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74 Examples of Communication

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Communication is the art of expressing ideas, emotions and meaning such that other people understand you. This can take the form of conversation, public speaking, writing, entertainment, visual information, design and anything else that expresses information. Communication is essentially a social activity that often depends on a shared language, culture and background. Nevertheless it is also possible to communicate remarkably accurately using none of these things. For example, a painting may communicate the same idea across all cultures reasonably consistently. The following are common communication techniques.
Ethos
Influencing with authority or reference to an authority.
Pathos
An appeal to emotion.
Logos
Influencing with logical arguments.
Anticipating objections
Considering how people will react and planning to handle it.
Asking for permission
Asking for permission to interject or to offer an opinion.
Signaling
Trying to convey that you have social status or virtue.
Countersignaling
Downplaying yourself as a show of confidence.
Provoking
Designing statements to provoke a vivid response.
Devil's Advocate
Defending an unpopular opinion you don't really believe in order to encourage productive thought and debate.
Composure
Not allowing others to disrupt your personal presence and calm.
Empathy
Feeling what others feel.
Sympathy
Showing that you care without directly sharing an emotion.
Civility
The process of politely resolving differences within the rules of a society and culture.
Creative tension
Creating disharmony and tension in order to resolve things or spark creativity.
Call to action
Directly requesting that the audience take a specific action.
Nudges
Subtle suggestions that avoid being commanding.
Active silence
The purposeful use of silence in communication.
Active constructive responding
Providing encouraging feedback in a responsive and engaged way.
Emotion labeling
Identifying emotions in a non-judgmental way e.g. "so you feel sad about it."
Active listening
Doing things to show that you're listening.
Listening with intent to understand
A more advanced technique than active listening that involves actually trying to fully understand someone including the emotions or strategies behind words.
Half-listening
Scanning for something you need to know or respond to without really listening. Important where communication is mostly meaningless.
Politeness
Using formal language and following norms to show consideration and respect to others.
Compliments
Saying nice things about people.
False Praise
Insincere compliments.
Constructive criticism
Offering criticism in a positive way that focuses on potential improvement.
Cross-cultural communication
The ability to communicate with people who don't share your exact cultural background and experiences.
Small talk
Talking about minor topics simply to be social.
Touching base
Contacting someone with small talk in order to keep a social connection alive.
Message framing
Carefully crafting a message for some intended effect.
Choice architecture
Carefully structuring choices for decision making.
Calibrated questioning
Asking carefully crafted questions.
Closed-ended question
A question that demands specific information.
Open-ended question
A question that allows for a creative answer from any direction.
Reframing
Repositioning or restating what you or someone else has said.
Storytelling
Telling stories.
Humor
The use of humor to have fun, increase engagement, build rapport and convey your personality.
Inside jokes
Humor that references shared experiences. Used to build rapport.
Wit
The ability to say the perfect thing at the perfect time.
Cruel wit
The use of wit in a fearsome or unkind way.
Criticism avoidance
Communicating with intent to avoid criticism. Often involves saying nothing specific, helpful or useful.
Mirroring
Matching the tone of others when communicating with them.
Taking the high road
Refusing to allow others to drag you down to their level of behavior.
Candor
Volunteering information that might be useful.
Anecdotal evidence
Presenting examples as proof.
Steelman
Strengthening someone's argument before countering it.
Straw Man
Countering an argument that your opponent did not make.
View from nowhere
An attempt at objectivity or fairness that is detached from reality.
Moot point
Offering unhelpful information or questions.
Analogy
Explaining one thing using its similarities to another thing.
Leadership
Communicating to get people moving in the same direction.
Charm offensive
A communication campaign designed to increase good will.
Charismatic authority
A feeling of authority that resonates from your personal presence.
Expectation setting
Clearly communicating your expectations of others.
Managing expectations
Directly communicating what you will and will not do.
Visual communication
Communication with any visual means including images or body language.
Art
Pure creative expression in a visual form.
Music
A compelling type of artistic expression that influences thoughts, mood and emotion.
Marketing
Using communication to sell.
Dumbing down
Oversimplifying things.
Plain language
Using the most general and direct words to express something.
Paraphrasing
Summing up something.
Nuance
Using exactly the right words often with many layers of complexity.
Civil inattention
Ignoring others to create social comfort.
False dilemma
The incorrect assertion that there are only limited choices in a particular situation.
Self-monitoring
Trying to be aware of how you are perceived.
Eye contact
Communicating with the eyes, surprisingly effective.
Body language
Communicating with position, pose, gestures and movement.
Social cues
Subtle communication that requires much social perception to grasp.
Overcommunication
Dull communication with no point or repetitive communication.
Tagline
A short catchy statement that is memorable.
Rule of three
The principle that lists of three things are usually most effective.
Peak-end rule
The theory that people mostly remember the start and end of a speech.
Rhetorical Device
Well known ways to influence

Communication

This is the complete list of articles we have written about communication.
Action Plan
Ad Hominem
Analogy
Barriers
Anticipating Objections
Body Language
Building Trust
Business Comm.
Candor
Comm. Process
Criticism
Civil Inattention
Devils Advocate
Direct Language
Comm. Channels
Discourse
Comm. Complexity
Dumbing Down
Comm. Context
Echo Chamber
Comm. Design
Explanation
Comm. Issues
Face-to-Face
Gatekeeping
Comm. Objectives
Ground Rules
Comm. Plan
High Context
Comm. Problems
Jargon
Labeling
Comm. Skills
Listening
Comm. Style
Low Context
Consensus Building
Media Bias
Medium
Message Framing
Methods
Digital Comm.
Moot Point
Noise
Non-Example
Nudge Theory
External Comm.
Objectivity
Plain Language
Feedback
Positive Criticism
Formal Comm.
Rationale
Rhetorical Question
Self Monitoring
Hypothetical Question
Storytelling
Informal Comm.
Verbal
Information Design
Interactive Media
Internal Comm.
Mass Comm.
Media
Media Studies
Networking
Nonverbal Comm.
Open-Ended Question
Overcommunication
Persuasion
Shared Meaning
Small Talk
Social Comm.
Social Cues
Strategic Comm.
Tag Question
Tagline
Target Audience
Thought Experiment
Tone Of Text
Touching Base
Understatement
View From Nowhere
Word Of Mouth
More ...
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