Assignment Submission and Gradebook in eCollege (eCompanion) - Copies of handouts for downloading - Student companion site:  click here.  Where you can access each chapter's "Tutorial Quiz" and "Try It Out" learning activities.

Week one.  LEARNING OUTCOME:  Review basic interpersonal communication principles. 

Please read assigned chapters IN ADVANCE and COME TO CLASS PREPARED TO Define communication and interpersonal communication and differentiate them from other related terms.
Part One: THINKING ABOUT

COMMUNICATION THEORY.
Opening.
__ Read tentative syllabus and schedule, exam course materials, and obtain and skim textbooks.

__ Review key principles from Interpersonal Communication 1

__ Download portfolio file to begin keeping assignments together for the core assessment project.

__ Read Wood chapter 1. Communication as a Field of Study.
EXPLORE:

Explore the student companion site:  click here.
__ Meet the textbook authors:  Dr. Braithwaite click here and Dr. Wood  click here

__ Review course webpage:  http://onlineacademics.org/CA301/

__ See course gradebook:  http://parkonline.org/

__ QUIZ:  Go to the student companion site click here. After reading the chapter, select the appropriate chapter and link, then complete Wood's chapter "Tutorial Quiz."  When you achieve 90% or higher, submit to joan.aitken@park.edu You must include your email address.  I'll return the email to you so you will be able to copy and submit the assignment as part of your course portfolio.
__ TRY IT OUT:  In the same student companion site, complete one of the Wood's chapter "Try It Out" activities and submit to joan.aitken@park.edu Do not wait until the last minute because you may need to do something before you write.  100 words is a typical length for this assignment.  You must include your email address.  I'll return the email to you so you will be able to copy and submit the assignment as part of your course portfolio.

__ ePortfolio.  Put your last and first names in the file name.  Then put the Try It Out and Quiz in your ePortfolio.  The textbook companion site will send your assignment to me via email when you use the "submit" process.  When I return it to you via email.  You highlight the question and your answers on the Try It Out or the quiz information using Control A, then copy your information using Control C, then go to the appropriate place in your ePortfolio and paste using Control V.  Continue to add to your ePortfolio throughout the course.
__ CASE 1:  Check out the companion site for the Braithwaite and Wood case study book:  Case study site, click here.
__ Read case 1 in Braithwaite and Wood.

Wood Preface and Chapter 1 Lecture

Theories are interesting  and relevant to everyday life.

We'll consider a limited number of theories, which are relevant to interpersonal communication and relationships.

We learn the history of an intellectual discipline to appreciate its identity.

Theories that have charted the communication field's evolution and led to its current status as an intellectually vibrant, socially relevant area of study and practice.

You may develop an appreciation of the PROCESS of theorizing as an intellectual activity.

You should gain insight into the concerns and goals that motivate scholars to develop theories.

Enhance your insight into the issues, principles, and problems that characterize the discipline today.

Enlarge your understanding of experiences in your personal life and lives of those around you.

In 1970, Frank Dance, a communication theorist, counted over 100 definitions of communication proposed by experts in the field.

Communication is a systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and interpret meanings.

• Communication is a process, which means it is ongoing and always in motion.

• Systemic means that communication involves a group of interrelated parts that affect one another.

• Symbols are abstract, arbitrary, and ambiguous representations of other things.

• Meaning is the heart of communication because we create it.  

Communication with others not only affects our sense of identity but also directly influences our physical well-being.  People who lack close friends have greater levels of anxiety and depression than people who are close to others.

Importance of Communication:

• Relationships

• Professional Impact

• Culture and Society

Communication critically affects our relationships.  We build connections with others by revealing our private identities, remembering shared history planning a future, and working out problems and tensions.

Communication is essential for healthy and enduring relationships.

Good communication in intimate relationships involves listening skillfully, expressing your own ideas clearly, and responding with empathy and understanding.

Good relationships are about more than the big moments, but the mundane, small talk, routine talk that weaves lives together is essential.

For couples involved in long-distance romances, the biggest problems are missing the nonverbal communication that occurs in face-to-face interaction and not being able to share small talk.

Communication skills affect professional success.

No company is prepared to teach employees how to deal with people and communicate effectively.

Communication skills are essential for a healthy society.

Western traditions back to Aristotle who viewed communication as a practical art.

Intrapersonal communication

Our area of emphasis:  Interpersonal communication.

• Small group and teams

• Public communication

• Performance, including stories (narratives).

• Media and new technologies.  Media reinforce cultural stereotypes about race and ethnicity.  Media can distort reality.

• Organizational communication, including the personal relationships among coworkers, organizational culture (identity and codes of thought and action that are shared by members of an organization).

• Intercultural communication.  Less obvious are cultural differences between people who speak the "same" language.  Within the US there are distinct communication cultures based on race, gender, affectional preferences, and ethnicity.

Careers in Communication

• Research

• Public Relations

• Advertising

• Education

• Human Relations

• Management

Case 1 Thought and Reflection

1. What are the reasons Madeline and Martin give for their married-name preferences?

2. Considering both Madeline’s and Martin’s perspectives, what are the possible decisions this couple might make?

3. In what ways do married-name choices suggest different types or styles of marriage relationships? Identify the characteristics of marriage for Martin and for Madeline.

4. To what degree can cultural issues affect married-name choices?

5. In this relationship what role does self-disclosure play in defining power and control in the process of decision making?

Week two: 

Please come prepared for class by reading the Wood chapter before class.
LEARNING OUTCOME:  Describe the general nature of theory and its place in the study of interpersonal communication.
__ Read Wood chapter 2. Understanding Communication Theories.

__ QUIZ:  Go to the student companion site click here. After reading the chapter, select the appropriate chapter and link, then complete Wood's chapter "Tutorial Quiz."  When you achieve 90% or higher, submit to joan.aitken@park.edu You must include your email address. Enter this results email as part of your electronic course portfolio.
__ TRY IT OUT:  In the same student companion site, complete one of the Wood's chapter "Try It Out" activities and submit to joan.aitken@park.edu Do not wait until the last minute because you may need to do something before you write.  100 words is a typical length for this assignment.  You must include your email address.  Include this assignment as part of your electronic course portfolio.

__ ePortfolio.  When you download, put your last and first names in the file name.  Then put the Try It Out and Quiz in your ePortfolio.  The textbook companion site will send your assignment to me via email when you use the "submit" process.  When I return it to you via email.  You highlight the question and your answers on the Try It Out or the quiz information using Control A, then copy your information using Control C, then go to the appropriate place in your ePortfolio and paste using Control V.  Continue to add to your ePortfolio throughout the course.
__ READ CASE(S) 2 & 10:  Review the case questions below as you read this week's case(s) for discussion (Braithwaite and Wood book).

• SCOPE
  Scope refers to the range of phenomena a theory describes and explains.

• Some theories focus on very narrow realms of communication, and others advance grand perspectives.

• How well does a theory answer questions:  The WHAT question and the HOW or WHY question?

• A theory clarifies what it considers ESSENTIAL in communication.

• Laws-based explanations argument that anytime x happens, y will follow, or that x and y are usually related.  Laws-based explanations may be either causal or correlational. 

• There are no universal laws in communication.

• Rules-based explanations aim to articulate the patterns that describe and explain what happens in a specific type of communication situation or relationship.  Thus, RULES have a more restricted scope than LAWS.  Rules are regularities. 

TESTABILITY

Can the theory be tested?
 

PARSIMONY
Parsimony refers to appropriate simplicity.

UTILITY
Is there practical value?  Kurt Lewin said that there is nothing so practical as a good theory.

HEURISM
Provokes new ideas, insights, thinking, and research.

A particular theory may fare well on some of the above criteria and poorly on others.

Theories, like foods, can be assessed in different ways that lead us to different conclusions about their merit.

1. Theorists choose which kind of communication to focus on.  Theorists make different choices about what they will focus on in studying a particular kind of communication.

2. Theorists also vary in the goals they pursue.

3. Theorists differ in what they regard as a good explanation.

4. Some theories cannot work together because they reflect fundamentally opposed views of human beings or of knowledge (p. 47).

5. A theory asks particular questions.

Case 2 For Further Thought and Reflection

1. In what ways are disabled people stigmatized by their disabilities? How do others treat them and communicate with them?

2. What kinds of situations are particularly problematic for persons with disabilities, especially in regard to helping and maintaining privacy?

3. Some of the other cases in this book identify competing dialectical tensions that exist within relationships—independence—dependence, openness—closedness, stability—change. Which of these dialectical tensions do we see in Steve’s and Jim’s experiences?

4. What experiences have you had with individuals with disabilities? Does this case help you think about alternative ways of communicating with disabled people? How do you think they would like you to interact with them?

5. What impact do disability and communication patterns, as they are affected by disability, have on identity and self-esteem?

6. Do you think Steve’s parents made the best decision when they elected to keep Steve at home rather than institutionalizing him?

Case 10 Thought and Reflection

1. It is said that communication rules help prescribe rules for behavior. What general communication rules do you see operating throughout this case?

2. It is said that communication rules are used to evaluate, justify, correct, predict, and/or explain behavior. How do communication rules in this case function to evaluate, justify, correct, predict and explain behaviors?

3. What implicit (unstated prescriptions for behavior) and explicit (clearly stated prescriptions for behavior) rules did you see? Which appear to have more importance?

4. When is it appropriate to break rules? How were rules broken in this case?