uch as 93% of all communicational effectiveness is "determined by nonverbal cutes," and another study found that "the impact of a performance was determined 7 percent by the words used, 38 percent by voice quality, and 55 percent by the nonverbal communication" (Heathfield, 2008). The types of communication are also distinguished by their purpose. Some communication is intended only to impart information, while other forms of communication are designed to persuade, provoke, engender creative output, or promote teamwork.
The communication process was modeled by Shannon in 1948 and found to have eight separate components:
. A destination (Foulger, 2004).
Shannon's model features a person-the information source-who creates a message (Foulger, 2004). The message is transmitted by a transmitter, such as a telephone, a person's voice and gestures, or a computer (Foulger, 2004). The signal flows through a channel such as air, radio waves, or the postal system (Foulger, 2004). Noise in the form of "secondary signals that obscure or confuse the signal carried" can interfere with the transmission, but the intended target of the communication is the receiver-the telephone or eyes and ears at the other end (Foulger, 2004). The destination is the person who "consumes and processes the message" (Foulger, 2004). Shannon's model has been adapted several times, as the original model is not a two-way model. A subsequent interactive model included feedback from the person who received the message to the one who sent it, and a transactional model incorporated a circular framework in which ongoing communication continues to flow between the two parties (Foulger, 2004).
While most people focus on how their verbal communication is designed, nonverbal communication tends to occur without their even being aware of it. It has been said that "Nonverbal communication speaks louder than words," and this is tr...