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Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate September 2001

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Nonverbal communication is communication without words. The clothing that is worn , the shaking of hands with someone, or the look that is given to someone are all examples of nonverbal communication. There are two areas of the body that are especially important in communication messages. First, the movements that you make with your body communicates and second is your bodies general appearance communicates. There area five major types of body movements.

They are emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, and adaptors. By grouping them together we can build social relationships.

The purpose of nonverbal communications is to help enforce your nonverbal and verbal communications that display your intentions. By using nonverbal communications you can improve your social relationships.

After reading the chapter on nonverbal messages I've ascertained information based on all categories of nonverbal communications. First I learned about the different channels of nonverbal communications. They include the body, face, eye, space, artifactual, touch, paralanguage, silence, time, and smell.

The first channel that I'd like to discuss is the body. The body also breaks down into several different categories. These are emblems, illustrators, affect displays, regulators, and adaptors.

Emblems, by definition, are body gestures that directly translate into words or phrases. For example, holding up a fist with an index and little finger stuck out means a number of different things throughout the world. For example, in Texas it is received as positive in that it represents the longhorn steer. On the contrary in Italy and parts of Africa it is received as negative because it translates in Italy as your wife is having an affair and in Africa sends aspirations of bad times.

Illustrators enhance the verbal messages they accompany. For example, when talking about something you make a gesture towards it with your...