Author Description

Now in its eighth edition, this classic text by Ronald B. Adler and George Rodman retains the enduring features that have made it the best-selling introductory human communication text on the market: an engaging and reader-friendly writing style; an inviting visual design with marginal quotations, cartoons, photographs, newspaper clippings, and supplemental readings on every page; up-to-date information on technology, gender, and cultural diversity; and everyday applications based on solid research and theory. Maintaining the quality of presentation and student-focused pedagogy that have characterized previous editions, this new edition features updated examples, coverage of current communication theory, entirely new student-oriented sample speeches with new commentaries, and a commitment to equipping students with effective communication skills that will matter and make a difference in their everyday lives. NEW TO THE EIGHTH EDITION Improved Design and Pedagogy DT Each chapter now opens with a list of cognitive and behavioral objectives so that students know precisely what they need to learn. DT Activities are now integrated into the text―adjacent to the concepts they complement―allowing students to apply the material more easily to their lives. New Feature Film Profiles DT Using a medium that students already know and love, Understanding Human Communication, Eighth Edition, integrates current movies into instruction to effectively teach concepts and principles. New films include: DT Cast Away DT Shallow Hal DT Pay It Forward DT You've Got Mail DT Clueless DT At First Sight DT Patch Adams DT Dangerous Minds DT Almost Famous New Sidebar Topics DT "Understanding Diversity" Sidebars show students how communication principles apply to people from different backgrounds. New topics include: - doing business across cultures - non-western views of modern medicine - deafness and identity DT "Understanding Communication Technology" Sidebars teach students how new technologie