Week of September 24-30 - Question 2

While reading the article “Listening is a 10 Part Skill” by Ralph G. Nichols, I learned that there are 10 things that a good listener must do. The first thing is to find an area of interest in the topic that is being discussed. The second is to judge what the person has to say rather than how they say it. You have to look past the personality or blandness of the speaker and discover what they have to offer. Next, a person must learn to not et excited about the points being discussed until they have been thoroughly understood. Fourthly, the listener must learn to listen for ideas rather than try to memorize each point that the speaker has to make. Next, the listener must be able to take a variety of different types of notes. The best listeners usually have four or five different note-taking systems that they adapt to the discussion. Something that I wasn’t aware of was that listening is characterized by health factors such as faster heart beat, quicker circulation, and a higher temperature. The seventh point was to resist distractions and attempt to concentrate better. Next is to expose the mind to a variety of presentations in order to gain experience in listening to many different subjects. The ninth point is to stay openminded and not allow emotions to be triggered by certain words. Lastly, it’s important to keep in mind that the brain thinks at about four times the speed that people speak at. This gives us a lot of time to allow our minds to wander, however rather than wandering we can use this time to find the key points of what is being said.