Course: CMM 128 Interviewing Practices

Lecture Notes

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Mental Preparations to Improve Listening
Mental preparations to improve listening

1. Increase your vocabulary
As indicated above in the discussion of the steps of listening, a listener needs to understand what the other party is saying in order to get the message.  One reason listeners do not understand is that the speaker uses a word or phrase that the listener does not know.  When you take a class in a subject, part of the class involves teaching you new terms.  For example, in this class you learn about  terms such as exigency, feedback, and semantic noise.

2. Study the subject
If you are going to be part of an interview situation, think about what you already know about this subject and what questions do you have about it.  You could also read about this subject.  In Communication classes, students are provided with a syllabus so they know what an instructor will be speaking about on a particular day.

3. Develop your note-taking abilities
There are two aspects of your note-taking skills.

- Develop some shorthand.  This doesn't have to be as sophisticated as Gregg Shorthand but should involve catching the key words used by the speaker and using abbreviations in your notes.  For example, rather than writing, "Communication," "Visual Aid," or "Eye Contact," you might use the abbreviations of "Comm.," "V.A.," and "E.C."
- Organize your notes.  Speakers often suggest to listeners how to organize notes by their use of signposts (e.g., first, next, finally).  Notes may be organized into lists or into tables depending on the information.

4.    Choose the right kind of listening
Listed below are the four types of communication and their purpose with their matching type of listening.

Type of Communication | Purpose | Type of Listening | Purpose
Informative | Teach | Discriminative Comprehensive | Learn
Persuasive | Convince | Evaluative Critical | Learn and Judge
Ceremonial | Entertain | Appreciative | Relax and Enjoy
Venting | Catharsis | Empathic | Show empathy and sympathy