Communication and Evidence

One way to evaluate communication is to evaluate the form which the communication is being given. There are many forms of communication; written, verbal, and electronic are the basic form of communication. From there, they can branch off into blogs, vlogs, videos, television (movies, and shows), new stations, websites, social media, texting, and calling, to name a few. Certain forms are associated with specific topic. For example, articles on a news website often communicate what is happening within the country and around the world while texting and calling are usually used for communication related to personal topics. In this example, calling is considered more serious while texting is more day-to-day. What I mean by this, is most people choose to text nowadays rather than call. If someone gets a call, they usually associate with something more important compared to a text. Because of this, the form in which one chooses to communicate, communicates more to the recipient than solely the message.

Something else that communicates more to the recipient than the message is the tone in which the messenger uses. Like forms of communications, tone is associated with certain things. For example, a respectful tone is used when talking to someone with more power (or higher up) than one, like a student to a teacher or an employee to their boss. Meanwhile, the tone is kept casual from student to student and employee to employee. Other tones that are often used when communicating are: dark, humorous, enthusiastic, energetic, light, etc.

When Gee says that someone can speak with perfect grammar and be “wrong nonetheless”, it could be interpreted as what someone says is not necessarily the truth. Their statement might sound right, but could be riddled with lies or built on an unsturdy foundation. I believe Gee is trying to warn the reader to not quickly or easily believe what they read or might be told. Instead, they should investigate their source and make sure it is reliable. This is important because having evidence to back up your claims is all fun and good, but if your evidence is not flawless, it will never help you, but it can hurt you.

This does not conflict with what I have been taught prior in this class. In this class, it has always been both encouraged and directed to investigate our sources, make sure they are reliable. For a claim is only as good as its evidence and evidence is only good so long as it is truthful and reliable. Without good evidence, you can not back up your claims and have lost the advantage of persuading the reader to your side and to believe in your claim.