WRTG 394
Writing Assignment #1
Communication Barriers Report
Summary of assignment
• Task: For this assignment, you are asked to collect real-life examples of barriers to communication that occur in your work or community environment. You will describe them, define them, justify them in a table, and then use them to rate your organization’s communication effectiveness.
• Length: The assignment has four parts. Details on word count are provided below and in the following pages.
o Part I of this assignment will be 200-250 words
o Part II is a list of definitions. The definitions in this section should be about 30-40 words each.
o Part III is a table with short examples, names, and justifications. Word count will vary.
o Part IV will be 175-250 words.
• Format: you will not cite sources in this paper, so you will not use any particular citation style. In writing up the assignment, please follow the template given on page 2.
Reading Material to Draw Upon for this Assignment:
For this assignment, you will want to draw on the following reading materials about communication barriers.
• “Communication Barriers” by Dr. K. Usha Rani
• “Communication Barriers” by Lumen Learning
These items are available as eReserves in our class in LEO.
You can access the articles by taking the following steps:
• click Content
• select Class Resources
• select eReserves
• select the icon for eReserves in the middle of your page.
• in the list of items that appears, locate the articles and download them
Template for this Assignment
Your text should be single-spaced and in 12-point font. Please use the following template when completing this assignment. Details on each part of the assignment are provided on pages 3-4.
I.
Description of communication setting, including a description of the 3-4 communication
barriers that occur in that setting (200-250 words):
II.
Definitions of the 3-4 barriers: Definitions should be restated from the readings in your own words, not copied and pasted.
III.
Table of the 3-4 communication samples and the barriers they represent:
The communication example
either as a direct quote or
paraphrase
The name of the barrier(s)
that the example represents
A justification of your
selection of the barrier
IV.
Short paragraph rating the organization’s communication effectiveness on a scale of 1
to 100 and justifying the ranking (175-250 words):
Details on Each Part of the Assignment
Part I:
Consider your work or community and come up with 3-4 real-life examples of barriers to written and verbal communication that occur in that environment. The communication examples you come up with can be from documents, conversations (face-to-face or digital), emails, or meetings.
Then write one or two detailed paragraphs of 100-125 words each in which you describe the following:
• your workplace or community setting you have chosen to analyze
• the communication barriers in that setting that you are describing • other details you think might be relevant to the context
Various types of communication barriers, and examples of them, can be found in the articles that are available to you through eReserves. These communication barriers include but are not
limited to the following:
Attitudinal Barrier
Poor Listening Barrier
Cultural Barrier
Emotional Disconnect
Environment Barrier
Language Barrier
Behavioral Barrier
Filtering Barrier
Selective Perception Barrier
Biased Language Barrier
Information Overload Barrier
Gossip (esp. Workplace) Barrier
Lack of Source Credibility Barrier
Semantics (esp. Workplace Jargon) Barrier
Gender Differences Barrier
Sender/Receiver Differences in Meaning Barrier
Part II:
After you’ve collected at least 3-4 communication barriers and have identified the barriers they represent, define the barriers in a bulleted list. When defining your barriers, the reading material listed on page 1 may be used without citation.
The definition you provide should identify the general characteristics of the barrier and how it works to impede communication. The definitions should not mention your specific work environment.
Definitions should demonstrate parallel structure. That means that all should be written as complete sentences, infinitive phrases or in another phrase form. For help understanding parallel structure, press the ctrl key and click on the following link:
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/mechanics/parallel_structure.html
Please consult the sample student submission for this assignment in order to see a demonstration on how this part might be written.
Please use the three articles listed on page 1, which are in e-reserves, for this assignment. Use the communication barriers suggested in those articles.
Part III: [JB1]
Analyze these 3-4 communication barriers as they apply to your workplace or community environment. List them in a table with three columns:
• the communication example either as a direct quote or paraphrase
• the name of the barrier(s) at work in the sample
• a justification of your selection of the barrier(s)
Again, please consult the sample student submission for this assignment in order to see a demonstration on how this part might be written.
Part IV:
Using a scale of 1 to 100 (with a score of 75 considered average), rank your organization’s communication effectiveness. Justify and explain the score you award. Your justification should be one to two paragraphs, about 175-250 words total.
Word Length for this assignment: All parts together should total at least 700-800 words
Submitting the assignment:
You will submit a draft of the assignment to the assignment folder. The instructor will provide comments to it and work with you on a second draft if necessary.
