C David Mortensen

In this extensive study on the impact of factors that enable or disable communication between people, author C. David Mortensen's helps us to discover that successful communication is a collective and collaborative achievement of the highest order. Miscommunication progresses from a theoretical examination of the complex conditions that cause miscommunication to occur-highlighting implication, distortion, disruption, and confusion-as specific categories-and then moves on to more refined definitions and practical applications of the theory. Mortensen includes succinct and engaging real-life examples that enhance and fortify the author's highly original contribution to our knowledge of interpersonal communication. Miscommunication takes a fascinating look at the way we communicate and makes a distinct contribution to understanding miscommunication and its remedies. Highly recommended for students and practitioners in communication, language and discourse, interpersonal communication, speech, and social psychology.

What makes human communication problematic? Why can a face-to-face encounter be simple, automatic, and even mindless in one situation and still become complicated, difficult, and even vexing in the next? These are the central questions in this probing analysis of the potential and limits of communication in human relations. Working through the seemingly intractable complexities and complications that emerge from such conflicts as multiple viewpoints and divergent vantage points, this study advances the prospects of working toward optimum conditions for human interaction.