Communication 6001
Introduction to Graduate Studies in Communication I
Fall 2002
Prof. Gil Rodman
CIS 3040 // 813-974-3025 // gbrodman@mindspring.com
Office Hours: Th 4-6p or by appointment
course description and objectives
As its title implies, this course is an introduction to many things, including:
- the field of communication (i.e., communication as a discipline, as the focal point for scholarly work, etc.)
- the department, the faculty, and the ways that our various research and teaching practices relate to the field as a whole
- the pleasures and perils of living the academic life (as a graduate student and beyond)
This course doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive survey of the field (no one semester course could accomplish such a thing anyway) or even of the department (as none of us could adequately sum up everything we do in a handful of readings and a single class session), but it should provide you with enough of a sense of who we are and what we're about to move forward with your graduate program in productive fashion.
required course materials
- Photocopied essays
There are no books for this course -- only articles. These will be distributed via a photocopying "tree" that we'll set up during our first class meeting.
- Reliable, regular access to the World Wide Web
All of your written work for this course will be submitted online. As a result, you will not be able to complete the course successfully without being able to access the Web on a consistent basis. If you don't already have access to the Internet from your home or workplace, you will need to make use of the open-use computer labs on campus.
papers
You will write three papers over the course of the semester as follows:
Paper #1 |
critical response |
due 10 Oct |
1250-1750 words |
Paper #2 |
compare & contrast |
due 21 Nov |
1750-2250 words |
Paper #3 |
application/analysis |
due 12 Dec |
3000-3750 words |
Further details re: these assignments is available on a separate handout.
Blackboard Discussion Board participation
The primary purpose of the Discussion Board is to provide an informal space that's always available for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and our class sessions. I expect everyone to participate in these discussions on a more or less regular basis. While there's no hard and fast rule here for what constitutes "enough" participation, if the bulk of your contributions consist of one-line replies to other people's longer messages (e.g., "Well said, Chris. Thanks.") or if more than 7-10 days go by between your posts, you're probably not pulling your weight here.
Additionally, the Blackboard site may occasionally be used to make important course-related announcements (e.g., "please add everything on the third floor of the USF library to next Thursday's reading") or to pass word on about other topics that may be of interest to the class (e.g., calls for papers, upcoming conferences, recently published articles and books, etc.). So check the site frequently.
grading policy
I'm not a big fan of grades at the graduate level. Presumably, your main reason for being here is that you have a genuine desire to learn something about communication, not whether you can maintain a 4.0 GPA. Assuming you show up for class consistently, participate in our discussions (both in class and online) on a regular basis, and complete the assigned papers in satisfactory fashion, you should get an A. That being said, in cases where people are clearly slacking off, I reserve the right to go deeper into the alphabet when I fill out my final grade sheet (and I've actually done so in the past). Under such unfortunate circumstances, your grade will be calculated as follows:
Attendance/participation |
|
10% |
Blackboard Discussion Board participation |
|
15% |
Paper #1 |
|
20% |
Paper #2 |
|
25% |
Paper #3 |
|
30% |
Final course grades will not use the plus/minus grading system.
N.B.: As of late August, the schedule below seemed to work for all the guest speakers concerned -- but real life is never as tidy as the syllabus makes it out to be, so the details below are subject to change. Insofar as I have advance notice of such changes, I'll make sure y'all do too.
5 September
no guest
- Raymond Williams, "Defining a Democratic Culture"
- James Carey, "A Cultural Approach to Communication"
- John Durham Peters, "The Problem of Communication"
- Cary Nelson and Stephen Watt, Academic Keywords [selections]
- Kathy M. Newman, "Poor, Hungry, and Desperate? or Privileged, Histrionic, and Demanding?: In Search of the True Meaning of ‘Ph.D.'"
- Elizabeth Bell, Kim Golombisky, G'han Singh, and Krista Hirschmann, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before: Academic Love Letters on Mentoring, Power, and Desire"
12 September
guests: Kara Babbitt, Cara Mackie
no readings
19 September
guest: Marcy Chvasta
readings t.b.d.
26 September
guest: Stacy Holman Jones
readings t.b.d.
3 October
guest: Elizabeth Bell
readings t.b.d.
10 October
NO CLASS
paper #1 due
17 October
no guest
readings t.b.d.
24 October
guest: Navita James
readings t.b.d.
31 October
guest: Michael LeVan
readings t.b.d.
7 November
"guest": Gil Rodman
readings t.b.d.
14 November
guest: Mark Neumann
readings t.b.d.
21 November
NO CLASS [NCA]
paper #2 due
28 November
NO CLASS [Thanskgiving]
5 December
no guest
readings t.b.d.
12 December
NO CLASS
paper #3 due