Together: Communicating Interpersonally: A Social Construction Approach - Softcover

Stewart, John; Zediker, Karen E.; Witteborn, Saskia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019533020X ISBN 13: 9780195330205

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2004

Synopsis

The Sixth Edition of Together: Communicating Interpersonally brings lead author John Stewart together with award-winning colleagues Karen Zediker and Saskia Witteborn to continue the book's traditional emphasis on contact while adding two additional emphases: ethics and culture. Previous editions emphasized culture as part of an individual's world of meaning and featured an underlying ethical standpoint. The new edition integrates culture and ethics into every aspect of interpersonal communication.

Written in student-friendly, conversational language, Together incorporates and applies social construction approaches to interpersonal communication. The text addresses virtually all topics common to basic interpersonal courses and its conceptually unified approach makes the material coherent and easy to grasp. Together lays out a simple but powerful model of interpersonal communication that focuses on communication as collaborative meaning-making.

The Sixth Edition features significant improvements, starting with a change in the basic form of the book from a traditional text to a text with readings. A brief "In Other Words" reading has been added to each of the book's twelve chapters, offering alternative voices to the particular chapter's key ideas. Most chapters have been substantially revised, and a new chapter on relationships in cyberspace has been added.

Another feature is the way in which Stewart, Zediker, and Witteborn acknowledge their own collaborative process and pique students' interest in the material. Throughout the book, the authors offer personal insights and examples as models for students. Furthermore, real-world questions and comments from former students are incorporated into each chapter to provide additional voices and to respond to the questions raised most often by students. Each chapter closes with an "Applying What You Know" section that encourages students to further integrate the material in relevant ways.

About this title

About the Author:

John Stewart is at University of Dubuque. Karen E. Zediker is at the University of Puget Sound. Saskia Witteborn is at the University of Washington.

Review:

"The coverage is very good, and with the inclusion of new topics the book offers a strong representation of the topics and fields it seeks to introduce.... The conversational tone remains an advantage of the Stewart et al. book."--Steve Duck, University of Iowa

"Consistent with the social constructionist perspective, this book celebrates 'multivocality.' Stewart et al. incorporate student voices, alternative voices, cultural insights, and ethical lenses--giving students the exposure to multiple voices and the opportunity to wrestle with these alternative voices, as compared to their own. This reinforces the metaphor of tensionality that the authors offer throughout the text and invites the students into a more complex relationship with the concepts and ideas presented."--Kimberly Pearce, De Anza College

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 019533020X
• ISBN 13: 9780195330205
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 414