I know you THINK you understand: Summary of the Listening Style Inventory

“I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant” (Lu, 2005). Many have heard this phrase at one time or another; in a relationship, in business, or even at the dinner table with family. The ability to speak clearly and convey messages effectively is imperative to building relationships; however, listening and internalizing those messages can determine the quality of communication. “Listening is one of human’s earliest communication skills” (Lu, 2005). For this reason, the ability to listen is often taken for granted because it seems to come naturally, “when in fact effective listening requires as much skill as the other forms of communication” (Hamilton, 2008).

At work, I often catch myself paraphrasing a message that has been communicated to me back to the speaker, in an attempt to make sure that I am properly understanding what they are trying to convey. As Lu explains, “failure to listen is probably the cause of more interpersonal problems than any other human behavior” (2005). Not taking the time to internalize and clarify messages in a professional environment, can negatively affect relationships and deteriorate one’s credibility. In my position of public relations, relying on relationships to thrive, I cannot leave the scene of communication without proper feedback of understanding. I agree with Lu, that “incorrectly encoding-decoding can cause significant problems in communication” (2005).

Working with others from many diverse cultural backgrounds in business, I can use the information in this article as a reference to improve my listening communication skills. As Lu maintains, “there are a variety of sender (speaker) and receiver (listener) characteristics that must be taken into consideration when evaluating the communication process; culture, gender, education and past experience” (2005). I can access these characteristics while improving my listening and communication skills with others.

In summary, beyond the frustration of reading the same paragraph twice in the Introduction section of the article, where the second and fourth paragraph are the same, the most significant learning from this article is that effective listening is a learned skill. It is not an innate ability. The ability to hear is a gift and should not be taken for granted, however, acquiring the ability to listen effectively takes focus and determination. Improving listening skills, through self-assessments such as the Listening Style Inventory, will not only positively impact general communication, but will especially influence both interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships.

References

Lu, J. (2005). The listening style inventory (LSI) as an instrument for improving listening skill. Sino-US English Teaching, 2, 45-50.

Hamilton, Cheryl (2008). Effective Listening. In, Communicating for results: A guide for business and the professions. (pp. 101-103).

Evaluating Resources

Utilizing various resources for graduate level writing is crucial to establishing credibility. In order to substantiate assertions of opinion or to prove facts, one must use a variety of supporting resources. Evaluating available resources is essential to conducting quality research and determining information that is useful, valid, and reliable.

When searching for relevant material to use for a given objective, it is optimal to investigate information from a variety of sources. Websites, magazine articles, and journals are all adequate materials for background information; however, scholarly articles, those that have been subjected to a peer review, are optimal for proving validity of information and assuring quality of research. Once information is deemed useful to one’s objective, an evaluation of the material can be used to establish whether it is valid and reliable. Qualifying each resource can be helpful in accessing value, by evaluating the following: Author, publication date, purpose, resource type (scholarly or popular), credibility of author, objectivity of author, is the resource primary or secondary, and references (Appendix).

To prove the validity of a resource, one must look at the background of the author. The legitimacy of the author’s credibility can be determined by such things as the following: Education, field experience, and validity of the references used in their original cited body of work. Citing resources in the References section of a paper according to APA guidelines is essential to graduate level writing. These guidelines have been created to streamline the process of investigation of resources, beyond the paper in which they are cited. If cited incorrectly, one’s composition may be deemed illegitimate and become susceptible to accusations of plagiarism.

As previously implied, the most immediately established reliable sources are those that are scholarly. Other sources can only be proven reliable after evaluation. Sources such as “Wikipedia” or other collaboratively unreferenced works should be used sparingly in graduate papers because they often cannot be verified. “Wikis are collaborative websites where anybody can edit and publish” (Konieczny, 2007). These should only be used if a student is instructed to use an unreferenced source (Konieczny).

Regardless of the topic of a graduate paper, devising research for relevant information to support one’s assertions is not all that is necessary. It is imperative to further investigate each resource to evaluate the usefulness, validity, reliability and credibility of the supporting information. If the proper steps are taken to qualify, evaluate, and reference each source, quality research papers prevail.

References

Konieczny, P. (January, 2007). Wikis andwWikipedia as a teaching tool. Retrieved September 21, 2007, from http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Jan_07/article02.htm

How I will be a Successful Graduate Student

Graduate School is a tool for a better future. I am not enrolled just to earn a piece of paper. In the words of Michael Flavin, my professor for Grad 703, “there are students and there are customers. Students come to learn the skills necessary to utilize their degrees post graduation; customers are just here to do the bare minimum to get the piece of paper and to add the degree to their resume” (M. Flavin, personal communication, September 6, 2007). It will not be easy. I know I will have to work very hard to grasp the concepts and complete the MCM program. I will do this by utilizing the many resources provided, along with my skills and strengths that I bring into the program. I will also push to strengthen my weaknesses, in order to be a true and successful “Student” of the Master of Communication and Marketing program.

Franklin University offers many on-site and online technologically-advanced resources to assist in the learning process. Their virtual tutorials help navigate the tools useful to completing and comprehending class assignments. They also offer online and on-location “Academic Success” workshops, to aid in areas of weakness or those of which there is uncertainty (http://www.franklin.edu/franklin/files/slc/workshopsched.pdf). When it comes to writing papers, they offer a service through the Student Learning Center that enables students to submit papers for review, in order to strengthen compositions and serve as a learning tool for future writing assignments. There is even a service on the library website called RefWorks that assists in the collection of references for papers, as you research various resources from the online library. I will take advantage of many of these resources, provided by Franklin, to enrich my graduate course work and enhance my understanding of each given assignment.

Resources will be utilized to support my class work, but my strengths will communicate my level of comprehension. I consider my writing to be my strongest academic skill. It has become clear in the past few weeks that I will be leveraging this skill often, in all of my graduate courses. My secondary strength of good interpersonal skills, combined with an aptitude for public speaking, will be employed often as well, knowing that many presentations are in my future. Finally, my tertiary strength, skills of visual communication, acquired by my undergraduate education and bachelor of fine arts degree, will most assuredly be exploited with personal and group presentations to enhance messages of meaning.

I do have an academic weakness that I would like to strengthen through my time at Franklin University. It is my hope that through learning new techniques, and lots of practice, that my reading comprehension skills will be strengthened. Reading has always been a struggle for me. I am very literate, however, it takes more time for me to read a page and truly comprehend all messages than it seems to take for most people. I attribute this to my mind’s tendency to run in many directions at a time, trailing off and consequently causing me to re-read something that I did not absorb. For this reason, it may take me longer for the reading portion of assignments. Knowing this, I will have to plan accordingly when scheduling time for class work during the week. It is my mission to find ways to improve upon this academic weakness.

The opportunity at Franklin, to learn and grow both personally and professionally in the area of communication and marketing, is vast. Recognizing the resources available to me will help me be successful in the Master of Communication and Marketing program. Through the utilization of these resources, combined with leveraging my strengths and striving to improve my weaknesses, I can maximize my opportunity of becoming a successful graduate student.

References
Franklin University (2007). Student learning center: workshop schedule. Retrieved September 22, 2007, from the Franklin University Website: http://www.franklin.edu/franklin/files/slc/workshopsched.pdf

What does life balance mean to you?

After working on one of the other assignments, the Personal Time Log, I've come to the conclusion that balancing our lives will really mean cutting out the parts that are not of top priority.

So, I'm curious. What aspects of your everyday lives have you eliminated, in order to better manage your work and school responsibilities?