COMMUNICATION 201 COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITY FALL 2015 Billy Fallon Office: Communication 233 Email: wfallon@mail.sdsu.edu Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:45 a.m. – 11:45 a.m., or by appointment Schedule Number: 20962 This course will examine the discipline of Communication: its history, methods, theories, and basic understanding of how to understand your major and professors in order to graduate in a timely manner. My classroom philosophy is centered on respect and honesty to create a comfortable learning environment. With a large classroom, it becomes everyone’s responsibility to ensure that all students and guests feel comfortable to ask and answer questions and make comments to advance everyone’s learning and understanding of communication. Class runs most effectively when we all participate and contribute to the day’s discussion. COURSE OBJECTIVES: 1. To think more critically about the process and study of communication. 2. To gain a better understanding of the discipline of communication. 3. To be able to identify, describe, and evaluate the various subjects of communication studies. 4. To be able to articulate what a communication scholar studies and why. 5. To appreciate the study of communication and its possible effects on our culture. 6. To understand the fundamental role that communication has in shaping our individual identity and society as a whole. 7. To investigate more fully our own communication processes. 8. To increase our listening abilities in order to communicate effectively and appropriately. 9. To develop a better understanding of the School of Communication and our faculty at SDSU. TEXT: Wood, J. T. (2011). Communication mosaics: An introduction to the field of communication. (7th Ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth. COURSE POLICIES AND PROCEDURES: 1. The midterms must be taken in class on the scheduled days. They will NOT be rescheduled for any reason. 2. Participation is a must! The best grades are earned by students who attend class, participate, and try. There is no failure if you learn from your mistakes and then correct your actions. 3. No “re-do” or “extra” assignments will be accepted due to poor grades. 4. Cell phones MUST be turned off during class. Text messaging will NOT be allowed during class. I will ask you to leave class if this policy is violated. 5. I will not return exams. You are welcome to stop by my office hours to review and discuss the exams and how you did at any time. All exams will be destroyed at the end of the next semester. If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Chapter Quizzes: You will complete an online quiz each week. The quiz must be completed by midnight, the day prior to our covering it in class. Each quiz is worth 10 points. There are 15 chapters, so your quizzes are worth a total of 150 points. Exams: Two midterms are scheduled to reinforce classroom discussion and the text. Each test will contain 50 multiple choice questions worth a total of 50 points. The final exam will contain 75 questions worth a total of 150 points. The final exam is cumulative. Observation Papers: You will write four papers throughout the semester about your communication observations as follows: 1. Notice something about communication. It may be a single occurrence or a recurring event. 2. Ask yourself questions about the communication phenomenon you noticed. 3. Speculate on what the answers to your questions may be. 4. Papers should be one page in length, double-spaced. 5. Papers should be written in first-person, in an informal style. 6. Avoid making broad statements about communication; focus on your own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. 7. This is not a research paper; avoid telling us what the book says. 8. Papers will be submitted via Blackboard. GRADING SCALE: A 500 - 465 A464 - 450 B+ 449 - 435 B 434 - 415 B414 - 400 C+ 399 - 385 C 384 - 365 C364 - 350 Credit= 365+ D+ D DF 349 - 335 334 - 315 314 - 300 299 - 000 This schedule is subject to change Date Aug 25 Aug 27 Sep 1 Sep 3 Sep 8 Sep 10 Sep 15 Sep 17 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 29 Oct 1 Oct 6 Oct 8 Oct 13 Oct 15 Oct 20 Oct 22 Oct 27 Oct 29 Nov 3 Nov 5 Nov 10 Nov 12 Nov 17 Nov 19 Nov 24 Nov 26 Dec 1 Dec 3 Dec 8 Dec 10 Topic or Activity Chapter Class Introduction, Policies, and Orientation The Communication Major at SDSU Looking at the field of Communication 1 Careers Historical and contemporary perspectives on communication 2 Research Methods; Ethics Journals Perceiving and Understanding 3 Challenging perceptions Verbal Communication 4 Power of words Nonverbal Communication 5 EXAM #1 (Chapters 1 - 5) Listening 6 Listening Exercises Journals Communication Climates 7 Learning to be confirming and supportive Cultures and Social Communities 8 Investigating your culture Identity 9 Who do you think you are? How do you know? Personal Relationships 10 EXAM #2 (Chapters 6 – 10) Groups and Teams 11 Group Exercises Journals Organizations 12 Networking Public Speaking 13 THANKSGIVING Mass Communication 14 Increasing your media literacy Digital Media and Online Communication 15 The allure of likes, followers, and friends Journals Dec 17 FINAL EXAM (Chapters 1 – 15) PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is one of the highest forms of academic offense. It represents several ethics violations. It is theft of intellectual property. In academe, a scholar’s words, ideas, and creative products represent essential intellectual property, which are the primary measures of scholarly identity, status and achievement. It is fraud. Students should be assessed on their own ideas and abilities; not the ideas and abilities of others. It is unfair. It introduces bias and inequity in the assessment process, producing grades for fellow students based on disadvantaged standards and expectations. It is corruption. It undermines the credibility of higher education by misrepresenting the meaning of university grades and degrees to the rest of the public. Whether by ignorance, accident, or intent, theft is still theft, fraud is still fraud, inequity is still inequity, and corruption is still corruption. Therefore, the offense, no matter how minor in quantity, is still serious, and is treated as such. The 2008-2009 SDSU Graduate Bulletin policy1 states: Plagiarism is formal work publicly misrepresented as original; …. Work shall be deemed plagiarism: (1) when prior work of another has been demonstrated as the accessible source; (2) when substantial or material parts of the source have been literally or evasively appropriated (substance denoting quantity; matter denoting qualitative format or style); and (3) when the work lacks sufficient or unequivocal citation so as to indicate or imply that the work was neither a copy nor an imitation. This definition comprises oral, written, and crafted pieces. In short, if one purports to present an original piece but copies ideas word for word or by paraphrase, those ideas should be duly noted. (Lindey, 1952, Plagiarism and Originality) Specific exemplary infractions and consequences: ● Course failure: Reproducing a whole paper, paragraph, or large portions of unattributed materials without proper attribution, whether represented by: (a) multiple sentences, images, or portions of images; or (b) by percentage of assignment length, will result in assignment of an “F” in the course in which the infraction occurred, and a report to the Center for Student Rights and Responsibilities (CSRR2). ● Assignment failure: Reproducing a sentence or sentence fragment with no quotation marks, but with source citation, or subsets of visual images without source attribution, will minimally result in an “F” on the assignment, and may result in greater penalty, including a report to the CSRR, depending factors noted below. ● Exacerbating conditions--Amount: Evidence of infraction, even if fragmentary, is increased with a greater: (a) number of infractions; (b) distribution of infractions across an assignment; or (c) proportion of the assignment consisting of infractions. ● Exacerbating conditions--Intent: Evidence of foreknowledge and intent to deceive magnifies the seriousness of the offense and the grounds for official response. Plagiarism, whether ‘by accident’ or ‘by ignorance,’ still qualifies as plagiarism—it is all students’ responsibility to make sure their assignments are not committing the offense. ● Exceptions: Any exceptions to these policies will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and only under exceptional circumstances. 1