At Florida State University in Tallahassee, 30 students a year are enrolled in the public relations major, beginning with the junior year, so that at any one time there are approximately 60 majors, all of whom have at least a B average. The basic course--PUR 3000, Introduction to Public Relations--enrolls over 150 students a semester in two…

A description of the sophomore level speech communication fundamentals course offered at Wauwatosa East High School in Wisconsin is presented in this paper. Following a statement of a philosophy of teaching communication theory, the major portion of the paper contains descriptions of the five units of the course: (1) communication concepts and…

When designing a workshop about communication and stress, it is important to consider the medical definition--that stress is a physiological reaction to an external force that is interpreted by the individual--and the psychological definition--which suggests that through communication with self one can change the stress in one's life. Stress can…

Reviews surveys on the status of the basic speech communication course. Identifies issues and concerns about instructional approaches, staffing, textbooks, philosophy, etc. (PD)

Discusses the planning, development, implementation, and course management required to use the Personalized System of Instruction in the basic speech communication course. (PD)

Argues for the inclusion of a unit on visual communication in the basic course in communication. Provide suggestions for content, exercises, assignments, and resources for such a unit. (SR)

Urges speech communication educators to adapt their curricula to the needs of potential law students. Describes a course of instruction which includes units on communication theory and the legal/trial process, interviewing and counseling, negotiating and pretrial strategies, and special topics in judicial communication. (PD)

A course was designed around three major questions: (1) what is the relationship between rhetoric and its context; (2) how does the message construct a particular reality for the audience and the rhetor; and (3) what does the rhetorical artifact suggest about the rhetor? Feminist criticism is used as one of the three methods that focus on the…

Since the elderly are a significant population of health care consumers, health care professionals should be trained to deliver health services to them as effectively and humanely as possible. While the primary tool for delivery of health care services to people is human communication, there is evidence that the communication between the providers…

The four modules described in this course syllabus are designed to present general concepts, principles, and skills of human communication to undergraduate students. Since students enrolled in the course can vary considerably in their professional, intellectual/academic, and personal needs, the self-inventory approach is used in the four modules…

Describes a program of advanced instruction which attempts to merge the theory of speech communication and the practice of oral history. Is concerned with how meaning is constructed through conversation between interviewer and interviewee. Includes theoretical and methodological problems inherent in producing oral histories, field research, and…

Survey results indicated strong support for requiring the basic speech course; favored a hybrid course of public speaking and interpersonal communication; preferred more practice than theory, autonomous classes, classes of 20 to 25 students or less; etc. (PD)

This paper explores some possible methodologies and approaches to the teaching of empathic listening, an essential component of human communication and listening competency. It defines empathic listening as "feeling with" another: a cognitive understanding of what the other is communicating plus a sensitivity to their state of emotion.…

The speech communication department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, provides a rigorous and legally oriented course in freedom of speech. The objectives of the course are to help students gain insight into the historical and philosophical foundations of the First Amendment, the legal/judicial processes concerning the First Amendment, and…

The place of argumentation within the speech communication curriculum is the focus of this article. The article provides a rationale for an upper-level college course in the deliberation and decision making process currently taught at the University of North Carolina, and relates that rationale to broader concerns of argumentation theory. Various…