2.

3 MODEL BASED ON ULRIC NEISSERS WORK

Ulric Neissers work is somewhat harder to put into a model. Neisser himself does not present us with a model but we can construct a simple one to help us understand his writings (please refer to Figure 2.4):

Figure 2.4: Ulric Neissers model of communication Figure 2.4 tries to capture the basic ideas of Neissers work in the psychology of cognition and perception and apply it to the writing process. It presents perception as exploratory and recursive. We explore our world or a specific phenomenon guided by our desires, needs, ideas and images of the world. This exploration gives us a new perception or new information of the world which, in turn, affects our needs, desires and worldviews. This again changes our perception of the world and so we begin our exploration again. This cycle continues as long as we are still learning and exploring. This model is especially relevant in written communication. We write guided by our ideas, beliefs, and motivations and as we write, we explore, discover and learn. The information we produce triggers us to start thinking of new ideas. These new ideas influence our beliefs, and so the exploration cycle begins again. If you combine this model with those by Shannon and Jakobson, you will come up with a rather good picture of the writing process which we can now see as motivated, exploratory and recursive.

2.4 MODEL BASED ON MICHAEL POLANYIS WORK

Michael Polanyi was a philosopher whose work contributed significantly to our understanding of written communication. He argues that a person needs to be actively engaged in the process of knowing, and highlights the importance of the tacit dimension, the fact that we know more than we can say and that we often say more than we realise. The model is simple. A person discovers meaning in an experience or context, for instance, he watched a beautiful sunrise. Subsequently, the person writes a text to express his appreciation and to convey the meaning he had gained from the experience. He may write a poem, novel, essay, letter or journal entry. Someone else reads the text in another context (for instance, by the beach) and derives meaning from it. Of course, in some instances, the reader may be the writer himself. An important implication of this model is that the reader may not have shared in the original experience but still derives meaning from the text. However, the meaning that the reader discovers in the text may not be that is intended by the writer. In other words, a text cannot convey an experience, only meanings. You should also not that some texts do not convey a single, unequivocal meaning to all readers. These are texts we call literature. Both Polanyis and Neissers models highlight the importance of interpretation in written communication. In general, all the four models of communication could be summarised in Table 2.1. Table 2.1: Summary of Communication

2.5 SAOME IDEAS ABOUT COMMUNICATION

Communication is a dynamic process. Over the years, there have been changes not only in the way we communicate but also in the code or language form used. This section introduces us briefly to signs, symbols and abbreviations commonly used in written communication as these may have meanings and interpretations unique to particular contexts, and a failure to understand this can also cause a breakdown in communication.

2.5.1 Signs, Symbols and Abbreviations

Signs, symbols and abbreviations are important in written communication. In fact, signs and symbols are both primitive precursors of the written language as well as important modern supplements to it. They preceded the Western alphabet as a form of writing. However, the meanings they convey is culture-bound and may or may not get interpreted correctly, thereby affecting the effectiveness of the communication. A sign can be anything that is used to point to, or stand for, something else. It can be used to represent ideas, experiences, images, objects, feelings and concepts. In a way, words are also signs, not unlike the painted metal plates on pillars often found by the roadside. The advantage of using signs in written communication is that the actual objects represented by the signs need not be present when we write about them. However, it is important to choose the correct sign to use for the right occasion. A No Parking sign says a thousand words if it is found beside a house, but would probably create confusion if it is put beside a swimming pool or located inside a gymnasium. When we use signs to refer to complex things, we call them symbols. Symbols have complex meanings in addition to literal ones. In some cases, a symbol may have more than one meaning, some of which may be culture-bound. Take the picture of a rice stalk, for example. In countries like Japan and Malaysia, this denotes fruitfulness and abundance; sometimes, even fertility (please refer to Figure 2.5).

Figure 2.5: The rice plant is a symbol of fertility and abundance

The advent of technology today means that written communication has taken on new forms such as email and SMS. Increasingly, emoticons and shorthand notations (acronyms) are used to convey messages. Commonly used emoticons are shown in Table 2.2: Table 2.2: Meanings of Emoticons

E-mail communities are also increasingly using abbreviations, such as those shown in Table 2.3, which have taken on universal meanings in written communication. Table 2.3: Shorthand Notation