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Module 1 — Effective
writing: Strategies
and principles
Course Guide   Module 1   Module 2a   Module 2b

Communication models

Communication theory offers many different models of how communication works. For this course, the following simple but useful model of communication will serve the purpose of providing us with common ground.

This model emphasizes several very important points:

  • Communication is circular, not linear.
  • Communication is not a one-way process: the receiver (audience) has a part in it.
  • Producing the desired response from the audience is the crucial concern.
  • The environment or context in which the communication takes place affects the process.
  • The audience response (feedback) affects future communication.

 

Based on a diagram in Maree Bentley, Mary Munter's Business Communication: Strategy and Skill, Prentice Hall, Singapore, 1991.

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