The Character of Communicators
These days we tend to focus on using communication to influence people. For example, public speaking books emphasize the skills needed to influence listeners. Public relations and advertising...
View ArticleDiversity in the Information Age
Among the popular words of our day is “diversity.” Writer and Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry, who refuses to own a computer, says that diversity is capacity. I experience that truth every time I write a...
View ArticleBorn to Communicate in Time
Augustine of Hippo believed that human beings were originally created as perfect communicators, living in complete unity with each other and God. I’m not so sure he was correct. How could we creatures...
View ArticleSpeak Only if You Can Improve Upon the Silence
Why did the monastics sometimes take vows of silence. Is silence better than speech? Is there anything fundamentally wrong with speech? It’s probably true that if we are busily talking we might be...
View ArticleHuman Communication as an Act of Faith
Each time I listen, speak, read, or write, I assume that something positive could occur. I assume that I will be able to understand and to be understood. I believe that my utterances, like those of...
View ArticleHuman Communication as a Gift
When I began studying communication in college I discovered various theories about the origins of human beings’ communicative capacity. I was intrigued — and still am. We don’t know precisely how human...
View ArticleEthics in the Information Age
Michael Lotti interviewed me for this fine article about the need to apply age-old ethics to the new social contexts created by digital communications technologies. You can find out more online about...
View ArticleThe Audacity of Prophetic Truth
(Note: This essay is my foreword to a terrific book on media criticism: Robert H. Woods, Jr., and Paul D. Patton, Prophetically Incorrect: A Christian Introduction to Media Criticism (Grand Rapids, MI:...
View ArticleHow to Write a Great Resume
I have written a book primarily for college students, college graduates, and underemployed people on the topic of writing resumes and cover letters: Resume 101: A Student and Recent Grad Guide to...
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