Book excerpt: Communication pervades our lives at all levels: academic, professional and personal. We can think of communication as anything that involves a transaction of meaning as a result of messages being sent and received between people, and these messages can be either intentional or unintentional. Your yawn at the breakfast table may be unintentional, but it communicates a message that you are tired. Communication is vitally important in every facet of our lives and we spend virtually all of our time communicating. Because it comes very naturally to us we might assume that we know how to do it and therefore don't need to spend time learning it. In reality, few of us reach our communication potential and we therefore experience communication difficulties from time to time. We have all had the experience of saying or doing something and then being surprised to find that someone else interprets what we have said or done in a way that we never intended. Communication is a complex process with many opportunities for mistakes and misunderstandings to occur. This book explores how various kinds of miscommunication occur and draw lessons on how to minimise barriers to communication.