded message into information. This involves understanding the
written language. The decoding and interpretation of a written text
(message) may be influenced by: our social, cultural, educational,
professional and intellectual frames of reference.

 Comprehension in reading refers to the identification of the central theme,

main ideas, supporting details, and writing patterns. Generally, we need to
think critically and analytically about what we are reading so that we can
give the text the right interpretation.

 Text Analysis is essential for critical and evaluative understanding of a text.

Text analysis refers to the process of identifying relationships among
different units within the text in order to distinguish between relevant and
irrelevant information, implicit and explicit information, facts and opinions,
and examples & ideas, and draw inferences and conclusions.

46
  Response refers to our action or reaction to the written message. Our
response to a text depends largely on our correct understanding

and evaluation of the text.

Text Message Critical message The reader responds

Reading interpretation interpretation & eval. to the message

Decoding Comprehension Text Analysis Response

Reading with a Purpose

Different kinds of texts are read for different purposes, thus whether it is for
relaxation, for getting information, for discussion later, is it serious reading or light
reading? The basic purpose of reading is to extract information from various
sources. However, the other purposes may primarily be to:
 Get an introductory idea of a text
 Get a broad understanding of the subject matter
 Understand scientific ideas, theories, and principles.
 Obtain specific information
 Understand new changes and developments in a particular field
 Broaden one’s outlook and understanding
 Discover the author’s viewpoints, or
 To see evidence for one’s own point of view.

NB: In order to achieve the above reading purposes, there is need to understand
the differences between efficient and inefficient reading, see below for the
differences:

Effective Reading Ineffective Reading

1 Language of a text is - Language of text is not

comprehensible comprehensible.

2 Content is accessible due to - The content is unfamiliar and

47
 reader’s familiarity with the far removed from the reader’s

content knowledge and experience.

3 The reader has background - The reader does not have or

information to help understand use background information.

the text.

4 The reader concentrates on the - The reader pays the same

important parts of the text, thinks amount of attention to all

ahead, hypothesizes and predicts. parts of the text. Does not

think ahead or predict.

5 The reader has a clear specific The reader has no clear

purpose which motivates him purpose and uses the same

or her to read. strategy for all the texts.

6 The reader is able to use different - The reader is not able to use

strategies for different kinds of different strategies for

reading. different kinds of reading.

7 The reading is fast. - The reading is slow.

Reading different kinds of texts

Reading different kinds of texts requires different reading strategies. Therefore, a reader
has to determine the overall purpose of reading a particular text which will help him or her
identify the appropriate reading strategies, as well as varying levels of comprehension.
Thus there are different reading activities eg.

 Reading entertaining texts

48
This could be reading for relaxation and it is the most common form of reading. It is casual
and the reader is not serious about what is read eg. when you read a short story, a gossip
about a film actress, the purpose is not to receive serious information but to be entertained.
The same is true when one reads a novel, a joke, etc.

 Reading general texts

This includes newspapers, magazine articles, encyclopaedias, etc. to improve our general
awareness or knowledge about various areas of general interest. This kind of reading is
generally broad and extensive, however, the reader has to concentrate on the theme, main
points and supporting details of the text or message.

 Reading reference materials

This is intended to obtain specific information that might be used in various academic and
professional activities. It involves focussed reading to quickly identify a specific listing, an
entry, or any other relevant piece of information. This kind of reading requires effective
scanning skills.

 Reading business documents

This includes documents like ‘business and project reports, letters, memos, e-mail
messages, etc. which require complete attention. It demands concentration, involvement
and responsibility. Some kinds of this reading include administrative instructions, business
proposals, company profiles etc.

 Reading scientific and technical texts

This is a complex and multifaceted process. The concern is the subject-matter (content)
of what we read as well as the language in which it is expressed. We should try to
understand not only linguistic and semantic patterns, but also discipline-specific
information. This involves visual skills, perceptual skills, vocabulary skills, skimming skills,
critical reading skills, and knowledge of how linguistic symbols combine to convey
meaning.

Active and passive reading

Reading is a dynamic communicative process in which the reader approaches the text for
a particular reason. Active reading refers to a set of reading practices you may use to help
understand the meaning of a written text.

Active reading Passive reading

49
 1 The reader pays attention to both content The reader pays attention to either content
and style or style

2 The reader interprets and analyses what The reader does not analyse what s/he
s/he reads reads

3 The reader predicts and responds to The reader does not predict and respond
context to context

4 The reader pays attention to The reader does not pay attention to the
the writer’s intention writer’s intention

5 The reader differentiates between ideas, The reader does not distinguish between
opinions, feelings, and facts factual and non-factual information

6 The reader infers the meaning of The reader does not infer the meaning of
unfamiliar words from contextual or unfamiliar words from contextual or
internal clues internal clues

7 The reader identifies and evaluates a The reader does not identify or evaluate a
writer’s attitude writer’s attitude

8 The reader understands and interprets The reader does not interpret graphics
graphic information

9 The reader draws inferences and The reader is only concerned with the
conclusions literal meaning of a written message.

NOTE: Thus active reading is interactive and productive. It facilitates proper interaction
and produces new understanding. It promotes more effective encoder-decoder

50
relationships, and helps us take advantage of opportunities we might miss by being
passive readers.

Activity 1

1. When a person is reading, how does one know that reading has actually taken place?

2. Who is a passive reader?

3. What does the third stage call for in the reading process?

Reading skills (strategies)

We are now going to discuss how reading should be carried out in order to meet specific
purposes. This position suggests that reading has to have a purpose. Therefore,
depending on the purpose of reading, the reader will require different reading strategies
and skills in order to understand the subject content and language patterns of a message.
The reading skills include:

 Vocabulary Skills
 Visual Perceptual Skills
 Prediction Techniques
 Scanning
 Skimming
 Intensive reading skills
 Extensive reading skills
Now, let us discuss what actually happens in each reading skill or strategy, including its
purpose. You may wish to discuss more examples of purposes of reading texts through a
specific reading skill or strategy.

a) Vocabulary skills
In order to understand what we read, we need to recognise the meaning of words, as well
as guess the meaning from word structure and infer the meaning from the contexts.

 Guessing the meaning from word structure and content

While reading texts, we may frequently find unknown and difficult words which may
prevent us from understanding the message contained in the text. In order to get the
meaning of unfamiliar words/phrases and newly introduced specialist vocabulary, firstly

51
consider the word structure to guess its meaning; then consider identification of contextual
clues and signal words to understand the meaning of unknown words.

i). Analysis of word structure – Which involves the use of prefixes, suffixes, and word
roots that give clues to word meanings eg.

Prefix Meaning Example

. il not illogical

. micro small microcomputer

. post after postgraduate

ii). Analysis of context clues

The reader needs to look for contextual signal words, examples, illustrations and linguistic
clues that indirectly help define an unknown word or phrase. This helps the reader to guess
the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase eg.

 He is down - to – earth and you will find his approach to life very practical.

The words ‘you will find his approach to life very practical’ help in inferring the meaning of
the phrase ‘down-to- earth’. That means, he is ‘original or realistic.

 . Although she is very loquacious, she remains silent before her father.

The word ‘although’ contrasts the word ‘loquacious’ with the words ‘remain silent’ and the
reader can guess that the word ‘loquacious’ means someone ‘who talks’ and does not
remain silent.

2. Eye reading and visual perception skills

Efficient reading involves reading with fast eye movements. If we read by saying words
loudly or silently to ourselves, our reading will be slow. Eye reading makes reading fast,
efficient, and result oriented. Effective eye reading requires accurate visual perception of
words and phrases, faster eye fixation, and complete elimination of vocalisation.

. How to improve eye reading skills

 Develop faster eye fixations

52
 This is the resting of the reader’s eyes on a particular word, phrase, word group, or
thought unit. Faster eye fixation will help in perceiving the word groups and thought
units quickly.

 Read in word groups or thought units instead of word by word

The reader should try to read in word groups instead of word for word. So, the focus
should be on thought units comprising of several words.

 Improve accurate visual perception of words and phrases

The reader needs to improve accurate visual perception of words in order to read fast.
This requires better concentration and motivation for reading; a motivated reader is
always a faster reader.

 Avoid vocalisation and sub-vocalisation

Vocalisation is saying words loudly while sub-vocalisation is saying words silently to

one-self. Both these habits make reading slow and should be avoided.

 Rapidly recognise word meaning

The reader should try to recognise the meaning of a word quickly; thus the reader
should try to infer and guess the meaning of words from contexts.

 Concentrate while reading a text

Thus, the reader must have the urge or motivation to read and understand. This will
help him/her to concentrate and read efficiently.

3. Prediction techniques

Prediction is a rapid reading skill. It refers to the process of reading quickly in order to
guess the information that a passage or text contains. An efficient reader is able to think
ahead, hypothesise, and predict. Predictions about the content of a passage are generally
based on:

 Headings
 Sub-headings
 One’s background knowledge of the subject
53
  Graphic or non-verbal context ie. graphs, charts, diagrams, etc.

Prediction includes various micro-skills including the ability to:

 Guess the information that the text contains

 Use the index or chapter headings to roughly predict the central theme of the text
 Scan graphic or non –verbal context ie. graphs, diagrams, charts, etc. to predict
the nature and scope of the content
 Use discourse and linguistic clues

Note: Prediction involves the use of index, headings, sub-headings, non-verbal context
and linguistic clues to guess the information that a text contains.

Prediction involves a pre-reading survey of a text

The techniques of prediction include:

 Glancing rapidly through the text in order to familiarise oneself with the subject.
 Guessing the information that the text contains.
 Recalling related information.
 Analysing the aids in the text that might make reading faster and easier.

Note: In order to predict, pay particular attention to the heading, the sub-headings, the
first paragraph, the first sentence of each paragraph, and the topic sentence in each
paragraph. The reader should use his/her background information to get an idea about
the content of the text, and interpret aids in the text that might make reading faster and
easier.

4. Scanning

 Scanning refers to the ability to locate specific information or facts as quickly as

possible. This is an important rapid reading technique which provides better
comprehension while reading a scientific or technical text. For example, we scan
when we try to look for the meaning of a certain word in a dictionary, or while looking
for a telephone number in the telephone directory. Scanning speed can be
increased by regular practice and better concentration.
 Scanning can serve several purposes like looking for:
 A specific point or fact in a text
 Relevant graphic details

54
  A formulae in a text
 A word in a dictionary
 Train or television schedules
 Specific entries/issues in a newspaper
 Any references or bibliographical listings
 Examination results, or
 Any notes /questions/remarks at the end of the text.

How to Increase Scanning Speed with Accuracy

Proficiency at scanning can be increased by:

 Know what you want to find: Thus the reader must be aware of what he/she
wants to find or look for. Thus the purpose of scanning must be determined to avoid
confusion about the information required.
 Do not read everything: Since the reader already knows what he/she is looking
for, it is important to concentrate on the information that is needed, achieved by
focusing on ‘the particular word, phrase, and word group or thought unit’ that one
is looking for quickly.
 Use Guides and Aids: Every reading text contains certain guides and aids which
should be used to find what the reader wants.
 Know the Organisation of the Material to be read

The reader needs to know the organisation of the reading material to scan it with speed
and accuracy. This can be done by analysing the way information is structured in the
materials such as newspaper listings, dictionaries, telephone directories etc.

 Concentrate while scanning

The reader needs to concentrate while scanning a reading material. One must have the
urge/motivation to read and scan the material. This will improve his visual perception and
help him identify the required information quickly.

5. Skimming

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This refers to the process of reading a text or passage in order to get a rough idea of what
the text or passage is all about. It is a rapid reading technique that prepares the reader for
detailed reading. The main objective of skimming is to understand the central idea and the
main points of a text. As such the reader needs to use a reading strategy that involves
‘fast reading and quick analysis.’

Note: Skimming also involves discovering the purpose and organisation of the text. One
of the most important purposes of reading for academic and professional purposes is
obtaining relevant information for various purposes. This involves not only the ability to
recognise the main ideas and supporting details, but also the ability to identify different
writing patterns used to develop these ideas; ie. authors use a variety of discourse patterns
in scientific writing.

Skimming should answer the following questions about a text:

 What is the overall purpose of the text?

 What is the central idea or theme?
 What is the logical organisation? ie.(general to specific, specific to general,
chronological, more important to less important, less important to more important,
etc.).
 What does the author intend to do? (such as describe, instruct, report, narrate,
explain, argue, persuade, illustrate, etc.).
 What are the main points of the text?

a). Identifying the central idea

This is the first step of skimming. Every text deals with a theme or central idea. All the
other ideas, points, examples, illustrations, etc. in the text support and expand this
central idea, which is also called add thesis. The thesis answers three questions, viz:

 What is the subject?

 What does the author want to say about the subject?
 What is the author’s point of view?
In order to understand the central idea of a text, the reader should carefully read the
following:

 The title or the main heading

 The sub-headings

56
  The opening paragraphs
 The last paragraph
NB: The title or the main heading of a text can give a clue to the content. Similarly, the
sub-headings can also help in identifying the central idea. The opening and the last
paragraphs generally sum up the subject and the author’s point of view. The reader should
also glance over the beginning of the text to identify its logical organisation. Also identify
the discourse technique used in the text ie. definition, description, explanation, narration,
comparison and contrast, classification, etc.

b). Recognising main points or ideas

Once the central idea of the text has been identified, the reader can easily recognise the
main ideas that support and expand the central idea. Most writers structure the main ideas
in a logical way and it may not be difficult to identify them. In order to do this, the reader
first needs to identify the topic sentence in each paragraph of the text, understand
discourse coherence, text organisation, sentence patterns and semantic / discourse
markers and their functions.

Paragraph – Each paragraph may deal with one main idea. This idea is generally
expressed in a topic sentence, which is usually placed at the beginning of a paragraph.
This topic sentence summarises the paragraph by stating the gist of the idea to be
developed in the paragraph. It may be a statement, a generalisation, a description, or a
problem. The other sentences of the paragraph develop, support, exemplify, and explain
the central theme. Diagrammatically, the paragraph flows as below:

Deductive Paragraph (from general principles to specifics)

1. 2. 3. 4.

Topic Supporting Supporting Supporting

sentence: sentence 1. It sentence 2. Sentence 3
supports and This supports & 4.
Contains
develops the and develops supports
the main
main/topic the main and
idea of the
idea idea develops
paragraph
the main
idea

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Specifics to the general principles: if the topic appears at the end of a paragraph, the
organisation of the paragraph would be the reverse (upside down) or the overleaf.

c). Identifying writing patterns

Skimming involves discovering the purpose and organisation of a text. While skimming,
the reader should be able to identify the specific writing pattern used by the writer in the
text. A writer may use the following writing patterns, depending on purpose, nature, and
type of message to be communicated:

 Definition
 Description
 Sequence of events
 Generalisation
 Classification
 Illustration / example
 Cause and effect
 Comparison and contrast etc.

6. Intensive Reading
Intensive reading is detailed reading that demands better concentration and
motivation. The three rapid reading techniques of prediction, scanning and
skimming prepare the reader for intensive reading. They help the reader to
concentrate and focus on the reading assignment which is essential for academic
and professional reading. Moreover, intensive reading requires text analysis for
critical and evaluative understanding of a text.

Text analysis is a process of identifying relationships among different units within

the text. This is done in order to distinguish between:
 Relevant and irrelevant information
 Facts and opinions
 Explicit and implicit information
 Examples and opinions, &
 Draw inferences and conclusions

Technical texts: For technical texts, we need the following micro-skills of intensive
reading:

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  Understand major and minor details
 Distinguish between factual and non-factual information
 Understand the characteristics of a writer’s use of language
 Understanding and interpreting graphic information
 Identifying and evaluating a writer’s attitude
 Understanding the writer’s intention
 Responding to more than the plain sense of the words
 Distinguishing between explicit and implicit information
 Drawing inferences and conclusions
NB: intensive reading skills include distinguishing between facts and opinions, and
drawing inferences and conclusions.

 Distinguishing between facts and opinions

A reader should be able to distinguish facts from opinions and ideas. Distinguishing
between facts and opinions requires the ability to read with critical response, and analyse
the information in the text. Both the reader and the author should contribute.

- A fact is a truth that can be objectively verified by observation

or experimentation. On the contrary, an opinion is something
subjective, which cannot be objectively verified. A discerning
reader must make a distinction between a fact and an opinion
to avoid confusion and misunderstanding eg.
Facts Opinions

1). Malawi is an agricultural country Malawi is a great country.

2). Nearly two-thirds of Malawi depends Malawian farmers are the best in the world
directly on agriculture for its livelihood

Several multinational companies have The coming of multinational companies in

opened their offices in Blantyre Blantyre has boosted the city’s economy

The government of Malawi has introduced The introduction of VAT by government on

VAT on all consumables. all consumables is a retrograde step.

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NOTE: It is obvious that a fact is universal in nature while as opinions are quite personal
and may differ from person to person.

 Drawing inferences and conclusions

An inference can be defined as a statement that is based on some situations,
observations, facts, or specific details. Drawing inferences is the process of knowing the
unknown from the known.

Since Science is a process of reasoning, scientists and technocrats have to draw

inferences and conclusions based on observations. This is done through induction, which
refers to a reasoning process of drawing general statements from specific observations.
All of us draw inferences from situations, statements, and observations. Thus inferences
and conclusions can be drawn from:

 Facts
 Special details
 Examples and observations
 Factual observations
 Contextual clues
7. Extensive reading

Extensive reading is a must to broaden our general understanding of a subject or

subjects. In this regard, recognition-type of examinations such as Objective Tests
(true/false, multiple choice, etc.) demand wide or extensive reading of a large number of
topics.

NOTE:

Reading speed is measured in words per minute (WPM). Casual or General reading
such as reading novels, stories, poems and similar texts do not require much
concentration. As such the reading speed is faster than that of serious reading ie.
proposals, technical texts, articles, etc. require more concentration and reading speed
cannot be increased at the cost of reading efficiency.

Measuring reading speed

Reading Speed Casual Reading Academic/Professional

Reading

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 1. Very fast
+ 400 wpm + 350 wpm

2. Fast
300 – 400 wpm 250 – 350 wpm

3. Average
200 – 300 wpm 150 – 250 wpm

4. Slow
Less than 200 wpm Less than 150 wpm

Technical texts (reading methods)

Two reading methods are available for scientific as well as technical texts:

a). ERRQ teaching technique

This was developed by Dorothy Watson in 1985 and has four stages. Estimate- Read-
Respond – Question. The basic purpose for this strategy is to get the reader to link what
he/she has with new information. This technique is useful for reading any king of text. In
summary;

Estimate includes figuring out what the text will be like.

Read

Respond

Question

b). SQ3R reading technique

This is a well tried and widely used reading technique. It was developed by F. P. Robinson
in 1946 in his book Effective Study. This strategy ensures a high degree of understanding
and remembrance. The SQ3R has five stages ie. Survey – Question – Read – Recall –
Revise. These mean:

Survey: glancing rapidly through the text before reading any part of it to discover its
purpose, and identify its organisation.

Question

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Read

Recall

Revise

Activity 2

1. Mention any two elements you would use to help you scheme a text successfully.

2. What is the difference between scanning and scheming in reading?

3. How do the following aspects help you understand a text:

 Prediction
 Inferencing?

Unit summary

The unit we have just covered has brought us both broad and precise understanding on
what reading takes. Understanding the material we read has come out as the central
purpose of any reading task. Different reading strategies have also been discussed
alongside their different purposes. Among the many reading strategies, scanning is used
for finding specific information; skimming is used for establishing a rough idea about a text
while intensive reading is meant for detailed reading as is the case when preparing for
examinations. And prediction arises where one guesses information when it relates to
some context. The unit has also focussed on reading speed in view of the types of texts
and the purposes for reading.

Unit-Assessment test

1. Why is it that different types of texts require different reading strategies?

2. Intensive reading is mostly well suited for academic studies, particularly as students
conduct everyday studies. Justify this view.

3. State any three pieces of evidence that one is an ineffective reader.

4. Which reading method would suit you better at this college between SQ3R and ERRQ
considering the major purposes of your reading? Why?

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5. Reading speed is measured in words per minute and it ranges from Very fast, Fast,
Average, and Slow. Where do you fall and explain whether that is a comfortable position
in view of your work-load.

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Unit 4 Fallacies

Introduction

This unit is intended to focus on a study bordering poor reasoning. The world over and
almost every day, people produce speeches as well as written statements where
numerous cases of poor reasoning are evident. Such errors in reasoning, whether spoken
(said) or written (read), lead to miscommunication or rather vague information. The
ultimate result is ineffective communication.

When you are involved is talking or making a speech, or indeed in writing, you are
sometimes surprised that once you revise or check what you have actually said or written,
there are certain statements that are inconsistent or do not agree with what you actually
intended to say or write. Thus some of the points may not flow logically, or else may
actually appear unsound. Such points are referred to as errors. Such errors in reasoning
are called fallacies.

Areas of emphasis

 Defining fallacies
 Importance of knowledge of fallacies
 Major groups of fallacies
 Types of fallacies
 Identifying fallacies

Key words

Logic, emotions, ethos, fallacy, judgemental, evaluation, ethical, reasoning

Pre-requisite Knowledge

Learners are already aware of speeches made to them in form of lectures, public speeches
on political, religious, civic education, hygiene etc. among other speech purposes.
Students also read a variety of documents written by many authors on different topics
where they may meet inconsistent ideas or expressions. All the statements that people
utter or write down which do not appear to make sense emanate from errors in reasoning.
Such errors are referred to as fallacies.

Learning out-comes

By the end of this unit, learners will be able to:

1. Define the term fallacy

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2. State the different categories of fallacies

3. Identify the given fallacies according to their categories

4. Provide the different types of fallacies

5. State the importance of having knowledge of fallacies in making speeches

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009), Effective Technical Communication, New Delhi:

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992), Introduction to Human

Communication, USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel, Joan A (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.

Time required: You will need at least 4 hours to complete studying work in this unit.

What is a fallacy?

As already introduced, by definition therefore, a fallacy is an error in reasoning. This

implies that someone employs unsound reasoning that undermines the logic of his or her
argument. In other words, a fallacy is the opposite of logic.

A fallacious statement often has two sides generally referred to as premise, on which a
conclusion is drawn. For example, ‘All northerners support AFORD. Gilbert comes from
Rumphi in the north. Therefore, Gilbert supports AFORD.

The word therefore indicates that the conclusion of this argument is Gilbert supports
AFFORD and the argument has two premises- All northerners support AFFORD and
Gilbert is a northerner. The conclusion is a statement that is drawn on the basis of the
premise. In a well-constructed argument, the premises provide good reasons for believing
that the conclusion is true. However, this is not always the case because there are other

65
premises that are false, or else poorly constructed thereby compromising the validity and
reliability of an argument.

For the sake of this topic, a statement should be considered as a sentence that is either
true or false. For example;

 Some students are females.

 Mzuzu City is the most beautiful place in Malawi.
 Madness is caused by extensive studying.

Categories or Groups of Fallacies

Fallacies fall into many groups. There are emotional fallacies which are often committed
when a person becomes up-set (angry) which robes one of proper reasoning. Secondly,
there are logical fallacies which arise when decisions made may not be agreeable. There
are also fallacies of ethos, which concern behaviour. The behaviour may be uncalled for,
where it may disagree with the cause or situation. Now, such categories of fallacies lead
us the discussion of the types of fallacies. You are required to pay attention to each type
and the examples that follow.

Activity 1

1. Define the term fallacy.

2. State and explain any two categories of fallacies.

3. Why is the study of fallacies important to you?

Types of fallacies

1. Hasty Generalisations
This type is also called oversimplification fallacy. It refers to an argument in which
a conclusion is made on the basis of scanty evidence. In other words, it is a fallacy
in which you rush to a conclusion before you have all the relevant facts. When
committing this fallacy, an individual draws a conclusion about some class or
category on the basis of inadequate examples. If enough samples are available,
the argument made is not fallacious.
It is alright to generalise by using words like ‘many, most, all’, provided you have
adequate evidence to support your claim, but do not merely generalise in the
absence of a reasonable sample because in most cases small samples are
unrepresentative. People commonly commit hasty generalisations because of

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 laziness or sloppiness. It is very easy to simply leap to a conclusion and much
harder to gather an adequate sample and draw a justified conclusion.

Consider this example: Even though it is only the first day, I can tell you that this is going
to be a boring course. In this example, the speaker is basing his/her evaluation of the
entire course on only one class (lesson), and on the first day which is notoriously boring
and full of house-keeping tasks for most courses. To make a fair and reasonable
evaluation, the speaker must attend several classes and possibly even examine the
textbooks being used, talk to the professor handling the course, or talk to others who have
previously taken the course in order to have sufficient evidence on which to base his or
her conclusions. Consider the example below to further make the issue clear:

 A black mamba is a poisonous snake.

 A rattle snake is a poisonous snake.
 A cobra is a poisonous snake.

Conclusion: All snakes are poisonous.

The above example also indicates a hasty generalisation because the sample of only three
species of snakes is too small to give you evidence to warrant the conclusion that all
snakes are poisonous. There are over 2,500 species of snakes, hence it is pretty
unreasonable to draw a conclusion on the basis of such a small and unrepresentative
sample.

To avoid this fallacy, make sure that you have a sample that is large enough to enable
you make generalisations of ‘many, most, or all.’ More examples of hasty generalisations
include:

Evidence: - All football players are womanisers.

- John is a football player.

Conclusion: - John is a womaniser.

 My brother vomited after eating beans, so I will never eat beans because they
cause one to vomit.
 My mother died in a plane crash, so I will never fly because it is a dangerous mode
of travel.
 Two of my brothers married short women and both marriages ended in divorce.
So I will make sure that I do not marry a short woman as it would be a recipe for
divorce.

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2. Stereotype fallacy
Stereotype refers to a fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular
person, group or thing, but often which is not true in reality. Or to put it differently,
a stereotype refers to a standardised idea of a type of person or thing. By token of
these definitions, when we mention stereotype fallacy, we mean a particular kind
of hasty generalisation and it refers to a fixed idea about characteristics of a
particular group of people. In this fallacy, people ascribe individual characteristics
to an entire group. In this case, what one does or says as an individual is deemed
as a representation of the entire group without considering the individual
differences or uniqueness of human beings. People often commit stereotype
fallacies because of bias or prejudice. For example, someone who is a sexist might
conclude that all women are unfit to fly jet fighters because one woman crashed
one.

More examples include:

 Joe, a Sena who worked for Misesa Farm Products, embezzled K3 million and
disappeared. Now everybody in that company goes about saying that Senas
cannot be trusted.

In this example, on the basis of one bad experience from one individual, it is
an error to generalise about a whole group (the Senas). It may be that only
Joe is untrustworthy and that most of the Senas are trustworthy. The correct
thing is to see each person as an individual human being instead of
addressing him or her in the evils committed by other individuals.
Other examples include:
 I am not surprised by this news. All men are the same. They like chasing after
skirts. Here again, we see that all men are labelled skirt chasers. Yet there
are some men who do not do that.
 My former boss was a Kikuyu from Kenya. I tell you, he was so nepotistic. All
promotions were only offered to Kenyans. I will never work for a company
headed by a Kikuyu.

3. Dependence on Unqualified Authority

This fallacy is called dependence on unreliable authority. And it is an appeal to an
authority when the reliability of the authority may reasonably be doubted.

These fallacies are common in advertising where celebrities who lack relevant
expertise or authority when they endorse products. A reliable or qualified authority
is one who can be counted on, for most part, to provide correct information in a
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 given area. And it is important to keep in mind that an appeal to authority is
generally appropriate. For example, when we cite encyclopaedias, dictionaries,
textbooks, or maps, we make an appeal to the authority of experts.
Consider the following examples:
 Miss Malawi, the beauty queen, says that Chipho Business College (CBC)
is a highly reputable private college that produces well qualified and
disciplined individuals. So CBC is the place to send your son or daughter.

In this example, ‘Miss Malawi’ may be charming and beautiful, but we need
to know whether she is an expert in education, and the argument leaves us
in doubt on that point.
 It would be a reasoning error to consult a son-in-law on the performance of
his father-in-law as a leader of opposition in parliament even if the son-in-
law is a professor of political science in a university.
This is wrong because the son-in-law is not party to parliamentary
deliberations and if anything his comments will just emanate from what she
hears from outside.

4. False Analogy
An analogy is a comparison done to show similarity in some respects. And a false
analogy is a comparison in which two different things are shown to have something
in common. This is a fallacy because the speaker or the writer compares things
that are different thereby showing that he or she is not reasonable.
Consider the following examples:
 Being a parent is like having a full-time job. The responsibilities are
enormous and doing a good job requires a tremendous amount of time,
energy and expense. Therefore parents should be paid by the government
for caring for their children.

This analogy (above) makes a false comparison because being a parent is

not like having a full-time job. One is for a full-time job and one can resign
from a full-time job. Neither of these is true of being a parent.
 Examine other examples below:
- Employees are nails. Just as nails must be hit on the head in
order to make them work, so must employees.
- There were wonderful Land Managers who passed away
several decades ago. If they could be effective in what they did
without reading any of the notes, studies or articles that had

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 been published in the last decade, there is no need for me to
read in order to be effective.
- People are like dogs. They respond best to clear discipline.
 You will notice that the first sentence and the last one are examples of false
analogies because you cannot compare a person with a dog, neither can a nail be
equated to human beings.

5. Cause and effect fallacies

A cause is something that brings about some action or result. On the other hand,
an effect is what happens as a result of the cause. So when we talk about cause
and effect fallacies, also termed as ‘false cause fallacies’, we mean unsound
reasoning in which one thing is held to cause another.
They occur when one possible cause of a phenomenon is assumed to be the cause
although reasons are lacking for excluding other possible causes. Cause and effect
fallacies also entail unsound reasoning where one thing is believed to be the cause
or solution of a complex problem. These fallacies are divided into two, namely:
 Post hoc fallacy
 Only cause fallacy

a). Post hoc fallacy

This fallacy is called ergo prompter hoc, which means after this, therefore or because of
and is based on coincidence. It occurs when a person assumes that one event must cause
another event just because the events occur together or follow each other. The fact that
one thing happened soon after or at the same time as another does not mean the first
thing was the cause of the second thing. It was just a coincidence. The general point about
this fallacy is that it is an error in reasoning to conclude that one thing causes another
simply because the two are associated with each other on a regular basis. This fallacy
involves drawing a conclusion like: A is the cause of B simply because A and B are in
regular conjunction. The mistake being made is that the causal conclusion is being drawn
without adequate justification.

For example:

Evidence: - Yesterday morning, I ate rice with eggs for breakfast.

Yesterday afternoon, I past my Mathematics test.

Conclusion: I passed my Mathematics test because I had eaten rice

with eggs.

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It is wrong to assume that rice with eggs makes one pass examinations. It needs scientists
to establish the correlation. Scientists know that it takes careful experimentation to
establish a cause-effect relationship. So whenever you see something attributed as a
cause, make sure that the cause-effect relationship has been reliably established and that
you are not witnessing a post hoc fallacy, which is based on coincidence.

Consider another example below:

A person might claim that an illness was caused by a person getting a fever.

In this case, it would be quite clear that the fever was caused by illness and not the other
way round. Another example to be considered is found below:

The students behaved properly because I walked into the room. The students might have
behaved properly because they were busy with some work or may be they were observing
a curfew that was imposed on them by the school authorities, not necessarily by your
walking into the room.

b). Only-Cause Fallacy

This is also known as joint effect or oversimplification fallacy. It is a logical fallacy of

causation that occurs when it is assumed that there is one simple cause of an outcome
when in reality it may be caused by a number of causes either independently or jointly.
The fallacy also occurs when one claims to have a simple solution to a complex issue. For
example:

Often after a tragedy, it is asked ‘what was the cause of this?’ Such language implies that
there is one cause, when instead there were a large number of contributing factors.
However, having produced a list of several contributing factors, it may be worthwhile to
look for the strongest of the factors, or a single factor underlying several of them.

Another example would be saying that a single thing causes wars, crime, and economic
problems because all these can be caused by different things.

6). Begging the Question Fallacy

This fallacy is also known as Circular Reasoning, Reasoning in a Circle, Petitio Pricippii
or Vicious Circle fallacy.

Begging the Question is a form of logical fallacy in which a statement or a claim is assumed
to be true without evidence other than the statement or the claim itself. When one begs
the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any
logic to show why the statement is true in the first place. It does not give reasons to support

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the truthfulness of the conclusion. Instead, the conclusion is merely a rephrasing of the
initial statement. An argument begs the question when it assumes the point to be proved
without a proof.

What is it not?

To beg the question does not mean ‘to raise the question’ eg. it begs the question, ‘why is
he so dumb?’ This is a common error of usage made by those who mistake the word
‘question’ in the phrase to refer to a literal question. So, never make a mistake of thinking
that ‘beg the question fallacy raises questions. It is just a fallacy which gives you
conclusions based on assumptions or inadequate proofs.

Examine the examples that follow where no reasons are given:

 The defendant is not guilty of the crime, for she is innocent of having
committed it.
 Henry is the best candidate for president of the students’ union because he
is better than all the other candidates.

In the above examples, you will see that no reasons have been given in order to arrive at
the conclusions. Instead the conclusions are just slightly rephrased versions of the
premise. A more complex but equally fallacious type of circular reasoning is to create a
circular chain of reasoning like this one:

 Joseph: God exists.

 Peter: How do you know that God exists?
 Joseph: The Bible says so.
 Peter: Why should I believe the Bible?
 Joseph: Because it is the inspired word of God.

If we draw the above dialogue out as a chart, it would look like:

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 CIRCULAR REASONING
Because the Bible says God exists

Why should I believe that?

Why should I believe anything the bible says?

God exists

Because the Bible is the inspired word of God.

The so called ‘final proof’ relies on unproven evidence set forth initially as the subject of
debate. Basically, the argument goes in an endless circle, with each step of the argument
relying on a previous one, which in turn relies on the first argument yet to be proven.
Surely, God deserves a more intelligible argument than the circular reasoning proposed
in this example. We are therefore encouraged to provide proof for any reason(s) we
provide in our premise instead of just relying on assumptions.

7). Faulty premise fallacy

As you may recall, a premise is a statement assumed to be true and is used as a basis for
reasoning. It may be true or untrue and if the premise is flimsy, the conclusion is equally
unconvincing. It is important for us to appreciate that not all statements are true and it is
therefore wrong to use them as a basis for our conclusions. When we are talking about a
faulty premise, we mean an error in reasoning where there is a faulty premise that is used
as a basis for a conclusion.

As you can see here, if the premise is faulty, it is quite obvious that it will yield a faulty
conclusion. This fallacy is mostly committed in deductive reasoning. Deductive
reasoning is the reasoning that moves from a general statement to a specific conclusion.
In this, we examine a case, locate another and another and then draw an inference. For
example, if we begin with a general statement that all university lecturers must be college
graduates and we identified Mr. Tekaji as a university lecturer, then the conclusion is that
Mr.Tekaji has a degree.

When you use deductive reasoning, begin with a generalisation, state a related fact, and
draw a conclusion based on the generalisation and the fact. In other words, move from a
general statement to a more specific conclusion when you are using deductive reasoning.

Many deductive arguments can take the form of a syllogism, three-part formal statement,
somewhat like the Mathematics equation ‘If A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C.
The three parts of a syllogism are called the major premise (main proposition), the minor

73
premise (minor proposition) and the conclusion. The major and minor premises are used
to prove that a third statement (conclusion) is true.

A syllogism may be valid and true but sometimes, it may be invalid and untrue. You may
find some syllogisms that are both invalid and untrue. If a syllogism contains a valid major
premise and a true minor premise, it is not a fallacious statement. Equally, both true major
and minor premises do not give rise to any fallacies.

Consider the examples below in terms of a valid and true syllogism:

 Major premise: All humans are mortal.

 Minor premise: All philosophers are humans.
 Conclusion: All philosophers are mortal.

The above syllogism is both valid and true. The major premise is a universal statement
that is true. The minor premise is also true and this results in having a true conclusion.

On the other hand, if we have a faulty major premise but a true minor premise, we will
yield a conclusion that is fallacious. Similarly, a true major premise and an untrue minor
premise results in a fallacious conclusion.

Consider a valid but untrue syllogism below:

 Major premise: All dogs chase cats.

 Minor premise: Themba is a dog.
 Conclusion: Themba chases cats.

In the above example, the major premise is untrue, therefore, although the syllogism is
valid, it is not true.

Other examples include:

 Major premise: All poets are alcoholic.

 Minor premise: Jim is a poet.
 Conclusion: Jim is alcoholic.

 Major premise: All snakes are poisonous.

 Minor premise: A python is a snake.
 Conclusion: A python is a poisonous snake.

 Major premise: Many teenagers don’t respect their parents.

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  Minor premise: Modester is a teenager.
 Conclusion: Modester does not respect her parents.

All the above syllogisms are examples of faulty premise fallacies. You should always
appreciate that a major premise is faulty if it is false and if it contains a limiting word such
as some, many, and all.

8 Attacking the person and not the issue fallacy

It is also known as an argument against the person. The Latin name for this fallacy is ad
hominem which means against the person. It is committed by a speaker who attacks the
person who offers an argument, not the argument itself.

Typically, this fallacy takes many forms. For example, the person’s character,
circumstances, nationality, religion, expertise, qualifications, experience, physical
appearance and dress, may be attacked. Alternatively, it may be pointed out that a person
stands to gain from a favourable outcome. Or, finally, a person may be attacked by
association, or by the company he keeps. There are three major forms of attacking the
person:

 Adhominem (abusive): Instead of attacking an assertion, the argument attacks

the person who makes the assertion.
 Adhominem (circumstantial): Instead of attacking an assertion, the author points
to the relationship between the person making the assertion and the person’s
circumstances.

 Adhominem (tu quoque): This is a form of attack on the person where one notes
that the person does not practice what he preaches.

Typical examples include:

 You may argue that God does not exist, but you are just a fat idiot. (this is
adhominem abusive).
 We should discount what honourable Chaponda says about cutting taxes because
he stands to benefit from lower tax rate. (this is adhominem circumstantial),
 We should disregard Fred’s argument because he is just angry about the fact that
the defendant once cheated him out of K100,000.00. (adhominem circumstantial).
 You say I should give up alcohol, but you haven’t been sober for more than a year
yourself. (adhominem tu quoque).

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  You claim that Mr. Tembizo is innocent, but why should anyone listen to you? You
are an ex-convict after all. (adhominem circumstantial).

The other examples of attacking the person and not the issue fallacy include:

 Tedi: I believe that abortion is morally wrong.

 Paul: Of course you would say that, you are a priest.
 Tedi: What about the arguments I gave to support my
position?
 Paul: Those don’t count. Like I said, you’re a priest, so you
have to say that abortion is wrong. Further, you are just
a lackey of the Pope.
 Tedi: You are not qualified to make such a statement. You
Would say that, wouldn’t you? And who do you think
is going to believe you? Of course you will defend your
own department.

9). Either - or - fallacy

This is a fallacy of reasoning that omits consideration of reasonable alternatives. In other

words, the reasoned unfairly presents too few choices and implies that a choice must be
made among this short menu. In most cases, the speaker offers only two options for
dealing with a situation and ignores other possible solutions.

This fallacy is also known as false dilemma because one poses what looks like a true
dilemma – I must pick one or the other – but there are other viable alternatives. Those
who use this fallacy try to force their audience to accept a conclusion by presenting only
two possible options, one of which is clearly desirable. Such people fail to account for the
complexity of an idea sometimes purposely in order to force adherence to their preferred
agenda.

For example, a politician may say:

 You are with us or against us.

 Everyone is either for abortion or against it.

Further, consider analysing the example below:

 I am tired of all these sloppy students criticising their own university. What I say is
this, BIU – love it or leave it. And since these people obviously don’t want to leave
the campus, they should love it instead of criticising it.

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 The above argument allows us only two options. We can love BIU (uncritically) or we
can leave it. But there are other possibilities. For example, surely one can be critical
of one’s institution; insofar it has fallen short of its own ideals and yet still be devoted
to it.

10). Scare tactics fallacy

This is an emotional fallacy. It consists of appeals that try to manipulate us (people) into
accepting a product, message or person. For example, some insurance ads like:

 ‘what shall save your children when you die, save with/open a policy now.’
 Similarly, scare tactics are used in the churches or religious groupings like ‘You will
go to hell if you do not exercise kindness.’

Essentially, this fallacy entails the creation of fear/worry/concern in order for one to obey
or comply as expected without actually being rational.

Activity 2

1. In what situations do the following fallacies occur?

i). Stereo-type fallacy

ii). Cause and effect fallacy

iii). Either-Or-fallacy

2. How does a hasty generalisation fallacy arise?

You need to be aware of the research findings that there are more than 350 different types
of fallacies. Thus the types of fallacies are as numerous as the causes. As such more
types of fallacies include:

11). Band wagon fallacy

This kind of fallacy arises when one argues or argues simply because everyone is
agreeing or disagreeing. It is wrong to support a particular point of view just because
everyone is supporting it. This does not make the point of view correct. This is used in
persuasion, like the case is in politics, religious advocacy, social lobbies, and youth
socialisation agents. For instance:

 If all chiefs in Malawi have accepted to change the flag, then who are we / am I to
say no.
 The church has accepted it, so it must be correct.
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 Thus, do not accept something because many people have supported it. The fact that
many people have supported something does not mean that it is correct. So, support
or accept it because you are sure it is correct/good.

12). Slippery slope fallacy

This is also an emotional fallacy that falls within the scare tactic fallacy. This fallacy
suggests that ‘if we allow one thing to happen, we will immediately be sliding down the
slippery slope to disaster. For example, on environmental issues ; on abortion issues, etc.

 Encouraging cultivation in fertile alluvial soils in dambos or river valleys for

agricultural production would encourage deforesting the river banks and the rivers
may dry up.
 Advising adolescent girls to abort when pregnant outside wedlock may lead to
deaths of young girls as well as encourage moral decay in the society.

13). Non-sequitur fallacy

This is a fallacy of logic. It refers to an issue that does not follow; that is, the conclusion
does not follow from the evidence and the warrant. For example:

 The man with a powerful new computer must be highly skilled in the use of
computer technology.
 The lady selling fresh maize must be a very hard working farmer.

14). Red herring fallacy

This is also a logical fallacy. It is that fallacy that drags in an aside issue to distract the
audience from the main issue. Thus, one raises an irrelevant issue or point to avoid the
audience proving the original claim, or the subject is abruptly changed to divert attention.
For example;

 The mayor is a man of integrity, he is a church member and a fine family man.
 This political party is very popular worth voting for however, it has thugs as its
leaders.

15. Card-stacking fallacy

This is also a logical fallacy. It refers to an act of slanting, distorting or fabricating facts to
suit the speaker’s or writer’s purpose. It is also known as ‘stacking the deck fallacy’. It
involves misrepresentation, either intentional or unintentional. Although card stacking is
unethical, scientists are known to use facts to support an illogical conclusion. Thus, to

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save time, they may falsify data, or may select only the facts that support a theory, omitting
other evidence.
16). Appeal to pity fallacy (Argumentum ad misericordiam)
This is also an emotional fallacy that appeals to pity. This is a fallacy in which someone
tries to win support for an idea or argument by exploiting his or her opponent’s feelings of
pity or guilt. Thus this is a specific kind of fallacy called appeal to emotion. For example;
 You must have graded my exam incorrectly. I studied very hard for weeks
specifically because I knew my career depended on getting a good grade. If you
give me a failing grade, I am ruined.

16). Appeal to tradition (Argumentum ad Antiquitatem)

This is a fallacy that is also called Appeal to Common Practice; or the ‘is / ought’ fallacy.
Thus it is a fallacy that is based on false induction. It is a common logical fallacy in
which a thesis is deemed correct on the basis that it correlates with some past or
present tradition. The appeal takes the form of ‘this is right because we have always
done it this way’. This appeal is often common in social, cultural, religious,
traditional etc happenings and decisions. For example;
 The farewell disco cannot be held from 1 to 5 pm because it has always been held
from 7 pm to 6 am, over-night.

This fallacy essentially makes two assumptions that are not necessarily true. Firstly, the
old way of thinking was proven incorrect when introduced, since it was prevalent,
therefore, it was necessarily correct. In actuality this may be false, it may be entirely based
on the incorrect grounds.
Secondly, the past justifications for the tradition are still valid at present. In actual sense
the circumstances may have changed. For example;
 Men should always pay for dates, because men have always paid.
 This fallacious statement (above) misses the point of why something is said to be
right or wrong. The arguer said that men should pay for dates because this shows
humility on the part of the man whether correct or not, is an argument with
supporting arguments that are not circular and can be directly addressed.

17). Appeal to ignorance fallacy

This is a kind of fallacy which bases an argument out of ignorance. It is a fallacy of
assuming that something is true or false because it has not been proven false or true.
Arguments that appeal to ignorance rely merely on the fact that the veracity of the
proposition is not known, or is undetected to arrive at a definite conclusion. These
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arguments fail to appreciate that the limits of one’s understanding or certainty do not
change what is true. They do not inform upon reality. A clear example of this fallacy is:
 The student has failed to prove that he did not cheat during the exam therefore
he must have cheated during the exam.

18). Ad Populum

This is a fallacy in which the advocate or speaker ignores the substance of the argument
and claims that popular opinion justifies the claim. For example, a candidate for county
auditor of Boone County used this argument in a political campaign. “I am a lifelong
resident of Boone County and a graduate of Harvard. I understand the values and
traditions of people in this part of the state. Just like all of you, I am opposed to county
zoning and the renumbering of rural routes.” These appeals to the prejudices of life-time
residents have no application or bearing to the office. Residence in the city or county
has no effect on the ability of a person to audit the books and records of county
government. Both are irrelevant in this regard.

19). Two-Valued thinking

This is a fallacy that is often called polarisation, which claims that some aspect of the
world has only two values, for example, (good or bad, right or wrong). But most problems
and situations have several answers or choices. Thus two-valued thinking suggests that
the options are limited to one of the two choices. For example, “On the issue of whether
we should fire Charles, you’re either for me or against me. It’s that simple. A person does
not have to be clearly in favour of or opposed to an entire action. In this case, perhaps you
feel Charles should be warned about his problem and told that he will be dismissed unless
he changes his work habits. Matters are not often either black or white; they are shades
of grey.

Activity 3

1. What is a band wagon fallacy all about?

2. How does appeal to ignorance fallacy become a danger to the people involved?

3. Explain the situation in which the appeal to tradition fallacy arises.

Unit summary

The unit has discussed fallacies as errors in reasoning and the various categories in which
they fall. Among them are fallacies of logic, ethos and emotions. The effects of fallacies
have also been discussed in that they lead to wrong and poor judgements in decision
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making. In an attempt to exemplify the impact of poor reasoning, various types of fallacies
have been discussed alongside their applications, for example, band wagon and either …
or … fallacy which refer to doing things because many people do so and that a challenge
may have two alternative solutions only. This may not be true since various solutions arise
to a single problem, not just two only. Every decision should have appropriate
justifications.

Self-Assessment test

1. Explain how your knowledge of fallacies will be of use in your

 professional life
 society
 academic struggle?

2. Why do many people commit fallacies when they are annoyed?

3. In which situations do most people commit the following fallacies?

i). Only cause fallacy

ii). Appeal to pity fallacy

iii). Band wagon fallacy

4. How do leaders make well balanced decisions in some societies?

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Unit 5

The Individual as a Communicator

Introduction

Every person is involved in the communication process by the use of language in either
speech or non-verbally. As an individual, one communicates in unique ways, different from
the others. The differences in communication occur because of the individual differences
that characterise the different personalities that different speakers hold. In this case, it is
the self-concept or the way one looks at oneself that makes each one of us hold and
manage communication in a unique way. Thus self-thought determines who one is, and
we are defined by the way we communicate. In this regard, every individual can be defined
by the way he or she communicates, and this extends to the ways in which the society
uses language. So the way we use language constructs who we are and how the society
views us regarding who we are. The way we use language reveals our inner thoughts and
our being. Thus the nature of communication defines every communicator, including their
society.

Areas of emphasis

 Self-concept and personal perception

 Positive self-concept
 Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Positive self-thought
 Reinforcement
 Modifying self-concept
 Visualisation
 Self-concept and communication attitudes
 Interpersonal settings
 Public communication
 Communication as a defining experience
 Self-awareness
 Self-definition
 Communication and societal expectations
 Communication and participation
 Active and passive communication
 The extrovert, introvert, leader and follower

Key words
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Self-concept, personal perception, self-fulfilling prophecy, positive self-thought,
visualisation, self-awareness, self-definition, extrovert, introvert.

Pre-requisite knowledge

Learners have gone through the various tenets of communication and how to determine
correct ideas through knowledge gained from fallacies. At the same time, learners are
aware of what listening and reading theories call for which relate to the values that
determine the essentials of appreciating the various communication traits.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit, learners will be able to:

1. Explain what the term self-concept means.

2. State how personal perception helps to shape one’s communication skill.

3. Relate self-fulfilling prophecy with one’s communication trends.

4. Discuss how communication helps to define the society.

5. State and explain the four personality traits in communication.

6. Distinguish between active and passive communication.

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009). Effective Technical Communication. New Delhi:

Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992), Introduction to Human

Communication. USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel, Joan, A. (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.
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Time required: You will need at least 5 hours to study work on this unit.

Development of self-concept

Now, we are going to discuss our self-examination. This will be considered by way of
considering how one would dissect the individual’s personality. We begin by considering
self-concept.

a). Self-concept

By self-concept we mean your ideas or what makes you similar to and different from
others. This is about how we feel about ourselves when we are compared to others. Thus
self-concept is the sum of the perceptions and of the ideas and images that we have about
ourselves. Self-concept is about the way we interpret and organise our reality in the world.
Our self-concept if produced, in part, from our use and interpretation of words.
‘Self as image’ is one way of how you think about yourself. You think about yourself on
the basis of your perceptions of how others see you. For example, you may perceive
yourself as a good Christian, but do the others think that is true? If they do, they may
communicate that to you. That would be the self-image that you project. Thus their
description of you in their talk helps you to define. Thus the language interaction process
helps you to define yourself. This is part of your self-concept.
The ‘self ‘arises from communication. It is through the sharing of ideas and feelings that
you develop yourself and your concept of personal worth. Since communication is on-
going, your concept of self is constantly changing depending on what you say or is said
about you that you hear/get.
2. Self-concept and personal perception
Some people do not think very positively about themselves to others and they compare
unfavourably to others. Such people believe that they are inferior. People who are like this
generally have low self-concept. They engage in negative self-talk, and do not have
positive thoughts about themselves.
Personal use of language creates self-image and in some cases self-doubt. Note that you
are directly affected by the language that you use or other people use about you. Your
perceptions result from reactions to symbols whether it’s you or others who generate them.
This symbolic interaction is central to our lives.
Positive self-concept: The development of a more positive self-concept is the product of
3 elements, viz: reinforcement, positive self-thought, and self-fulfilling prophecy.

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  Reinforcement: Is a powerful force in modifying attitudes and behaviour. When
others make positive comments about us or our activities, we feel better. For
example, you made a marvellous speech at the celebration. This positive statement
describes you in that person’s mind. It reinforces your self-concept as a ‘good’ and
‘worthwhile’ person. You give or receive reinforcement.

 Positive self-concept: The statement ‘success breeds success’ is an old and

well accepted idea. Thus if we think good things about ourselves, more good things
are likely to happen. Peale in his book The Power of Positive Thinking says ‘if
we think positive thoughts about ourselves, then those thoughts will become action
and we will begin to think and act more successfully.’ Thus one should develop a
healthy self-concept. This implies that your success is more likely to occur if you
believe that you can succeed. This is manifested in public figures or personalities
like medical/surgeons, physicians or public speakers etc. who believe in their
capabilities or hold positive self-talk.

 Self-fulfilling prophecy: The social cognition scholars consider self-fulfilling

prophecy within ‘expectancy effects’ in which they claim ‘You get what you
expect.’ This belief supports the concept of positive self-talk. Thus anticipation
breeds success, and self-talk about personal success (expectancy) increases the
opportunity for a favourable outcome.
NOTE: The self-concept is the sum of all these small experiences. A person builds self-
concept with positive self-talk. Thus you allow the verbal artist that lives within you to
flourish.
Activity 1
i). In what ways does self-concept help in effective communication in a society?
ii). How would personal perception help us improve our communication abilities?
iii). What is the importance of positive self-thought in the society in view of communication?
iv). Discuss the place of self-fulfilling prophecy in the communication endeavour.

Modifying self-concept

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Now, let us discuss how we could modify or change our self-concept. We have to mention
here that the self can be changed. But this needs direction through the following steps to
modify your self-concept towards a healthier and more positive direction.
a). Visualisation
The tool for visualisation in our attitude(s):
Our attitudes about ourselves come from two sources. Thus the sources are our
experiences and our feelings of adequacy or inadequacy. So, we can change our attitudes
by the way we think about ourselves: If we visualise success, our chances of success
increase greatly. Visualisation is an important ingredient in personal success. Hence
people need to see themselves as achievers or victors. When people expect positive
things to happen, they often do. Similarly, when they expect the worst, it often happens.
So, expect the best and it is likely to happen.
b). Self-trust: Is a major ingredient in the human communication process. Nathaniel
Branden believes that people must trust their own competences, trust themselves, and
trust their own judgements. Successful relationships are founded on the belief of self-
worth. To relate effectively with others, you must believe that you are a deserving person
and that you can contribute positively to your own life and to the lives of others. In his
book, ‘The Psychology of Romantic Love,’ Branden contends that in order for people to
be successful in loving relationships, they first must have a successful love affair with
themselves.
c). Self-concept and communication attitudes
People with poor self-concepts are less likely to be successful communicators. They often
feel inadequate and engage in behaviour that validates a negative self-fulfilling prophecy.
They are also less likely to be successful in most of the everyday activities that command
their attention. Communication is a learned human behaviour. At a young age, we learn
the conventions for one-to-one communication through interaction with family and then
friends.
Interpersonal settings
As we learn more of the rules of communication, we develop conversational skills. As we
begin school, our communication behaviour expands to include one-to-several
relationships. We talk in small groups with classmates, we get involved in extracurricular
activities with others. As our range of experience expands, we learn increasingly elaborate
systems of personal behaviour.

Public Communication

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This is a new type of communication system that appears occasionally. It may appear
strange though many of the characteristics are similar to conversational and small group
communication. This may frighten you, but it is an extension of the one-to-one and small
group communication that you have had all your life. It has rules of course, not difficult to
learn.
Communication as a defining experience
By now you should be aware of the fact that language and communication are key to self-
definition. You are also aware of the ways in which we develop that self-definition which
include:
 Self-awareness
People need to be accurately aware of themselves, and the perceptions
others have of them, and how they feel about themselves. If you have ‘self-
awareness’ makes it easier for you to understand and modify your self-
concept and heighten your self-esteem. Personal sensitivity is a key
element in the development of self and interpersonal relations. Each of us
should be sensitive to the ways that affect others and be sensitive to how
we behave both verbally and non-verbally.

Communication is a mutual experience and activity that defines our

uniqueness as individuals . What we say verbally or non-verbally creates
impressions for others. Other people listen to our ideas and positions and
decide whether we are interesting, intelligent, insightful, or amusing. What
we say and do tells others what is going on in our minds. It tells them what
and how we feel. It is our way of establishing a common bond.

 Self-definition
Communication also helps us to define ourselves. Our success as
communicators affects the way we see ourselves and how we feel about
ourselves. The total of this is self-definition. For example, the people who
are effective in expressing ideas and who often volunteer their feelings are
more likely to become the centres of the convention or to be the leaders of
groups. As the attention of the group focuses on them, they become more
confident of themselves. Other group members see them as leaders.
Subsequently, group members ask them for their opinions, see their
friendship, and introduce them to their acquaintances. Their behaviour as
effective communicators has established their leadership role in their social
group.

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Other people may be awkward in expressing even the simplest of ideas. They may fumble
for ideas and words, failing to express themselves clearly. So they develop an impression
of embarrassment, so they become quiet and such people will say little and eventually we
consider them as ‘loners’. They may have brilliant ideas but failure to express them creates
the impression that they are inadequate. ‘What you say, the way you say it, and the
frequency with which you speak’ sends many messages about you. “Your communication
is your single most defining experience.” Only mankind can generate language, structure
it, and use it to convey the entire span of emotions, thoughts and decisions. This
communication of aspirations and feelings provides us with unique characteristics. Our
societal roles are a product of what we say and the ways that others perceive our
messages. Therefore we define ourselves by our language and its impact. People form
impressions of us basing on the language we use in their own understanding. The matter
of impression formation through language is symbolic interaction at work.
Activity 2
a). In what ways do the following influence our attitudes in life:
 Visualisation
 Self-trust
b). How does the way in which we communicate become our personal definition?
c). How would you use your self-awareness to change your self-concept?

Communication and societal expectations

Communication expectations and behaviour play a key role in the ways that you are
perceived. The use and misuse of language determine attitudes, actions and expectations.
Words and our responses to them affect most dimensions of our lives. Our communication
suggests our behaviour and our attitude. Ours, therefore, is a society of talk.
Whether our background is urban or rural, ours is a world of talk. Speech creates
perceptions and shapes our beliefs of right and wrong. Based on their communication,
people are deemed honest or dishonest, and attractive or unattractive. Even helplessness
can be attributed to communication. For instance, through economic problems some
people may be told that they will not be successful, and because of self-fulfilling prophecy,
they will really remain like that. Thus, because of our societal communication, we see
them, and they come to see themselves, as failures largely based on societal
expectations. Therefore, communication shapes our perceptions, and those perceptions
create our expectations.

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For example, if you hear that Henry was suspected of shop-lifting and you see him get
into your shop, you may watch on him suspiciously, different from the other shoppers who
are admiring the goods closely. Your perceptions and expectations are woven together,
and communication is important to that link. Its use causes you to view the world in
different ways and to treat people differently. Thus communication is a controlling
behaviour and it does affect our actions. So our world is a reaction to language and to the
symbols and reality that it creates for us.
Communication and participation
Communication is the currency of participation. In most of society’s activities, we judge
and we are judged by the amount and quality of our communication. For example, ‘John
is the quiet type, Matt is a loudmouth and always has an opinion on everything, Mary talks
first,’ etc. These statements identify the amount and type of communication participation
by others. Also, they tell what people think about their friends or peers. If a person does
not speak, then that is a negative feature; if they speak too much, then they are
domineering or outspoken. Therefore, we try to strike a ‘balance’ between talking too much
and not talking enough.
Because communication is the instrument used to measure much of our self-worth, we
must talk effectively and do it often enough to have an impact. But too much talk may
make others consider as domineering or self-centred. We like people who contribute, but
not those who say too much. And we also like people who have opinions, but not those
who insist that their way is the only way. People act on impression, and communication is
our most often used impression-forming activity. Our communication tells others what and
who we are.

Active and passive communication

 Active communication
Active communication participation creates a positive impression about us. ‘Active’
communicators let others know where they stand before they express their opinions. They
agree or disagree; They participate in dialogues. To them, speech is the most important
element in relating to others. They enjoy talking, listening and seeing the reactions of other
people. How often you speak and how you behave also help to define you.

 Passive communication
In communication of passivity, passive people are those who say little or who knuckle
under easily to the wishes or statements of others. It’s easy to be a passive person. If you

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node your head at most of the statements others make, you have taken the first step. If
you agree with highly controversial statements, people may think that you do not have an
opinion or are afraid to state it. When you decide not to state your opinion at a social or
political meeting, you start to fall into the communication passivity.
Society places a higher value on active rather than on passive behaviour. An active person
is a doer. In fact, many people believe that a passive person is lazy or lacks intelligence.
Those impressions are the result of the frequency and quality of what passive people say.
When people say nothing or have no opinion, it raises questions in our minds about their
interests, motives, or competencies.
Passive communication behaviour conveys a message about us. If we are passive, other
people may conclude that we do not care, unintelligent or are un-informed. We have a
responsibility to ourselves and to others about the conclusions drawn about us. We should
tell them how we feel about issues and people and why we feel that way.

Categories of individual behaviour

The communication act expresses our interpretation of the world to others. Our language
has a clear impact on the ways others feel about us, and, in many ways, it defines
how we feel about ourselves. Because language is one of our major means of self-
identity, language is crucial in self-definition. People can be classified into four
general categories which are rough indicators of individual behaviour based on
verbal activity. The general behaviour categories are: Extrovert, Introvert,
Followers, and Leaders. These are broadly based descriptions of personality. This
approach uses personal language activity to develop a personal profile, and this is
another example of how we use symbolic interaction to describe and evaluate
people. Our reaction to language becomes our classification of the people doing
the talking.
 The extrovert
‘Extrovert’ is an easily misapplied label. We think of an extrovert as a loud person
who always dominates conversations. The extrovert dominates, interrupts others
and wants to be the centre of attention. This stereotype is wrong because it
focusses on the extreme. Each of us has elements of extroversion in our behaviour.
No one is a complete extrovert, it is a matter of degree. People who talk about
themselves constantly may be strongly extroverted. Most of us, though, express
our feelings, preferences and amusement as part of ‘just being alive.’ Extroversion
is a matter of degree and situation. Most effective communicators are somewhat
extroverted. They are people who enjoy speaking to others. Extroverts are not loud,
self-centred, arrogant or stupid. They say what is on their minds when they feel it
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 is important. Extroverts do not feel that they are better or worse than anyone else.
They simply enjoy talking and the company of other people. Their interest is sharing
their ideas and feelings with others; it is a part of their personality and self-definition.
Therefore, communication has helped them to define themselves.
 The introvert
An introvert has many stereotypes. To many people, an introvert is a silent, non-
social person who is meek and spends the day reading books or avoiding contact
with others. That stereotype of an introvert also suggests that the introvert is
passive. This possibility is an extreme example. Some people do shun social
contacts, but they are a social minority. Many people, although quiet in large social
settings, are very normal.
Contrary to popular opinion, introverts like to talk. The question may be a matter of
with whom they wish to speak. Introverts may like to be with people, although they
may be more ‘choosy’ about their friends. Moreover, introverts may be interesting
persons, although their general communication may suggest that fewer ideas
interest them. They do not mix easily with others, and this lack of social contact is
a result of their public or interpersonal communication.
An introvert may only exhibit introverted behaviour in certain settings under specific
conditions. While they may be publicly introverted, they may be privately
extroverted. For example, at a company work meeting, Annie Ravart may say and
shun the spotlight. However, when Annie is at home, or with a group of her friends,
she may talk a great deal and entertain others. A social ‘label’ is applied as a result
of observing the communication behaviour of a person. We observe how often a
person speaks and how vigorously they take and defend a position. The result is
that much of our definition of people is a reflection of their communication activity.
Therefore, our communication defines how others perceive us.
 Leaders
A leader provides direction, understands goals, and uses language to galvanise
followers. Typical examples of leaders include Ronald Reagan (the great
communicator), Sir Winston Churchill of Britain during World War 2, Hitler and
Franklin Roosevert; all were considered great leaders because of their effective
communication abilities.
Leaders master the art of communication and influence the minds and actions of
others. Our great leaders touch lives through speech. For instance, Eric Hoffer
once said, “… The preliminary work … can be done only by men who are, first and
foremost, talkers or writers and are recognised as such by all.” The spoken word

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 is the force that moves people and society. Thus leaders inspire people in their
communication.
Communication also defines our leaders. The great leaders are often effective
speakers and the less noted leaders may be mediocre ones. This observation is
true even at the local level. If a person is an effective communicator, the odds of
that person becoming a leader increase greatly because; ‘leadership is
communication.’ Being an effective leader means communicating in a way that
provides the speaker with an improved perception of self-worth. Sharing ideas and
having those ideas accepted is a reinforcing experience. Thus leaders need to
remain ‘in touch’ in order to execute plans and programmes that must have popular
support. That support is crucial to the positive perception of self that leaders must
possess.
 Followers
It would be impossible for leaders to exist unless there was a group that needed
direction. We have seen how communication defines our leaders. In a different
way, communication also defines a follower. The difference is the type of role and
the expectations of that role in a follower’s behaviour. A follower’s social role is the
management of tasks and opportunities, while a leader’s is the statement of goals
and the communication of direction.
Followers are different from leaders because their communication tends to be
reactive. They respond to the words and thoughts of others rather than initiate their
own words or thoughts. The follower may be just as bright, may be just as articulate,
and may be as thoughtful as the leader. However, the follower is not as outspoken.
Many people have grown up learning how to be followers. They were told by their
parents to speak only when spoken to by older people. Thus their parents have
prepared them to be followers by their advice and direction. Symbolic interaction –
the message children receive about their expected behaviour – shapes their lives.
 However, followers are not created by environment alone. Generally, followers are
less out-going; they see the flaw in ideas or designs, but hesitate to offer an
opinion. They may have a less positive self-concept than the leader, and that
dimension of personality can make the difference between a leader and a follower.

Activity 3
a). How does societal expectations influence the manner of communication of an individual
in a particular society?

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b). What is meant by active participation in communication?
c). Mention any two contrasting categories of individual behaviour.
d). Provide any two traits of a follower in any group of people.

Unit summary
What has been very central in this unit is the description of the terms “self-concept” and
“self-thought”. Thus the way one should look at one-self, having a mental picture of who
one is. The personal view of the world by an individual as reflected in one’s communicative
ability which in the end shapes how individuals may be described by the others. The way
in which one communicates and indeed how the community communicates does define
the society itself. Then, the personality traits are defined which include extroverts, who are
those people on the talky side, and the introverts, who are mostly reserved. The other
personalities are either leaders or followers. Generally, in a society people fall into two
broad categories which include active communicators (those who get things done) and
passive communicators, who in most cases, register minimal success in communication.
Unit assessment test
a). How does self-concept shape the personal perception of an individual in a given
society?
b). What is the value of ‘reinforcement’ and ‘positive self-thought’ in building personalities?
c). Explain how communication can help us define our society.
d). How does the way in which we communicate mould the society in which we live?
e). Distinguish between an active and passive communicator in any given society.
f). How does a leader match the characteristics of an extrovert in a society?

Unit 6

The Nature of Critical Thinking

Introduction
The communication process is heavily guided by critical thinking processes. Especially at
this level of study, we need to realise the complexity of the societies we are or we will be
dealing with in an attempt to communicate effectively. Our way(s) of speaking or indeed
writing should reflect critical thinking abilities in order to appreciate diverse thoughts of
people, either spoken or written. These may border on facts, values or policies with special

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focus on the goals that have to be achieved. From a more general perspective, our ways
of thinking range from specific issues (details) to the general issue, or from a broad issue
to particular issues or details. What is important in reasoning is the cross examination of
our arguments so that we do not fall prey to fallacious statements. These may be
examined through tests of analogy, cause and generalisation, among others.
Areas of emphasis
 The importance of critical thinking
 Types of claims
 Evaluation of ideas
 Tests of reasoning
 Induction and deduction
 Tests of arguments
Key words
 Claim, fact, value, policy, reasoning, induction, deduction, evaluation

Pre-requisite knowledge
Learners are aware of what statements are and how to make arguments. They are also
aware of the types of reasoning, which include deduction and induction. Through the study
of fallacies, they are also aware of statements that make sense or that are questionable.

Learning outcomes
Learners should be able to:
1. Explain what the term reflective thinking means.
2. State the importance of critical thinking in a society.
3. List down the three types of claims.
4. Distinguish deductive reasoning from inductive reasoning.
5. Provide and explain any three types of arguments commonly used in human
interactions.

Resources needed

Ashraf Rizvi, M. (2009). Effective Technical Communication. New Delhi:

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 Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.

Gibson, J. W. & Hanna, M. S. (1992). Introduction to Human

Communication. USA: Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Grygel, Joan, A. (ed.) (1995). The World Book of Word Power Vol. 1. Chicago IL:
World Book Inc.
Raghunathan, N. S. (2009). Business Communication. Chennai-India: Margham
Publishers.

Time required: You will need 4 hours to complete studying work in this unit.

Nature of Critical Thinking

The reflective thinking process

Critical thinking is a process of making judgements about the truth or merit of an idea.
This can be done in two ways;
1. Casually, that is, without conscious awareness of the standards we’re applying.
2. By being more formal, by applying a fairly well conceived system of logic.
The term critical thinking implies a different focus, where the goal is to make evaluative
judgements about the given ideas. On the other hand, creative thinking has the
goal to develop new ideas or solutions or to reorganise things already known into
something new and different.

Why critical thinking?

Its place is to avoid ‘deception, misrepresentation, evasion, and other errors that creep
(accidentally or intentionally) into human message exchange. Critical thinking
demands an effort to enhance the quality of life by improving the quality of thought.

Approaches to critical thinking people take are three:

 The first approach is to understand the underlying premises in order to determine
that the conclusion is correctly stated, as is the case in a court of law, in academic

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 and political debating, in some editorial writing and in some problem solving
contexts where people apply a fairly rigorous approach to critical thinking.

 The second one is sometimes called the ‘dialectical approach’ which involves a
different focus. This approach attempts to discover ‘what issues exist, what
alternatives exist, and what evaluative criteria exist that may be applied. Value is
placed on with-holding any judgements until all the views and alternatives have
been stated and examined. A popular term applied to this approach is ‘suspension
of judgement’. This is rigorously applied in some business problem solving groups.
ie It occurs when deciding on how to spend the /their evening. eg. “Shall we go to
the movie? What movie? What else is there to do? What time should we meet?
etc.
 The third approach to critical thinking seems almost persuasive. Here, people
present ideas and evidence as a means of influence. They may hold a position on
some controversial issue such as ‘capital punishment, mercy killing, or
governmental involvement in the abortion decision’. Then they present evidence
and arguments aimed at supporting that point of view. The thinking process
revolves around identifying what arguments and pieces of evidence best support
some claim or conclusion. This approach is called the ‘rhetorical approach’.
a). The reflective thinking process
 This involves identifying an idea or problem, applying standards to evaluate its
worth, and arriving at a judgement about keeping or rejecting the conclusion. For
example, consider the problem of wanting a new item of clothing. You reach into
your pocket to discover that you don’t have enough money to buy it. How
important is the purchase of that clothing to your welfare? Should you use your
credit card? Will the item be on sale when you get paid next week? There is
debate about whether a single set of critical thinking procedures can be effective
across varying problems.
 In human discourse, the problems that most often need to be examined critically
involve something called ‘claims’. A claim is an expressed conclusion that is
characterised by rhetorical purpose. Thus a claim is a conclusion someone wants
you to accept. It involves the use of language to create a perception of reality,
value, or conclusion. Common examples are:
 “I am telling the truth.”
 “Wilson was the last person to drive the car. He must know how the damage
was done.”
 “That was a great movie. You’ve got to see it”.

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Claims are usually but not always clearly stated. Some are implied. Either way, if you learn
to listen carefully to claims, you can usually discover the speaker’s purpose and agenda.

Claims of Fact, Value, and Policy

There are three kinds of claims: claims of fact, claims of value, and claims of policy. Each
one is a statement which is directly stated or implied.
a). A claim of fact is a statement about some past or present condition or relationship. It
is characterised by forms of the verb ‘to be.’ A factual claim moves from something that is
known or believed to be true, and it draws an inference about something that is
controversial. Sometimes factual claims are easy to identify because they are clearly
stated for example,
 “We can’t go fishing today- the water is too rough.”
 “Maria is older than Janet.”
Sometimes factual claims are difficult to identify because they are assumed, but not stated
eg.
 We should eliminate capital punishment (---because capital punishment is not an
effective deterrent to crime).”
 You ought to give up smoking Harold. (--- because smoking is dangerous to your
health).”
Finally, some factual claims are troublesome because they assume the past and the
future can be easily verified eg:
 “The United States will put a man on Mars by 2025.”
 “We are going to have a serious shortage of scientists by the turn of the
century.”
Clearly, what sounds like a fact (because of the sentence form in which the claim is made)
is not always a fact. Critical thinking will help the listener to find the flaw in the reasoning
behind the claim like:
 “How do you know that the United States will be on Mars by 2022?” Critical thinking
demands proof.
b). A claim of value is a conclusion about the value or worth of some idea or object, or of
some policy or practice. It is characterised by words such as good or bad, or other
judgemental words eg.
 “Gun control would be beneficial to the American people.”

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  “Abortion is wrong. There is no standard against which it can be made right.
Abortion is murder.”
 “The schools are the best place to provide sex education.”
The key feature of a claim of value is that it expresses some fundamentally positive or
negative attitude about its subject matter. It seeks to gain acceptance of a value
judgement.
c). A claim of policy calls for action. It is characterised by the words ‘ought’ and ‘should’
eg.
 The Federal Government should ban the manufacture, importation, or distribution
of handguns and automatic weapons.
 “You ought to stop smoking, Margret.
NOTE: These three kinds of claims (fact, value, and policy) usually occur together in a
complex and sometimes very subtle mixture. For example, a claim on which type of car to
buy may carry information of (fact, value and policy) thereby demanding critical reasoning
to arrive at the correct conclusion of choice.
Evaluation of new ideas
We develop new ideas every day, usually, as a result of trying to solve problems in our
lives. These new ideas do not just pop into our minds in some magically complete form.
They must be shaped and tested eg. You may say:
 “I have a great idea for a fundraising campaign”.
That idea probably came into your mind because you were not completely satisfied with
the present ways of fund-raising or you may have thought that your fund-raising approach
would be better than the one in place. New ideas do not suddenly switch on, rather they
are the result of years of experience and frustration, and they often represent an answer
to a difficulty that has been experienced for a long time. Most good ideas result from a
period of worry, followed by a period of trial and error, and then followed by evaluation of
the various trials and errors. If the idea seems ‘good’, or ‘terrible’, we accept or reject it, or
we modify it through more worry and more trial and error.
Thus focus should be on the procedures by which ideas may be evaluated. Therefore, the
motivating questions are:
 Is there a problem?
 If so, what is the nature of the problem?
 What is the extent of the problem? How should we measure whether the idea is
good or bad?

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  What criteria should be applied to evaluate or come up with alternative solutions
when trying to solve the problem?
 What can be done?
 What should we do?
Let us examine each of these questions in order to better understand their applications in
public communication. Whether in interpersonal communication or public speaking, these
questions are the basis of reflective thinking. Be certain you understand the problem. Here
are some common questions that apply to all problems:
 Is the problem significant in this situation for this group of people?
 Is the problem typical or is it somehow unique?
 What are the major characteristics of the problem?
 Is it possible to solve the problem characteristics?
Then determine the criteria to apply in solving the problem. The criteria here refer to some
standard factors to use to evaluate solutions. This refers to yardsticks used to measure
whether ideas, positions, proposals etc make sense or are worthwhile. The criteria may
be further sharpened by observations including questions about:
 What are your goals?
Thus in evaluating ideas, decide on your objective and the process to reach that
objective. Is the goal to find the idea that is the least expensive or most expensive?
 Are you looking for a workable solution that has only a few major shortcomings?
Decide on it.
 Be certain you understand the problem. What is the actual problem in your
situation? Only then would you arrive at the correct solutions.
 State the problem clearly. A clear statement of the problem will help you reach the
solution. If challenges arise, try to re-state it. In other words, state the problem in
concrete terms. This will help you see tangible solutions with less trouble.

Activity 1
 What is meant by critical thinking?
 Mention the three ways that people use which reveal critical thinking.
 State three kinds of claims people use in their statements.
 How do people develop new ideas in life?

Nature and tests of reasoning

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 Everyday we make judgements based on basic values and information. These
decisions are the product of a set of values, associations, and perceptions that we
bring to the reasoning process. For example, we decide how rapidly to walk over a
deep ditch, we apply standards as we evaluate proposals etc. Therefore, it is
important that we examine the process, tests, and fallacies in reasoning so we can
better evaluate our thinking and conclusions of others, situations, things and states of
affairs.
The reasoning process
Reasoning involves the showing of relationships. This is a mental process in which people
move from the evidence, through a set of claims, to acceptance or rejection of a
conclusion. Engaging in reasoning can be done either inductively or deductively. The aim
in these two or the goal is to draw an inference about the likelihood that some statement
is true. Thus the goal is an acceptance of a claim. It is also wise for a critical thinker to
develop a little healthy scepticism.
 Induction
This involves going from the specific case to the general conclusion. Thus, induction is a
pattern of reasoning that moves from evidence about certain members of a class or
category to a conclusion about other or all members of the class or category. For example,
a study shows that a large number of car accidents are done by drivers under the age of
18. Using inductive reasoning we may conclude that young (under 18 years) drivers are
unsafe on the road. This conclusion may not be true because there could be other factors
inducing accidents.
 Deduction
Deduction is a pattern of reasoning that moves from a general statement about a class or
category to a conclusion that the statement applies in a particular case. Thus this
reasoning proceeds from the general to the specific. This is used infrequently in everyday
life. We often tend to reason inductively. Deduction is more the province of philosophical
analysis or arguments of points of law. For example, if we begin by saying: all high school
teachers must be college graduates, and say, Mr Phiri is a high school teacher, then the
conclusion is that Mr Phiri has a degree. If there is an exception though, then the reasoning
becomes ‘invalid’. We cannot reason validly when the general statement has exceptions.

Tests of argument
The procedures and conclusions of reasoning often are flawed. We do not always follow
all of the steps of an argument or some of the elements may lack soundness. However,
some tests may be applied to your own arguments and the arguments of others.
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  Argument by example
This is sometimes called ‘argument from a partial case.’ This is an inductive pattern of
reasoning that claims that what is true of one case in the class or category is also true of
some other case in the same class or category.
 Argument by generalisation
This is an inductive pattern of reasoning that claims that what is true of certain members
of a class or category is also of other members of the category, or of the category as a
whole. Examine the arguments below (A vs B):
A B
The waste-water treatment The smoke control plan was
Method used at the XYX effective in Tokyo, in Kansas,
Chemical plant works. It will and in Lome. It will also work
also work at the ABC plant. well in Medina, St Louis, or in
any other city in Japan.
Between A and B, Which argument is by generalisation or by example, state why?
 Argument from Analogy
This tries to reason that because two things are known to be similar in some particular
ways, then they will also resemble each other in other ways. Two kinds of argument arise
from analogy:
 Literal analogy: Here the comparison is drawn between two members of the same
class. The argument is that the two objects or things share many features; thus, all
or most of the features of one are shared by the other.
 In a figurative analogy, the comparison is drawn between members of two
different classes. The argument is that a relation or quality in one is similar to a
relation or quality in the other. This differentiation is important to critical thinking
because the evaluative standards are so much different. If you put literal and
figurative analogy side-by-side, then you will begin to see the differences.
Literal analogy Figurative analogy
The first thing compared has The years of your life are like
Features A, B, C, and D. The a walk through the woods.
Second thing has features A, From time to time you come

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B, and C. It will probably also to a fork in the path, and you
have feature D. have to make a choice about
which direction to go.
 Argument from sign
This is a pattern of reasoning that asserts the presence of some feature, artefact,
characteristic, or condition that is evidence of the presence of a related feature, artefact,
characteristic, or condition. There are three tests of sign argument which are the three C’s
: constant; cumulative, and contrary.
The observed sign will lead to inferences of feature; features, artefact, characteristic, or
condition.
Argument from cause
This claims that one event, set of events, condition, or set of conditions- brings about
another event, set of events, condition, or set of conditions. Two kinds of argument from
cause arise:
 The first, which is the weakest, is based on the notion called ‘necessary condition.’
The argument is that a necessary condition must exist in order to cause the effect.
 The second, and stronger form of causal argument, rests on a notion called
‘sufficient condition.’ The argument is that the presence of a certain condition is
sufficient to cause some effect.
 Note that the ideas of ‘necessary conditions’ have to be separated from ‘sufficient
conditions’ for clear understanding of the issues. For example, it is necessary to
have all the ingredients for baking a cake ie. flour, eggs, milk, etc. But would these
be sufficient? No, unless you also have a mixing bowl, working oven, etc.

Argument from authority

This says that statements by an expert or some knowledgeable person are
sufficient grounds for accepting a claim. They are sometimes very subtle and fairly
transparent. For example;
 European researchers have discovered a new formula for growing hair (unnamed
authority).
 The bible clearly says ‘Thou shalt not kill. “How then can you support legal
abortion?”
 Well known authority: “Master of possibilities, Andre Previn uses Mastercard.”
 Etc.

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Activity 2
1. Between inductive and deductive reasoning, which one is used most by humans? Why?
2. State the facts that help us to make judgements in our lives.
3. How does argument from analogy help us make better decisions in our lives?

Unit summary
Reflective thinking has been discussed as a form of thinking in which scrutiny of thought
is not just made but also invited. Thus people participate in open reasoning in which issues
are open to criticism. The value of critical-thinking is also underlined and this leads to
objective decision making. In view of this, claims have been discussed and categorised
into three which include claim of value, claim of fact and that of policy, backed by relevant
examples. Then types of reasoning, two of them, have followed. Thus deductive reasoning
which runs from general to specific details, and inductive reasoning, which departs from
particular issues to the general, which reveals more about how we often reason.

Unit assessment test

1. In what ways is critical thinking important to your life while studying at the present
moment?
2. How do claims of fact and value help you make better judgements on issues in your
life?
3. Which reasoning process (induction or deduction) is better than the other when solving
societal problems? Why?
4. What is the advantage of basing one’s arguments on analogy and authority in a
particular society?
5. How would you be vindicated by basing your arguments on cause?

THE END

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