Demonstrative Communication Paper
Tinita Hughes
BCOM/275
11/3/14
Donald Marrin
Demonstrative Communication Paper
With Demonstrative Communication, things as simple as, staring down at the floor or up in the air, avoiding eye contact, fidgeting, smiling, or your tone of voice, are all forms of nonverbal communication and subsequently referred to as Demonstrative Communication. This basically means that other than talking or writing something down, we can still communicate in other ways, such as with facial expressions and body language or movements. Demonstrative Communication is important when you are not communicating verbally or without writing and choose to use gestures or some sort of body language to communicate your message. Because communication is defined as the process of receiving and sending messages to and from one another. During the communication process, Demonstrative Communication could be either non-effective or effective for both the sender and the receiver. This is why first and foremost, it involves listening and responding to the intended message of the sender or the receiver carefully. Often, our nonverbal communication signals can reveal just as much as if we had used spoken word communication to tell someone something. With some types of nonverbal communication, we may at times, unintentionally communicate a lot of information about ourselves and our state of mind at one time or another. For instance, with facial expressions, if we go to a restaurant and eat something that does not taste pleasant or that is not the way we want it, we may use nonverbal demonstrative communication by frowning, shaking our head, or grimacing, show that we are displeased with the food. Those around us who may see our facial expression or gestures may form the conclusion that we do not like the food or that something else is wrong. Another example may be, that if a person smiles it may be taken as a facial expression that shows positivity, whereas a frown would be taken as a facial expression that exhibits negativity about something but then again a grin can be taken as either positive or negative. In some cases, it could be taken as arrogant or untrustworthy and consequently, would be seen as negative. When a person is grinning about something humorous or comical, it would be taken as a facial expression that is positive. Occasionally, Demonstrative Communication can be taken the wrong way, by the sender and the receiver of a message. Good eye contact can be a very important tool to use with certain people because it demonstrates to others that you have confidence and that you have knowledge about a particular subject, but if a person does something such as, stares down at the floor or up in the air, then it may be identified as negative body language, in which it might not demonstrate a sense of confidence about themselves or for the particular subject. Depend on the culture or custom, this type of body language may have different meanings than others such as in some cultures making direct eye contact may be considered inappropriate and taken as rude or express a sign of disrespect. According to Sayler (2010), eye contact can be indirect or direct, and knowing how to mix them is a key part of the art of building relationships and determine if it is effective or ineffective, positive or negative for the sender or receiver. In Demonstrative Communication, aspects like your tone of voice, volume or your enunciation are forms of vocal communication or sometimes known as Paralinguistic, which is separate from the type of language we think about. When things are communicated in a strong tone of voice, it can be interpreted in many ways, positively or negatively. Those same things can be communicated softly and slowly and can be taken as not being truthful, not being knowledgeable or having little interest on the subject, which in turn could be interpreted as negative and
