GCOM 123, section 60
Fundamental Human Communication: Group
Section 60: T/Th 8:00-9:15am Harrison 0112
Fall 2014 Syllabus
Instructor
Office Location
Nicole Hudak
Wilson Hall Suite 214 Office 214A
Contact Info
Office Hours
Email: hudaknc@jmu.edu
W 1-2pm, Th 2-3pm
Phone: 540-568-7183
Course Description:
Study of human communication as a process. Overview of the principles and practices of
communication in small group and public communication contexts. Emphasis on examining the
role of self-concept, perception, culture, verbal and nonverbal dimensions in the communication
process, using power and managing conflict, applying critical listening, practicing audience
analysis, and constructing informative and persuasive presentations. Public speaking required. (3
credits).
Required Text:
Rothwell, J.D. (2012). In the company of others: An introduction to communication (4th ed.).
New York: Oxford University Press.
Course Objectives:
1. Explain the fundamental processes that significantly influence communication.
2. Construct messages consistent with the diversity of the communication purpose, audience,
and context.
3. Respond to messages consistent with the diversity of the communication purpose, audience,
and context.
4. Utilize information literacy skills expected of ethical communicators.
College of Arts and Letters First-week attendance Policy
At the instructor's discretion, any student registered for a class in the College of Arts and Letters
who does not attend the first two (2) scheduled meetings of the class may be administratively
dropped from the class. Students dropped for non-attendance will be notified via e-mail by the
Associate Dean of the College.
Inclement Weather Policy
In this class I will follow the official JMU policy regarding inclement weather. If you are
unfamiliar with this policy, I have reprinted it below:
Decisions to close university operations will be made by the President or a designee. If the
decision to close is made, announcements will be made on JMU radio station 1610AM, on the
JMU Home Page on the World Wide Web and on area radio and television stations.
When it is necessary to cancel classes due to weather or other emergency, faculty members have
several options for making up missed instructional time.
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Hold class on the official university make up day, which will be designated as part of
the closing announcement.
Hold class at another time acceptable to class members. The department will arrange
time and location.
Hold class electronically, using a web-based source such as Canvas or Blackboard.
Accommodate for the missed instructional time within remaining class meeting time.
When the university closes due to weather or other type of emergency, faculty will administer
regularly scheduled examinations at a time designated by the university unless otherwise
announced in the course syllabus. The official make up time will be designated as part of the
closing announcement. Unless otherwise notified, examination locations will be the same as the
location for the regularly scheduled exam.
If it is determined that exams cannot be given because of inclement weather or other emergency,
faculty will assign final grades to students based on the exams, tests and projects completed prior
to the regularly scheduled exam date.
Disability Accommodations:
JMU abides by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with
Disabilities Act, which mandate reasonable accommodations be provided for students with
documented disabilities. If you have not already done so, you will need to register with the
Office of Disability Services, the designated office on campus to provide services for students
with disabilities. The office is located in the Student Success Center, Suite 102 and you may call
(540) 568-6705 for more information.
If you have a disability and may require some type of instructional and/or examination
accommodations, please contact your instructor early in the semester so that he/she can provide
or facilitate provision of accommodations you may need.
Religious Observance Accommodations
All faculty members are required to give reasonable and appropriate accommodations to students
requesting them on grounds of religious observation. The faculty member determines what
accommodations are appropriate for his/her course. Students should notify the faculty by no later
than the end of the Drop-Add period the first week of the semester of potential scheduled
absences and determine with the instructor if mutually acceptable alternative methods exist for
completing the missed classroom time or activity.
Important Resources
Communication Resource Center: The Communication Resource Center is located in the Student
Success Center. The Communication Resource Center is designed to serve students in all aspects
of speech development—from outlining to presentation. You can visit
http://www.jmu.edu/commcenter/ to schedule an appointment and find out more information.
University Health Center: The University Health Center is located in the Student Success Center.
Please visit the UHC if you are feeling ill, or have missed class and need a doctor’s note.
Counseling Center: JMU’s counseling center is located on the 3rd floor of the Student Success
Center. The counseling center is free to JMU students and can help meet psychiatric and
psychological needs.
Office of Disability Services: The office of Disability Services is located in the Student Success
Center. The ODS serves students with learning and psychological needs, as well as those with
physical needs.
Contacting Me
If you need to contact me or have a question, the best way is through email. Although
sometimes I can be very quick at answering emails, I need at least 24 hours to respond. If you
would like to sit down and go over any questions and/or materials, you may come to my office
hours that are posted above. Office hours may change but I will notify the class via
email/Canvas. My office is located in Wilson Hall, suite 214, 214A.
Classroom Policies
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Students are expected to come to class prepared every day. The syllabus provides due
dates for every assignment therefore you will be responsible for completing assignments
on time, including doing the required readings. Of course, if you have any questions
about assignments you are able to ask before the assignments are due.
Laptops, Ipads and cellphones are not allowed to be out in class, unless otherwise
specified. If found using one of these items during class, I will ask you to put it away the
first time. The second time I will ask you to leave class for the day and you will lose
participation/attendance points. However, if there is an emergency where you need to
have your phone on you, please ask me ahead of time.
The classroom will be an open environment where you have the right to voice your
opinion. However, I will not tolerate hurtful language or disrespect towards anyone in
the class.
Academic Honor Code
Students shall observe complete honesty in all academic matters. Violations of the JMU Honor
Code include, but are not limited to, taking or attempting to take any of the following
actions:
a. Using unauthorized materials or receiving unauthorized assistance during an
examination or in connection with any work done for academic credit.
Unauthorized materials may include, but are not limited to, notes, textbooks,
previous examinations, exhibits, experiments, papers or other supplementary
items.
b. Giving false or misleading information regarding an academic matter.
c. Copying information from another student during an examination.
d. Rendering unauthorized assistance to another student by knowingly permitting
him or her to see or copy all or a portion of an examination or any work to be
submitted for academic credit.
e. Obtaining prior knowledge of examination materials (including by using copies of
previously given examinations obtained from files maintained by various groups
and organizations) in an unauthorized manner.
f. Selling or giving to another student unauthorized copies of any portion of an
examination.
g. Using a commercially prepared paper or research project or submitting for
academic credit any work completed by someone else.
h. Falsifying or attempting to falsify class attendance records for oneself, or for
someone else, or having another falsify attendance records on your behalf.
i. Falsifying material relating to course registration or grades, either for oneself or
for someone else.
j. Falsifying reasons why a student did not attend a required class or take a
scheduled examination.
k. Taking an examination in the place of another student.
l. Making unauthorized changes in any reported grade or on an official academic
report form.
m. Falsifying scientific or other data submitted for academic credit.
n. Collaborating in an unauthorized manner with one or more other students on an
examination or any work submitted for academic credit.
o. Committing the act of plagiarism - the copying, writing or presenting as one's
own the information, ideas or phrasing of another person without proper
acknowledgment of the true source.
p. Using computing facilities or library resources in an academically dishonest
manner.
q. Falsifying evidence, or intimidating or influencing someone in connection with an
honor violation investigation, hearing or appeal.
More information about the Honor Code can be found at www.jmu.edu/honor/code.shtml.
Attendance
Attendance is part of your grade in this class. You are now part of a classroom that is impacted
by your attendance and seeing as this class is entitled group communication, you will be working
in a group throughout the semester and when you are not there, your group may suffer.
However, I do understand that sometimes people may be sick, have an emergency, etc.
Therefore, you can miss two days of class (excused or unexcused) without any deduction of
points. Every day you miss after that there will be a deduction of 3 points from your attendance
grade. Just showing up to class is not enough. If there are days when you do not attempt to
participate in class or become disruptive to the class, you are subjected to an attendance grade
deduction.
Late Assignments
Assignments are expected to be completed before the given deadline. If the assignment is
submitted within 24 hours after the deadline the assignment grade will start at 50% and be
graded from there. After the 24 hour window the grade will become a zero. You are responsible
for your assignments and handing them in on time. Due dates for every assignment are posted
on the syllabus as well as on Canvas so there are no excuses. Assignments are also due at the
beginning of class. If you come to class late and an assignment is due, that assignment is also
late and is subjected to the late penalty.
Exams
There are two exams within this class, excluding the final exam. You are expected to take the
exam on the day and time as designated in the syllabus. If you have a university excused
absence for that particular day, you need to notify me at least 10 days in advance and you have to
take the exam before you leave. If you have a family emergency you need to provide adequate
proof or if you have a doctor’s note that stated you were not physically able to be in class notify
me via email and we will reschedule the exam as soon as possible. Not showing up for the exam
without these previously listed exemptions results in a zero.
Research Credit
All GCOM students at James Madison University must accumulate research credit during the
semester. This requirement will count for 2.5% of the final grade, or 25 points.
This research credit may be obtained by completing the following activities:
1. Participating in communication studies – either online surveys, online experiments, faceto-face experiments, face-to-face interviews, and/or focus groups.
2. Attending and summarizing a debate or forensics event and answering specific questions
about those events.
3. Attending and summarizing one approved research or colloquium presentation and
answering specific questions related to those colloquia.
4. Reading one or more of five approved journal articles and answering specific questions
with regard to those articles.
Each of these credit opportunities is described in more detail in the SONA system.
https://jmu-scom.sona-systems.com/default.aspx
Madison Research Essentials (MREST)
To support the type of research you will need to be successful in developing your presentations,
students must work through the MREST tutorials on the JMU Libraries site and complete all
seven module quizzes which are posted on Canvas. In order to receive credit for the module
quizzes you have to earn at least a 90% on all of the quizzes. You may keep retaking the quizzes
until you receive this score or higher. This must be done by Sept 18th at 11:59pm.
James Madison University believes that the fundamental knowledge and skills students need to
navigate the landscape of scholarly information are necessary for successful completion of your
university classes. Information literacy skills are foundational to their university coursework and
as such are included in Cluster One of General Education. All students enrolled or completing
General Education courses at JMU are required to pass the MREST within the first academic
year at JMU. The Madison Research Essential Skills tutorial will be completed by students
enrolled in GCOM. MREST is a proctored, secured competency test given only in the
Assessment and Testing Center (basement of Ashby hall) during lab hours. Students must
successfully pass the MREST prior to Spring Break of your first academic year.
Successful passing of the MREST will be noted on a student’s transcript. Students who score
high will be earn an advanced status. Students who fail may review the Madison Research
Toolkit. Students who do not pass by the deadline will have a registration hold placed on their
academic record. This registration hold will prevent them from dropping, adding or swapping
courses. Within two weeks of successful completion of this graduation milestone students will
be able to view their passing scores via MyMadison (on the drop down menu labeled “Other
Academic,” “Academic Requirements,” “View Test Scores,” or “Transcript: View Unofficial”).
For this class, part of the MREST grade will be passing the MREST test. If you pass the test by
the due date and receive a 90% or better you will receive the full 50 points for the MREST
portion of the class. If you do not pass the test by the due date but pass before the end of the
semester you will receive 35/50 points. However, if you do not pass the MREST test but receive
a 90% or better on all quizzes you will receive 25/50 points and this is the same if you pass the
MREST test but you do not receive a 90% or better on the quizzes. If neither is completed, you
will receive a 0.
After you have passed the MREST test, turn in the report that will print out at the end of the test.
The MREST test is due on Oct 2nd.
Group Presentations
There will be two group presentations in this course; a persuasive presentation and an
informative presentation. Seeing as this is a group communication course, the presentations will
be done within a group that will be assigned towards the beginning of the semester. The groups
will stay the same throughout the semester and they will be assigned. Group presentations will
be graded on outlines, the presentation itself (as a group), and the individual contributions to the
group. As a group you are expected to work through any issues you may have and groups will
not be re-assigned at any point in time. Presentations will be between 18-20 minutes.
Persuasive Presentation- your group will be working together to create a persuasive presentation
where you will not only state the problem but come up with a personal and institutional solution.
I believe it is important to endorse student passions so the group will be able to choose their own
topic, however it has to be approved by me to make sure that it is appropriate for the presentation
(ex: is there enough information on the topic?, is there time to cover the topic? etc.) More
information on this assignment will be posted on Canvas closer to the due date.
Informative Presentation- Using informative techniques discussed in the course, each group will
be taking a section from our textbook and using that as a basis for their presentation. Each group
will research and present on a relevant topic that is related to that section. As a class, we will be
covering those areas before the group presentations so topics can be based off of those class
days. This assignment will be explained further closer to the due date.
Papers
Papers that are assigned in this class need to be double spaced, 12 point times new roman font
with the standard 1 in margins. Any other format submitted is subjected to point(s) penalty.
There are five small paper assignments throughout the chapter and one persuasive message
critique paper.
Small Papers
There will be three papers, each worth 15 points, throughout the semester. These papers will
have prompts or questions related to different areas of the course. They should follow the
standard of paper submissions (see above) and will be turned in at the beginning of class on the
day that they are due. If you arrive late to class, the paper is also late and is subjected to the late
policy. There is no page requirement for the papers, but the expectation is that each prompt or
question be answered completely.
Persuasive Critique
This 75 point paper is meant to test your new skills on critiquing persuasive messages. There
will be videos posted on Canvas and you will be choosing one to critique. For the critique you
will be applying concepts that you have used from the course. More details will be provided
closer to the due date.
Student Engagement
At some points during the semester I will be starting the class by posting a writing prompt on the
board that relates to the course material and what we have covered in previous classes. They will
be completed and turned in towards the beginning of class and they will not be announced in
advance. Although they are worth 30 points overall for the semester, each one will be worth 3
points and at the end of the semester the lowest score will not be counted.
Point Distribution
Total of 1,000 points for the course
25 points attendance
25 points research credit
50 points MREST
220 points persuasion
210 points informative
50 points exam
70 points exam
75 points persuasive critique paper
200 Final exam
30 points student engagement
45 points small papers
Tentative Class Schedule
Week 1 (Aug 26-28)
T: Introduction to the course
TH: Competent Communication (Rothwell, Chapter 1)
Week 2 (Sept 2-4)
T: Perceptions of Self and Others (Rothwell, Chapter 2)
TH: Language (Rothwell, Chapter 4)
Perceptions small paper due
Week 3 (Sept 9-11)
T: Nonverbal (Rothwell, Chapter 5)
TH: Small Group (Rothwell, Chapter 10)
Week 4 (Sept 16-18)
T: Exam (Chapters 1,2,4,5)
Th: Researching (chapter 12 p. 345-361)
Small Group paper due
Week 5 (Sept 23-25)
T: Preparing Speeches (Chapter 12 p. 362-375)
Th: Presenting Speeches (Rothwell, Chapter 13)
Week 6 (Sept 30 – Oct 2)
T: Persuasive Speaking (Rothwell, Chapter 15)
Th: Persuasive speaking (Rothwell, Chapter 15)
Week 7 (Oct 7-9)
T: Group work day
Th: Persuasive Speeches
Week 8 (Oct 14-16)
T: Persuasive Speeches
Th: Informative speaking
Week 9 (Oct 21-23)
T: Listening/Relationships (Rothwell, Chapter 6 & 8)
Th: Power (Rothwell, Chapter 7)
Week 10 (Oct 28-30)
T: Gender (Rothwell, Chapter 3)
Th: Culture (Rothwell, Chapter 3)
Small Paper 3 due
Week 11 (Nov 4-6)
T: Conflict (Rothwell, Chapter 9)
Persuasive Reflection due
Th: group work day
Group Annotated Bibliography due
Week 12 (Nov 11-13)
T: informative speeches
All group outlines due
Th: informative speeches
Week 13 (Nov 18-20)
T: Exam
Th: NO CLASS (gone at NCA conference)
Persuasive paper due
Week 14 (Nov 25-27)
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 15 (Dec 2-4)
T: Final exam review
Th: Final exam review
Week 16
Final Exam: Tues Dec 9th 6:00-8:00pm Student Assessment and Testing Center