Listener And Dr Laura example essay topic

Listening Skills The importance of listening effectively is obvious to our everyday activities. The fundamentals of listening appear to be quite simple; however, with a little thought on the matter, the depth of the listening is far from basic. The similarities between hearing and listening can be deceiving. Hearing is a physical process and listening is both physical and psychological. There are several purposes of listening. If you are a good listener, it will be a huge help in school, at work, in relationship, and in other situations.

Another positive benefit of being a good listener is the ability to easily express information and communicate with others. You can listen to understand, listen to appreciate and you can listen critically. Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a perfect example of a professional listener who applies various listening techniques in her occupation. Dr. Laura's listening to appreciate skills are relevant when she takes a call from Lisa, regarding her daughter. First, Dr. Laura is listening and paying close attention to Lisa's story, trying to concentrate and understand what is being told on this topic. These factors are important in listening to appreciate.

According to Lisa's story, Dr. Laura discovers that Lisa's daughter is having financial trouble. She went through all of the acts to purchase a car although she did not have money to pay for it. To make a long story short, Lisa's daughter was approved for a loan from the bank, but at the last moment the bank reversed their decision. She had already committed to spending money that she did not have.

Lisa asked whether or not she should bail her daughter out of the jail. Dr. Laura was open-minded in that conversation. She did not prejudge Lisa's daughter; she asked questions in order to get a feeling for what was going on. Dr. Laura wanted to know if Lisa's daughter caused any kind of problems before or if she lied in the past. After the short conversation, Dr. Laura was ready to give advice.

Dr. Laura replied that if she was telling the truth about the loan, she could get proof, and that would clear her from the charges. Dr. Laura advised Lisa not to bail her out. All of these characteristics that Dr. Laura demonstrated are examples of listening to appreciate. Another concept of listening is listening to understand, which involves verbal and nonverbal messages. This includes body language, hand movements, posture, word-emphasis, etc.

However, being on a talk radio show and interpreting verbal and nonverbal gestures is difficult. The speaker's tone of voice, rate of speech, and enthusiasm are the only characteristics that Dr. Laura can refer to while listening to her guests. The perfect example for this concept from Dr. Laura's audition would be the call from Magi; she had a question about her mother of 94 years. According to the book, vocabulary, concentration, and memory contribute to understanding the listener; and Dr. Laura dealt with that pretty well. She focused on the main idea of the story, which was that Magi's mom lost the ability to communicate in a regular way. Every time she was speaking it came out as a "word salad".

Plus, she had an infection in her body and somebody suggested holding the treatment and letting her mother die. Magi wanted to know if that was what needed to be done. Dr. Laura made sure that she understood everything that Magi said, and indeed she could connect with Magi. This was possible due to both of their communication and vocabulary ranges. She concentrated and retained all of the information speaker was saying, she was paying attention to the little details by asking plenty of questions.

After a short analysis and tying all facts together, Dr. Laura came up with the conclusion and explained to Magi why it was wrong to let her mother die. Critical listening is a form of listening that involves both listening to understand and listening to appreciate. Critical listening is to make a reasoned judgement about what the speaker is saying. Dr. Laura doesn't personally know her speakers; therefore, she openly excepts their questions and comments without prejudging them. This is illustrated when Jennifer calls in to complain about her 19 years old son. Dr. Laura discovers from the mother that the teenager has been caught smoking weed.

He has been working since he was 15 and by now he had his own car, cell phone, and independence. Jennifer wasn't trying to control him because he was headed in the right direction. Dr. Laura calmed Jennifer down by being able to identify her emotions and relate effectively with her. Dr. Laura firmly recommended that Jennifer takes his car and cell phone away, along with random drug testing. Jennifer did not like this advice at all; she insisted that he is a good kid with only one mistake. Dr. Laura did not let Jennifer's emotions automatically persuade her to reconsider her first assumption.

She listened and carefully came to a conclusion of what actions must be taken. In turn, she convinced Jennifer that her judgements were the best solution. By listening to Dr. Laura's audition, I could easily relate the various listening concepts to actual conversations. She demonstrated to me how to use these listening tools in my everyday conversations. I believe that I will apply critical listening to the majority of my conversations. As a communicator, I learned the best way to present myself not only with words but also with actions.

This will lead to my ability to listen more effectively and speak more effectively. I learned that listening and speaking are directly related to one another.