A major requisite for effective intercommunication is making sure the receiver understands the message sent. Effective communication is not so much that you send a message ûverbal or nonverbal ûbut that the person you are communicating with gets the message and responds. If not, miscommunication and misunderstandings may result. A prime example of an underlying cause of miscommunication may be found in the different communication styles, content and method of interpretation of males and females. Research strongly sufgests that therd are gender-specific communication traits. The interest in and importance of the topic can be found not only in scholarly journals and books but also in bestsellers.
Relationship therapist John Gray's 1992 bestselling book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus explains the difference in communication styles of men and women by humorously suggesting that they are from different planets, and that these differences contribute to communication conflicts. Gray posits that men and women often appear to be speaking entirely different languages, even when the vocabulary, syntax, and grammar they use are the same. Linguist Deborah Tannen, whose 1990 book You Just Don't Understand: Women and Men in Conversation, on the New York Times Best Seller list for nearly four years, brought gender differences in communication style to the general public. Tannen contends that differences between the communication styles of women and men are the result of more than culture and socialization, but are inherent in the basic make up of each gender.
In a more scholarly work, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz (1993) contends that among other things, the field of communication includes "the study of meaning, the study of how people convey ideas for themselves and to one another" (p. xv). Saying the same thing may have different meanings for men and for women. Tannen (1990) argues that men and women have different styles of conversing,...