Course Descriptions
Spring 2007
COMM 190 Public Speaking
4 hours
Broz, Stefne
Prerequisite: None
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 hours
Waggoner, Catherine
Prerequisite: ENG 101E
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.
COMM 270S Interpersonal Communication
4 hours
Karel, Amanda
Prerequisite: None
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 280 Reasoning and Communication
4 hours
Waggoner, Catherine
Prerequisite: ENGL 101E
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.
COMM 290S Media Literacy
4 hours
Smith, Matthew
Prerequisite: ENGL 101E
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.
COMM 300 Social Scientific Methods
4 hours
Karel, Amanda
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and COMM 270S, 280 or 290S; Math Placement score 22
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.
COMM 320 Topic: Nonverbal Communication
4 hours
Broz, Stefne
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 270S, 280, or 290S; or permission of instructor.
This advanced seminar is designed to provide a comprehensive study of nonverbal communication. Students learn the major types of nonverbal communication in the context of theory and methods of observation, as well as the ways in which nonverbal messages interact with verbal messages, and how nonverbal communication functions in the total communication process. Lectures will provide an informational basis for students’ investigation of nonverbal concepts and research-related observations, while discussions and activities provide the opportunity for students to learn more about nonverbal communication from each other.
COMM 350 Topic: Advertising and Society
4 hours
Karel, Amanda
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 290S
This course examines advertising’s current and historical role in society, traditional and contemporary advertising practices, and advertising’s impact on our culture. The focus of this course is on developing critical and analytical tools for evaluating advertising content, philosophies, and practices. Special emphasis is placed on how advertising has influenced our social roles, social aspirations, social identities, and has become a socializing agent that informs us about numerous issues such as gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and social class. In addition, current challenges facing advertising will be discussed.
COMM 361 Gender and Communication
4 hours
Waggoner, Catherine
Prerequisites: COMM 200 and 270S, 280, or 290S; or permission of instructor.
This course considers public understandings of gender and sexuality in America and the way in which they are represented in popular discourse. In particular, the focus is on cases of “gender trouble” or gender ambiguity, in which dominant cultural assumptions of gender and sexuality are challenged (e.g., drag performances, female masculinity, metrosexuality). Our goal is to discover how those challenges to gender norms are rhetorically configured, and how/if they are disciplined or realigned in the support of dominant gender norms. Experience in rhetorical criticism (i.e., COMM 301) is preferred, but not required. While the course is not writing intensive in that there will not be instruction in writing per se, there is an assumption that students are skilled in writing the required papers. Assignments include analytical papers, quizzes, and a final project with an oral presentation..
COMM 403 Communication Senior Seminar
4 hours
Smith, Matthew and Broz, Stefne
Pre-requisites: COMM 200, 300, and senior standing
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.
