Syllabus
Home Up Syllabus Articles Study Guide Exam 1 Final Exam Study Guide

Syllabus

SCOM 6203, Introduction to Graduate Study

Professor: Dr. Marceline Hayes                               Email: mhayes@astate.edu

Office: 364 Communications Building                      Web address: http://www.clt.astate.edu/mhayes

Phone: 870-972-2816                                            Office Hours: TBA

Course objectives: This course is designed to:

·         Provide you with a foundation that will facilitate the completion of your graduate degree in communication studies.

·         Broaden your understanding of the field of communication.

·         Provide you with a survey of major theories, concepts, and perspectives in the field of communication studies.

·         Assist you in the application of theory to your personal lives.

·         Improve your ability to comprehend research articles and synthesize areas of research.

·         Help you to apply APA style in written material.

Required Texts:

Anderson, R., & Ross, V. (2002). Questions of communication: A practical introduction to theory (3rd ed.). Boston, MA:  Bedford/St.

    Martins.

Articles as assigned.
 

You may find the current APA manual helpful:

Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC:  American Psychological Association.

Grading and Assignments:

90-100%=A; 80-89%=B; 70-79%=C; 60-69%=D; Below 60%=F

Midterm Exam--100 pts                                             

Participation--100 pts.                                              

Final Exam--100 pts.                                                  

Group Presentation--100 pts.                                

Chapter Presentation--100 pts.                               

Annotated Bibliography--50 pts.

    Exams: Will be in multiple-choice, true/false, matching, short answer and/or essay format. They will be taken in class.

    Participation: We will do several in-class actives throughout the semester that will be graded. Note that your final participation grade may be lowered if you fail participate fully in those activities, fail to engage in class discussion or serve to pollute the classroom environment through rude or inappropriate behavior. Being unprepared for class may also affect your grade.

    Oral Presentation: You will each sign up for a chapter to present to the class. In your presentation, you should not only cover key aspects of the chapter but should strive to make the material interesting and supplement the material with at least one outside source. You should get the class to participate in some way. You should also provide a written summary for your presentation. Each presentation should be about 30-45 minutes in length. You may work in groups but everyone must do equal work and your time will be extended for each member.

    Group presentation: You and at least one other person will choose a theory from our text to explore. In a formal presentation you will teach the class about the theory in a workshop format. You must have at least three outside scholarly sources and must turn in a formal outline.

    Annotated Bibliography: You will find a communication topic that interests you and identity 15 sources pertaining to your topic and turn in an annotated bibliography following APA guidelines (5th ed.) So, you will list the source in correct format and then provide a one to two paragraph summary of each article.

Attendance and Conduct:

Since this class meets only once a week, you may miss one class period without penalty. For each absence after the first your final grade will be lowered five percentage points. Two instances of tardiness will be counted as an absence.

You should try to enhance our learning environment as much as possible through thoughtful and appropriate participation. You should be well-prepared for each class period. Be on time, and willing to participate fully. You should be respectful of others and open to new ideas. Turn your cell phones off.

Schedule of Topics:

Week 1: Aug. 20

Orientation to the course

Week 2: Aug. 27

Anderson & Ross, Introduction: Why Study Communication?

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 2, When Have We Communicated? Theorizing Communication

Gray. J. (1997). Men love a woman with a smile. In Mars and Venus on a Date (pp. 269-291). New York,

     NY: Harper Collins.

Wood, J. (2002). A critical response to John Gray’s Mars and Venus portrayals of men and women.

    Southern Communication Journal, 67, 201-211.

Week 3: Sept. 3, OFF, Labor Day

Week 4: Sept. 10

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 1, How Do We Learn to Think About Communication? The Importance of Questioning and Theorizing

Craig, R. (1999). Communication Theory as a Field. Communication Theory, 2, 119-161.

Petronio, S., Alberts, J., Hecht, M.W., & Buley, G. (1994). Conducting Communication Research. 

    Madison, WI: Brown and Benchman.

Week 5: Sept. 17

Anderson  & Ross, Ch. 3, How Do Contexts Affect Our meaning? Theorizing Physical and Social Contexts

Hall, E. T. (1966). The anthropology of space: An organizing model. The Hidden Dimension (pp. 95-105).

Kindred, J., & Roper, S. (2004). Making connections via Instant Messenger (IM): Student use of IM to maintain

    personal relationships. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 5, 48-54.

Week 6: Sept. 24

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 4, How Do We Become Ourselves, Theorizing Personal Experiences

EXAM 1

Week 7: Oct. 1

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 5, How and Why Do We Create Personal Relationships? Theorizing Interpersonal

    Communication

 Wilder, C. (1978). From the interactional view: A conversation with Paul Watzlawick. Journal of

    Communication, 28, 35-45.

Week 8: Oct. 8

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 6, How Do We Work Together Toward Common Goals? Theorizing Organizational Communication

Deetz, S. (1995). What went wrong? In Transforming Communication, Transforming Business: Building Responsive and Responsible

    Workplaces (pp. 11-27). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Deetz, S. (1995). Stakeholder representation and building the better mousetrap: The Saturn case. ? In Transforming Communication,

    Transforming Business: Building Responsive and Responsible Workplaces (pp. 175-184). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Van Mannen, J. (1991). The smile factory: Work at Disney Land. In P. J. Frost, Larry F. Moore, M. R. Louis,

    C. C. Lundberg, & J. Martin (Eds.), Reframing organizational culture, pp. 58-76.

 Week 9: Oct. 15

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 7, How Do We Develop Cultural Flexibility? Theorizing Cultural Communication

Morgan, C. (2002). Meaning creation in religious and spiritual practices: A biographical cross-analysis of Catholicism and the new age.

    North Dakota Journal of Speech and Theatre, 15, 1-18. (NOTE: Can be found online on the  library database

     “Communication and Mass Media Complete.”

Philipsen, G. (1975). Speaking “like a man” in Teamsterville: Culture patterns of role enactment in an

    urban neighborhood.  Quarterly Journal of Speech, 61, 13-22. (NOTE: Can be found online on the  library database

     “Communication and Mass Media Complete.”        

Week 10: Oct. 22

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 8, How Do We Allow Rhetoric to Change Our Minds? Theorizing Persuasive Communication

Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1994). Manufacturing Consent. In S. W. Anderson (Ed.), Compact Classics             

    (pp. 305-306). Salt Lake City, UT: Compact Classics, Inc.

Segal, J. (1993). Patient compliance, the rhetoric of rhetoric, and the rhetoric of persuasion. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 93, 90-102.

    (NOTE: Can be found online on the  library database “Communication and Mass Media Complete.”

Singhal, A. The practice of medicine is in the interactions: A day with Robert A. Lindberg, M. D. Plexus Institute. Retrieved August 1,

    2007: http://www.plexusinstitute.org/services/E-Library/show.cfm?id=675 (Note: Read the PDF file at the bottom)

Week 11: Oct. 29

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 9, How Powerful are Mass Media? Theorizing Media Systems

Postman, N. (1994).  Amusing ourselves to death. In S. W. Anderson (Ed.), Compact Classics (pp. 303-

    304). Salt Lake City, UT: Compact Classics, Inc.

Stossel, S. (May, 1997). The man who counts the killings. The Atlantic Monthly, 86-104.

     (NOTE: Can be found online on the  library database  “Communication and Mass Media Complete.” Can also be googled. T

    Try: http://depts.uwc.edu/wmsts/Faculty/Stossel.pdf

Week 12: Nov. 5

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 10, When is the Effective Choice the Ethical Choice? Theorizing Communication Ethics

Bush, A. J., & Bush, V. D. (1994). The narrative paradigm as a perspective for improving ethical

    evaluations of advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 23, 31-41.

    http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=5&hid=22&sid=15d07167-cdad-4d98-93a7-534afd600290%40SRCSM2

    (NOTE: Can be found online on the  library database “Communication and Mass Media Complete.”

Week 13: Nov. 12

Anderson & Ross, Ch. 11, Why Does Communication Matter? The Status of the Discipline

Student Presentations

Week 14: Nov. 19 OFF, Fall Break

Week 15: Nov. 26

Student Presentations

Week 16: Dec. 3

Student Presentations

Final Exam: Wed., Dec. 5th, 5-7pm

 

 

 

 

This website is maintained by Marceline Thompson Hayes, mhayes@astate.edu

This page last updated August 21, 2007

Arkansas State University