What Statements
Put yourself (“I”) in the left end of the barbell. “LH” will stand for “left-hand.”
Now put the word love on the bar. The bar is always a verb or verb phrase. We will label the bar “VP,” for verb phrase.
Finally, name someone or something you love. For example, it can be “my mom and dad,” “my Aunt Gelato,” “my dog Spot,” or “hiking in the woods.” Put that in the right-hand end of the barbell. Label is “RH.”
I
LHlove
VPmy dogs,
Blondie and Blackie
Variables
Variables are like the ends of a barbell. The word variable contains the word vary, which means for something to change. With barbells, for instance, we can change the amount of weight by changing the ends.
Relationships
Writing is all about relationships. For example, what one person feels about another, or what someone feels about an activity, or the importance of a particular bird species to the plants on a South Pacific island.
Perhaps Johnny loves collecting deer antelope antlers, which they shed every year. He has a large collection:
Johnny loves collecting deer antlers.
Instead of drawing a Communications Barbell, we can show the relationship with a chart:
Click on “Insert,” then on “Table,” and then on “Insert Table.” This screen will appear:
Your Communications Barbell has a LH, a VP, and a RH, so set the “Number of columns” to 3.
It has a row for the LH, VP, and RH, and it has a row that states the relationship, so set the “Number of rows” to 2.
| What Statement | ||
|---|---|---|
| Johnny | loves | collecting deer antlers. |
What Statement
What you have is called a “What Statement.” It tells in a few words what the subject of your writing or speech is.
| What Statement | ||
|---|---|---|
| Johnny | loves | collecting deer antlers. |
Back to Johnny
Johnny’s family moves to eastern Wyoming, where antelope roam. He starts collecting their antlers. Now the chart looks like this:
| What Statement | ||
|---|---|---|
| Johnny | loves | collecting antelope antlers. |
His sister, Sondra, has a different What Statement:
| What Statement | ||
|---|---|---|
| Sondra | hates | algebra. |
Many times there are extra words:
Eagles unfortunately ate all the Easter eggs we had hidden for the annual Easter egg hunt. Here, unfortunately goes with ate, not with eagles: unfortunately ate, not Eagles unfortunately.
| What Statement | ||
|---|---|---|
| Eagles | unfortunately ate | all the Easter eggs we had hidden for the annual Easter egg hunt.. |
Task 1 What Statements – Individual
Create What Statement charts for the following:
- Eagles often sit on top of our house here in southern Alaska.
- People in Croatia love to camp at the beach.
- Randell and Juanita built a house in Oaxaca.