Communicate! [Paperback]

Rudolph F. Verderber (Author), Kathleen S. Verderber (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0495095834 | ISBN-13: 978-0495095835 | Publication Date: February 23, 2007 | Edition: 12

Continually praised by reviewers for its clear and concise writing style, this ground breaking and market-leading textbook is theory-based with a skill building and competency orientation. The authors provide lively, contemporary examples to ground theory, to increase comprehension, and to help you become skillful communicators. COMMUNICATE! encourages active learning through well-designed analytical and skill-building activities, video scenarios, ethics cases, speech action-step exercises, and sample speeches. This book will help you understand theory, and help you improve your communication skills. The twelfth edition of COMMUNICATE! reflects important changes in the field and has been updated to reflect the issues and interests of today's college students.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This textbook is a comprehensive look at human communication with an emphasis on public address. It is the perfect tool if you are teaching a basic hybrid speech communication class. The textbook is fantastically organized taking the reader from an understanding of how human communication works, how we make perceptions, how those established perceptions shape our self-concept and our communicative style. Both Rudy and Kathie Verderber have been working in the field of speech communication before our field started doing actual research on human communicative behavior. Since, the authors have integrated trusted research, and it's only enhanced the book as it continues to go through later editions. The book is so detailed that the authors have integrated technology to meet the needs of contemporary students."

"I think [Communicate] stands out above the other options for us in terms of readability, good content coverage, and interest levels for our students. Communicate provides a comprehensive journey through the introduction to human communication course. The complete content and interactive nature hold the reader's attention and interest. Engaging examples that are relevant to the reader fill the text and make the concepts understandable."

"I like the authors' attempt to incorporate a variety of pedagogical and learning styles into each chapter (e.g., what would you do, observe and analyze, cartoons, figures, etc.). Additionally, I think the authors succeed in presenting the material in an organized, systematic, and coherent manner. Overall, I believe the text works well in meeting my course goals."

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 12 edition (February 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0495095834
• ISBN-13: 978-0495095835
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Dictating Sleep, Volumes and Volumes of It, September 13, 2002

By 

TastyBabySyndrome "Matthew Lewis, author of M... ("Daddy Dagon's Daycare" - Proud Sponsor of the Little Tendril Baseball Team, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Communicate! (Paperback)

Perhaps this book is considered, by some people, to be a college-level volume, but the simplification of the subject is of the most demeaning of sorts. It begins by teaching you the most basic of ideas, the communication process (entailing the meanings of words like context, participants, messages, channels, noise, feedback, and so on), drudges through some page-filler slush about why we should communicate, and finally, in chapter twelve, gets to a little something on public speaking - what I thought the book, considering its useage, was designed for.

To illustrate the simplicity of this book, the content (broke into four sections) is as follows:
(1) Foundations of Communication, the first 100 pages - including some topics like verbal and nonverbal communication, plus the perception of self and others.
(2) Interpersonal Communication, the next 110 pages - includes topics ranging from listening and job interviews to communicating in relationships.
(3) Group Communication, ranging at only 20 plus pages of content - tells you how to participate in groups and about leadership in groups.
(4) Public Speaking, the last 160 pages - finally touches on how to pick a topic, research it, adapting to an audience, and takes a lot of time differentiating between informative vs. persuasive speaking.

If you need something to teach you the ABC's of speech, perhaps you might want to look into this. Still, if you actually want to know something more than the most basic thoughts on this subject, I would advise skipping this altogether and thanking yourself for it later.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent And Thorough Text, July 8, 2006

By 

Jason Liu (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Communicate! (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac) (Paperback)

The previous reviewer who has mentioned that this particular text is rather demeaning perhaps needs to re-examine his statement. He laments about the text being too simplistic and emphasizing too much on the basic values of communication. However this type of erroneous approach is the reason why these reviewers fail to communicate their ideas clearly- it is obvious that they themselves need to learn the art of communication better.

The book is extremely detailed in explaining the necessity of communication and many basic concepts. This is extremely important because too often we forget about the reasons behind communication. The book provides a comprehensive sketch on every form of communication- examples are provided and sections are clearly dilineated. Is there anything wrong with explaining the basic functions of communication? The author provides six of them: to meet needs, to enhance and maintain our sense of self, to fulfil social obligations, to develop relationships, to exchange information, and to influence others. It is often important for many of us to be reminded of the reason behind why we communicate. It may sound boring and uninteresting, but such knowledge provides us with a solid foundation on the principles of communication and why we shouldn't take the art of communicating for granted.

This is not a book for those who intend to take a crash course on how communicating can earn you more money in 30 days. Rather, it is the type of book that clearly explains all the various elements that are a part of communication in our day to day lives. This is a perfect text for both students who wish to improve their communication skills, and for teachers who plan to use it as a classroom text or reference on the subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hello, content where are you?, May 20, 2010

By 

shomaster - See all my reviews

This review is from: Communicate! (Paperback)

This textbook was required for my communication class. At first I thought it was kind of interesting looking at the aspects of communication that are often overlooked. Then I realized that there wasn't really that much content. The book is definitely a bit repetitive throughout each chapter. Each chapter discusses its topic, but the review material which is generally inserted into each chapter is extremely useless, because it is very much worded like the chapter is. For example, the chapter will introduce a new concept or vocabulary and then on the side of the page include a definition for the word. The definition won't really expand upon or clarify what has been said in the main text of the chapter, it will be very much the same. Since the new concepts and vocabulary is highlighted, there is no reason to include the side definitions as presented in this book. Chapter summaries seem to be useless as well, I guess unless you don't plan on reading the chapter. The book discusses how to give different types of presentations, so there is a bit of value, but I don't think there is anything you might not be able to find online. As for its currentness, the book has very up to date topics and examples. I would have to say that some of the true communication stories are interesting. Other than that the currentness imposed on the book doesn't add anything and often feels awkward. The book mentions current trends, events, people, and even websites, but I don't feel like it is necessary and I think it will date the book very quickly as it ages.