Comprehensive Exams (also known as "Comps") for Dr. Aitken's Advisees
Please do not expect faculty to read comps during breaks between terms, during final exams, during the first week of class for a term, or during the summer. Correct planning is your responsibility. Allow a minimum of 2 week for faculty to read comps before the end of a term.
Make sure you have applied to graduate https://www.park.edu/registrar/gradapp/ and have completed all elements so you are no longer on probation (e.g., GRE, letters of reference).
Then contact Dr. Noe to schedule your comps.
SCHEDULING Write your comps during weeks 2-4 of Fall 1, Fall 2, Spring 1, or Spring 2.
According to University policy, you need to pass your comprehensive exams 8 weeks prior to graduation. Worse case would be you take the exams by week 4, faculty take two weeks to grade them. There's a problem and you need to rewrite them, and perhaps it's a week before you schedule to take them, then faculty need another 2 weeks to grade them. In this case you would barely have clearance by the beginning of your last term.
Thus, write the exams by week 4 TWO terms before your graduation date. Comps are required of all program graduates. Remember, you need to complete, allow a few weeks for faculty grading, and pass comps prior to your last term of enrollment in the MA program.
MAKE SURE YOUR PROGRAM APPLICATION IS COMPLETE and you are not on provisional status and that you have completed everything needed to graduate. This responsibility is yours. http://onlineacademics.org/DoIt/ You need to apply for graduation by April 1 for summer and fall and by November 1 for spring. To apply for Graduation, click here. If you are planning on walking at the Graduation Ceremony (held in May and December), you will also need to order your cap and gown by contacting the bookstore at 816-584-6747 or at bookstore@park.edu. Upon request, the bookstore will ship your cap & gown to you for a fee. If you have any questions, please contact Betty Deck at (816) 842-6182 ext. 5525, or by email betty.deck@park.edu.
STEPS FOR COMPS Here are program goals and relevant courses.
To provide students with an
understanding of the centrality of
communication in all aspects of
personal and organizational life. CA 641: Conflict Resolution CA620: Thought Leadership on the Internet
CA567: Teaching, Training,
Consulting
CA675:
Case Studies in Communication and
Leadership CA641: Conflict Resolution CA567: Teaching, Training, Consulting CA620: Thought Leadership on the Internet
CA641: Conflict Resolution CA567: Teaching, Training, Consulting CA620: Thought Leadership on the Internet
Step 2. Here's what I'm looking for: Instructions for Dr. Aitken's Comprehensive Exam Questions.
Pull together resources you will be able to use. You cannot use other people to help you. Answer each question with an essay about 3 pages long (750 words). These essays need to be unique and substantive. Do not just cut and paste in an answer from previously submitted work: Write an original answer. Discuss what you have learned and applied, how you have improved your communication and leadership, and what you still need to learn.
Essay structure should be as follows: A. Introduce the thesis of the essay and three to five main supporting subtopics. B. Discuss each subtopic. Organize by ideas, not by sources quoted. Individually restate the subtopics and develop each by giving supporting information. C. The final paragraph should restate the main thesis idea and reminds the reader of the main supporting ideas that were developed.
Sources Use your own words--no direct quotations please. Do cite all sources of information. Please make sure you use APA cites and an APA reference at least three recent, peer-reviewed journal articles from communication studies for each answer. Provide the reference list at the end of each essay. Each answer's reference list needs to have three unique journal articles. You also can also use academic/scholarly communication textbooks, but no Internet, no popular press/trade book, no magazine/trade journal sources permitted. In one of your answers, include information from at least one of these sources.
Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (any recent edition). Leadership: A Communication Perspective. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (any recent edition). The leadership challenge. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.
Questions. 1. Describe the centrality of communication in all aspects of personal and organizational life. You may want to discuss the five principles of leadership from Measuring Leadership (Kouzes & Posner). Please discuss principles from at least one of the following courses: Conflict Resolution, Human Communication on the Internet, or your thesis or project. 2. Demonstrate your ability to read and conduct research and apply the principles to your own organization (employment context). Describe your leadership strengths and continued needs, including how you have improved your communication and leadership during this program. In other words, discuss how your education in this program has changed your communication and leadership behaviors. Please demonstrate how you met this program goal by discussing at least one of the following: Experimental Methods of Communication Research, Measuring Leadership, your Graduate Project, or your Thesis. 3. Give three examples of how you exchanged ideas with other students and organizational leaders concerning the requirements to achieve organizational communication excellence. You may want to draw from courses you have completed, such as Teaching, Training, Consulting. Do not just cut and paste in an answer from previously submitted work: Write an original answer. 4. Give an historical overview of leadership perspectives from the 1940s to the present. You are encouraged to provide an historical context that goes back to the Greeks. Of course you cannot retell history, so focus on a few leadership perspectives that have influenced and changed you the most. Please demonstrate your competency in this goal by discussing information from Measuring Leadership. 5. Give three examples of how the communication styles and values of different cultures and how these factors influence business in a global environment. You may want to discuss principles from Measuring Leadership, Conflict Management, or Human Communication on the Internet. 6. Describe a decision or conflict from your work context. Describe how you combined theoretical knowledge and practical skills to resolve organizational issues and improve decision-making in that context. Please discuss how your education in this program has changed your communication and leadership behaviors. You may want to draw from Experimental Methods of Communication Research, Measuring Leadership, Conflict Resolution, Teaching, Training, Consulting, or Human Communication on the Internet. 7. Describe your framework for ethical communication and leadership conduct in contemporary organizations. Please discuss how your education in this program has improved your ethical analysis and behavior in communication and leadership. You may draw from courses you have completed, such as Measuring Leadership, Human Communication on the Internet, Conflict Management, Teaching, Communicating, and Consulting, Case Studies in Leadership, or Experimental Research.
APA Citations Use parenthetical citations. The basic ways of citing are used below.
Depending on a person’s position or role, the individual may have different understandings of barriers to good listening (Watson & Smeltzer, 1984). Cragan and Shields (1998) defined dialectical relationship theory as on that describes the “communication strategies necessary for coping with the dialectical tensions (push-pull) endemic to close personal relationships” (p. 215). In other words, dialectical tensions are our conflicting desires to be close and more independent at the same time. According to the conflict management course lecture by Dr. Aitken, these theories. . .
APA Reference Lists Here is the APA format, but avoid Internet sources, unless another professor asks you to use them.
Journal: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages.Book: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Capital letter also begins subtitle. Location: Publisher.Webpage: Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of document. Place of Publication: Publisher. Retrieved month date, year, from http://Web address.
Step 3. Write. Typically, you have 24 hours to complete the exam and return the answers to me.
Step 4. Wait If you don't hear back in two or three weeks, contact the MA Program Director.
Step 5. Revise. After a week or so for the faculty to evaluate your answers, you will either pass or rewrite. If you pass, make sure notification is sent to the graduate school and registrar.
|
