Habits of the public speaker

Many listening problems are simply the result of bad habits. You may have watched so much television that you expect all messages to be fastmoving and entertaining. You may have learned hoe to pretend you are listening to avoid dull or difficult materials. Your experiences as a student may have conditioned you to listen just for facts. You may jump to conclusions before hearing a complete message. Such habits can interfere with effective listening.

Our television watching experiences may also lead us into the entertainment syndrome, in which we demand that speakers be lively, interesting, funny and charismatic hold our attention. Unfortunately, not all subjects lend themselves to such treatments.