Lesson 3 — Activity 1: Approaches to Communication


Volume and tone affect the way your audience will understand you.

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So far in Theme 1, you have learned that many factors play a role in communication. The manner in which we speak is one factor we are often unaware of considering because it comes to us very naturally in most situations.

When we speak or write, the message we communicate changes depending on the way we use our voice. That is, the way our message sounds to the receivers can influence the way they understand our message. We need to consider the following elements of the voice we choose to use:

  • tone
  • volume
  • mood


Tone refers to our attitude toward the topic (subject) of our communication. It is sometimes easier to recognize tone when someone is speaking rather than writing, but we can understand a message better when the tone is clear. The tone of a message might be described as serious, funny, respectful, rude, calm, excited, or angry.

Volume refers to how loudly a message is communicated. Again, this is usually quite obvious in spoken communication, but we can sometimes recognize volume in writing. For example, using CAPITAL LETTERS in e-mail messages can be thought of as shouting.






Mood refers to the feeling we get from a message or the feeling the speaker is trying to create. The mood is influenced by the tone the writer or speaker uses and by the topic of the communication. Mood might be described as sad, happy, tense, relaxed, bored, angry, or peaceful.


The way that we use the language we choose, whether it is formal or informal, will affect the way our message is received. Our speech and our writing may come across to our audience in one of three ways, according to the voice we use:


  • passive
  • aggressive
  • assertive



    • Passive communication refers to the way we speak or write when we don't feel very strongly about an issue or perhaps really don't care about an issue at all.

    Aggressive communication refers to the way we speak or write when we feel very strongly about an issue and we are not interested in hearing what other people have to say about the issue.

    Assertive communication refers to the way we speak or write about an issue when we feel very strongly about it. We are aware that we need to express ourselves clearly while taking others' opinions and feelings into consideration.

    Passive




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    Aggressive



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    Assertive



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    Each of these styles of communication can be effective in different situations. We need to consider which one we want to use if we want our message to be received.

    If we truly do not have an opinion about a topic, we may respond passively to a question about it. If we have a strong opinion, but voice it passively, our opinion will be ignored because the choice of passive communication affects how the audience perceives the message.

    Similarly, if we feel very strongly about an issue and express ourselves very aggressively, we may not gain support for our opinion because we are not considering what other people think or feel.

    However, if we express ourselves assertively and pay attention to what others have to say, we may be more successful in getting our message across.




    Digging Deeper!


    Do you have a passive, aggressive, or assertive personality?

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