Application: Differing Perceptions

Application: Differing Perceptions, Part 2

Last week, you printed out a photo, showed it to others, and collected their perceptions about the photo. Then you filled out a worksheet in which you developed an introduction and outline for this week’s application. You also may have filled out the Perception Analysis Grid that helped you categorize your observers’ perceptions. This week, you will write a formal essay using the introduction, outline, and perhaps the grid that you completed last week. In this paper you will compare and contrast your observers’ perceptions and analyze what factors might lead to them.

Questions about this assignment? Post them in the Contact the Instructor area in the left navigation bar. That way, everyone in the class will see, and benefit from, the Instructor’s response.

To prepare for this Application:

• Review your completed “Week 4 Assignment Worksheet” that your instructor graded and provided comments in and suggestions for how to use the parts of the worksheet to complete the paper for this week. That graded worksheet will be available in your personal grade center under the Week 4 Assignment area. Be sure to include any changes your Instructor has suggested to the introduction and outline components in your paper.
• Refer again to “Steps in the Process of Forming Perceptions” on pages 68–83 (Chapter 3) of the course text, Communication in a Changing World, for guidance.
• Read the Week 5 Application Rubric by clicking on this link. This will help you make sure you have included all requirements in your paper. This is what your instructor will use to grade your paper.

To complete this Application:

• Write an essay that is at least 750 words in length in which you do the following:
  1. 1. Include the corrected introduction and preview of main points from the Week 4 Worksheet.
     2. Provide a paragraph where you explain the three steps of the perception process. Be sure to define each step and credit the textbook with any information you use. You should also give an example of each step. This paragraph should be developed further from the Main Point #1 section in the Week 4 Worksheet. Thus, you should NOT just cut and paste from the week 4 worksheet.
     3. Describe your observers (age, gender, relationship to you, work, education, your own perception of their outlook on life, etc.) and explain how each observer’s background might affect his or her perception of the world. This paragraph should be developed further from the Main Point #2 section in the Week 4 Worksheet. Thus, you should NOT just cut and paste from the week 4 worksheet.

   

  1. 1. Analyze your observers’ descriptions of the photo. In this analysis:

   

  1. 1. Apply at least 3 terms (one term from each step of the perception process, and make sure one term for each observer) from section II, C of the week 4 Worksheet. These can also be found in Chapter 3 in the textbook.
     2. Provide an example for each term from among the words your observers chose to describe the photograph.
     3. As you apply an example to each term, explain why you chose to apply that term from the book. Do this by describing what factors about your observers’ backgrounds may have led them to choose a certain word to describe the photo; and thus, led you to determine that a certain term from the book would apply to that example.
     4. Remember to properly apply each term as described in the “How to Apply Terms, Module 2” PowerPoint and credit the textbook. 

        This paragraph should be developed further from the Main Point #3 section in the Week 4 Worksheet and even more terms can be applied with more description of your observers’ perceptions of the photo. Thus, you should NOT just cut and paste from the week 4 worksheet.

  2. Remember to support your statements with clear examples.