Personal Context
Communication is a fundamental aspect of people’s lives as it guarantees successful cooperation and the ability to achieve particular goals. For this reason, it is vital to be able to select an appropriate strategy that depends on the context and use it to guarantee that people will understand you. For instance, persuasive personal communication differs from professional or academic ones because of the peculiarities of the context. Speaking with your friends or close people, a person is not obliged to follow a code of politeness or official style as this sort of relations presupposes the adherence to models accepted between two close people and familiar to them. For this reason, the persuasive communication in the personal context might mean avoidance of extra explanations or the background needed to justify a request or issue that should be discussed.
An example of this sort of communication is a social media post. For instance, I needed specific equipment to make my presentation related to a project. I just posted a message asking who has this very device and can give it to me for several days. It means that all my followers, or friends, comprised the intended audience. Because of the informal or personal context, I was able to avoid long explanations or use of a specific tone (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016). The purpose of the given communicative act was to attract attention to my particular request and check if my friends can help to fulfill it. The adherence to this model helped to save time and achieve the goal in short terms, which can be considered one of the central advantages of the personal context.
Professional Context
For the professional contexts, the model described above cannot be applied as it presupposes different communication patterns and ways to convey the main message. First of all, the use of informal language is not appropriate because of the existence of hierarchical relations between employees and managers, and the need to observe a certain code of cooperation to avoid conflicts or misunderstandings. Second, persuasive communication in the professional environment presupposes different target audiences, which means they need to select new strategies to achieve desired goals (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016). It might include the need for a detailed explanation of a request or proposal to guarantee that people will understand the background and the central purpose and be ready to accept the offered idea, policy, or course of action. Subordination or specific relations with an interlocutor also impact the choice of words and styles that can be employed.
An appropriate example of persuasive communication in the professional context is a letter to a person who has a superior position. For instance, there is a letter of an employee to a top manager to reveal the existing problem with the software. The target audience includes the management of the company as this message can also be demonstrated to other specialists to guarantee the appropriate resolution of the problem. Considering the peculiarities of this group and the context in general, formal means of communication are preferred as they ensure the absence of biases or misunderstandings (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016). For this reason, the email to a boss should be composed using the existing rules and basics of professional communication. Only by observing these rules, it is possible to achieve a particular goal and guarantee that the message will be conveyed to employees.
Academic Context
Speaking about the academic context, effective persuasive communication has its own peculiarities that differentiate it from personal and professional ones. First of all, it is vital to use clear, precise, and concise language when reflecting on the selected issue or investigating it (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016). As against personal contexts, informal phrases or emotional speech is prohibited for this sort of communication. Additionally, there is a need to state a clear claim and prove it by using credible evidence that is collected from relevant resources. It means that for the academic environment, the appropriate choice of persuasive strategy becomes more important than for other cases as it preconditions outcomes and the ability of a speaker to convey the main message to the audience (Stiff & Mongeau, 2016). Finally, persuasive academic communication presupposes the readiness to debate and justify some disputable issues by providing different perspectives on them and trying to understand all aspects related to the question.
Thus, a persuasive essay that revolves around current problems peculiar to families can be considered a perfect example of communication in an academic context. Its target audience includes readers that are interested in the problem or authorities that should be informed about the current state of the issue. For this reason, to achieve the central purpose of the paper, it is important to provide credible data to support leading assumptions and avoid biased judgments. At the same time, the use of formal, neutral, and concise language is also essential for the given type of communication as it ensures that all ideas provided in the paper will be understood by the audience. Finally, it is vital to consider all existing perspectives on the problem to create a complete image of the discussed aspect and attain success in promoting the outlined change.
Teamwork
Finally, the importance of communication can be evidenced by its significant role in promoting effective collaboration and teamwork. One of the central difficulties associated with working in teams is the lack of understanding between their members and the inability to discuss ideas effectively. For this reason, the choice of appropriate communicative patterns should be impacted by the current needs of groups and their problems. For instance, it is vital to encourage creativity as one of the ways to generate new ideas and, at the same time, avoid using biased judgments or inappropriate language to discuss different offerings or ideas (Johnson, 2010). The adherence to this paradigm can help to improve the outcomes and guarantee that a team will function as an aligned mechanism and avoid conflicts. This example also proves the critical importance of communication for different contexts as the employment of effective strategies helps to achieve enhanced results.
Conclusion
Altogether, the choice of communication strategies critically depends on the context. Personal, professional, and academic environments have their own unique features that differentiate them. For instance, it is allowed to use informal language when talking to friends. At the same time, in emails to top managers, it is vital to use a formal tone and clearly indicate the purpose and goal of the message. As for the academic context, concise language, along with the provision of facts about a certain issue, can guarantee the achievement of success and the improved discussion of a particular problem. These differences demonstrate the need for the correct choice of communicative style regarding the context and the purpose of cooperation.
References
Johnson, S. (2010). Where good ideas come from [Video file].
Stiff, J., & Mongeau, P. (2016). Persuasive communication (3rd ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.