Essentials of Human Communication

About our authors Joseph A. DeVito received his BA from Hunter College, MA from Temple University, and his PhD from the University of Illinois. After earning his doctorate in speech and linguistics, DeVito returned to teach in the CUNY system, first at his alma mater, Hunter College, and then at Queens College, and then back to Hunter College. During his teaching career, DeVito taught a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate courses with a focus on introductory courses. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Hunter College.

At various times, DeVito has served on the editorial boards of Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication Monographs, Communication Education, Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication and Etc: A Review of General Semantics. He has also served as a consulting editor to the following publishers: Random House, Harper & Row, Waveland Press and HarperCollins. He was an ETS coordinator of the committee to construct the DANTES Public Speaking Test for the Educational Testing Service as well. A prolific author, DeVito has written or edited more than 30 books in the field of communication, including The Interpersonal Communication Book, Human Communication: The Basic Course, Essential Elements of Public Speaking, Interpersonal Messages and Essentials of Human Communication, all published by Pearson. A number of his textbooks have been translated into a variety of languages including Chinese, Indonesian, French, Greek and Czech.