Shared_Talking_Styles

Talking Styles 1 Shared Talking Styles Letithia Terry COM200: Interpersonal Communication Katie Decker June 20, 2011 Talking Styles 2 Shared Talking Styles I read the article, “Shared Talking Styles Herald New and Lasting Romance” by Bruce Bower. He talked about how the length of relationships can be based on your styles of communication. Bower also discusses how the use of function words such as; pronouns, articles, conjunctions, prepositions and negations”(Bower) can have an affect on conversation partners. He goes own to explain how language style matching “signifies not how much two people like each other but how much each is paying attention to what the other says”(Bower). After reading the article, I went to the Language Style Matching website and took the test. In this essay I will talk about my score and my thoughts about the Language Style Matching test. When I first read the directions to the Language Style Matching test, I was wondering what kind of results I would be given based on single conversation. I use a conversation between my best- friend and I, through via text message and the score we received was 0.72. My best-friend and I have been close since we were in the second grade, I believed the way that we used our words effected our score. I do not believe the website score was accurate because of the closeness that we share, and the understanding that we have with each other. There are times we can finish each others sentences because we know each other thoughts on certain subjects. I thought that we would get a higher score than what we received. I do not know how they come up with the scoring on this test, the information that they used to compute the scores. I do not believe that language style matching is a thorough way to predict the quality of interpersonal relationships or any kind of relationship. I think test like these are for certain kinds of people given by a certain kind of person. Bower express the idea that if two people work in two different career fields, they will use different nouns and verbs to talk to each other about their jobs, Talking Styles 3 but will use the same functions if they are friends. I do not agree with this statement. I believe it depends on a lot of factors that makes up the relationship, how well they know each other and how long they have known each other. I do not think their career fields will have an effect on their language and communication. In conclusion, I don't think a Language Style Matching test can determine if any relationship will last or how long it will last. I think people are connected with each by time, likes, dislikes, environment, what they are willing to invest and not invest. I think all relationships has a compromise station and it is up for the people to allow or not allow certain things to take place. I believe the way communication has evolved has a lot to do with the length of a relationship. I think the types of communication has a big impact on what relationships will last, as stated in our text formal and informal language can have an effect to whom you are talking to. When using formal language, you are communicating in a professional manner when using informal language you are using slang and communicating with friend(Sole, 2011). I believe depending on who you are communicating with and the words that are used will determine if the interpersonal relationship will last. Talking Styles 4 References Bower, B.. (2010, November). Shared Talking Styles Herald New and Lasting Romance. U.S. News & World Report, 1. Retrieved June 19, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2223940991) Sole, Kathy, 2011. Making Connections: Understanding Interpersonal Communication. Ashford.content.edu