A Word To The Wise

Most of us have been attempting to communicate with others as long as we can remember; but, now I have come to understand that the fascinating process of transmitting information from one to another is very complex. In any type of idea transmission, some of the "meaning" is lost in the simple conveyance of the message from the sender to receiver.
The choice of words or language in which a sender encodes a message will influence the quality of communication. Because language is a symbolic representation of a phenomenon, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words. [1]
The art of debate is for each individual a value laden process that is ripe for communication errors. It is critical to know that misunderstandings will occur. We need to understand and be aware of the potential sources of errors and constantly counteract these tendencies by making a conscientious effort to make sure that our meaning is understood.
[1] Retrieved 10/10/08 from http://web.cba.neu.edu/~ewertheim/interper/commun.htm