COMM 190 Public Speaking
(4 semester hours)
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 StudiesThis 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 280 Reasoning and Communication
(4 semester hours)
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 LiteracyThis 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 Topics in Communication: Intercultural Communication (4 semester hours)
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 350 Topics in Media: Media Law
(4 semester hours)
This course examines how the law helps shape the activities of mass media industries in the United States. Students have the opportunity to develop a basic understanding of the American legal system, its institutions, and some of its terminology, as well as a broad understanding of First Amendment principles as they relate to mass communication. Readings provide a working knowledge of the laws that directly restrict or enhance information gathering and message dissemination in the mass media, and an understanding of the rationales behind those laws. Projects encourage the development of skills to identify and interpret the law, particularly as it develops beyond its present shape. Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 290S, or permission.
COMM 360 Topics in Rhetoric: Communication Criticism
(4 semester hours)
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)
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.
COMM 403 Communication Senior Seminar
(4 semester hours)
This course is the capstone experience in the Communication program. Through their work on independent and group projects, students will practice research, writing, and critical thinking skills that are part of the process of conducting communication research, culminating in both written and oral presentations of results. Writing intensive. Prerequisites: COMM 200, 280, 290, 390, and senior standing.
