For this particular assignment I decided to read the responses to John Stewart’s article, “Communicating and Interpersonal Communication”. Two people had responses for this article that Stewart wrote and both brought up different points. Chales Thebado talks about the idea that communication is more than just what’s passed back and forth but there is a deeper meaning. He quotes, “He explains that communication is more than just the information being given back and forth it is about who starts it, what it is about and the type of response”. An example of two people conversing for what looks like because they have similar hobbies but it is rather an inquiry of the others response is found in the reading. The second response came from Peter Hutchings who talked about the fact people must be recognized as unique in order to communicate interpersonally. Peter quotes, “Interpersonal communication takes place when people connect personally and recognize each other as unique individuals rather than as role-fillers and cultural representatives”. To really inhale what someone is saying you must recognize their individuality.
The first response to unit 7 readings that contained influence of Stewart was that of Sherif Elwakil in her response to “When Miss America Was Always White”. Sherif begins her response with facts from the article and a quick synopsis of what it was about. She then goes to her interpretation of the meaning taken from the article. They say, “I came out with the idea of how these pieces of pre-programmed information in her head lead to communications and communication faults in her life”. Then after sharing their interpretation, which is an invitation of our responses to it they offers an idea of their own. They quote, “Its quite possible that she could have either an extreme maintenance of “self” in her communication with whites as a result of inherit belief that whites look down on her, or the complete opposite, that she in fact does not maintain her self for the same exact reason.” Stewart talks about how good interpersonal communication is about one person actually caring about the response they are going to get. I feel Sherif shows this quality when offering ideas of their own to see what we respond.
The second person who contained qualities of IPC that Stewart talked about is Thomas Ireland who read the article by Goleman. Thomas begins his response by going through the main points made by Goleman quickly and then he himself brings up a few points of his own. The first point that Thomas brings up is in relation to the story of the two kids running in the playground and one shows empathy toward the other. “This information is worth considering because it can provide perspective for a situation and make you more apt to deal with it tactfully and appropriately” said Ireland. Him bringing up points to reader is asking the reader to consider what he is saying showing it’s not just about the flow of information back and forth.
The third and final response that relates to Stewart’s article is by Jung Ming Lee in her response of “Meaning and Values”. Jung Ming summarizes the main points that the authors are trying to make in their article which is consistent with all three responders. She then does something extremely similar to what the other two classmates have done. She offers her own point separate from the article which makes the reader think about that and now we have a chance to respond to it. This is what Stewart is talking about in how the conversations must have one side interested in the response to their point. Jung Ming’s point was, “I think it is easy to lose our identity while interacting with the others. We often have to become someone else than our own, and have to do certain things that we do not want in order to avoid of getting negative comments and dislikes.”
