COMM 1000 KEY WORDS AND DEFINITIONS: AUBURN UNIVERSIT Y QUESTIONS ANSWERED
CORRECTLY LATEST 2026
Linear Model of Communication - Answers Theory that views communication as a one-way process in
which a source conveys an encoded message through a channel to a receiver, who then decodes the
message.
Source - Answers The person responsible for inventing the idea on which they intend to speak and
crafting that idea to an audience (aka the speaker).
Encoding - Answers Taking an abstract notion and providing it meaning through the application of
symbols.
Message - Answers The content or idea that the source tries to convey to the audience.
Channel - Answers The medium through which an encoded message is transmitted from a source to a
receiver.
Receiver - Answers The person or audience the message is being transmitted to.
Decoding - Answers The process of drawing meaning from the symbols that were used to encode a
message.
Noise - Answers Anything that can change the message after the source encodes and sends it.
Interactive Model of Communication - Answers Communication theory that views communication as
a two-way process that includes feedback and the environment.
Feedback - Answers The receiver's response to a message. Is sent to the sender.
Environment - Answers The context to which the communication process takes place.
Transactional Model of Communication - Answers The theory that views communication as a
constant process in which all parties simultaneously play the roles of sender and receiver.
Phobia - Answers A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a
compelling desire to avoid.
Communication Apprehension - Answers The fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated
communication with another or others.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Answers Convincing yourself that something is going to happen before it
does, thus leading to the occurrence of what you originally expected.
Systematic Desensitization - Answers The process in which a person is slowly introduced to a fear and
each time he or she overcomes the fear the intensity decreases.
Ethics - Answers Involves morals and the specific moral choices to be made by a person.
Plagiarism - Answers Taking the intellectual achievements of another person and presenting them as
your own.
Global Plagiarism - Answers Taking an entire piece of work and saying it is your own.
Incremental Plagiarism - Answers Using part of someone else's work and not citing it as a source.
Patchwork Plagiarism - Answers Taking ideas from more than one piece of work and presenting them
as original work without giving due credit to the sources.
Patchworking - Answers Taking original source material and changing a few words in it, but not
enough to consider it a paraphrase, all the while not citing the source material.
Culture - Answers The distinctive ideas, customs, social behavior, products, or way of life of a
particular nation, society, people, or period.
Co-Cultures - Answers Groups that are impacted by a variety of smaller specific cultures that intersect
in our lives.
Low-Context Cultures - Answers The language used in an interaction, in which very little emphasis is
placed on the nonverbal communication, environment, and situation.
High-Context Cultures - Answers Language in which a great deal of meaning is derived from the
nonverbal expressions, environment, and situation in which the communication is taking place, and
less emphasis on the words.
Race - Answers A set of physical characteristics shared by a group of people, such as skin color, body
type, facial structure, and hair color.
Ethnicity - Answers A group of people who identify with each other based on a common experience,
which might include geographic or national origin, ancestry, history, cultural and social norms,
religion, race, language, ideology, food, dress, or other factors.
Sex - Answers Refers to one's biological classification as male, female, or intersex based on one's
reproductive organs and chromosomes.
, Gender - Answers A social construct that includes all of the beliefs, attitudes, actions, and roles
associated with being masculine or feminine.
Sexual Orientation - Answers The sex and the gender to whom a person is romantically and sexually
attracted to.
Ideology - Answers Set of ideas, beliefs, and ideals that form our worldview and provide a basis for
action.
Dialogue - Answers Speaking in a way that encourages others to listen and listening in a way that
encourages others to speak.
Ethnocentric - Answers Believing your group's perspective is the only correct one and thus judging
others based on their conformity to your way of doing things.
General Purpose Statement - Answers A brief statement that describes the type or category of
speech you will prepare and deliver. There are three types (informative, persuasive, and
commemorative).
Brainstorm - Answers To create a list of possible topics and keep adding to this list as you think of
new ideas.
Concept Map/Mind Map - Answers A visual representation of the potential areas you could cover in
your speech.
Specific Purpose Statement - Answers A narrower version of the general purpose statement that
identifies what you will talk about, what you will say about it, and what you hope the audience will
take away from the speech.
Bias - Answers An unfair preference or distortion of information.
Boolean Operators - Answers Using words such as 'and', 'but', and 'or' when typing in search terms to
focus the results.
Demographics - Answers Categories of definable characteristics of groups of people, such as age,
race, religion, socioeconomic status, education level, and sexual orientation.
Real Example - Answers An example that is factual.
Hypothetical Example - Answers An example that is fictional.
Brief Example - Answers An example that makes a very quick point and can be effective at any point
in a speech.
Extended Example - Answers An example that takes time, and the importance lies in the details.
Statistics - Answers Numbers that summarize and organize sets of numbers to make them easier to
understand or visualize.
Measures of Central Tendency - Answers Statistics that indicate where the middle of a distribution
lies, including the mean, median, and mode.
Mean - Answers The average of all the scores in a distribution, which is calculated by adding all the
scores and then dividing by the number of scores.
Median - Answers The middle number in a group of numbers.
Mode - Answers The most frequently occurring number within a group of numbers.
Standard Deviation - Answers A measure of variability that shows how far apart the numbers are in a
distribution.
Testimony - Answers Using the words of other people as evidence.
Expert Testimony - Answers Testimony from someone who had conducted extensive research on the
topic, has significant experience with the topic, or holds a position that lends credibility to their ideas
on the subject matter.
Peer Testimony - Answers Testimony from someone who is in the same peer group of the audience,
but who is not necessarily an expert on the topic.
Subordination - Answers Process of creating a hierarchy of ideas in which the most general ideas
appear first followed by more specific ideas.
Coordination - Answers All information on the same level has the same significance.
Division - Answers Principle that if a point is divided into subpoints, there must be two or more
subpoints.
Thesis - Answers A carefully worded one-sentence summary of exactly what you will cover in your
speech.
Transition - Answers A connecting statement that lets the audience know you are leaving one point
and moving to another.
Internal Summary - Answers A statement that summarizes what you have already covered and
precedes transitions.
CORRECTLY LATEST 2026
Linear Model of Communication - Answers Theory that views communication as a one-way process in
which a source conveys an encoded message through a channel to a receiver, who then decodes the
message.
Source - Answers The person responsible for inventing the idea on which they intend to speak and
crafting that idea to an audience (aka the speaker).
Encoding - Answers Taking an abstract notion and providing it meaning through the application of
symbols.
Message - Answers The content or idea that the source tries to convey to the audience.
Channel - Answers The medium through which an encoded message is transmitted from a source to a
receiver.
Receiver - Answers The person or audience the message is being transmitted to.
Decoding - Answers The process of drawing meaning from the symbols that were used to encode a
message.
Noise - Answers Anything that can change the message after the source encodes and sends it.
Interactive Model of Communication - Answers Communication theory that views communication as
a two-way process that includes feedback and the environment.
Feedback - Answers The receiver's response to a message. Is sent to the sender.
Environment - Answers The context to which the communication process takes place.
Transactional Model of Communication - Answers The theory that views communication as a
constant process in which all parties simultaneously play the roles of sender and receiver.
Phobia - Answers A persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a
compelling desire to avoid.
Communication Apprehension - Answers The fear or anxiety associated with real or anticipated
communication with another or others.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Answers Convincing yourself that something is going to happen before it
does, thus leading to the occurrence of what you originally expected.
Systematic Desensitization - Answers The process in which a person is slowly introduced to a fear and
each time he or she overcomes the fear the intensity decreases.
Ethics - Answers Involves morals and the specific moral choices to be made by a person.
Plagiarism - Answers Taking the intellectual achievements of another person and presenting them as
your own.
Global Plagiarism - Answers Taking an entire piece of work and saying it is your own.
Incremental Plagiarism - Answers Using part of someone else's work and not citing it as a source.
Patchwork Plagiarism - Answers Taking ideas from more than one piece of work and presenting them
as original work without giving due credit to the sources.
Patchworking - Answers Taking original source material and changing a few words in it, but not
enough to consider it a paraphrase, all the while not citing the source material.
Culture - Answers The distinctive ideas, customs, social behavior, products, or way of life of a
particular nation, society, people, or period.
Co-Cultures - Answers Groups that are impacted by a variety of smaller specific cultures that intersect
in our lives.
Low-Context Cultures - Answers The language used in an interaction, in which very little emphasis is
placed on the nonverbal communication, environment, and situation.
High-Context Cultures - Answers Language in which a great deal of meaning is derived from the
nonverbal expressions, environment, and situation in which the communication is taking place, and
less emphasis on the words.
Race - Answers A set of physical characteristics shared by a group of people, such as skin color, body
type, facial structure, and hair color.
Ethnicity - Answers A group of people who identify with each other based on a common experience,
which might include geographic or national origin, ancestry, history, cultural and social norms,
religion, race, language, ideology, food, dress, or other factors.
Sex - Answers Refers to one's biological classification as male, female, or intersex based on one's
reproductive organs and chromosomes.
, Gender - Answers A social construct that includes all of the beliefs, attitudes, actions, and roles
associated with being masculine or feminine.
Sexual Orientation - Answers The sex and the gender to whom a person is romantically and sexually
attracted to.
Ideology - Answers Set of ideas, beliefs, and ideals that form our worldview and provide a basis for
action.
Dialogue - Answers Speaking in a way that encourages others to listen and listening in a way that
encourages others to speak.
Ethnocentric - Answers Believing your group's perspective is the only correct one and thus judging
others based on their conformity to your way of doing things.
General Purpose Statement - Answers A brief statement that describes the type or category of
speech you will prepare and deliver. There are three types (informative, persuasive, and
commemorative).
Brainstorm - Answers To create a list of possible topics and keep adding to this list as you think of
new ideas.
Concept Map/Mind Map - Answers A visual representation of the potential areas you could cover in
your speech.
Specific Purpose Statement - Answers A narrower version of the general purpose statement that
identifies what you will talk about, what you will say about it, and what you hope the audience will
take away from the speech.
Bias - Answers An unfair preference or distortion of information.
Boolean Operators - Answers Using words such as 'and', 'but', and 'or' when typing in search terms to
focus the results.
Demographics - Answers Categories of definable characteristics of groups of people, such as age,
race, religion, socioeconomic status, education level, and sexual orientation.
Real Example - Answers An example that is factual.
Hypothetical Example - Answers An example that is fictional.
Brief Example - Answers An example that makes a very quick point and can be effective at any point
in a speech.
Extended Example - Answers An example that takes time, and the importance lies in the details.
Statistics - Answers Numbers that summarize and organize sets of numbers to make them easier to
understand or visualize.
Measures of Central Tendency - Answers Statistics that indicate where the middle of a distribution
lies, including the mean, median, and mode.
Mean - Answers The average of all the scores in a distribution, which is calculated by adding all the
scores and then dividing by the number of scores.
Median - Answers The middle number in a group of numbers.
Mode - Answers The most frequently occurring number within a group of numbers.
Standard Deviation - Answers A measure of variability that shows how far apart the numbers are in a
distribution.
Testimony - Answers Using the words of other people as evidence.
Expert Testimony - Answers Testimony from someone who had conducted extensive research on the
topic, has significant experience with the topic, or holds a position that lends credibility to their ideas
on the subject matter.
Peer Testimony - Answers Testimony from someone who is in the same peer group of the audience,
but who is not necessarily an expert on the topic.
Subordination - Answers Process of creating a hierarchy of ideas in which the most general ideas
appear first followed by more specific ideas.
Coordination - Answers All information on the same level has the same significance.
Division - Answers Principle that if a point is divided into subpoints, there must be two or more
subpoints.
Thesis - Answers A carefully worded one-sentence summary of exactly what you will cover in your
speech.
Transition - Answers A connecting statement that lets the audience know you are leaving one point
and moving to another.
Internal Summary - Answers A statement that summarizes what you have already covered and
precedes transitions.
