| Dr. Rich Rowley | COMM 100: Public Speaking | |
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COMM 100 RESEARCH
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONSQ: Do you grade on spelling, grammar, and punctuation? A: Writing effectively should be taken-for-granted in college. I expect students to proofread their writing before they turn in written work. You present yourself as an educated person when you show control of the mechanics of writing. Although I will point out mistakes in spelling, grammar, and punctuation, they will not affect your grade as long as the mistakes are few and minor. Major and consistent mistakes affect the meaning of your message and detract from the presentation of yourself as a competent student. To that extent they will lower your grade on an assignment. If you know how to write well, take the time to revise your rough drafts. If you need help with writing, seek it out. Q: Can I use work from other classes in making speeches? A: As long as you adapt previous work to your audience and the objectives of the assignment, you may use it as a starting point in preparing presentations for this class. It is important to recognize that essays and term papers are not speeches. It would never be effective to read a term paper in front of your classroom audience. It would also be inappropriate to submit an essay as a speech outline--the forms are very different. You may begin with the material you collected as you were researching a past written assignment and conduct further research to bring your topic up to date, if needed. Your selection and organization of material will depend on the requirements of the assignment and your analysis of the audience. Q: Why can't I read my speeches? A: We live in an age when audiences expect speakers to talk directly with them. Listens look for direct eye contact and a spontaneous delivery, and many lose interest even when they don't feel a sense of communication. While professionals, reading from TelePrompTers, can often succeed in looking and sounding conversational, most of the rest of us can't pull it off effectively. I want you to practice speaking from key word notes, which will prove appropriate in most future classroom, business, and formal social situations. If you do have the occasion to read something for an audience, here are reading guidelines (that we won't be covering in class). Q: Do you allow extra credit? A: No, I don't accept extra credit assignments for a number of reasons. First, I design my courses with a variety of graded components (presentations, application papers, class activities, tests), each of which are important in their own way. Alternative assignments are often not equivalent, especially in relation to in-class activities, or they emphasize one type of component over another. Second, I don't want students to slack off because they know they can do extra credit by the end of the class. Most of the requests I get for extra credit come from students who have neglected to keep up with the work. Third, I have found that extra credit gets in the way of doing well on current work. Communication courses build on past content and skills. If a student is putting a lot of effort into previous material or skills, the present work often suffers. Q: If I can't do extra credit, how can I raise my grade in this class? A: I want to work with you to raise your grade. Discover what I'm looking for by reading my feedback carefully and by asking me what I mean by the comments on your past work. Begin working ahead. I will be happy to help you revise assignments right up until the day they are due. Give me feedback about how I can be of most help to you. I firmly believe that everybody can do well in this class.
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Last revised: December 28, 2000. |