FAMILY COMMUNICATION

In text citations and reference list not necessary. This is essentially a longer version of your “family reflection” short essays, but I expect your analysis to be more detailed. You are to write on each of the five topics you see listed below: 2 to 3 pages for each topic for a total number of pages between 7 and 1O.

In this assignment I have given you 5 topic areas to address when critically analyzing your family communication. Please recognize that a “critical analysis” from a scholarly perspective means a detailing of the good and bad things about whatever is being critically analyzed. Since you are a member of the same family whose communication you are analyzing, you clearly will not and cannot be an objective observer. That has its advantages and disadvantages. You have a special vantage point. But perhaps you can’t see the forest for the trees. You are a “participant observer.” A participant observer is an individual who is participating in the phenomenon that she or he is observing. Part of you tries to stay objective about what you are viewing and participating in, but part of you is deeply and subjectively embedded in it.

Five Topic Areas

Conflict management in your family

Family stories

Family roles and rules

Challenging dialogues in the family

Me and my family

Let me give you an example. For each of the 5 sections you start off by defining what the basic topic area means and then apply it to your family. For instance, for “challenging dialogues in the family” you would start off by defining what our book means by a “challenging dialogue.” Then you would give examples and analysis of one or two challenging dialogues that exist in your family and how your family COMMUNICATIVELY meets the challenge. The most challenging dialogues that still occur in my family revolve around how to pay back Hannah’s student loan and whether I (dad) should continue to let the oldest child, Michael, age 26, live free in his Dad’s home in Arvada–even though his Dad, me, is not a rich man. In Michael’s defense, he is a full-time student and does work 20 hours a week.

In this writing assignment, I am looking for three things to be shown in each of the five topic areas. These three things constitute the essence of the quality of your writing and are what the rubric is based on.

· Textbook knowledge (information gleaned from the readings and anything your professor might have said or student contributions in the discussion posts). Think logic and reasoning and approaching things from an objective, scientific viewpoint. Are you accurate and clear in your use of family communication terms and concepts and theories?

· Experiential Insight and Knowledge (information that the student has access to due to their direct or indirect experiences with the topic area).

· Integration of textbook knowledge and experiential knowledge

(IMPORTANT MESSAGE: IN MY FAMILY I AM THE MIDDLE CHILD OF OLDER BROTHER AND YOUNGER BROTHER ON MOTHERS SIDE AND FATHERS I AM THE 4TH OF 15 CHILDREN. I HAVE 3 CHILDREN MYSELF, GIRL 8, BOY5 AND 3-YEAR-OLD BOY. SINGLE MOTHER)