Com 200

Week 4 Discussion Advice

Here you will be writing about your listening skills. You will not be assessed only on your self-reflection, but also on how well you engage with Bevan about how to improve as a listener. Below, we offer step-by-step advice for doing well on this assignment:

Step 1 - Review the instructions carefully. There are FOUR elements, each of which may have two sub-elements. So be sure to do the following:

· Define active empathic listening and emotional intelligence. It says to “use” Bevan to do this. The strongest answers will define the two terms and then address both the meaning and significance. Explain what the concepts are and demonstrate why it is important to be aware of them and apply them in one’s own life. This will demonstrate “depth” of knowledge and “engagement” with course material.

· Complete the listening quiz (located here - Active Listening Skills) and report on results. Does the assessment speak to your experience? Explain how your experience supports or rejects the assessment. Strong answers will connect the points raised in the results to themes covered in Bevan.

· Explain how you can use active empathic listening and emotional intelligence to improve your communication EITHER in your personal interactions or in the workplace. If you focus on personal relationships, how can you relate those themes to Bevan on relationship-maintenance? If you focus on workplace communication, consider Bevan on business and professional communication (BPC).

· Provide at least one specific example of how you can change your listening habits and how you will benefit from this change. Perhaps you believe you need to change your attitude toward listening. Imagine how you will benefit from listening, even when you think the speaker is boring. Focus on a specific strategy addressed in Bevan. Will making this adjustment allow you to show more respect to others? Will this be a way you can offer what Bevan calls “social support” to others? How are these things potential “benefits” to you or a relationship you have?

Step 2 – When you write:

· Demonstrate what you have learned, not just that you can quote Bevan. If you really want to use a quote, it is okay. Just be sure to explain both the meaning and significance of the quote!

· Go through the reading and find at least two to three points that you can bring into your discussion. Again, don’t focus on quotes. Focus on ideas that you can develop.

Step 3 – After you have written:

· Review your work to ensure you have covered all required elements. In total, there are six tasks here – 1) define empathic listening, 2) define emotional intelligence, 3) explain how empathic listening can help you in your personal interactions OR workplace interactions, 4) explain how emotional intelligence can help you in your personal interactions OR workplace interactions, 5) explain how you can change your listening habits, 6) and how you will benefit from this change. At minimum, you will want two sentences for each of these. So, you should have at least 12 sentences and likely closer to 20.

· Review your work to see that you have engaged with course material. Did you cite any sources? Did you go beyond using quotes and actually explain the points and their significance?

· Review your work to ensure you have thoughtfully engaged with others in your peer replies. The best replies will incorporate Bevan. Try to engage with them here as well or even find additional academic content to incorporate into those replies.

· Review your work for clarity. Use Grammar and Spelling Check in Microsoft Word and or Grammarly to help ensure there are no misspellings or grammatical errors.

Okay, good luck! If any of this advice is unclear, contact your instructor.