Communicating in Forums – Anthony’s Dilemma

Communicating In Forums – Anthony’s Dilemma Carla Landes Gen/105 September 25, 2011 Arianne P. Bellizaire Communicating In Forums – Anthony’s Dilemma To me, it is very important when speaking in class forums that I choose my inclusive phrasing well. One should never make assumptions when communicating in forums and phrase comments as if in a “professional” setting. When posting most of my responses to discussion questions, I try to address a specific person and usually not the entire class and base my response accordingly.
The first error that I feel Anthony made in his response to the class was “Hi guys. ” It appears in the phrasing of his greeting that Anthony assumed the class was all male. Although, this does appear somewhat sexist, I however would not take offense to this type of greeting per say as it is typically a gender-friendly greeting. I do feel that the rest of Anthony’s response regarding his experience at the company conference was quite sexist, namely, how Anthony was surprised that the female or “lady” as he called her had “many good things” to say.
I personally would not have mentioned the gender of the speaker, but just referred to the “speaker” at the conference. Most of Anthony’s discussion response focuses more in context with males attending this conference just by using some of his descriptive phrases such as “the good ole boys” and only mentioned the male managers, which would lead one to assume there were no female managers present. Anthony should have used language such as “Hi Class” or Hi All. ” Also, Anthony could have been more inclusive with his descriptions of the managers, such as, “The managers and their families.

I would think that Anthony’s concern over not offending anyone to me shows that had he had a face-to-face conversation in the same language, the response may not have been interpreted as sexist. Anthony could have clarified himself differently in his response. In conclusion, Anthony’s response was non-inclusive language and phrasing. His first mistake and my instruction to Anthony would be never rush when communicating in a group forum. Instead of rushing through the assignment, Anthony should have waited to post his response. Choose phrasing very carefully and leave opinions and emotions out of the post.