COMM 301L: Empirical Research in Communication
ASC 331
Fall, 2013
Professor: Carlos Godoy, PhD, Esq.
Office Hours: By appointment
Telephone: (909) 576-1884
E-mail: cgodoy@usc.edu
Course Description
If you are not a ‘numbers person’ then this is the course for you. I teach this course, based on over a
decade of experiencing working with statistics, from the perspective of how I wished it was first
taught to me (i.e., I will not give you gray hair!). This course introduces you to the basic set of
knowledge and skills needed to design and execute research. Lectures will focus on experimental and
survey methods, content analysis, and various methods for analyzing and interpreting data. When
you complete this course, you will be a more knowledgeable consumer of research and will be able
to conduct communication research of your own.
Objectives:
To develop skills for designing research projects
To develop competence in reading and analyzing communication research
To develop skills for analyzing quantitative data.
Website:
There is a course website at blackboard.usc.edu. All students enrolled in this course have access to the
website through their USC username and password. This website is an official place for posting
information relevant to the class, such as announcements, assignments, grades, for discussing lecture
materials, and so forth.
Course Materials (NO TEXTBOOK REQUIRED)
I have put together a reader which will be made available in pdf form on blackboard.
Materials Sourced From:
Williams, F., & Monge, P. (2000). Reasoning with statistics: How to read quantitative research
(ed.). New York: Harcourt College Publishers.
Field. A. (2009). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS (Third Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications.
*Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th edition), by the American
Psychological Association (recommended)
Evaluation of Performance
Examinations
Examination 1
25%
Examination 2
25%
Final project
Participation in class
45%
5%
There will be 2 examinations for this course, and they generally hold the following format:
● 8 to 15 multiple choice questions (about 20% of the examination’s points);
● 5 to 8 fill in the blanks or short answer questions (about 15% of the points);
● 5 to 8 analysis questions (about 65% of the points).
The latter examinations will be cumulative in part. In general, no more than 20% of the later
examinations will test materials covered in prior examinations. The purpose is not to impose
excessive burdens on you during examinations; the purpose instead is to highlight the inter-linked
nature of many decisions we make in designing research methods: decisions made in the earlier
phases of the study will shape the available options in the study’s later phases.
Lab Assignments
Lab is optional and a resource to you. I will be teaching a variety of topics such as article critiques,
conceptual questions, and statistical analysis. You will learn to use the SPSS computer software
package to analyze data.
Final Project
The final project will include a research proposal using survey, experiment, or content analysis. More
information about the project will be distributed during the course. Papers should be submitted
electronically, preferably in Word format.
Participation in class
For participation, come to class prepared to discuss the material. To earn the full score, you must
participate in every session. If you participate in about half of the sessions, you earn 50%. The
instructors’ general impressions across the semester may modify that score.
Extra credit: Participation in other research projects
You may have the opportunity to participate in research studies. Participation is voluntary. Credit
earned depends on the effort and time required when participating. More details will be provided as
each opportunity arises.
General Course Policies
Any assignment-specific policies will be provided when assignments are given out.
1. Students who are instant messaging, web surfing, or involved in other similar activities during
class will be marked as absent.
2. A student must complete ALL assignments to pass the course.
3. Questions about grades should be addressed in a timely manner. There is a 24-hour “wait
period” after receiving a grade, but then you should address questions within the next 10
days. Requests for grade changes must be written and include justification.
4. All assignments must be the original work of the student and not used for any other course.
Violation of this policy is an Academic Integrity Violation.
Academic Integrity
The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is committed to upholding the
University’s Academic Integrity code as detailed in the in the SCampus Guide. It is the school’s
policy to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the
Academic Integrity Code will result in the student’s expulsion from the Communication major or
minor.
The School and the University is committed to the general principles of academic honesty that
include and incorporate the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation
that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations
both to protect one's own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another's
work as one's own. By taking this course, students are expected to understand and abide by these
principles.
All submitted work for this course may be subject to an originality review as performed by Turnitin
technologies (://www.turnitin.com) to find textual similarities with other Internet content or
previously submitted student work. Students of this course retain the copyright of their own original
work, and Turnitin is not permitted to use student-submitted work for any other purpose than (a)
performing an originality review of the work, and (b) including that work in the database against
which it checks other student-submitted work.
This course places high demands in bringing together existing knowledge on a topic and
acknowledging these sources in your writing. Hence, opportunities for plagiarism are numerous. You
must understand what constitutes plagiarism and not commit it. In particular, see SCampus Section
11: ://web-app.usc.edu/scampus/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriatesanctions/ .
Course Outline
All reading assignments should be completed prior to their date on the syllabus, and written
assignments are due at the beginning of class. Additional readings may be added by instructor.
Unless otherwise advised, course assignments are as follows:
Week 1
Monday, 8/26
Introduction and orientation –Coffee Day on Me. Get to know each other ---Working in
Teams for projects.
Review of the syllabus and assignments
Science and ways of knowing
Reading:
Kerlinger & Lee (2000), Methods of knowing, pp. 6-8.
Hayes (2005), Why do science? pp. 2-5.
Weds, 8/28
Developing researchable questions; concepts and definitions
Reading:
Kerlinger & Lee (2000), Problems and hypotheses, pp. 24-28.
Hayes (2005), Measurement and operationalization, pp. 17-20.
APA Manual, Introduction, pp. 27-28.
Friday, 8/30
No Lab Meeting
Week 2
Mon, 9/2
No class (Labor Day)
Weds, 9/4
Levels of measurement
Distributions
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Levels of measurement, pp. 23-28.
Hayes (2005), Levels of measurement, pp. 20-23.
Williams & Monge (2001), Describing distributions, pp. 31-36.
Jaccard & Becker (1997), Probability distributions, pp. 53-57.
Fri, 9/6 No Lab
Week 3
Mon 9/9
How to find existing measurements; Building good measures
Descriptive statistics
Reading:
Groves et al. (2004), Attitude questions, pp. 232-235.
Babbie (2007), Thurstone scales, Likert scaling, and semantic differentials, pp. 169-172.
Williams & Monge (2001), Descriptive statistics, pp. 36-45.
Wed, 9/11
Descriptive statistics (continued)
Survey design
Reading:
Babbie (2007), Time dimension, pp. 101-106.
Babbie (2007), Questionnaire construction, pp. 246-257.
Babbie (2007), Comparison of distribution techniques, pp. 260-262 (mail), pp. 269272 (telephone), pp. 272-274 (new technologies), pp. 275 (comparison). (Optional).
Fri, 9/13
Optional Lab Exercise-Survey Design Exercise Handed Out
Week 4
Mon, 9/16
Survey design handout discussed (continued)
Measurement reliability and measurement validity
Writing a methods section
Reading:
Babbie (2007),Strengths and weaknesses of surveys, pp. 276-277.
Williams & Monge (2001), Measurement adequacy, pp. 29-30.
Kerlinger & Lee (2000), Validity, pp. 666-669.
APA Manual, Method, pp. 29-32.
Wed, 9/18
Survey design continued….
Fri, 9/20
LAB-Scale Analysis Handout/Quiz
Week 5
Tuesday, 9/18 - Assignment Due: Lab #3
Measurement reliability and measurement validity (continued)
Scale analysis
Reading:
Kerlinger & Lee (2000), Definitions of reliability, pp. 642-645.
DeVellis (2003), Coefficient alpha, pp. 94-96.
Thursday, 9/20
Experimental design
APA Format: References
Reading:
Kerlinger & Lee (2000), Laboratory and field experiments, p. 579-585.COM 301L
SYLLABUS – FALL 2012 7
Week 6
Tuesday, 9/25 - Assignment Due: Lab #4
Experimental design (continued)
Reading:
Babbie (2007), Validity issues in experimental design, pp. 230-234.
Thursday, 9/27
Review for Examination 1
Week 7
Tuesday, 10/2
Examination 1
Thursday, 10/4
Content analysis
APA Format: Manuscript outline and style
Reading:
Babbie (2007), Content analysis, pp. 320-330.
Wrench et al. (2008), Conducting a Content Analysis, pp. 245-254.
Week 8
Tuesday, 10/9 - Assignment Due: Lab #5
Content analysis (continued)
Sampling
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Predicting parameters, pp. 49-52.
Groves et al. (2004), Sampling, pp. 93-102.
Babbie (2007), Sampling designs, pp. 202-208.
Thursday, 10/11
Sampling (continued)
Ethical issues in research
Writing a results section
Reading:
Babbie (2007), Nonprobability sampling, pp. 183-187.
APA Manual, Results, pp. 32-35.
Week 9
Tuesday, 10/16 - Assignment Due: Lab #6
Hypothesis testing
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Hypothesis testing, pp. 62-72.
Thursday, 10/18
Hypothesis testing (continued)
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Hypothesis testing, pp. 73-76.
Week 10
Tuesday, 10/23 - Assignment Due: Lab #7
Hypothesis testing (continued)
Inferential statistics: t-test
Reading:
Hayes (2005), One-sample t test, pp. 185-194.
Thursday, 10/25
Inferential statistics: t-test (continued)
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), The t test, pp. 79-85.
Week 11
Tuesday, 10/30 - Assignment Due: Lab #8
Inferential statistics: t-test (continued)
Effect sizes
Reading:
Spatz (2001), Effect size index, pp. 73-75.
Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1992). When Small Effects Are Impressive.
Psychological Bulletin 112(1), 160-164.
Thursday, 11/1
Review for Examination 2
Week 12
Tuesday, 11/6
Examination 2
Thursday, 11/8
Inferential statistics: correlation
Writing a discussion section
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Correlation, pp. 127-135.
APA Manual, Discussion, pp. 35-36.COM 301L SYLLABUS – FALL 2012 9
Week 13
Tuesday, 11/13 - Assignment Due: Lab #9
Inferential statistics: correlation (continued)
Reading:
Thursday, 11/15 – POTENTIAL GUEST LECTURER/ NO CLASS
Inferential statistics: chi-square
Reading:
Williams & Monge (2001), Nonparametric tests, pp. 113-117.
Week 14
Tuesday, 11/20 - Assignment Due: Lab #10
Inferential statistics: chi-square (continued)
Reading:
Thursday, 11/22 - THANKSGIVING NO CLASS
Week 15
Tuesday, 11/27
Writing an academic research paper
Reading:
Graff & Birkenstein (2006), So What? Who Cares, pp. 88-97.
Davis (1971). That’s interesting: Towards a phenomenology of sociology and a
sociology of phenomenology.
Thursday, 11/29 - Assignment Due: Lab #11
Choosing a statistical test
Reading:
Week 16
Tuesday, 12/04 - Assignment Due: Lab #12
Review
Work on final project
Thursday, 12/06
Review for final examination
Final Project Due – Thursday, 12/14