Clear and Muddled Thinking: How to Avoid Vague, Unclear Communication

The sections discussed in this post are taken from The Thinker’s Way, and they include the following: 1) “Language and Thought”, 2) “Vague Language, Unclear Thinking,” and my response to arguments brought up in 3) Male/Female (Mis) Communication.

Perhaps the best quote to summarize my sections would be “Clear communication expresses clear thinking, while muddled communication reflects muddled thinking” (201). Within the two first sections of the “Communicating Successfully” chapter, the author establishes the relationship between what comes out of our mouths (language) and what resides in our minds (thoughts).  Specifically to “Language and Thought,” language can be used to express our thinking in order to convey sentiments, ideas, and beliefs (203).  Thus, in order to efficiently communicate, we must use language clearly and precisely (203). The following diagram helps to illustrate this concept:

 

Clear Language                                                                 Clear Thinking

 Specific                                                                                 Focused

Precise                                                                                   Articulate

Organized                                                                            Coherent

Accurate                                                                             Accuarate

For “Vague Language, Unclear Thinking,” the author discusses the importance of using specific language in order to effectively reflect your ideas; otherwise, serious ramifications, misunderstandings, and mistakes could take place.  One of the fun activities to practice being specific was called a Thinking Activity. This activity is entitled Describing an Experience, and it calls for you, the reader, to “describe an experience you had recently, concentrating on expressing your ideas clearly and precisely. Use appropriate who, what, when, where, how, and why questions to guide your writing.  [Ask yourself:] will your audience be able to ‘relive’ your experience by reading it?” (209).  I believe this activity to be very helpful in building communication skills and creativity as well.

Overall, I think the author brought up some interesting points.  I find myself being unclear, vague, and disorganized when I speak sometimes. Now, I can identify that it is because my thinking follows that same pattern, so I can focus on correcting my thinking and improving my thought processes.

With this being said, I want to respond to some key points I read about in “Male/Female (Mis) Communication.” I thought it was really interesting that the author identied four areas that lead to miscommunication between genders. These areas included Physical Misalignment, Feeback Misalignment, Problem-Solving Misalignment, and Analysis-Style Misalignment.  Because he references Dr. Tannen (a woman who is well-known in the Applied Linguistics field and whose findings are incredible), I can say that his points are valid.  The author incorportates Tannen’s view that we cannot blame one sex alone; rather, difficulties arise in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, since men and women are culturally different, we can conclude that Tannen’s argument applies.

As an Applied Linguistics major, I really appreciated this development piece because it helped me further understand the importance of communicating clearly, concisely, and coherently.

Post submitted by Casey O’Neill