1 Writing Assignment #1
Communication Inhibitors Analysis
Summary of assignment
· Task: For this assignment, you are asked to collect real-life examples of barriers
(inhibitors) to communication that occur in your work or community environment. You
will describe them, define them, justify them in a table, and then use them to rate your
organization’s communication effectiveness.
· Length: The assignment has four parts. Details on word count are provided below and
in the following pages.
o Part I of this assignment will be 200-250 words
o Part II is a list of definitions. The definitions in this section should be about 30-
40 words each.
o Part III is a table with short examples, names, and justifications. The word count
will vary.
o Part IV will be 175-250 words.
· Format: you will not cite sources in this paper, so you will not use any particular
citation style. In writing up the assignment, please follow the template given on page 2.
Reading Material to Draw Upon for this Assignment:
For this assignment, you will want to draw on the following reading materials about communication
inhibitors.
· “Management Study Guide: 10 Barriers to Communication” by the MSG Team
· “Physical Barriers in Communication” by Rahul Pandita
· “The Barriers to Effective Communication” by Rupal Jain
The items are available as eReserves in our class in LEO.
You can access the articles by taking the following steps:
· click Content
· select Class Resources
· select eReserves
· select the icon for eReserves in the middle of your page.
· in the list of items that appears, locate the articles and download
them
2 Template for this Assignment
Your text should be single-spaced and in 12-point font. Please use the following template when
completing this assignment. Details on each part of the assignment are provided on pages 3-4.
I. Description of community setting, including a description of the 3-4 communication
inhibitors that occur in that setting (200-250 words):
II. Definitions of the 3-4 inhibitors:
III. Table of the 3-4 communication samples and the inhibitors they represent:
The communication example
either as a direct quote or
paraphrase
The name of the inhibitor(s)
that the example represents
A justification of your
selection of the inhibitor
IV. Short paragraph rating the organization’s communication effectiveness on a scale of 1
to 100 and justifying the ranking (175-250 words):
3 Details on Each Part of the Assignment
Part I:
Consider your work or community and come up with 3-4 real-life examples of barriers
(inhibitors) to written and verbal communication that occur in that environment. The
communication examples you come up with can be from documents, conversations (face-to-face
or digital), emails, or meetings.
Then write one or two detailed paragraphs of 100-125 words each in which you describe the
following:
· your workplace or community setting you have chosen to analyze
· the communication barriers in that setting that you are describing
· other details you think might be relevant to the context
Various types of communication inhibitors, and examples of them, can be found in the articles
that are available to you through eReserves. These communication barriers include but are not
limited to the following:
Attitudinal barrier
Avoiding the listener
Channel barrier
Cultural barrier
Different cultural level
Distance
Emotional barrier
Environment
Ignorance of medium
Ignoring the content
Impatience in the listener
Individual barrier
Interpersonal barrier
Language/Linguistic barrier
Low pitch and tone
Noise
Not confirming with the recipient
Not understanding the mood of the recipient
Not understanding the receiver
Organizational barrier
Perceptual barrier
Physical disability
Unorganized thought
Wrong interpretations
4 Part II:
After you’ve collected at least 3-4 communication barriers and have identified the inhibitors they
represent, define the inhibitors in a bulleted list. When defining your inhibitors, the reading
material listed on page 1 may be used without citation.
The definition you provide should identify the general characteristics of the inhibitor and how it
works to impede communication. The definitions should not mention your specific work
environment.
Please consult the video on this assignment and the two sample student submissions to this
assignment in order to see a demonstration on how this part might be written.
Please use the three articles listed on page 1, which are in e-reserves, for this assignment. Use the
communication inhibitors suggested in those articles.
Part III:
Analyze these 3-4 communication inhibitors as they apply to your workplace or community
environment. List them in a table with three columns:
· the communication example either as a direct quote or paraphrase
· the name of the inhibitor(s) at work in the sample
· a justification of your selection of the inhibitor(s)
Again, please consult the video on this assignment and the two sample student submissions
to this assignment in order to see a demonstration on how this part might be written.
Part IV:
Using a scale of 1 to 100 (with a score of 75 considered average), rank your organization’s
communication effectiveness. Justify and explain the score you award. Your justification should
be one to two paragraphs, about 175-250 words total.
5 Submitting the assignment:
You will submit a draft of the assignment to the assignment folder. The instructor will provide
comments to it and work with you on a second draft if necessary.
