COMS101: Speech Communication

11/08/2019 to 04/16/2020 • Modified 08/08/2024

Course Description

Rationale

Communication skills are vital in nearly every career field, including education, business, politics, human services, Christian ministry, and the health professions. Learning these skills will also allow students to use their words to become even more effective agents for change and godly influence among their peers and others in our society. Students will understand and apply healthy and effective communication principles and practices to speaking before audiences, in small groups, and in conversations with others.

Course Assignment

Textbook readings and video presentations

Course Requirements Checklist

After reading the Course Syllabus and Student Expectations, the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Video Discussions (2)

Video Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will demonstrate his/her understanding of covered communication concepts by creating and posting a critical, thoughtful thread in response to both of the Video Discussion prompts. For each new thread, the student must provide a substantive response to the prompt required by the specific Discussion instructions. Properly formatted replies of at least 75 words must be posted in response to 3 or more other students’ threads. (FSLO: CIL 1, 2, and 3)

Discussion: Speech Analysis Dialogue

Discussions are collaborative learning experiences. Therefore, the student will demonstrate his/her understanding of the covered communication concepts by creating and posting a critical, thoughtful thread in response to the Discussion prompt. In the initial thread, the student must provide a substantive response to the prompt required by the specific Discussion instructions. Properly formatted replies of at least 75 words must be posted in response to 3 or more other students’ threads. (FSLO: CIL 1, 2, and 3)

Speech Outline Assignments (2)

The student will demonstrate his/her understanding of covered communication concepts by using the provided outline templates to compose a properly formatted outline for the informative speech presentation and the persuasive speech presentation that he/she will submit for credit in this course. The Speech Outline may be submitted, initially, as an optional rough draft and will then be submitted, by its designated due date, as a required final outline. Each speech outline must be composed in Microsoft Word. The Informative Speech Outline Assignment must cite at least 3 expert sources, and the Persuasive Speech Outline Assignment must cite at least 4 expert sources. (FSLO: CIL 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; CT 2 and 4)

Speech Presentation Assignments (2)

The student will demonstrate his/her understanding of covered public communication concepts by presenting an informative speech and a persuasive speech, respectively, before a visually documented live audience of 3 or more adults. The Informative Speech Outline Assignment must cite at least 3 expert sources, and the Persuasive Speech Outline Assignment must cite at least 4 expert sources. Each speech must be 4-6 minutes and satisfy the other criteria set forth in the assignment instructions. Once the speech is recorded, the student will upload the recording to Mindtap/Bongo, and then post the video’s link to the instructor. (FSLO: CIL 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; CGE 5; CC 3 and 4)

Quizzes (16)

Each quiz will cover a chapter of textbook readings for the assigned Module: Week. Each quiz will be open-book/open-notes, contain 10 true/false and multiple-choice questions, and have a time limit of 30 minutes. (FSLO: CIL 1, 3, and 5; and CT 1)