The Basics of Communication: A Relational Perspective - Softcover

Duck, Dr Steve; McMahan, David T

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1412981093 ISBN 13: 9781412981095

Publisher: SAGE Publications Inc, 2011

Synopsis

Written in a warm and lively style and packed with learning tools, The Basics of Communication offers an engaging look at the inseparable connection between relationships and communication. Steve Duck and David T. McMahan combine theory and application to introduce students to fundamental communication concepts. Their book also provides practical instruction on communicating interpersonally, in groups, in interviews and on making effective presentations. The authors encourage students to think critically, to link communication theory to their own experiences, and to improve their communication skills in the process.

About this title

Review

"The relational theme that the authors set up as a the novelty in an introductory textbook is what would prompt me to adopt it. . . . Something that makes this textbook different is the personal approach that Duck and McMahan use. They address the students as if they were talking to them. . . . Furthermore, the family communication and identity chapters are very appealing and not a common feature among textbooks." (David Chronet-Roses 2008-08-20)

"Every chapter presents a variety of materials and issue from communication, psychology, sociology, applied linguistics, and other social sciences and humanities. I have never seen such an interdisciplinary-oriented textbook." (Masahiro Masuda 2008-08-20)

"It is a fresh, new approach that will make conversations with students quite rich!" (Erin Sahlstein 2008-08-20)

"Duck and McMahan's attempt to integrate a relational component to all communication contexts cleverly integrates communication, theory and practice, with psychology, theory and practice."

(Michael Elkins 2008-08-20)

"This is an excellent text for the instructor frustrated with simple and simplistic renderings of communication as merely the skill of self-expression. It challenges both the instructor and the students to set aside what they have been taught by their culture and their media and to reconsider why we think of communication in individualistic terms and how that dominant framework shapes the relationships we engage and maintain."

 

(Lance Brendan Young 2008-08-20)

"This book is entertaining yet relevant, helps instructors connect with their students, and demonstrates the significance of communication as both everyday performance and scholarly endeavor."

 

(Branislav Kovacic 2008-08-20)

"This text is really the first to take advantage of theory and research that focus on the role of communication, relating, and dialogue in everyday life. The central strength is the focus on the ‘dynamic betweenness’ of human communication, and how communication, relationships, and social structures are constituted and reconstituted in everyday life." (Larry Erbert 2008-08-20)

I would welcome the opportunity to use this text based on the conversational writing style of the authors, the balance between theory and application of this information to daily relationships, and the end of chapter features for discussion. (Ann Marie Jablonowski 2008-08-20)

"An in-depth basic communication text with easy to understand examples for each topic area."

 

(Quinton Davis 2008-08-20)

"I think that this may be the best book on the basics of communication in terms of organization and relationship between theory and reality, bravo to the authors for their fine work." (Brian Cogan 2008-08-20)

About the Author

Steve Duck taught in the United Kingdom before taking up the Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Iowa.  He has been a professor of communication studies, an adjunct professor of psychology, a former Dean’s Administrative Fellow and is now Chair of the Rhetoric Department. He has taught interpersonal communication courses, mostly on relationships but also on nonverbal communication, communication in everyday life, construction of identity, communication theory, organizational leadership, and procedures and practices for leaders. More recently he has taught composition, speaking and rhetoric, especially for STEM students. By training an interdisciplinary thinker, Steve has focused on the development and decline of relationships, although he has also done research on the dynamics of television production techniques and persuasive messages in health contexts. Steve has written or edited 60 books on relationships and other matters and was the founder and, for the first 15 years, the Editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. His book Meaningful Relationships: Talking, Sense, and Relating won the G. R. Miller Book Award from the Interpersonal Communication Division of the National Communication Association. Steve co-founded a series of international conferences on personal relationships. He won the University of Iowa’s first Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2001 and the National Communication Association’s Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award in 2004 for “dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, acceptance of diversity, and forthrightness.” He was the 2010 recipient of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Helen Kechriotis Nelson Teaching Award for a lifetime of excellence in teaching and in the same year was elected one of the National Communication Association’s Distinguished Scholars. He hopes to sit on the Iron Throne and be famous.

Edition details

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1412981093
• ISBN 13: 9781412981095
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 465