Course Descriptions
Fall 2005
COMM 190 Public Speaking
(4 semester hours)
Broz 01
Parsons 02
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
(4 semester hours)
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
(4 semester hours)
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 220 is an elective course.
COMM 220S Topic: Interpersonal Communication
(4 semester hours)
Jordan
This course is an introduction to message production and message interpretation within face-to-face settings. Major topics to be addressed include the role of communication in interpersonal relationships, basic speech act theory, linguistic pragmatics and an examination of how communication functions in a variety of social settings. COMM 220 is an elective course.
COMM 280 Reasoning and Communication
(4 semester hours)
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
(4 semester hours)
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 in Communication: Seminar in Interpersonal Conflict
(4 semester hours)
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: COMM 200 and 280, or permission.
COMM 320 Topic in Communication: Seminar in Health Communication
(4 semester hours)
Broz
The survey course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of scholarship about health communication. The course will investigate and facilitate an understanding of the nature of the communication processes that influence and/or are influenced by health and health care contexts. A growing body of research indicates that ht equality of health care and of personal health is significantly dependent on the quality of communication that takes place between health care provider and patient, as well as between providers, management and staff. There is also a central role for communication when informing the public about health issues. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 280, or permission.
COMM 350 Topic in Media: Seminar in Media Research
(4 semester hours)
Smith
This one-time topics offering presents students with the opportunity to help define an under-served area of media studies. Through individual projects and collaborative reviews, students will contribute to the creation of a textbook on comic book studies. Individual research projects will explores aspects of the history, production, content, and audiences within this medium, one too long dismissed as merely juvenile literature. In a collaborative effort, the seminar participants will explore and assess which topic areas are key to developing a textbook introducing other college students to the medium as a serious outlet for the exchange of idea. The modes of instruction are discovery and collaboration, and the instructor is a co-learner in this course. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 290S, or permission.
COMM 360 Topic in Rhetoric: Seminar in Communication Criticism
(4 semester hours)
Waggoner
This course is designed to foster critical analysis skills necessary for understanding a wide variety of messages, including those found in speeches, advertisements, news reports, television programs, films, and songs. In particular, students will learn and practice several methods for systematically describing, interpreting, and assessing aspects of messages. The course attends to both the theory and praxis of communication criticism; as students learn of the assumptions and approaches that undergird each method of analysis, they will have the opportunity to apply those methods in the analysis of a variety of discourses. In doing so, they will be encouraged to engage critically with issues of culture and power in the context of communication criticism. Students will demonstrate their comprehension and apply their understanding of methods of communication criticism in quizzes, several written essays, and participation. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 280, or permission.
COMM 390 Research Methods in Communication
(4 semester hours)
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.
