Questioning & Answering: How, Who, When, & Where Paperback – January 10, 2023
by (Author)
It's a simple question, right? Wrong ! There are
no simple questions and no simple answers. If you think so, you set yourself up
for disappointment and failure. At minimum, questions and answers have
multiple, layered implications. They all say something about you, about the
person with whom you are communicating, and about your relationship together.
Dr. McCusker asserts that “…questions are bridges from ignorance to knowledge.
Questions are bridges to answers, and answers are bridges to further questions.
Questions, therefore, are cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal bridges from
idea to idea and from person to person. Without questions and answers to them,
conversation would be parallel monologues. Questions and answers take us from
monologue to dialogue—from social isolation to interpersonal connection.
Imagine how tedious and unsatisfying it would be to listen to a person’s
statements and stories without any verbal involvement on your part. Imagine the
confusion that might occur if you could not ask clarifying questions. Imagine
the boredom that might occur if you could not interject questions that direct
discussion toward your interests and opinions.”
QUESTIONING & ANSWERING: How, Who, When, & Where is, itself, a bridge
that will enable you to travel into heretofore unexplored communication realms.
When you finish reading the book, you will be able to identify your questioning
and answering style and those of persons with whom you interact. Such knowledge
will help empower you toward greater personal fulfillment and interpersonal
success. You will achieve that competence in part by exploring the proffered
examples and analyses of questions and answers in nine “discourse domains”
including: family of origin, spouses, friends, physician-patient,
psychotherapist-client, supervisor-supervisee, teacher-student, media
interviewer-guest, and interrogator-suspect.
