Natasha L. Clough
COM 200 Interpersonal Communication
Instructor LaKeitha Givens
October 9, 2011
Compatibility Shown Through Text Talks Passion can be spoken through all language. Conversations begin when people first meet each other and continue in the future based on the first impressions made on that first encounter. The way we are able to interact in conversation usually determines our communication levels with others and passion usually stands out boldly. For this week’s assignment, I visited the Language Style Matching website and completed the exercise using a text message conversation I had held with a very close and intimate friend of mine. My language style matching score, or LSM, was 0.87 and it surprisingly accurate to me. I started my paper with the statement that passion can be spoken through all languages. I am a firm believer in that statement because passion talks. Whether it is spoken verbally or nonverbally, passion has a way of revealing itself. It starts with a one on one conversation between two people and expands from there. Bruce Bower (2010) stated that “A subtle, surprisingly mundane type of banter lies at the heart of romance. Love's flames get fanned when a man and woman similarly employ words such as I, it, but and under in everyday conversations, a new study suggests.”(p. 1). In his report, he examines through research how much people pay attention to each other during conversation. I agree with the idea that how much attention each party pays to the other is revealed during conversation. This is the way solutions are developed for problem issues through compromise, agreements are made, and decisions are finalized in conversations. “Whenever people communicate, they attempt to share meaning by encoding messages in symbols and by interpreting the symbols used in the messages of others. These symbols may be verbal, consisting of words in oral or written form, or nonverbal, such as tone of voice, posture, facial expression, or gestures.”(K. Sole, 2010, p. 70). During my conversation via text message with my friend, I was able to detect his mood and tone through the words he used in context when he responded back to me and I truly understood his message. After submitting our texts, in the feedback for my LSM, it was stated that 0.87 is particularly above average and this reading surprised me on how accurate it was. I feel that the language style matching is a comprehensive way to predict the quality in interpersonal relationships because it rated how much each person pays attention to the other in conversation. I am able to hold any kind of conversation with my friend because we listen to each other and take into account what is being said to one another. We have been involved with each other for ten years and our communication has grown to be so much better over the years with maturity. This is the main