COMMUNICATION 463. Syllabus Spring 2016

Transcription

1 COMMUNICATION 463 Instructor: Cecile W. Garmon Syllabus Spring Fine Arts Center Grise Hall Communication 463 provides the students and instructor the opportunity to consider the influences of culture in communication through many contexts and situations. This course supports the WKU mission of developing undergraduates with strong written and oral communication skills through international reach. The class includes both face-to-face class work and online assignments. It also focuses on enhancing critical thinking skills and active analysis of varying points ov view. TEXT: Jackson, J. (2014). Introducing language and intercultural communication. New York: Routledge. All students should have access to this book since it serves as the primary source of class readings and discussion. From time to time I may assign additional readings and post them on BlackBoard for you. CLASS GOALS: Upon completion of this class, students should have the knowledge and skills to: Know, understand, and apply culture theories and models as well as communication theories and typologies to human communication behaviors, Demonstrate competent oral and written communication skills appropriate for an educated person, Understand basic research skills and techniques appropriate to intercultural communication, Recognize the role of culture in current events, Enhance analytic and critical thinking skills.

2 Meeting Times: COMM 463 will meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:20 pm - 3:40 pm in FAC 137, unless otherwise announced. Students can find a tentative itinerary in this syllabus as well as on our BB site. General Rules of the Class 1. All deadlines are firm, including the online assignments dates. 2. You must submit all written assignments through SafeAssign on the class BlackBoard site. DO NOT send written assignments through to the instructor! I will NOT accept them through or handed to me in printed form. 3. Written assignments must follow APA guidelines; if you have not used APA, please search out the rules and follow them. You cannot reason or rationalize how to use these formats. You must look them up and follow them exactly. You can find these guidelines in various sites. Find one that you think most clear and use it! Options include: There are others but students frequently use this site. 4. The class content may present some challenging or even controversial ideas. Cultural factors can cause us to question many of our basic belief systems. Consideration and courtesy must serve as the standard in our communication with each other. Remember that each of us considers his or her own ideas most valid, but we can learn from each other. 5. To contact the instructor, please use (cecile.garmon@wku.edu) or phone ( at my Grise Hall 128 office, or at my Fine Arts Center office 196. I will have office hours in 196 FAC on Tuesdays (1-2:15 pm) and Thursdays from 1-2:15 pm. Unless in a meeting, I am usually in Grise Hall 128 the remainder of the work day and will be very happy to see you if you come by to visit. You can also make an appointment by phone or We will have various activities for you to enjoy; they include Journal entries which you will use to record and reflect on your international activity experiences. I can respond to your comments or questions and you can then respond to my comments if you wish. These entries remain private; only you and I have access to them unless you share them with another person. 7. You must submit your written papers through SafeAssign on BB. If you do not understand how to use BB or if you have any problems related to BB, please call the WKU Helpdesk at They are available most hours of the day and can assist you with technical problems better than I can. 8. Academic integrity must serve as a guideline for all your academic work. Examples of lack of integrity include: plagiarism, cheating on tests, copying work from other people without giving them credit, turning in the same or parts of papers for more than one class (sel- plagiarism), etc.. 9. Plagiarism constitutes academic dishonesty and will not be tolerated. Please review the discussion on plagiarism on our BB site; you may also look at a tutorial on plagiarism

3 and paraphrasing at: Because this topic seems somewhat complicated, if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact me for a discussion and clarification. 10. Student and instructor attention during class forms the basis of our learning together. Therefore, none of us will use our electronic media during the class sessions. This prohibition includes laptops, cell phones, notebooks, ipods, ipads, and anything else that the instructor considers to belong to this group of articles. If a student does utilize such instruments, I will ask him or her to leave the class and it will count as an unexcused absence. There will be no exceptions unless I ask you to use the medium for some specific purpose. 11. From time to time I will post exciting information and activities on BB for you to review and practice. I will announce in class when these items are available and what you will need to do about them. 12. Students must submit written work that follows the class Writing Guidelines. You can find these guidelines at the end of the syllabus and also in BB under Course Documents. Please read them immediately and if you have questions, do not hesitate to ask me. 13. Students must participate in class discussion, critically analyze the content of presentations, join in group or team learning activities, and prepare to take part in oral and written assessments of class experiences. Student Responsibilities: Written Work Short papers Students will have three short written papers (3-4 pages each plus Reference List) and one longer term paper/project report. Students MUST submit these papers through SafeAssign on our BB site and they MUST follow the Writing Guidelines. If you have questions about how to manage this, please talk with me or consult the Help Desk at SafeAssign serves as a repository for all your papers and also a plagiarism-detection scanner. I will post the topics for each paper under Assignments; due dates for the short papers follow: First short written assignment 2/4/16 Rewrite, if necessary - 2/16/16 Second short written assignment 2/25/16 Third short written assignment 3/24/16 Each short paper will count 5% for a total of 15% of course grade. Term Paper/Project A written term paper of approximately 8-12 pages plus the reference list will focus on the research interest of the student. We will discuss these papers in class and each

4 student should discuss his/her topic with the instructor and get approval of the topic before beginning intensive work on it. The term paper will count 15% of the course grade. Exams the class will have a mid-term and a final exam. The mid-term will take place in class on March 3 and will cover Chapters 1-5 of the text. It will count 10% of the course grade. The final exam will take place during finals week, will cover the entire course, and will count 15% of the course grade. Class Activities Target Country Report Each student will select a specific country for special research and application of theories. We will make selections of these target countries (TC s) during the first class period and the student will focus his/her attention to the cultural characteristics of that country. In addition, each student will select from current events a specific activity or issue related to that country and report to the class on the current event/issue, how it relates to culture, and how it relates to communication. Each student will present a short review to the class in order for the entire class to gain information and understanding about many specific countries. We will establish dates for these presentations. The country/current event presentation counts 5% of the course grade. Pop Quizzes We are liable to have pop quizzes on assigned readings in any class period. These short quizzes will cover your understanding of the assigned reading for that class. The pop quizzes count will total 10 % of the course grade. Attendance and Participation Participation in this class is essential because the greatest learning derives from our discussions and conversations about assigned readings, outside research, experiential activities, and serious consideration of cultural factors in relation to communication. Each student must be present for each class. Attendance is NOT optional. If you have an emergency, you must contact me before the class so I can determine whether or not it merits excused absence. If you already know of times you cannot be present in class, you should consider selecting a different course for the spring semester. Tardiness in arrival or early leaving counts as an absence and each absence will count 5% off the semester total grade.

5 Fieldwork analysis Finally, each student will participate in selected intercultural experiences/activities. These activities should include events that reflect your TC interests, your cultural learning experiences, or situations that enhance your experiential participation in intercultural communication. Each student will develop a Journal of his or her activities and observations of intercultural activities. The student will have the responsibility of identifying and participating in the activities and then recording in the journal his or her reactions, lessons learned, responses, etc. I will read and comment on these journal entries. This activity will count 10 % of the class grade and will have due dates during the semester to keep them current. Grade Outline: Short Written Papers 3@5% 15% Term paper/project 1@20% 20% Mid-term Exam 1@10% 10% Final Exam 1@15% 15% T C Report/Current Event 1@5% 5% Pop Quizzes 10% Conversations with TC rep 5% Fieldwork Analysis/Journal 1@10% 10% Team or Group Activities 10% 100% Class Agenda: Generally we will follow this assignment schedule for our reading assignments: 1/26, 28 Introduction and Chapter 1, Jackson 2/2, Chapter 1, cont. 2/ 4, 9 Chapter 2, Jackson 2/11, 16 Chapter 3, Jackson 2/18, 23 Chapter 4, Jackson 2/26, 3/1 Chapter 5, Jackson

6 3/3 Mid-term Exam 3/15, 17 Chapter 6 Jackson 3/22, 24 Chapter 7 Jackson 3/29, 31 Chapter 8 Jackson 4/5, 7 Chapter 9, Jackson 4/12, 14 Chapter 10 Jackson 4/19, 21 Chapter 11 Jackson 4/26, 28 Chapter 12 Jackson 5/2, 4 Reports and Conclusions Final Exam Week Due Dates: 1/26 First Class 2/4 First short written assignment due 2/16 Rewrite first short paper (if necessary) 2/25 Second short written assignment due 2/26 First journal entry due 3/3 Mid-term Exam 3/24 Third short written assignment due 3/29 Second Journal entry due 4/14 Field Analysis due 4/24 Term paper/project due 5/3, 5 Student Oral Reports 5/8 week as announced on university schedule Final Exam

7 Writing Guidelines Written communication follows patterns designed to meet specific needs or achieve definite goals. Academic writing fits such criteria; its rules and regulations reflect attempts to meet the needs of the readers for clarity, brevity, significant content, explanation, and contemplation. Academic writing differs from other types, such as creative, journalistic, etc., because the communicator intends to share information or ideas with the readers. These ideas extend concepts based on research data of various types or original thoughts which propose theoretical bases previously unknown. Creativity in academic prose comes from the content and analysis rather than from new and novel means of expression. When you write academically, please remember that the primary purpose of the exercise provides the reader with new information or new approaches to understanding existing information. In the class, I will ask you to follow these rules in the essays which you submit for credit. 1. Follow traditional grammar rules, i.e., subject-verb agreement, noun-pronoun agreement, no introductory relative pronouns, etc. 2. Create paragraphs which focus on a single topic, usually introduced in the first sentence. Every paragraph must have at least three sentences and should not run too long (a relative point but very important). For example, a single paragraph should rarely extend to an entire page. 3. Eliminate all forms of the verb "to be" from your writing (is, am, are, was, were, be, been, being). This precludes use of passive voice and forces the writer to use a direct style for expressing facts or opinions. 4. Develop a general introduction to the paper, introduce the various points you wish to make through the succeeding paragraphs, and finally, compose a closing section that summarizes your content and brings the reader to a feeling of satisfaction with the organization and content. 5. Remember that your purpose always lies attempting to present your ideas, facts,

8 etc., to the reader (the instructor) in a clear, cogent, and convincing manner. Therefore, avoid overuse of stringing prepositional phrases, too many perfect tense verbs, distracting phrasing, etc. Never use the second person (you) in an essay, unless it comes in a direct quotation. 6. Follow APA style in writing (exceptions require personal discussion with the instructor). If you do not know the APA style, find a manual and follow it exactly in every situation. 7. Study word selection carefully. Choose precise words which will indicate/clarify your intended message. Take care with affect/effect and other such troublesome words. Always use a thesaurus when you write. Painful as these rules may seem, they will greatly improve your writing skills.