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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS


SAMPLE COURSE DESCRIPTION

COURSE NUMBERING SYSTEM

GENERAL EDUCATION DESIGNATION

DEPARTMENTS OFFERING DIVERSIFICATION COURSES

Communicology (COMG)

College of Arts and Humanities

COMG 151 Personal and Public Speech (3) Develops communication skills necessary to function effectively in today’s society. Students will enhance their communication skills in one-on-one situations, public speaking, and small group situations. Ideal for new majors and non-majors. DA

COMG 170 Introduction to Nonverbal Communication (3) Beginning course on the fundamental components of nonverbal communication. Aspects of body movements, facial expressions, eye behavior, physical appearance, voice, touch, space, smell, time, and environmental features will be examined in a lecture/discussion format. Extensive practice in skills. DS

COMG 181 Introduction to Interpersonal Communication (3) Introduction to basic principles of interaction between two people. Emphasis is on enhancement of skills in a variety of interpersonal contexts. DS

COMG 185 Multicultural Communication Skills (3) Expose students to practical skills needed for effective intercultural communication. Offer guidelines for improvement in diverse cultural settings such as business, education, counseling, and healthcare. DS

COMG 251 Principles of Effective Public Speaking (3) Combined lecture/laboratory providing extensive practice in preparing and presenting effective public speeches with special emphasis on organization, outlining, audience analysis, analytical reasoning, and delivery skills. DA

COMG 290 Interviewing (3) Principles and practice; training in informational, persuasive, employment, appraisal, and research interviewing. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent.

COMG 301 Introduction to Communicological Theories (3) Introduction to the theoretical perspectives that are the foundations of the communication discipline. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, or 251; or consent. DS

COMG 302 Research Methods (3) Introduction to methods of inquiry in the field of communication. Topics include research design and problem formulation, sampling, analytic and observational techniques, and data interpretation. COMG majors only. Pre: 200-level COMG course (or concurrent) or consent. DS

COMG 321 Instructional Communication (3) Analysis of and practice in using major models of communication in the classroom. Role of communication in various academic disciplines as needed by teachers. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 200, 251, or 301; or consent.

COMG 351 Professional Presentations (3) Extends application of public speaking skills to professional contexts: group sales, press conferences, and corporate annual reports. Emphasis on organization, preparation, and delivery. Pre: 251 or consent.

COMG 352 Group Decision-Making and Leadership (3) Study of decision-making within the small group. Effects of organization, leadership, membership, and goals on achieving group purposes. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent.

COMG 353 Argumentation and Debate (3) Adapting communication theory to forensic strategies for social action. Practice in formal argument. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent.

COMG 361 Leadership and Organizational Communication (3) Principles and practices of organizational communication and its relationship to networks, leadership, power, conflict, cultures, and other contemporary views of organizational work, change, and development. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 364 Persuasion (3) Theories, concepts, strategies, and processes of persuasion and social influence in contemporary society. Focus on analyzing, developing, and resisting persuasive messages. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 371 Message Processing (3) Introduction to theory and research on human communication, comprehension, creation of understanding. Discussion of codes and media, information and message processing theories. Topics include inference-making, implicature, natural language processing, and deception. Junior standing or higher. DS

COMG 380 Family Communication (3) Focuses on the role of interaction patterns (both constructive and destructive) in the evolution of family communications. The impact of family dynamics upon these interaction patterns is given equal attention. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 381 Interpersonal Relations (3) Theory and research on the development, maintenance, and termination of interpersonal relationships. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 385 Culture and Communication (3) Survey of major factors affecting interpersonal communication between members of different cultures. Emphasis upon interaction between U.S. and Asian-Pacific peoples. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 386 Special Topics in Culture and Communication (3) Contemporary research and theory on intercultural communication. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 390 Interrogation and Interviewing (3) Survey of theory and research on the communicative demands of obtaining reliable information from others. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251 or 301; or consent. DS

COMG 392 Evolution and Human Communication (3) Analysis of the role of human communication in mate attraction, intrasexual competition, cooperation, family dynamics, and coalition formation; discussion on the biological function of language, laughter, yawning, and emotion expressions. Pre: one of 170, or 181, or 301 (or concurrent), or 302 (or concurrent).

COMG 395 Research on Communication Behavior (3) Survey of research on communication behavior. Verbal and nonverbal data collection; analysis of research data. Students design and implement a research project. Repeatable three times. Pre: 301 and 302. DS

COMG 399 Internship (V) Analysis and application of communication knowledge and behaviors in organizational settings. Repeatable up to six credits. A-F only. Pre: consent.

COMG 452 Intergroup Communication (3) Surveys theory and research on communication between members of different social groups, highlighting how communication influences and is influenced by social identity. Applies concepts to intergenerational, health, family, educational, multilingual, and computer-mediated contexts. Pre: 301 (or concurrent) or consent. DS

COMG 453 Practicum in Debate and Forensics (V) Practicum focused on competitive intercollegiate forensics activities including evidence and parliamentary debate, the interpretation of literature, and platform speaking. Includes diverse non-competitive forensics activities such as judging and organizing debate tournaments. Repeatable up to six credits. CR/NC only. Pre: 353 or consent.

COMG 454 Political Communication (3) Survey of interpersonal and mass communication theories in the political context. Topics may include communication in public opinion processes, elections, debates, political campaigning and advertising. Pre: upper division standing or consent. DS

COMG 455 Conflict Management (3) Examination of the theories, assumptions, practices, models, and techniques of managing interpersonal conflicts. Pre: one of 151, 170, 181, 185, 251, 301 or 381. DS

COMG 464 The Evolution of Public Discourse in the Digital Era (3) Analysis of evolving public discourse in and about cyberspace; focus on changes in civic engagement and sociopolitical involvement from digital technology use; discussion of social and semantic networks. Pre: 364 or consent. DS

COMG 465 Theories and Research in Strategic Communication (3) An in-depth overview of theories related to strategic communication and scientific approaches to attitude formation and changes. Junior standing or higher. Pre: 301 or 364 or consent. DS

COMG 470 Nonverbal Communication (3) Understanding communication beyond the words themselves. Review of theory and research on gestures, facial expressions, touch, personal space, and physical appearance. Pre: 151, 170, 181, 185 or 251; or consent. DS

COMG 471 Verbal Communication (3) Roles of language: perception and assumption in human relationships; relation of language symbols to emotion and attitudes. Pre: upper division standing or consent. DS

COMG 472 Deceptive Communication (3) Survey of major social scientific theories, concepts, and research findings on deceptive communication, in a lecture/discussion format. Emphasis is on how people create deceptive messages, induce deception, and strategies used to detect deception. Junior standing or higher. Pre: 301 or 302 or consent. DS

COMG 481 Relational Management (3) Survey and critical discussion of current theory and research in relational management literature. Focus on conversation management, deception, jealousy, privacy, communication of emotions. Pre: 301 or 302 (or concurrent), and 381; or consent. DS

COMG 490 Communication in Helping Relationships (3) Theory and application of personal and interpersonal elements affecting communication of human-service professionals. Supervised practice. Pre: one of 151, 251 or 301 or PSY 100. (Cross-listed as PSY 477) DS

COMG 493 Teaching Speech (6) For communicology majors who lead, under supervision, a freshman seminar section of communicology. Pre: senior standing and consent.

COMG 495 Health Communication (3) Develop understanding of the process through which communication influences health outcomes, and learn how to design effective health communication programs using theory and research. Pre: 364 or 381, or consent. DS

COMG 499 Directed Reading (V) Pre: consent of department chair and instructor.

COMG 601 Theories in Communicology (3) Major theoretical foundations; humanistic and social scientific perspectives. Examination of the research and the development of different models of human communication. COMG majors only. A-F only. Pre: consent.

COMG 602 Research Methods in Communicology (3) Design and analysis of quantitative research in communicology. Focus on measurement issues, research design, descriptive and inferential statistics. COMG majors only. A-F only. Pre: consent.

COMG 620 Practicum for Instructional Communication (1) Combined seminar and lecture/discussion format on techniques and procedures for teaching communication skills and their related components in a laboratory setting. CR/NC only. Repeatable three times. COMG majors only. Pre: COMG GTA or consent.

COMG 660 Business Communication (3) Analysis of communication issues in business through discussion of verbal/nonverbal messages, interpersonal relationships, conflict, and persuasion. Focus on interviewing, group communication, and public speaking skills. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) or 602 (or concurrent), or consent.

COMG 664 Persuasion and Social Influence (3) Theories of persuasion and resistance to persuasion; assessment of attitudes and measurement of change. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) or 602 (or concurrent) or consent.

COMG 670 Message Processing (3) Theories of human message processing. Effects of verbal and nonverbal codes, channels, and message forms on encoding and decoding. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) or 602 (or concurrent); or consent.

COMG 681 Relational Communication (3) Major models and theories of interpersonal communication; research on interpersonal relationships; interaction and functions of human communication. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) and 602 (or concurrent); or consent.

COMG 685 Foundations of Intercultural Communication (3) Major models, theories, and concepts of intercultural communication; basic methodological and analytical issues of research related to intercultural communication; research on intercultural communication. Graduate standing only. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) and 602 (or concurrent); or consent.

COMG 699 Directed Research (V) Repeatable unlimited times. Only three credits can count toward degree.

COMG 700 Thesis Research (V) Repeatable three times. Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory only.

COMG 702 Advanced Research Methods in Communicology (3) Advanced focus on survey, laboratory, and field study design, data collection, and data analysis. Emphasis on control of variance through design and statistical analysis. Appropriate preparation for graduate theses and dissertations. A-F only. Pre: 602 or consent.

COMG 721 Approaches to Instructional Communication (3) Seminar on communication theories and models in instructional environment; emphasis on message processing, classroom dynamics, cognitive and metacognitive processes associated with learning, and learning assessment. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) or 602 (or concurrent), or consent.

COMG 752 Research in Intergroup Communication (3) Theory, concepts, research, and application of communication processes between members of different social groups. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) or 602 (or concurrent), or consent.

COMG 760 Seminar in Special Topics in Communicology (3) Substantive areas in communication that are of current interest and the focus of research, but not addresed in other COMG courses. Topics vary each semester. Content to be announced. Repeatable one time. A-F only. Pre: (601 (or concurrent) and 602 (or concurrent)) with a minimum grade of B), or consent.

COMG 764 Seminar in Persuasion and Influence (3) Contemporary research in persuasion and influence. Repeatable one time. A-F only. Pre: 664 or consent.

COMG 770 Issues in Message Processing (3) Contemporary research in verbal and nonverbal message processing. Repeatable one time. A-F only. Pre: 670 or consent.

COMG 781 Seminar in Relational Communication (3) Contemporary research in interpersonal relations. Repeatable one time. A-F only. Pre: 681 or consent.

COMG 785 Research on Intercultural Communication (3) Functional approach to the study of communication in intercultural settings. Examination of culture-based variables and their impact on social influence, relational management, and message processing. Repeatable one time. A-F only. Pre: 685 or consent.

COMG 787 Artificial Intelligence and Communication (3) Comprehensive understanding of the role and function of computer technology (including. A.I.) within the field of communication. Basic methodological and analytical issues of research related to semi-intelligent artifacts as information source or receiver. COMG majors or consent. Graduate students only. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) and 602 (or concurrent); or consent.

COMG 795 Seminar in Health Communication Research (3) Contemporary interpersonal and/or public communication issues in health communication research. Topics include communication functions such as information management, interpersonal influence, relational management, emotional management, social influence. A-F only. Pre: 601 (or concurrent) and 602 (or concurrent), or consent.