Upwrite Press Blog The Geometry of Communication

At its core, any communication has three main elements: sender, subject, and receiver. (Issues of medium and context also affect communication, but let's focus on those central three for now.) This is sometimes referred to as the "Communication Triangle." As sender, you're trying to get something from inside your head into another person's. That "something" is the subject, and that other person is the receiver.As simple as this may seem, it's worth some scrutiny, because any of those three elements can introduce fuzziness into the equation.SenderLet's face it, if human beings fully understood themselves, less miscommunication would occur. Our wants and assumptions aren't always clear even to our own minds. Writing to ourselves can help to shed some light, which is why some people keep diaries or journals, and why other people blog. Even talking out loud when no one else is around can help. This is also why we draft a message before polishing and sending it: a draft is a rough picture, helping us to better envision the whole. Simply put, we can write to learn what it is we want to say.MessageWorking out a draft touches on the next part of the triangle, the message. Frankly, trying to write about an unfamiliar topic is tough. Studies have shown that even college English professors writing about topics outside their field experience decreased accuracy in grammar and spelling. Their minds are so occupied grappling with the subject that there's not enough brain power left over for correct language. Again, writing in stages can help, starting with a rough draft, then polishing it, before final editing. That process also reveals any gaps in our knowledge of the topic, which makes this a valuable part of a research process. In other words, we can write to discover what we know and have yet to learn.ReceiverPsychologists say that most human brains don't develop the ability to step outside their own perspective and into someone else's until about age twenty-five. That complicates communication. Until we can imagine someone else's reaction to a message, we can't craft it to their needs. So everything we say is all push, sending information outward in terms we understand and relying on the other person to translate and comprehend. On the other hand, once we can actually imagine an audience and predict its responses, we can better tailor a message to their words and their understanding. It's the difference between a pointing finger and a beckoning finger.Achieving BalanceA balanced triangle is one of the most stable shapes in existence. (Which is why the pyramids, Old World and New World, are among the oldest surviving structures.) By paying careful attention to each part of the communication triangle-our desires as sender, our understanding of the message, and the needs of the receiver-we can use best achieve this balance in our writing.-Lester Smith