Communication notes

Week 1
Communication – the process of human beings responding to verbal and nonverbal behavior – a
human survival skill needed to maintain contact w/ the world
Types of communication
 Interpersonal – communication with ourselves
 Intrapersonal – communication in which parties involved consider one another as unique
individuals
 Small group
 Public
 Mass – transmission of messages to large, widespread audiences via broadcast
 Business
Scenarios found in funeral service may include public, mass, small group, and technology
communication
Four basic functions – social, physical, identity, and practical
Process – source ---- channel ---- receiver
Channel – medium through message goes from sender to receiver – effected by culture, skills,
style, physical/emotional state, experiences, expectations, attitude, memory
Receiver – decoder of message
Environment (noise factors) – physiological impairment (loss of sense), semantic (meaning of
words), syntactical noise (sentence construction), organizational (lack of structure), cultural
(different beliefs), physiological (stress/irritation)
Self concept – relatively stable set of perceptions each individual holds of themselves
Real self – how you think of yourself
Ideal self – who you want to be or think you should be
Public self – the self that others know
Self concept  self esteem – reflected on appraisal, significant others, individual roles
Low sense of self signs – sensitivity to criticism, inappropriate response to flattery hypercritical
attitude, blaming, feeling persecution, negativity to regular persecution, seclusion, timid,
anxiety
Anxiety in communication – biological and personality trait – influences self concept prophecy
Week 2
Focusing on Resumes
Basic must haves include: contact information, education, work experience
Optional: goal or objective, professional organizations, skill sets, accomplishments or certificates
Formatting – standard paper (8 ½ x 11), thin margins, one page, single space (sometimes double
to accentuate), bullet points, sentences efficient and to the point, simple font selections (size 12
font, avoid thin or light)
Substance of resume – review examples, use key words, include only most relevant information
and put it first, add pizazz to phrasing, avoid self promotion and givens, include key examples of
work relating to the job you are applying to
Call attention to important achievements
Only use headings for must needs
Proof read and update YEARLY

Week 3
Nonverbal communication
Comes into play with first call, arrangements, and funeral
First call – body language, professional clothing
Arrangements – Confidence/directness, reading nonverbals
Funeral – watch for body language and read people
Communication – 7% words, 38% tone, 55% body language
Clusters – pitch/tone, speed/rhythm of voice, pauses, posture/poses
Characteristics of nonverbal communication include:
- Relational – sympathy vs empathy
Empathy – Perceive another’s experience and communication perception back
Sympathy – feelings or impulses of compassion
Ambiguous – disconfirming response with more than one meaning, leaving the other party
unsure of responder’s position
Kinesics – study of body movement, gestures, and posture
Types of kinesics:
- Affect displays – facial gestures
- Illustrators – aid in description of what is said
- Regulators – act of maintaining control of back and forth
- Nature of speech between two people
- Adaptors – boredom movements
FACS – facial action coding system
Facsics – facial expressions
Ocalics – eye contact
Automatic nonverbal reactions:
- Reflective – blink at loud noise
- Kinesics – blinking (rapid = stress)
- Pupilometrics – study of eye pupil
- Emblems – sign languar for example
- Gestures
Types of nonverbal relationships:
- Substitutive – nonverbal replace verbal (nodding head yes instead of saying “yes”)
- Conflicting – Verbal/nonverbal contrast (nodding head yes while saying “no”)
- Complimenting – verbal/nonverbal alike/accompanied (nodding head yes while saying “yes)
- Accenting – Nonverbal message stresses verbal message (Says “yes” and stresses with body
language)
Posture and emotions – upset (rigid), nervous (stomach)
Haptics – touch
Keep physical appearance durable, comfortable, and functional
Proxemics – study of how people and animals use space
- Intimate: 18 inches or less, Personal: 18 inches – 4 feet, Social: 4 feet – 12 feet, Public: 12
feet – 25 feet
Chronemics – how humans use and structure time
Monochronic – on time/strict -------- Polychronic – flexible time
Week 4
 Listening
Hearing/reception (receiver decoding)  attending – process of focusing on certain stimuli 
understanding/assign meaning  remembering  responding
1) Informational listening – listening to understand the person or idea (dc or obit)
2) Evaluative listening – goal to judge quality/accuracy of remarks
3) Empathetic listening – goal is to help solve problem
4) Critical listening
Importance – details on death call, and removal (listening is 1st impression), arrangement
conference (10 min rule, listen for 10 minutes), funeral (details), day to day operation
Tips – impartial, identify main ideas, emotions, ask questions, analyze, paraphrase, take notes
Reading 10% retention, hearing words 20% retention, photos 30% retention, hearing and seeing
50% retention, receive and participate 70% retention, doing 80% retention
Ineffective listening
Pseudo listening – giving the appearance of listening
Conversation narcissist – turns attention to themselves with no relatability
Defensive listening – taking comments as personal attacks
Selective listening – receiver only responds to the message they find interesting
Ambushing – listening for details to use as an attack
Insulated listening – receiver ignores undesirable information
Insensitive listening – failure to realize the thoughts or feelings not expressed by the sender and
taking their words at face value
Poor listening
Lack of effort, message overload (excessive information) rapid thoughts, faulty assumption,
noise, or by preparing early response

Week 5
Video 1 – Foundations of Verbal Language
Approximately 2,000 languages worldwide as of 2019
40% is endangered with under 1,000 speakers
23 languages are majority
Linguistics – sounds, structure, rules of human language
Based on symbols
Alphabet based – pictographic
Ordered structural categories – nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc
Misinterpret
Relative terms – gain meaning through comparison
Emotive terms – connotation/denotation
Connotation terms – emotional association of a term
Denotation – objective, emotion-free meaning
Inarticulate – filler words (like, ummm, uhh)
Equivocal – language revolves around linguistics – context
Denotative – direct, explicit meaning “that’s dope”
Connotative – difficult to agree on exact meaning – is “that’s dope” referring to cool or drugs
Cybernetic process – how we identify – begins at 3 months old
Stimulus causes search for meaning
Language explosion theory – build communication from core language at early age
How quickly to we learn?
4-7 mo – 1st language like sounds 12 mo – 1st words
7-9 mo – 1st well formed syllables 18-80 mo – 1st word combinations
9-12 mo – melodic babbling 24 mo – 1st sentences
Average words - 12 mo – 3 , 18 mo – 22, 24 mo – 272, 3 years – 896
Significant other theory – language influenced by significant other – important in early
development
Language is dynamic – constantly changing
Around 4,000 definitions change yearly

Video 2 – language we use

5 main functions
1) Emotive – express emotions, feelings, attitudes
2) Phatic – social tasks, greetings, farewells, small talk
3) Cognitive – convey information
4) Rhetoric – influence thought and behavior – persuasive
5) Identifying – naming persons or things specifically
Demographics influence language
Dialect vs accent – can influence one another
Dialect – social or regional variation of language
Accent – pronunciation
Rule governed language – syntax vs semantics
Syntax – arrangement of words in sentence
Semantics – study of the meaning of words and phrases
Attitude shaper
- Credibility – believability of speaker or source of information
- Self esteem – degree of regard person hold for themselves
Equivocal terms – terms that have more than one dictionary meaning
Euphemism – pleasant term subs for less pleasant term
Jargon – special words or expressions used by a particular profession or group and are difficult
for others to understand
Slang – informal words or phrases (10% of language)
24 dialects in the us

Video 3 – written communication

Obit – send to newspaper, post online
Included – death information, family information, about decedent, service details

Week 6
Technology
Modes – email, text, blogs, website, video chat, social media, fax, voicemail, podcast, internet
The rise of digital casket display
Answering service, virtual register books
Be mindful of confidentiality, timeliness, manageability, permanent record, netiquette, legality,
and digital identity

Week 7
Public speaking
Includes: removal/transfer, arrangements, visitation, funeral service, celebrant, final respects,
cemetery
Planning – identify topic and objective
Key aspects – Purpose? (inform, persuade, entertain), reach audience, occasion
Introduction – engage audience
Thematic – complete sentence describing the central idea of a speech, usually in 1 st paragraph
Body – 2 or more main points, time sequence, space sequence, topic sequence
Conclusion – conclude speech
Supporting materials – audio/visual aids, electronic media, verbal aids
Extemporaneous speech – planned in advance, but presented in a direct, conversational
manner
Impromptu speech – given without preparation
Formal Speech – manuscript or memorization
Stage fright
- Facilitative apprehension – moderate level of anxiety about speaking before an audience
that helps improve a speaker’s performance
- Debilitative apprehension – intense level of anxiety about speaking before an audience
resulting in poor performance

Week 8
Video 1 – Interpersonal communication
Communication between parties involved in which they identify one another as unique ind.
Self disclosure – process of deliberately revealing information about oneself that is significant
and would not normally be known by others

Video 2 – Improving Interpersonal Communication

4 reactions
- Accept critique and change
- Accept critique and not change
- Accept critique and reject
- Ignore critique overall
Soft skills – personal attributes that enable someone to interact efficiently and harmoniously
with others
Verbal soft skills – volume (loudness of voice), pitch (high/low of voice), tone (quality of voice),
articulation (correct pronunciation), rate (speed)
Nonverbal soft skills – appropriate body language, personal presence, professional appearance,
attitude
Goal – seeking approval – cannot please everyone – gaining compliance
Right side of brain – show emotion 90%
Left side of brain – logical 10%
Women 3 strengths – ability to read body language/nonverbal cues, good listening skills,
empathy
Women 3 weaknesses – overly emotional, meandering, not authoritive
Men 3 strengths – commanding physical presence, direct, effective power display
Men 3 weaknesses – overly blunt, insensitive, too confident

Video 3 – Group communication

Removal, transfer, family, cemetery, instruction
Types: Learning, growth/problem solving, social
6 phases of group communication – forming, norming, storming, conforming, performing,
adjourning
Committee – small group for study, research, and talk about issue
Components – agenda, procedure, pace, participation, renew, forward thinking, & creativity
Quorum – minimum number of people to hold official meeting
Presiding officer/chair – facilitator
Amend – strike – adopt, recommendations/bylaws/rules, file reports, accept resignations,
approve bills
Consensus – agreement between two groups
Patterns in which communication flows
Leadership – established by election, appointed, volunteer, emergence
Authoritarian – direct by personal objective
Democratic – goals of members
Laissez-faire – group members do their own thing