Recall an encounter in which you were saying something important but the other person gave you negative feedback. Perhaps the person made fun of what you were saying or clearly ignored your message via text or e-mail. Write a brief paper explaining what happened and how the negative feedback affected your communication during the interaction. Did this influence any other communication between the two of you? Is negative feedback ever competent? If so, when?

To examine how your attention wavers when listening, choose two people—a classmate, a friend, a family member, a coworker, a romantic partner—and engage each of them in a conversation of at least 10 minutes. Afterwards, record as many details as you can about each conversation—whom it was with, topics covered, time of day, and location. Then come up with a “noise list,” detailing the distractions you faced in each conversation. What impeded your ability to actively listen? Did you ever multitask during the conversations? Did you experience similar noise challenges in both conversations? How could you overcome such distractions, or noise, during future conversations?