COMM 301: Communication Research

8:00 Tuesdays and Thursdays in RSS 006

Douglas A. Ferguson, PhD

843.608.8008

OFFICE HOURS
Office Hours: TR 11:00-1:30 (Office Location: 9 College Way., #205)

REQUIRED TEXT
Leslie A. Baxter, Earl R. Babbie
The Basics of Communication Research
1st Edition ©2004 ISBN: 0534507786
OPTIONAL TEXTS
A Simple Guide to SPSS for Windows (Kirkpatrick & Feeney)
Statistics for Dummies (Rumsey)

COURSE HOME PAGE

http://webct.cofc.edu

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this course is to:
* Detail the various types of research employed by communication researchers and the kinds of conclusions to
which this research leads.
* Introduce students to the basic concepts and practices of quantitative and qualitative research.
* Provide a basic understanding of how statistical tests and methods are employed in research programs.
* Acquire a basic familiarity with SPSS research software.
* Explain the limitations of various kinds of research and help students evaluate results of and claims made on
behalf of research studies and programs.
* Foster an applied understanding of communication research by allowing students to design and execute actual
qualitative and quantitative projects.

ATTENDANCE POLICY
Every student gets only two excused absences, regardless of circumstances. If you cannot attend
most of the time, then you should drop. If you must burn off your two excused absences early, then
stay well. Much of your grade is determined by the "question of the day" points, although these
points permit two absences without penalty. Also, be on time. Oftentimes the question of the day
comes at the beginning of class.

CLASS PREPARATION AND PARTICIPATION

Your active participation will be essential to the success of this class. Learning depends on
involvement, so it's important that you be familiar with the assigned materials by class time. If you're
unprepared, it hurts not only you but your classmates as well, since you will be unable to contribute
to the discussion.

SPSS is already installed in many student computer labs on campus, but you must save anything you
need on a portable storage device. I highly recommend that you use a USB memory stick or store
your files at 4shared.com -- regardless, your research projects themselves must be stored at
docs.google.com (with me as a designated "collaborator") so I can gauge your progress. Because of
new privacy rules at the College, I will not place any grade information on your work, because Google
owns the files. For students not working in groups, I will tolerate e-mail attachments but discourage their
use because my ability to add helpful comments is severely limited.
GRADES
You will be scored on:
* 18 daily questions (3 points each, but you can only accumulate 48 maximum points),
* a formal quantitative research project in the form of a APA-style paper (30 points),
* a formal qualitative research project in the form of a paper OR presentation (22 points)
Your total available points will determine your minimum final grade, as follows:

A 93-100 C 73.76.9
A- 90-92.9 C- 70-72.9
B+ 87-89.9 D+ 67-69.9
B 83-86.9 D 63-66.9
B- 80-82.9 D- 60-62.9

Under 60 is an F

Exams: There are no mid-term or final exams, but the accumulated daily questions will evaluate
your knowledge of assigned readings and class discussion. There will be a 3-point extra credit essay
(which only counts toward unfulfilled daily-question points) offered on the date of the final exam.
Some students use this to compensate for a third absence. If you have done the assigned reading and
exercises, the daily questions should pose no problems for you.

Research Projects: As noted above, you'll be doing two research projects this semester. The first
will be a quantitative survey project and the second will be a qualitative study. These projects will be
explained in more detail in class. You will be graded for *original* content and writing quality. I'll
be looking for you to analyze and assess the issues relating to your research and to organize and
articulate your insights in a way that is informative, illuminating, coherent, and concise. Papers will
be due on docs.google.com by class time on the due date indicated on the syllabus. Late papers will
not be accepted and will receive a grade of zero unless the student can demonstrate a valid excuse.
Papers with sloppy citations (e.g., verbatim pasting without quotation marks and/or citation) or other
forms of plagiarism will receive a big fat zero and disciplinary action. If your work is written
better than I could write it, I will likely track down your source and fail the paper.

Group Project Contributions: You can work alone or in groups of four or fewer, your choice.
Everyone gets the same project grade regardless of who did most of the work (just like the real
world). I recommend the team approach for two reasons. First, this is how it usually works in the real
world of communication research. Second, it makes things a lot easier for you. When you're trying to
conduct surveys or run focus groups, for instance, it's really helpful to have several people involved
because it's often difficult for one person to manage all the tasks that need completing.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Academic dishonesty is inconsistent with the moral character expected of students and subverts the
academic process by distorting all measurements. It is a serious matter and will be dealt with
accordingly. A list of unacceptable practices, penalties to be assigned, and procedures to be followed
in prosecuting cases of alleged academic dishonesty may be found in the Student Handbook.

SERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES STATEMENT

Students with disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class are
encouraged to contact me with the appropriate documentation.
SCHEDULE
Following is general outline of how the course will proceed. The schedule is subject to change should
circumstances require it.

When What Assignment

Week 1 8/25 1.Human Inquiry and Scientific Inquiry about Chapter 1, 2
Communication.
2.Basic Building Blocks in Conducting
Communication Research.
Week 2 9/1 3.Paradigms of Knowing in Communication Chapter 3, 4, 5
Research.
4.Logic Systems and Theory in Communication
Research.
5.The Ethics of Communication Research.
Week 3 9/8 6.Conceptualization and Operationalization. Chapter 6
Week 4 9/15 7.The Logic of Sampling. Chapter 7
Week 5 9/22 8.Survey Research. Introduction due
Chapter 8
Week 6 9/29 9.Experiments. Method section due

Week 7 10/6 10.Quantitative Text Analysis. Chapter 10

Week 8 10/13 Fall Break (Tues)
SPSS Intro (Thurs)
Week 9 10/20 11.The Basics of Quantitative Data Analysis. Chapter 11
Week 10 10/27 12.Inferential Statistics in Quantitative Data Chapter 12
Analysis.
Week 11 11/3 13.Participant Observation. Project 1 due
Chapter 13
Week 12 11/10 14.Qualitative Interviewing. Chapter 14
Week 13 11/17 15.Social Text Analysis. Chapters 15, 16
16.Qualitative Data Analysis.
Week 14 11/24 Movie Day Project 2 due
Week 15 12/1 Presentations
Finals Week 8:00 on Thursday, 12/10/09