Two rival candidates for the office of Student Body President at Acadia University must debate a given topic before the election. Describe the three types of active listening and state how each type of listening can help listeners choose a candidate to vote for. If you were the speaker, which type of listening do you think would help your campaign?

(Answer may vary.) The primary goal of content listening is to understand and retain the information in the speaker's message. With content listening, listeners will focus on the content of the speaker's message, on campaign promises, and the speaker's views, and not on the personal characteristics of the speaker or other related issues.
The goal of empathic listening is to understand the speaker's feelings, needs, and wants so that you can appreciate his or her point of view, regardless of whether you share that perspective. With empathic listening, a speaker can persuade others to understand or accept his or her point of view.
The goal of critical listening is to understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker's message on several levels: the logic of the argument, the strength of the evidence, the validity of the conclusions, and the implications of the message. With critical listening, a speaker can convince listeners of the validity of the message and of the speaker's intentions.