CONSTRUCTIVE COMMUNICATION
My approach, described in greater length in Portuguese (Gomes de Matos, 1996, 2002a), and briefly in English (Gomes de Matos, 2000, 2001, 2002b, 2005), reflects the assumption that communicating well is communicating for the good of humankind.
In my 1996 book, several checklists and guidelines are provided on how to communicate constructively. The following sample guidelines are translated from the text in Portuguese:How to interact positively:
1. Help integrate seemingly conflicting points of view (yours and your conversational partner’s).
2. Be cordial to your linguistic neighbor.
3. React responsibly, in a spirit of dignifying reciprocity.
4. Interact for mutual good and kindness.
5. Find out as much as possible about your interactive neighbor’s beliefs and values. Remember: People are more important than problems.
6. Ask for constructive feedback.
7. Form questions positively.
Another checklist is centered on how to write constructively. It was first used by undergraduate students of Portuguese at the local Federal University of Pernambuco, then by police officers in a Community Policing Program, sponsored by the Pernambuco State Department of Social Defense and by the Center for Applied Social Sciences.
How to write constructively:
1. In writing texts for academic or administrative/management purposes, be sure to foster constructive interpersonal relations.
2. In closing a personal exchange (traditional mail or e-mail), enhance interaction with your communicative friend by creating variants for the complimentary close: go beyond “sincerely” and depending on prevailing weather conditions, wish your addressee sunniest regards, and so on. Exercise your right to be communicatively creative.
3. In writing to friends, wish them health, peace, friendship, faith, development, and so forth as established by your culture and theirs, or boldly go beyond conventions.
Underlying such constructive writingcentered guidelines is the belief that writing well is writing for the good of writers and readers, and more broadly, of one’s group, as well as of national, regional, or international communities.Peace linguists might be interested to know that in my workshops aimed at positive or constructive writing, self-monitoring checklists such as the following are shared:
1. What constructive knowledge do/did I have about my readers?
2. How can/could I contribute to their individual or collective well-being?
3. What constructive values do/did I communicate/enhance/prioritize? How?
4. What constructive vocabulary and phraseology do/did I have to change to communicate more constructively? How?
5. What can/could my text-contribute to my readers’ (and my own) communicative, cultural, ecological, economic, ethical, moral, political, social, and spiritual well being?
My constructive communication (CC) approach capitalizes on the applicational possibilities of checklists. Also included in the 1996 book are guidelines on how to read and listen positively (this adverb is often used instead of constructively), how to criticize positively, how to interact with older persons positively, and how to use linguistics at the service of positive communication.