A muse on commnication

Nicely said, Tom. When I took a business letter writing class many years ago, the teacher warned us about using words we did not fully graps the meaning, or more importantly, the possible their meanings when writing. He always made me laugh; "OK Robert, here we go again. Never use a $10 word to describe a $5 issue. No one will be impressed with your vocabulary. Confused, maybe. But not impressed".

To help avoid this issue when teaching us, he differed great from the style of business writing of the time. Up till that time, we were using what I call the "telegraph style", which inferred that you paid by the word. My memorandum and communication with fellow workers (or employees at that time) was like looking at a terse communication between the recently divorced. No extraneous verbage, nothing to give the message any warmth. And actually, it was hard for me to get away from that.

In my opinion, not shared by all here, in a more collegial atmosphere such as this I think it is important to do as Arch said in an earlier post, and give yourself and others some "wiggle room". I cringe when I read a response to something on a subjective topic such as all of woodworking in general that is something like "Incorrect". Must make the poster feel good, as in many times, this is a direct response to someone elses's personal experience.

I have also found that people that are not used to writing write in a much more authorotative tone than they might speak to other in. I have a good friend that thinks the economy of speech is good writing. Maybe... But then he goes on to quote Shakespeare "Since brevity is the soul of with.... I shall be brief." This makes him feel learned and justified all at the same time.

Of course the brutal irony is that Polonius goes into an extra long dissertation after that famous utterance, which is misquoted and misused all the time by people such as him.

I don't know how that could have been better expressed. Careful consideration of the choice of words is undoubtedly the key to productive communication in a forum where you cannot see, shake the hand, or immediately correct yourself to a person that might have misunderstood you.

However, this forum also gives an opportunity that is lost in many situations of disagreement. The chance to post an immediate written apology in case of a misunderstanding.

If only it worked there...

Robert

say what?? Mac

Hi Tom and others

I certainly do agree with your assessment in general and of this group of people, of course there are differences of opinion, if not, why would we discus, and like you say, we are not all good at using or having a handle on a language that is complex and in some cases as in mine not the language we grew up with, and have had to learn as an adult. The thing that helps tough I think is that we come here because we want to and have a desire to learn and help others with their and our interest in wood turning. And we are mostly well aware of the good intentions of those that do post here.

Robert,

I have a BS and MS in Engineering. When a student asks me what the most important class I took, I tell them without hesitation: "Five classes: Freshman Composition 1 and 2; Business Composition; Speech; and Business Speaking." Most engineers are competent technically. It is rare to have an excellent communicator.

Joe Fleming - San Diego

How true, and worth their weight in platinum when you find them. I started (as a superintendent) working closely with an engineer when we began pouring a lot of tilt panels, and big iron stuff when I worked for a general contractor. With this particular engineer, all his jobs went well, little tension, and we all learned a lot.

When we would put up a retail center with another firm here in town, it was always hard, and we had to put every single thing we said or did in writing as we rarely understood exactly what they wanted us to do. They replied in the common vernacular of their profession, not so that we could all easily grasp the intent.

I chuckle sometimes when I read my own posts though, as I hammer away so quickly on the keyboard I am confused between the misspellings and broken sentences as to what I was trying to say. Thank the powers that be that I am more protected in my business correspondence and contract writing as I have some pretty good programs to keep me from looking like an idiot.

I was just thinking about what you said about engineers and communication. Here's something interesting. I had an aquintance long ago that did the mechanical engineering specs and some of the drawings at a large HVAC firm. He told me that one of the things he did to job interviewees was at the end of the formal information exchange was to give them 20 minutes to write a couple of pages by hand to tell him personally why they would be good candidates for the job, and what they would do if they got it. He told me that many had the grades to prove they took and understood the engineering aspects, but that they were simply unable to communicate in an intelligible way what their thoughts were.

He felt like you do, that communication is of paramount importance. Without the ability to effectively communicate all the great information they had, they were worthless to him.

Robert

Joe,

I'm not sure, but I imagine that engineers generally design, test and advise and if so, I can understand the advantage of being good communicators. I've long since stopped believing that scholastic degrees and membership in learned societies in any profession assures competency. (I'm assuredly _not referring to you or anyone else) Competence in any profession, trade or service seems of paramount importance to me, especially when it's hands on.

To continue turning or walking, I have to do something about my spinal stenosis pretty soon. I hope my neurosurgeon's most important course wasn't composition or business speech and I won't take his/her competency as a given without checking. OTOH, I hope those he/she learned from were good communicators. So "round & round I go", as with most of my nonsensical communications to rcw.

I'm not asking, but I do wonder if being a good communicator to rcw has much to do with being a good woodturner. Arch