Week 2 Assignment

CheckPoint: Word Barriers
Alaire Harris
XCOM/200
November 11, 2011
Jodi Russo

      The four word barriers that are present in the instant messaging conversation are bypassing, malapropism, restricted code, and jargon. These word barriers have the ability to negatively affect relationships because they can all be taken out of context and mean something different to the people that are involved.
      Bypassing can cause a riff between people when the words that are spoken are taken out of context and they are unsure of the meaning behind the conversation especially in this type of situation. This can cause communication problems in the future.
      Malapropism is when a person confuses one word or phrase for another (Beebe, Beebe, Richmond, 2008). I am not certain of what words in this scenario would be confusing except when he said “Hey, what’s up? I’m here.” Karen may in the future be hesitant to communicate with him if she is not clear about what he is saying.
      The use of all capital letters in an email or in an instant message can come off as the person is yelling at them. This is a form of jargon. Whereas restricted codes is a language that people use when they have known each other for a very long time. If you are unsure of this type of language it can cause a problem when trying to communicate.
      Taking out the capital letters when replying to her would show that he was sincere and not that he was yelling or upset. She could have started the message off by simply asking where he was out of concern. This whole instant message was a mess from the start, and could have had a better outcome if both parties stopped and thought about the language that was being used.
      Refernce
Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2008). interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others (5th ed.). Retrieved from University of Phoenix eBook Collection database