How to Use This Book

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How to Use This Book

This book is about communication. Communication is an essential life skill because it is the way we get along with other people. was written as a textbook for COM 1090, Interpersonal Communication, at Prince George’s Community College. The stated course objectives are that upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Present orally and in writing examples of interpersonal skills through role play assessment.

2. Research and analyze interviewing techniques as they relate to interpersonal skills.

3. Analyze perception and relate it to various communication settings.

4. Conduct an interview using appropriate language, listening skills, nonverbal skills, and response skills.

5. Identify and analyze barriers to multicultural understanding.

6. Demonstrate and evaluate skills for enhancing multicultural communication.

7. Evaluate orally and in writing intrapersonal skill concepts.

The book was written as an “all-in-one” textbook. It contains not only the lessons, but also videos that are essential to the lessons, and exercises to measure the student’s mastery of the concepts. When watching the videos, students should take notes; with rare exceptions, the material in the videos is not repeated in the text but is an essential part of the text.

A fundamental concept of pedagogy and andragogy is “the one who does the work does the learning.” To help the student do the learning, various exercises are included throughout the book. They are in italics and identified by an arrow like this:=>> While instructors are free to use these or not use these, a great deal of thought has been put into creating them and I believe they provide the framework for a solid class discussion. This being a communications class, I believe these exercises should form the basis for class discussion, and class discussion should represent a substantial part of the grade. In an online class, they provide a series of exercises that will ensure the students have mastered the material.

Students should annotate and take notes, as explained here. You can highlight and annotate in LibreTexts by clicking the page symbol in the upper right corner of any page. By using the annotation sidebar you could also insert your answers to the questions asked and also to your notes about the videos, keeping in mind that I generally have not repeated the content of the videos in the text. (LibreTexts annotation capability requires registration.)

For those who prefer working with a printed version, LibreTexts can produce a pdf version of the full book. The pdf version provides plenty of space to make notes including about the videos.

Feedback is welcome from instructors and students: whitakjx@pgcc.edu.