Course Descriptions
Fall 2004
COMM 190 Public Speaking
S. Broz
This course addresses basic theoretical principles of effective public speaking necessary for pluralistic audiences, concentrating on content, organization, audience analysis, ethics, language, and delivery. Students apply these principles to several oral presentations, some videotaped and requiring the use of PowerPoint.
COMM 200 - Introduction to Communication Studies
S. Broz
This course provides an introduction to the field of human communication studies and a foundation for future study within the communication discipline. The course introduces the core concepts, essential skills, and perennial issues found in several relevant contexts of human interaction, including interpersonal relationships, organizations, and cross-cultural interaction. It also examines these contexts from a theoretical perspective, suggesting how scholars have sought to formulate generalized explanations for the processes of human meaning making. Writing intensive. Prerequisite: ENG 101.
COMM 220 Topic: Group Dynamics
V. Martycz
This course aims at improving your understanding of and ability to demonstrate effective communication behaviors in group discussions. The course is structured so that students study the principles of effective group communication and have the opportunity to apply these lessons to actual group interactions. Students thus have the chance to improve their communication competency in small group settings through discussions and projects in the practical application of theoretical concepts.
COMM 280 Reasoning and Communication
C. Waggoner
This course provides extensive training in critical thinking, listening, reading, practical reasoning, deliberation, and oral and written advocacy. As part of a deliberative process, participants prepare oral and written arguments on contemporary issues for critical, well-informed audiences. Emphasis is placed on the ability to anticipate and address the wide variety of alternative perspectives represented by such audiences. Required assignments include: a personal essay regarding attitudes toward argumentation, a deliberation log, a roundtable performance of oral arguments with question and answer sessions, a written critique of the roundtable performances, and an argumentative position paper. Writing intensive. Prerequisite: ENG 101.
COMM 290S Media Literacy
M. Smith
This course provides a broad foundation for examining the form, content, and consequences of mediated communication (including the Internet, recording, radio, television, cable, film, newspaper, magazine, and publishing industries). The course introduces media industries from both an historical and contemporary perspective, covers the prominent theories that characterize mass media functions and effects, and addresses controversial issues in mediated communication. Students are introduced to intellectual tools that will enable them to be more critical consumers of media and given opportunities to practice applying those tools in both structured classroom discussions and formal writing assignments. A sample syllabus and assignments are available for your review at http://www4.wittenberg.edu/academics/communication/290.html. Writing intensive. Prerequisite: ENG 101.
COMM 320 Topic: Gender and Communication
C. Waggoner
This course considers gender as a cultural communication practice that simultaneously reflects and enacts the culture in which it occurs. That is, gender is positioned as something that we do via communication rather than what we are, which makes it. In order to understand and consider critically gender as communication, this course examines the difference between sex and gender, the intersection of gender and culture, and theories of how we become gendered. We will examine the ways in which social and political meanings attached to gender are communicated in various cultural institutions, practices, and contexts; and we will also consider how issues such as identity, representation, race, sexuality, class, and power bear on gender. Assignments include four position papers, two exams, quizzes, and a final project with an oral presentation. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 280 or permission.
COMM 320 Topic: Intercultural Communication
S. Broz
The survey course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of scholarship about intercultural communication. The course will facilitate an understanding of the nature of the communication processes that influence and/or are influenced by intercultural contexts. The role of communication in intercultural understanding, cultural patterns of interaction, cultural identity, ethnocentrism, and specific cross-cultural experiences are explored, as well as intercultural communication competence and the costs associated with cross-cultural misunderstanding. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 280 or permission.
COMM 320 Topic: Interpersonal Conflict
J. Jordan
This is an advanced course in interpersonal communication. The course is focused, first, on the interaction processes that constitute interpersonal conflicts. Of specific interest are the ways in which overt conflicts reflect the negotiation of social and relational identities. A secondary focus of the course is on the ways in which conflicts common to a variety of specific contexts (e.g., families, romantic relationships, organizational settings) might be managed effectively. Prerequisites: Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 280 or permission.
COMM 350 Topic: Television Criticism
M. Smith
This course studies television as a form of intentional message making and encourages students to develop an active, critical response to the television they consume and to examine the effects it has on the world around them. The course explores the production of television as texts and considers multiple approaches that scholars have used to analyze the form and products of this medium. Students can gain a vocabulary for the production of these texts and learn to develop planned, in-depth critiques of their messages. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 290S, or permission.
COMM 390 Research Methods in Communication
J. Jordan
This course introduces students to the process of conducting qualitative and quantitative communication research, including how to 1) formulate a research question, 2) conduct library research for a literature review, 3) select a method (e.g., participant/observation, in-depth interviewing, focus groups, rhetorical criticism, content analysis, or survey research), 4) adhere to standards for scholarly writing, and 5) critically evaluate others research studies. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: COMM 200, and COMM 280 or 290; math placement score of 22.
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