Читать книгу The Interpersonal Communication Playbook - Teri Kwal Gamble - Страница 7

Preface

There’s nothing as useful as a playbook when it comes to building interpersonal communication skills. Interpersonal communication plays a pivotal role in all our lives. We wrote The Interpersonal Communication Playbook to help ensure that students have the knowledge needed to make the personal and professional relationships we share, whether face-to-face or online, successful.

A number of factors affect our ability to be interpersonally effective—an understanding of culture and gender and the norms and rules we internalize; an appreciation for how media and technology are omnipresent, streaming incessantly into our relationships; and a recognition of the roles that self-understanding and empathy play in life—often best exemplified by literary and pop-culture examples. To this end, we have woven each of these threads throughout the book and also into the boxes that enhance the content we cover.

It was especially important to us that readers have the opportunity to participate actively as they make their way through the text and the course. We provide abundant opportunities to offer personal observations, analyze personal experiences, and assess personal growth across interpersonal contexts. The Interpersonal Communication Playbook, by design, has an applied focus—identifying the student as the text’s central player and the text as the tool the student uses to figure out and practice how to use interpersonal knowledge and apply interpersonal skills to enrich life.

The text has a natural progression, moving from the building blocks of interpersonal communication, to a consideration of interpersonal communication messages, to an exploration of the dynamics of interpersonal variables in action, to an examination of specific interpersonal contexts and the range of relationships we share as interpersonal communicators. Every chapter features sections on culture, gender, and media and technology—weaving the text’s content into these three repeating motifs.

Chapters in The Interpersonal Communication Playbook also contain a number of integral features to reinforce each chapter’s content and help hone the student’s interpersonal skill development. Every chapter features clear learning outcomes; an end-of-chapter summary connecting content covered to the learning outcomes; an upfront student assessment of what they know; and an integrated array of Try This, Reflect on This, and Analyze This boxes that are designed, in turn, to promote active learning and skill building, help students clarify and apply theory, and enable students to demonstrate the ability to think both critically and empathically. There also are case studies to promote student consideration of how to do interpersonal communication better. Additionally, at the end of every chapter are Check Your Understanding questions keyed to specific text pages that focus student attention on the concepts and practical applications students are expected to master. Highlighted in-chapter key terms and a glossary at the text’s end direct students to the field’s key terminology.

Digital Resources

The Interpersonal Communication Playbook offers comprehensive ancillary resources for instructors and students to support teaching and learning in the classroom and beyond.

Instructor Teaching Site: www.sagepub.com/gambleicp

A password-protected instructor teaching site provides one integrated source for all instructor materials, including the following key components for each chapter:

  Test bank, available in Word format and to PCs and Macs through Diploma software, offers a set of test questions and answers for each chapter. Multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer/essay questions for every chapter will aid instructors in assessing students’ progress and understanding. The software allows for test creation and customization. The test bank is also available in Microsoft Word format.

 PowerPoint® presentations designed to assist with lecture and review, highlighting essential content, features, and artwork from the book.

  Sample syllabi for semester and quarter classes provide the instructor with suggested models for creating a course syllabus.

 Carefully selected Web resources and audio and video links feature relevant content for use in independent and classroom-based exploration of key topics.

 SAGE Journal Articles: A “Learning From SAGE Journal Articles” feature provides access to recent, relevant full-text articles from SAGE’s leading research journals. Each article supports and expands on the concepts presented in the chapter. This feature also provides discussion questions to focus and guide student interpretation.

Student Study Site: www.sagepub.com/gambleicp

An open access student study site provides a variety of additional resources to build students’ understanding of the book content and extend their learning beyond the classroom. Students have access to the following features for each chapter:

 Self-quizzes with multiple-choice and true/false questions for every chapter allow students to assess their progress in learning course material independently.

 eFlashcards reinforce student understanding and learning of key terms and concepts that are outlined in the book.

 Study questions: Chapter-specific questions help launch discussion by prompting students to engage with the material and by reinforcing important content.

  Web resources direct students to relevant online sites for further research on important chapter topics.

 Video and audio links feature meaningful content for use in independent or classroom-based exploration of key concepts and skills.

  SAGE journal articles: A “Learning From SAGE Journal Articles” feature provides access to recent, relevant full-text articles from SAGE’s leading research journals. Each article supports and expands on the concepts presented in the chapter. This feature also provides discussion questions to focus and guide student interpretation.

We believe The Interpersonal Communication Playbook, together with the ancillaries described above, will motivate students to internalize the knowledge and develop the skills they need to develop meaningful and healthy interpersonal relationships across contexts, in both physical and digital arenas. We hope you agree!

In the electronic edition of the book you have purchased, there are several icons that reference links (videos, journal articles) to additional content. Though the electronic edition links are not live, all content referenced may be accessed at edge.sagepub.com/gambleicp . This URL is referenced at several points throughout your electronic edition.