Product Description

IN MIXED COMPANY: COMMUNICATING IN SMALL GROUPS AND TEAMS, the author uses the central unifying theme of cooperation and a communication competence model to guide discussions of key small group concepts and processes. Visually appealing and practical, this text will help you succeed in your small groups course.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #308275 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Review
"Students will benefit from using this book because it provides them with the theoretical basis for understanding groups, as well as the practical skills for navigating the group process."

"In Mixed Company is a well-organized, practical and useful textbook for an introductory course in small group communication. It will provide introductory students with the information necessary to practice small group communication skills."

"I think this is a great book. I would recommend it to my colleagues as containing most of the concepts we cover in our courses."

About the Author
J. Dan Rothwell is Chair of the Communication Studies Department at Cabrillo College. He has a BA in American History from the University of Portland (Oregon) and an MA and PhD from the University of Oregon. He is the author of three other books: IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS: AN INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION, TELLING IT LIKE IT ISN'T: LANGUAGE MISUSE AND MALPRACTICE, and (with James Costigan) INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION: INFLUENCES AND ALTERNATIVES. Dr. Rothwell is currently coauthoring a general psychology textbook with Terry Fetterman and David Douglass, psychology professors at Cabrillo College. During his extensive teaching career, Dr. Rothwell has received a dozen teaching awards.

Customer Reviews

Good textbook
The Rothwell text is very well designed and thoughtfully applied. It would serve well for a course in small group communication. It not only discusses the concepts through the lens of small group communication, it also applies the concepts to real life situations.
The chapters are structured with sections to help the reader better understand the concepts and better recap the chapters. These sections include but are not limited to the "Focus on...", "Closer Look," and "Second Look" sections of each chapter. This is similar to the structure of Donald Egolf and Sondra Chester's Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing, and Nonverbal Communication. These texts are equipped with a key terms and questions section at the end of each chapter and key terms, questions, and mini-projects section at the end of each chapter, respectively.
The "Closer Look" sections of the Rothwell text relate examples of both common and uncommon group interactions to the definitional and theoretical material. The "Closer Look" segments make it seamless for the reader to envision him/herself in the situation described and gain insight and clarity from the coupling of theory and commonplace.
"Second Look" sections are separated from the main body of text to allow students a quick review and application of concepts and definitions. This section takes an abridged "How To" approach. This makes for easy and efficient reference of the material covered thus far in a given chapter. All three components employ modern and appropriate examples for students to review.
The reading is very objective and contains issues that pertain to both women and men. The dichotomies given on different issues throughout the book make the reading highly comprehensible and applicable.
However, while the book serves as a good textbook, I would not recommend it for casual reading. It's interesting if communication is your area of study.