With this new edition of Communication Works, we hope to help foster an appreciation of the kinds of communication understandings and skills students need in order to function as competent communicators in the twenty-first century. We all bring different backgrounds and experiences to the exploration of communication. We can use our past to enrich our present exploration of the myriad roles that communication plays in our professional and personal, online and offine lives. To this end, our approach and organization strengthen students in their pursuit of learning how communication works by giving them a way to explore how to:
(1) Enhance their communication skills,
(2) Assess the extent to which students are prepared to meet the challenges posed by their living in an increasingly socially diverse society,
(3) Make ethical decisions regarding the communicative behaviors available to them,
(4) Identify how media and technology are changing the nature of the communication environment in which they interact,
(5) And think more critically about communication.
Part 1 The Essentials of Communication
Part 2 Interpersonal Communication
Part 3 Communicating in the Small Group
Part 4 Communicating to the Public
Appendix
Mass Communication and Media
Literacy
Glossary
Answer Key
Index