SCOM 123

Fundamental Human Communication:

Group Presentations
Mondays and Wednesdays 3:35-4:25 pm
Harrison Hall 1261
Fall 2017 Syllabus

Course Description
___________________________________________________________________________
In this class you will study human communication as a process while getting an
overview of the principles and practices of communication in small group and public
communication contexts. You will also examine the role that self-concept,
perception, and culture play in the verbal and nonverbal dimensions in the
communication process. In addition, you will also practice audience analysis,
construct informative and persuasive group presentations and apply critical
listening skills. Public speaking is required.

My Contact Information
_____________________________________________________________________________
Instructor
Bree Riddick
Office Telephone
(540) 568-7183
Office Hours
MW 4:30-5:30pm
appointment

Office Location
Wilson 214
Email Address
riddicbr@jmu.edu
Appointments
Email riddicbr@dukes.jmu.edu to make an

Required Text
____________________________________________________________________________
Rothwell, J.D. (2012). In the company of others: An introduction to communication
(4th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.

Learning Objectives
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1

Explain the fundamental processes that significantly influence communication.

Construct messages consistent with the diversity of the communication purpose,

audience, and context.

Respond to messages consistent with the diversity of the communication

purpose, audience, and context.

Utilize information literacy skills expected of ethical communicators.

Philosophy on Learning
_____________________________________________________________________________
If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are
determined to learn, no one can stop you.
I believe that learning takes commitment, effort, and dedication. In this course, we
will work as partners- I will make a commitment to you to help you learn as much as
I am able to teach you in this course, as long as you make the commitment to put in
the effort and dedication that it will take. Strive to do your best, ask for help when
you need it, and dont be afraid to explore new areas. Learning should be hard, it
should be fun, but most of all, it should be rewarding.

Contacting Me
_____________________________________________________________________________
If you should need to speak with me outside of class (which is encouraged), the best
way to contact me is through email. I check my email quite frequently, but please

allow me about 24 hours to respond to you. If I do not respond within two days, it is
safe to assume that I have not received your message and you should resend your
message. Office hours are also a great time to reach me if you need to speak face
to face and email will not suffice.

Participation & Class Etiquette

_____________________________________________________________________________
In order for you to reach your potential in this class, it will be important for you to
participate. There will be some group-led discussions that will only be helpful if
everyone participates in a way that is engaging and showing of your dedication to
succeeding in this course. Class participation combined with your group discussion
grade will count for 10% of your final grade.

Attendance
_____________________________________________________________________________
Your attendance in this course is required and necessary for your success in this
class. If you are more than 5 minutes late, you will be counted as absent. You will be
granted 3 total absences for this course (unexcused and excused). Each absence
after that will result in 5 points per absence being removed from your total
participation grade. If there is an extenuating circumstance and you need to miss
more than 3 days of class, I encourage you to schedule a meeting with me to
discuss this so that we can best find a way to keep you on track in the course.

Late Work
_____________________________________________________________________________
Due dates will be posted on Canvas and can be found on the last page of the
syllabus. Any late work that is submitted will receive a letter grade reduction per
late day (ex. An assignment that earned a B but was one day late will receive a C
grade).

College of Arts & Letters First-Week Attendance Policy

_____________________________________________________________________________
College of Arts and Letters (and that includes this course) 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.

Disability Accommodations
_____________________________________________________________________________
JMU abides by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with
Disabilities Act, which mandates 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
Student Success Center, Room 1202 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 me early in the semester so

that I can provide or facilitate the accommodations you may need.

Academic Honesty
_____________________________________________________________________________
All work is subject to the JMU Honor Code, which describes the following
undertakings as violations: cheating, fabrication, falsification of information,
plagiarism, or abuse of academic materials. Students are also expected to show
respect one to another as well as to the professor of the class. Violators of these
guidelines will receive an F for the class and will be reported accordingly. Please
refer to the JMU honor Code website for a fuller discussion of what constitutes an
honor code infraction, as found at:
http://www.jmu.edu/honor/code.shtml#TheHonorCode.

Add/Drop Information
_____________________________________________________________________________
Students are responsible for registering for classes and for verifying their class
schedules on MyMadison. Late course additions will not be permitted.
The deadline for adding a fall semester class without instructor and academic unit
head signature is Tuesday, September 6, 2016. Between Wednesday, September 7,
2016 and Thursday, September 15, 2016, instructor and academic unit head
signatures will be required to add a class for fall semester 2016.
No student will be allowed to register for a fall semester class after Friday,
September 16, 2016. The last day to withdraw from this course and receive a "W"
grade is Thursday, October 27, 2016. No exceptions will be made to these
deadlines.

Inclement Weather Policy

_____________________________________________________________________________
In this class we 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
1610 AM, 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.

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.

Religious Observation Policy

_____________________________________________________________________________
All faculty members are required to give reasonable and appropriate
accommodations to students requesting them on grounds of religious observation. I
(as the faculty member in charge of this class) determine what accommodations are
appropriate for this course. Students should notify me no later than the end of the
Drop-Add period the first week of the semester of potential scheduled absences and
determine with if mutually acceptable alternative methods exist for completing the
missed classroom time or activity.

Course Assignments & Grades

_____________________________________________________________________________
Grades will be assigned on a percentage of the total points possible, with the
plus/minus system in effect. There is no curving of grades on exams, papers, or
presentations in this class. Here is what the breakdown looks like:
95-100
A
73-76%
C
90-94%
A70-72%
C87-89%
B+
66-69%
D+
83-86%
B
60-65%
D
80-82%
B<59%
F
77-79%
C+

Course assignments and point system are as followed. Please note that there is
some flexibility in assignment options. Assignments that have an asterisk (*) means
that this is an EITHER/OR assignment and you should only choose one.

Assignments
Exams (3 @ 50 points each)
Test Reflection (3 @ 15 points each)
Final Exam
Group Persuasive Presentation
Group Informative Presentation
*Goal Presentation OR Goal Write-Up
*Reflection Presentation OR Reflection Write-Up
MREST Tutorials
SONA Research Participation
Participation (35) & Group Discussion (40)
TOTAL

Points Possible
150 points
45 points
150 points
100 points
100 points
50 points
50 points
72 points
25 points
75 points
817 pts

Assignment Descriptions
_____________________________________________________________________________
Exams
You will take three in-class tests (each one will be worth 50 points) during the
semester on your laptops through Canvas. On the days in which you are scheduled
to take an in-class test you must bring your laptop to class. Each in-class test will
consist of 50 multiple-choice questions.

Test Reflections
After each in-class test you will write a one-page, typed reflection paper about the
test and submit it to me via Canvas.

Final Exam
All SCOM 121, 122, and 123 students will take a common final exam during finals
week in December 2016. The final exam will consist of 100 multiple-choice
questions and will be worth 150 points. You will take the final exam on Saturday,
Dec. 10, 2016 at 6:00 pm in the Chandler computer lab (Chandler 134).

Group Presentation Assignments:

The purpose of the informative and persuasive group presentation assignments is to

provide a forum through which various perspectives or points of view on a
controversial topic can be explored.

Goal Presentation or Write Up:

Over the course of the semester, you will be encouraged to explore your
personal goals for the next 5 years. The point of this assignment is to help
you explore career options and find adequate supporting materials to better
understand what skills will be necessary to enter and succeed in that field.
For those of us who have a hard time choosing a single career, this
assignment will not be limited to choosing just one, but can also provide an
overlay of a few different careers that you might be interested in.
After the research process, you will then be required to either present these
findings in a creative presentation (7 minutes) to the class OR in a 5 page
(APA, double-spaced) paper.
Reflection Presentation or Write Up:
At the end of the course, you will be asked to think about the things that you
have learned over the course and how they might be applied elsewhere in
your lives now or in the future. You will then be required to either present this
reflection in a presentation to the class (5 minutes) OR in a 3 page (APA,
double-spaced) paper.
MREST Tutorials
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 SCOM 121 and you will receive up to 50 points for completing the five
tutorials.
The MREST, on the other hand, is a proctored, secured competency test given only
in Ashby Lab during lab hours. Students must successfully pass the MREST prior to
Spring Break of your first academic year. Since you must successfully pass MREST
in the Assessment and Testing Center in Ashby Hall, you will NOT receive points for
passing MREST.
Successful passing of the MREST will be noted on a students 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).

SONA Research Participation

Most introductory courses in the social sciences include experiences in which the
student is exposed to the research methods of the discipline by demonstration or
actual repetition of well-established phenomena. Because of the unique quality of
the communication discipline, it is possible to introduce students to research
methods by direct participation in ongoing studies. These studies are designed to
contribute to the contemporary research literature, and it is quite possible that the
results of this work will be reported in future presentations or publications.
Although direct exposure to laboratory research is invaluable, an alternate means
for learning about methods in communication (as recommended by the APA
Committee for the Protection of Human Participants in Research, 1982) will be
available in the form of reading and reporting on papers found in the research
literature or attending and reporting on department and university forensics events,
debate events, or colloquia that are related to communication.
All SCOM 121, 122, and 123 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, face-to-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.

Group Discussion:
Each group will create 5-10 discussion questions that will lead class
discussion (50 minutes). You will be able to choose the date and chapter that
you present and will be responsible for explaining important concepts from
that chapter.