Mr. Heil, a guest speaker and former employee of Voice of America, gave a presentation with advice on improving listening skills. He emphasized focusing on key ideas, taking meaningful notes, asking clarifying questions, analyzing non-verbal cues, summarizing what was said, and practicing regularly. The speaker stressed focusing on content over delivery style and blocking out distractions while listening.

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MEMORANDUM
TO: Dr. Glenn B. Fatzinger,
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Instructor
FROM: Mr. ABC,
MGT Student
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DATE: September 10, 2009
SUBJECT: Highlights of Mr. Heil’s presentation
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This memo presents my impression of the Mr. Heil’s (guest speaker to our class) presentation.
Mr. Heil has worked many years for the Voice of America (VOA). VOA has an estimated
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audience of 134 million people. On average, it broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news,
information, and other programming every week. Mr. Heil held various positions like foreign
correspondent, chief of news and current affairs, and deputy director with the Voice of America.
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He has a vast experience in dealing with diverse set of people as he travelled widely throughout
the world.
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The purpose of inviting Mr. Heil as a guest speaker to our class is to give advice and tips to the
students for improving their listening skills. He has highlighted some very important and
interesting points on the topic. One of them was focusing your attention on key ideas. It means
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that whenever you are listening to somebody; keep focused your attention on the core area of the
discussion. This thing helps one to understand the key ideas of others. Mr. Heil has also
discussed the importance of taking meaningful notes while listening to others. The purpose of
this activity is to preserve the main ideas and concepts of the presenter on to the piece of paper. It
is very important and useful tool, especially for those situations where recalling becomes an
issue for the listener. Asking question to clarify points is another tool for improving the listening
skill and understandability level. It is better to ask questions from the presenter on points that
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don’t make sense to you. Once you have clarified your points than most likely those will remain
in your memory for longer period of time. Also it is easy to retain logical things in mind as
compared to the things that are very subjective.
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Mr. Heil stressed that every listener should focus on the content of the speaker instead of
focusing on his / her delivery style. According to him, some listeners lost their attention from the
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topic just because they are more focused on the delivery style of the speaker. Delivery style does
matters a lot to engage the audience, but from the listener point of view content is more
important than delivery. He said that listeners should have also the capability of analyzing the
non-verbal cues of the speaker. Sometimes when the listener is not getting the point orally, than
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by analyzing the speaker’s non-verbal gestures, the listener could understand the point that the
speaker is trying to explain.
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He has highlighted another point i.e. summarizing what the speaker says which I believe is very
helpful for the listeners. Mr. Heil has said that it is highly recommended that at the end of the
speaker’s session, every listener should summarize the main ideas of the speaker. And while
summarizing, if the listener faces some difficulty or issues than he / she should clarify the points
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with the speaker or other fellows. Mr. Heil has also laid down the importance of practicing
regularly, especially with the television. It is the very useful tool for one who wants to improve
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his / her listening skill. The more you practice the more you could master your listening skills.
While listening to the speaker, keeping an open mind is also very important. He said that try to
block out external distractions as much as you can while listening to the speaker.
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In general, I felt that this session of Mr. Heil went well and was very progressive for the
students. The guest speaker has a very much grip on communication skills and gave some very
useful and practical tips to the students. These types of sessions should take place as its gives
practical exposure to the students. Other than these sorts of session, workshops should also be
conducted as well in order to improve the skills of the students.
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