COMM 3310 Semester Assignments So your boss comes to you and tells you that you have been given a research project. The boss says that a new way of organizing companies and workflows in your industry is spreading across the country. You must now generate a report on this new form of organizing and make a recommendation as to how it might be useful to your specific work situation. As an employee, what are you going to do? What is your boss really looking for? Maybe you are the boss and you have attended a recent seminar on the latest trend in growing a business in your area. You think that adapting this trend to your business could be incredibly useful, but you also know that the seminar could not have taught you everything you need to know about this trend. As a boss, what are you going to do? How are you going to make sense of all the information at your fingertips to make the best decision possible? Your semester assignments are designed to prepare you with broad-based research skills you can develop and implement for these types of situations. In this course, you are assigned two written assignments. If you like, you can link them together, but that will not be required. The assignments are designed to move you to accomplish two goals: 1) learn as much as you can about a specific communication theory; and 2) apply a communication theory to a new object/situation/context. Written Assignment #1 Learn About a Theory (125 total points) Your Assignment in Brief: 1. Pick a theory 2. Locate scholarly sources on your theory 3. Complete an annotated bibliography using  your sources 4. Write an introductory essay to your bibliography 5. Attach the essay to your bibliography and submit to Turnitin Details on Each Step: Step #1 Pick a Theory The first written assignment asks you to learn about a theory. This assignment is very much in keeping with the exploration/discovery phase in the scenarios above. It is designed to bring you up to speed on a particular subject. Your textbook provides you with twenty five different communication theories that cut across several different sub-fields of communication studies. Your task in assignment #1 will be to explore one of these twenty five theories in more detail. COMM 3310 WA#1 2 Where do you start in trying to choose a theory? The first question involves asking about your own personal interests. What do you enjoy doing? How do you spend your time? Thinking about your personal interests can steer you into some subjects and away from others. Maybe I can say that I am interested in media and popular culture. I like watching sports and playing video games. So if I am doing this assignment, that means I am probably going to look into the textbook chapters on theories related to the public (ch.18-20) and/or the media (ch.21-25). I’ll pick one of these theories to see if I can get some ideas that could help me think about sports or video games differently. The second question involves asking about your goals for learning. What do you want to learn more about? What do you wish you could study, but haven’t had time to study just yet? Maybe I am newly married and want to learn more about interpersonal communication in a marriage relationship. That means I am probably going to turn to the chapters on relationship development (ch.9-13) and choose one of the theories there. Maybe I see myself working in another country in the not so distant future and I want to learn more about intercultural communication. Ch.26-29 on culture and diversity would be the best chapters to examine. If you can think about your interests and/or your goals for learning, you can begin to narrow down the range of chapters and their theories to something manageable. Note that if you would like to explore a theory not covered in your textbook, you are free to do so. The textbook cannot cover every dimension of interpersonal communication, rhetorical theory and/or media studies theory. There are certainly theories I use in my research that the textbook does not address. With this being said, if you would like to explore a theory not covered by the textbook, you must clear it with me first. If you go outside the textbook and do not have that outside theory approved two weeks before the assignment is due, I will not accept your work. Step #2 Locate scholarly sources on a chosen theory Your next task is to find 8 scholarly sources that use your chosen theory. These sources might be big picture sources that talk only about the theory or they may be sources that apply the theory to a context/situation/object. Use the UHV Library databases, specifically the ‘Communication and Mass Media Complete’ database, to find scholarly sources on your theory. You can find a guide to locating scholarly sources here. Briefly skim some of the sources that come up upon entering your search terms in the search boxes. As you skim some of these courses, ask yourself if you think you could apply the theory using the same methodology. If you find yourself confronted with methodologies that involve things like standard deviations, likert scales, or manipulation checks and are not comfortable with these approaches or others like them, then selecting that theory might not be the best strategy. Step #2a See if any of the sources from step #2 have addressed a specific topic you find interesting. You now have a general sense of the theory you want to work with. From here, you should try to locate sources that address how your theory has been applied to a topic you find interesting. For example, suppose you want to look at social exchange theory and you are interested in how it might be applied to marriage relationships. You would then do a COMM 3310 WA#1 3 search in the databases specifically on social exchange theory and marriages. That search could then lead you to sources that address that specific topic. Note that your textbook cannot count as a source. Note that other communication theory textbooks cannot count as sources. Step #3 Complete an annotated bibliography of the discovered sources After you have found at least 8 scholarly sources, complete an annotated bibliography on these sources. As stated above, these sources must be scholarly sources (either books or peer reviewed articles found through the library search engines). What is an annotation? An annotation of a source both summarizes the source and provides a brief assessment of why it is useful to a researcher and where it might not be useful. What does an annotation look like? Use the following template and address the italicized questions for each source: A properly formatted citation in APA style. Central Claim: What is the author’s thesis? What is the main idea the author is communicating? Subordinate claims: What ideas does the author raise to support the thesis? To support the main idea? What are the sub points backing up the main point? Methodology: How did the authors set out to make their claims? What method(s) did they use? Relationship to other researchers: How do the central claim and the subordinate claims relate to other ideas you have encountered, other sources in the bibliography, other scholars? What connections can be made between the main ideas and others on the same/similar subjects? Points of contact: What can I learn from the source that would help me better understand the subject? What can I take that will help me apply some of the ideas in the article? How does the source contribute to my base of knowledge? Each annotation should be single-spaced and be roughly 250 words in length. Step #4 Write a brief introductory essay to your bibliography After completing your annotations, write a brief 250-500 word introductory essay that summarizes some of the primary issues and questions raised by your sources. Your goal in this essay is to bring your sources together to introduce your reader to your area of interest. To keep going with the earlier example, if I was writing about social exchange theory and marriage relationships, I would want to make some connections between my sources to talk about the kinds of things they shared and how the sources related to one another. This brief introductory essay would be creating an argument about how your sources can be brought into conversation with one another. Remember that this essay is intended to be a conversation and not a list of what your sources reported. You might consider some of the COMM 3310 WA#1 4 following questions (and others you think of). How are your sources related to one another? What do they share? Where do they differ? How do they use the chosen theory and for what purposes? Step #5 Attach your intro essay to your annotations and submit the file to Turnitin Once you have uploaded your file to Turnitin, make sure you have received a receipt from Turnitin and hold onto it. This receipt confirms your submission. Without it, there’s a very good chance that your file did not upload properly. Some Final Considerations Your bibliographies should: 1) be proofread. If you don’t, I will; 2) go through several drafts. Nothing comes out right the first time!; 3) argue rather than simply assert in the intro essay. An argument gives reasons and evidence; an assertion just states something without any backing. You will be graded holistically on such dimensions as the clarity of the writing, the credibility of sources, correctness of format, the coherence of the selected topic, the organization of the essay, excellence in style, creativity and originality. Remember that depth is better than breadth. By all means, have fun with this project! Do something you are interested in rather than merely fulfill a requirement. Length: 1750-2500 words total (bibliography plus intro essay), 12 point Times New Roman font (no smaller!), with page numbers. The 250-500 word essay should be doublespaced. 10 points will be deducted if these formatting guidelines are not followed. Format: All entries must follow APA format. Value: 125 points Due Date: October 2nd, 11:59 p.m., uploaded to Turnitin Late papers will be subject to the penalties outlined on the syllabus. With assignment #1, you will have effectively researched what has already been said and done on a given topic. To take things back to the work example, this research demonstrates that you aren’t recommending something to your boss or to your employees out of thin air. You have looked at what others have said and how they have addressed an issue. Your response to the situation then becomes one based on careful investigation and not just one based on opinion.

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Theory

– Consensus or Functionalist Theory, Conflict or Marxist Theory, Due Process Theory, Crime Control Theory, Critical Legal Studies Theory, Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory-

Describe one theory among the theories that changed the way you look at things. Briefly explain the theory, then explain in more detail how it has changed your perspective.

* You might even reference current events, history, etc

Theory

– Consensus or Functionalist Theory, Conflict or Marxist Theory, Due Process Theory, Crime Control Theory, Critical Legal Studies Theory, Feminist Legal Theory and Critical Race Theory-

Describe one theory among the theories that changed the way you look at things. Briefly explain the theory, then explain in more detail how it has changed your perspective.

* You might even reference current events, history, etc