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Analyze the Communication Situation
Whenever you read or write, speak or listen, you are communicating. Every communication situation has five parts:
- Sender: The person or people who have something to say
- Message: What the sender wants to say (topic) and why (purpose)
- Medium: The way the sender communicates (for example, text message, video, story)
- Receiver: The person or people who receive the message
- Context: Where and when the message fits (what comes before and after)
For example, imagine that you want to ask a friend about science homework:
- Sender: You, a seventh grader in seventh-hour Earth & Space Science
- Message: Science homework (topic); to do the right assignment tonight (purpose)
- Medium: Text message
- Receiver: Your friend, Claire, who sits next to you in Earth & Space Science
- Context: You missed the end of class because of an orthodontist appointment
You can use this technique to analyze any communication situation, from a text message to a billboard to a movie or play.
Your Turn Think of a recent time that you read, wrote, listened, or spoke. Analyze the communication situation by identifying each part. Use this communication situation template.
Analyze the Communication Situation by Thoughtful Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at k12.thoughtfullearning.com/minilesson/analyze-communication-situation.