#25

Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the assignment below.

Quotes Included Above Prompt:

A well-known company recently proposed setting aside every Friday as a day with no e-mail-based communication. On these e-mail-free Fridays, employees would be encouraged to refrain completely from reading or sending e-mail or text messages and advised instead to call each other or talk in person. This idea can work for everyone. If each week we set aside time to actually talk to one another, our communications will be less impersonal and more effective and satisfying.

Assignment:

Is talking the most effective and satisfying way of communicating with others? Plan and write an essay in which you develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.

Brainstorm:

In the prompt, talking appears to be defined as verbal, audible conversation.

Remember that communication between people exists on many different levels, and can occur through any of our senses. In order to brainstorm, however, first consider the alternatives to verbal, audible conversation: email, text messages, body language, and even physical interaction between two people. Next, consider whether these non-verbal, inaudible forms of communication are as “effective and satisfying” in terms of the result which they produce.

For example, can body language convey the same kind of abstract, intellectual ideas as words? Can email convey the emotional undertones and implied motivations like spoken words? On the other hand, can spoken words sometimes convey confusing messages that would not be present in an email? Can’t body language convey stronger feelings that spoken words? In the end, how would you define satisfying? Consider these questions as you craft your response, and understand that ― if defended properly ― you can argue both for or against the prompt.