Category: listening

For many centuries — actually dating back to Aristotle, almost 400 years BC — the study of “communication” meant the study of “rhetoric”: designing and delivering speeches to achieve goals, whether general (like “rile up the mob”) or specific (like “convince the mob to storm the jailhouse”). The art and science of communication thereby focused, almost forever, on *outgoing* messages, written and spoken.

That didn’t change until the late 1940s, when an upstart doctoral student, Ralph G. Nichols, focused his research not on speaking, but on listening.

His work quickly gained notice, and the importance of listening — as both a teachable/trainable skill and also a field of study — blossomed throughout his influential career as a widely published author and distinguished chair of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Rhetoric.

Thus, the man known to today’s listening scholars as “The Father of Listening” ushered into the communication discipline a new area of study — focused not on nessage *sending,* but on message *receiving.*

I studied listening intensely during my master’s program at the University of Maryland in the late 1980s. In fact, my first research paper there won the annual research contest sponsored by the International Listening Association. This nice honor helped me develop, right from the start, some warm, personal relationships with several of the most important authors in the listening field, including Dr. Nichols, himself! I have handwritten letters from him (in his 80s!), which I treasure.

Ever since that first year at Maryland – almost 40 years ago – I’ve maintained and promoted an intense interest in listening, in both theory and practice.

In this Up-Wordz.com category, I will greatly enjoy sharing with you some stories, ideas, and tips, as regards listening — truly a fertile, if sometimes overlooked, meadow, upon the ever-expanding communication landscape.