COM 207
Business and Professional Communication
Marshall University
Section 203
MWF: 11:00-11:50 a.m.
Smith Hall 227
Professor: Lindsay R. Calhoun, M.A., Ph.D.
Office Hours: 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m. MWF; 11:00 a.m.-12:45p.m. TR
Office Location: Smith Hall 249
Email Address: calhounl@marshall.edu
Office Phone: 6-2805
Course Philosophy: Business and Professional Communication is required by the College of Business as a basic requirement which substitutes for the University course requirement CMM 103, Fundamentals of Speech Communication. We believe that this course will help you to learn to be more confident, more articulate, and better prepared to enter the business and professional communication environment. Through this course we hope to advance your understanding of the communication process in personal, business, and professional settings. Communicating is common to all of us; however, we can and should strive to improve our understanding of communication processes and our skills in communicating.
Course Objectives:
· Identify and explain principles and terms common to business and professional communication.
· Recognize communication contexts (interpersonal, group, organizational, and public).
· Demonstrate knowledge and competence in the interviewing process.
· Research, organize and deliver informative presentations.
· Research, organize and deliver persuasive presentation.
· Analyze communication contexts in order to develop effective messages.
Classroom Conduct and Policies:
1. Please bring the workbook and textbook to each class session. Be sure to read your textbook and workbook carefully before each class session according to the assignments of the class period.
2. All formal outlines and manuscripts are due the FIRST day of presentations regardless of the day you are assigned to present.
3. Please do not arrive late on presentation days. If you arrive late, please do not barge in on someone giving a presentation. Wait until the person is done before entering the classroom. If the door is shut and you cannot see inside, please wait until you hear the class clap before entering.
4. Please do not ask about how you did on your presentation right after the presentation or during that day's class period. When you receive your grade, please take the comments home with you and review them carefully before contacting the instructor. If you are not happy with your grade, please make an appointment to meet with the instructor in person to discuss the grade. Your instructor will not engage in a grading discussion with you over the phone or over email or in class.
5. When other students are presenting, please do not read other materials, talk with other students or sleep. Please turn off all digital electronic communication devices when you enter the classroom. You may leave your cell phone on vibrate only to answer emergency notifications. Please put the cell phone away. There is to be no texting during the class period.
6. Please do not abruptly leave or stand up during a student's presentation. Please do not arrive more than five minutes late or leave before the class period ends and expect to be excused without explicit documentation as defined by University excused absence policy.
7. During lecture and student presentations, please do not talk or make disruptive noise. it interferes with other students learning.
8. Please wear appropriate business attire on presentation days. And while you should always dress appropriately for a classroom environment, business attire is not required for regular class periods or exams.
9. Repeated abuse of these policies may result in the instructor asking you to leave class due to disruption and/or to meet one on one with the instructor in order to discuss your continued presence in the class.
Attendance
Policy: The
emphasis of this course is on communication. You must be willing to participate
and seek feedback from your instructor and peers in order to improve your
communication skills; therefore, it is essential that you attend class and take
part in exercises and assignments. Absences resulting from illness, death in the
family, or institutional activities approved by the University will be excused
when the student reports and verifies them with the instructor. You must contact
your instructor about any absence and make arrangements for make-up work.
Make-up work is at the discretion of the instructor. Failure to notify your
instructor promptly may result in your not getting credit for missed assignments
and not being able to make up missed work. After five absences, you must provide
either University documentation or documentation from a doctor to excuse the
absence or, upon your sixth absence, I will begin deducting your overall
semester grade by 5%.
Professor’s Policy on Make-up Work:
Speeches: Students are expected to give their speech on the day for which they originally signed up. Due to the technological requirements of many of the speeches and the limited access to classroom space and technology outside of class, no makeup speeches will be allowed. You must take care when you schedule your speech to make sure you give your speech on a day when you will be able to give the speech. Having two exams or lots of projects due that same week is not a valid excuse. In extreme emergencies, which must be verified and documented appropriately, you will drop the oral portion of that one of the five speeches you missed. Only one oral drop per semester will be allowed and only for extreme situations of illness or death in the family. You must still turn in your written outline for grading as close to the original deadline as possible.
Exams: In extreme situations with documentation can be scheduled for makeup in consultation with the instructor. If the student has missed an exam, they have to schedule the exam within seven days of the original exam date or receive a zero. It is up to the student to initiate the rescheduling with the professor, preferably before the original exam date. Do not expect the professor to contact you about this matter.
Other assignments: If the student is ill or absent for excused reasons that they are able to document, they may hand in their assignments for full credit within 48 hours of the original due date in order to receive full credit. Again, it is up to the student to initiate this discussion preferably before the due date in office hours or a scheduled appointment with the professor and not during class time. The Professor has complete discretion whether to accept late work or not.
Plagiarism
Policy: All
assignments, written and oral, must be your own work. Information and ideas used
from other sources must be acknowledged in some way. Submitting others' work as
your own will result in a failing grade for the assignment and may lead to more
severe penalties. The Department of Communication, the College of Liberal Arts,
and the University consider plagiarism, in any form, a very serious matter.
Additional Information on Plagiarism: Having a working knowledge of source citation and appropriate research style is an expectation of incoming college freshman. If you have had little to no experience working with source material and appropriate citation formats, it is incumbent upon you, the student, to meet with the instructor, provide rough drafts of written research materials to the instructor for review several days prior to the deadline and ask questions as appropriate in class regarding matters of research, source recognition and source citation in order to avoid questions and issues of academic honesty and integrity with regard to your individual work. Ignorance is not an excuse for plagiarism. You may also seek assistance through the Writing Center.
Course Assignments
Written Assignments
Informational Technical Outline 25
Sales Outline 30
Persuasive Proposal Outline 60
Resume 60
Cover Letter 25
Thank You Letter 15
Crisis Briefing Outline 50
Total Written Points 265
Oral Assignments
Informational Technical Presentation 60
Sales Presentation 70
Persuasive Proposal Presentation 120
Employment Interview (Recorded) 80
Crisis Briefing Presentation 100
Total Oral Points 430
Exams
Midterm 60
Final 120
Total Exam Points 180
Instructor Discretionary Points
Peer Evaluations (2 pts each)
In class participation assignments (varies)
Brief homework activities (varies)
Quizzes (varies)
Total Discretionary Points
Total Points Possible
Grades
A=90%
B=80%
C=70%
D=60%
F=59% and Below
Disability
Policies:
The ADA and several associated state and federal regulations require Marshall
University staff, administration and faculty to provide reasonable
accommodations to students with a documented disability. If you are in need of
assistance, please contact Disabled Student Services in Prichard Hall, Room 117
for assistance first before coming directly to your instructor. The Disabled
Student Services office will then communicate your accommodations and needs
directly to the instructor.
Your instructor will commit to keeping your particular situation confidential.
Tentative Schedule
Subject to revision at the discretion of the instructor and in consultation with the class.
Monday, Jan 12
Go Over Syllabus
Wednesday Jan 14
Chapter 1 DiSanza and Legge
Friday Jan 16
Chapter 1 continued
Hand out Technical Presentation Assignment and Sign Up
Monday Jan 19
MLK Holiday, no class
Wednesday Jan 21
Chapter 7 Preparing and Delivering Presentations
Friday Jan 23
Chapter 7 continued
Monday Jan 26
Chapter 9 Technical Presentations
Wednesday Jan 28
Chapter 9 continued
Friday Jan 30
Professor out of town, lab day
Monday Feb 2
Chapter 8 Visual Aids
Introduce Sales Presentation Assignment and Sign Up
Optional rough drafts of outlines due
Wednesday Feb 4
Chapter 8 continued
Friday Feb 6
Chapter 6 Considering Audience Feedback
Introduce Audience Feedback Assignment for Sales Speech
Monday Feb 9
Chapter 6 continued
Wednesday Feb 11
Technical Presentations Practice Day
Friday Feb 13
Technical Presentations
All Formal Outlines Due
Monday Feb 16
Technical Presentations
Wednesday Feb 18
Remaining Technical Presentations (if necessary)
Chapter 11 Sales Presentations
Friday Feb 20
Chapter 2 Listening and Feedback
Monday February 23
Audience Analysis Sales presentation assignment due
Chapter 4 Interpersonal politics and power in org relationships
Sales presentation rough draft outlines due
Wednesday February 25
Sales Presentation Work and Practice Day
Friday February 27
Sales Presentations
All Formal Outlines Due
Monday March 2
Sales Presentations
Wednesday March 4
Sales Presentations
Friday March 6
Review for Midterm Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8,9, 11
Monday March 9
Midterm Exam
Wednesday March 11
Meet in Computer lab
Chapter 5: professional interviews
Sign up for interview slot week of March 16
Friday March 13
Meet in computer lab
Cover letter workshop
Monday March 16
Meet in computer lab
Resume workshop
Cover letters due
Wednesday March 18
Meet back in regular classroom
Resumes due
Introduce Proposal assignment and sign up
Chapter 10: proposal presentations
Friday March 20
Chapter 10 continued
Spring Break March 21-29 No Class
Monday March 30
Chapter 3: communicating in groups and teams
Wednesday April 1
Chapter 3 continued
Introduce crisis presentation assignment and sign up
Friday April 3
Proposal presentation work day
Monday April 6
Proposal presentations
All Formal outlines due
Wednesday April 8
Assessment Day: No Class
Friday April 10
Proposal Presentations
Monday April 13
Proposal Presentations
Wednesday April 15
Chapter 12: Crisis Communication
Friday April 17
Chapter 12 continued
Monday April 20
Chapter 13: Risk Communication
Rough Drafts of Crisis Presentation outlines due
Wednesday April 23
Chapter 13: Risk Communication continued
Friday April 25
Crisis Presentation work day
Monday April 28
Crisis Presentations
All Formal Outlines Due
Wednesday April 30
Crisis Presentations
Friday May 1
Crisis Presentations
Review for final exam will be scheduled for sometime between Saturday May 2 and Monday May 4
Final Exam
Tuesday May 5
10:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m.