COMMUNICATING
Nigel Atkin
Veracity: The Quality of Communication
A
“definition” is a statement of the exact meaning of a word. In English and other languages, definitions form the basis of meaning for consistent understanding. When writing an academic essay, a legal document, an article, or book, definitions are the building blocks for agreement and comprehension.
Construction Analogy In real estate, such as your office, home, or apartment, builders and contractors work to ensure ceilings and walls and windows and doors are all “level, square, plumb,, and true.” In the trades, level means that a straight line is perfectly horizontal; plumb is the word used to refer to a perfectly vertical line. Square is a 90-degree corner reflecting the intersection of both level and plumb. True represents being square on both the level and plumb axis on all sides of the unit being built or installed. In construction, jobsite tools include a “spirit level,” where the centre air bubble in encased liquid denotes pure horizontal in various
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lengths of straight engineered metal; a “plumb-bob,” a weight on a string that uses gravity to mark a perfect vertical line; and a “T-square, framing square or speed square” is used to ensure the horizontal is square with the vertical.
of symbols, signs, and behaviours; and the goals of communicating are to inform, persuade, motivate, or achieve mutual understanding. Communication can be personal or mass-mediated, one-way or multichanneled.
When writing an academic essay, a legal document, an article, or book, definitions are the building blocks for agreement and comprehension.
Mass-mediated refers to many possible means of transmission— radio, television, telephone, social media, podcasts, etc. Multichanneled could be reading a book, talking on the cell phone, and watching YouTube or Instagram, possible on the same subject at the same time. In communicating there are many variables.
In unison, those tools used correctly ensure a building is “true.” If a building, window, or door is not true, few will consume it and the product will not sell or stand the rigour of time.
Attribution, Precedent, and At Least Two Sources
Written Communication Writing academic essays, news articles, legal documents, or books are like that—where what is “true” is the preferred end product of the words assembled.
For instance in academia, essays to convince and theses to advance the depth of human knowledge are supported by attribution in the form of references as to who supports or contradicts a certain position on a subject. These are compiled at the end of a work in a bibliography so others can understand the trail the scholar took toward his/her conclusion.
Communication is by definition the process by which information and knowledge are exchanged between individuals through a common system BC Notaries Association
Attaining credibility in communicating is carried out in good practice on a daily basis in a number of fields.
Volume 29 Number 4 Winter 2020
