Practical Book Review Instructions
- This Practical Book Review provides an opportunity for you to reflect on, respond to, and evaluate the ideas, concepts, and techniques in Petersen’s (2015) Why Don’t We Listen Better? based on your own life experiences and ideas from other course texts, and apply these to your interpersonal communication context. Begin the body of your paper with a brief introductory paragraph, then organize your review in 3 sections, using the headings Response, Critique, and Application, following the specific directions provided below. Your review must be well written and organized, free of grammar and other writing errors, and formatted according to current APA style. A title page and a reference page are expected, but an abstract is not needed. Also, you may use the first-person pronoun.
Response
Articulate a personalized response that demonstrates meaningful reflection on the core content. Describe insights you gained about your own communication skills, strengths, weaknesses, and habits. For example, what concepts and principles were especially enlightening to you? Were you reminded of any past conversations? Did you identify with any of the communication traps? Your response should be between 400 and 500 words.
Critique
Evaluate the book from your own point-of-view and based on its intended purpose. What did you identify as its most valuable contributions? Did you find any of the concepts unclear or insufficiently developed? Also, compare and contrast 3 of Petersen’s ideas with related concepts articulated in Stewart’s Bridges Not Walls as well as in France & Weikel’s Helping Skills for Human Service Workers (and list these texts on the reference page along with the Petersen text). How are the perspectives of the three authors similar and/or different? Briefly analyze and discuss the relative strengths of each. Your critique should be between 700 and 800 words.
Application
Looking forward, apply what you have learned to your own interpersonal arena. Articulate the changes you need to make in light of the information gleaned from the content. Describe the specific strategies and techniques that you will implement in order to enhance your interpersonal communication—both personally and professionally—and how you plan to do so. Your application should be between 400 and 500 words.
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