Over the years, the meanings of words do change and for many different reasons. I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of these words. Enjoy! Some words have changed meanings for technological reasons. 1. A tweet used to be the sound a bird makes. Now it’s a 140 character message you type on a social networking site where people share things from political news to what they had for dinner. 2. The word friend is now a verb. Where I used to have a friend over for dinner, I now “friend” someone on Facebook and tell them what I had for dinner. 3. Text used to be a noun meaning the original words and...
On Monday, I talked about decluttering your communication by taking out the unnecessary words and phrases. Today I'd like to talk about Cluttered Communication or Cluttered Speech. While searching the web last week, I found an article about cluttered speech on a website devoted primarily to stammering. The article talks mostly about the author's experience with both stammering and cluttering which had made it even more difficult for him to hold a conversation with people. The side bar defined cluttering: "What is cluttering? Cluttering is defined as a communication disorder characterised by a rapid rate of speech that may come out too fast without proper pronunciation and be somewhat erratic. Cluttered thoughts can make it difficult to express yourself clearly....
Wednesdays are usually the times when I share an obscure word or a deeper meaning of a commonly used word. Since we've been celebrating Dr. Seuss this week, I thought I'd ask you all to share your own favorite made up words/terms this Word of the Week. Dr. Seuss made up silly, nonsense words and terms for his books. It's what made his books so much fun. Some made up words eventually find their way into the dictionary. Many of the words we commonly use today were made up by a man named William Shakespeare. My family has made up words and terms. My daughter and son made up the word "nork," a combination of the word nerd and dork which they affectionately use...
Nine Ways to Listen By JoJo Tabares Listening is the most important communication skill. It's rule #1 in JoJo's Communication Handbook. Listening is so important because it allows us to understand our audience which aids us in tailoring our message to them. Listening helps us know when someone has misunderstood us, is angry with us, or is confused. Listening to others is a gift we give them as they have a chance to communicate what is important to them. People have asked me HOW? How do we listen, really listen to others? What do we listen for? Listening may sound easy, but it's actually a very complicated skill and it's essential for ANY relationship. It could be an entire book because listening is more...
Several recent studies show that email is deceptively more difficult that most people are aware. Research reveals that 78% of people believe they are clearly communicating and 89% of receivers believe they are correctly interpreting an email. However, the unfortunate reality is that the receiver correctly interprets an email message only 56% of the time! Why the discrepancy? Email is devoid of body language, facial expressions, vocal inflection, gestures, and other nonverbal cues which make up 93% of face-to-face communication! Though an email is easy and convenient to write, we often forget that the other person may not interpret what we type the way we meant it especially since the only things the receiver can use to interpret our email...
