A521.2.3.RB - The Danger of a Single Story

For your assignment, reflect on Adichie's message. What kinds of expression does Adichie use? How do you view her message in terms of what you have learned in this module?

Chimamanda Adichie is an articulate speaker and a great storyteller.  Her message was a whole message that included her observations, thoughts, feelings and needs.  While watching this, she disappeared and I got lost in her stories.  I lost "a sense of time and a sense of 'body'." (Walen & Ricca, p. 19) Her TED talk also incorporates the characteristics of a springboard story.  The idea was clear and worthwhile, based on actual examples, has a positive tone and is told from a single point of view. (Denning, p. 64)

Chimamanda's story has engaging examples of her past and how she realized that hearing a single story of another person or country, that we risk having an incomplete understanding.  "The single story creates stereotypes. And the problem with the single story is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete." (Adichie, 2009)

Whole messages include all four kinds of expressions;  what you see, think, feel and need."(McKay, Davis, & Fanning, p. 39).  In her overlapping stories, she explains her observations, what she "heard, read or personally experienced." (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, p. 36). She goes on to describe her thoughts and conclusions.  Adichie believes that single stories are incomplete and that it "emphasizes how we are different instead of how we are similar."(2009) Chimamanda perfectly expressed her feelings. Adichie states that she "always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place or that person."(2009) Furthermore, her final statement outlines her needs, saying "when we reject the single story...we regain a kind of paradise." (Adichie, 2009)

Adichie, C. N. (2009, July). Retrieved August 19, 2017, from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story#t-812659

Denning, S. (2011). The leader's guide to storytelling - Mastering the art and discipline of business narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (1983). Messages, the communication book. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Whalen, D. J., & Ricca, T. M. (2007). The professional communications toolkit. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage Publications.