Practical guides for communication To understand each other, we have three aspects: Functional (accurate in semantics) Ergonomic (easy to understand) Aesthetic (pleasure in sending and receiving)

Practical guides for communication Semantics Information and knowledge perceived by humans Human A Human B Human C 5 ? ? ? 5 dollars Context of A: dollars means US dollars US dollars 5 dollars for iPhone Context of C: knows iPhone, knows dollars means US dollars ? ? Context of B: no knowledge of dollars, nor iPhone

Semantics theory 1.Semantics is the meaning perceived by humans. 2.Each human being has a context for a thing presented to him or her. 3.Context is used to interpret the thing presented to come up with meaning. 4.Perceived meaning on the same thing can be different. 5.Communication is to make the semantics in the mind of the sender to what is perceived by the receiver.

Practical guides for communication 1.Do not guess and just ask 2.Do not say the product only but process as well (black box versus white box) 3.Do not bottom up but top down 4.Be aware of and provide background 5.Be aware of and provide introduction

Guide 1: Do not guess and just ask

Guide 1: Do not guess and just ask If you are not sure if your audience knows about what you said or if you have a need to know audience’s background knowledge to understand what you are going to say, you just ask audience: Can you follow me? Do I make sense to you? Is that all right to you? If you have not understood what others said, you just ask but not make assumption or guess. For instance, you can always ask your audience: Can you please to rephrase what you said? Excuse me? Pardon me?

Case study

Case - communication (A: student/employee; B: supervisor/manager) A: I have completed a report. Please read it. B: may not be able to respond to A. Consequence: B may not respond to A’s, as B does not know what the report A mentioned is. Analysis: A assumed that B knows what the report means when B receives A’s . One of the problems with A here is that A has made assumption of B’s knowledge about the report. How to solve this problem: In principle, let B know what the report is about or include their previous communication in the current message of A to B.

Suppose that A and B had a communication before about the report through as below: A: I am going to complete a report. B: Sure, send it to me for reading if you have completed it. Solution – including their previous communication ---- current communication ---- A: I have completed a report. Please read it. B: respond to A as follows: “I will read it and get back to you with my comments.” -- previous communication A: I am going to complete a report. B: Sure, send it to me for reading if you have completed it. -- end of previous communication Remark: Chinese approach: usually not include other’s message in communication. The previous makes A’s sense to A A and B previous communication