Instructor:                         Stephen D. Bruning, Ph. D.,  118 Spielman Hall,   sbruning@capital.edu
                                        Phone 236-6323 (w), 338-1715 (h)

Office Hours:                   10:00-11:00 M, W, F
                                        3:30 - 4:30 T, TH, and by appointment

I. COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course is based upon three overriding principles:

• We live and function in a society based on communication.
• Study of communication provides an individual with the knowledge and skills necessary to compete successfully within ever-changing social, technological, and professional environments.
• There exist many techniques for investigating the phenomena of communication, and the development of a rudimentary understanding of these techniques can help an individual interpret, modify, control, and adjust to the environment.

• Experience qualitative research processes.
• Experience quantitative research processes.
• Design a research project that, when completed, can be submitted to conferences for presentation.  With additional work, the research that you conduct can be submitted to refereed academic journals for publication
• Better appreciate the formal study of communication and the ways in which communication research helps scholars better understand individuals, groups, and society as a whole.  
• Develop critical thinking skills and appreciate how critical thinking skills can aid in your growth as a scholar, professional, and individual.

• You must be involved in at least one research project that will be headed by Dr. Bruning.  The specifics of the project will be detailed at a later date.
• You must generate at least one report that is focused on data gathering.  Examples of this include (but are not limited to) quantitative and qualitative data entry, transcribing focus group communication, and/or background information on a particular aspect of a research project (e.g., conducting a literature review).
• You must generate at least one report that reports findings from the research.  In that report, you will discuss what was found, and the implications of those findings.  
  

"Academic Integrity" is the expectation that all Capital students are to be honest in their academic endeavors, and that the work one submits for academic evaluation must be his/her own, unless an instructor expressly permits certain types of collaboration. Instructors are expected to make this Academic Integrity Policy known, in writing, at the beginning of a course.

A non-exhaustive list of behaviors which constitute academic misconduct and subject one to sanction(s) includes:

Cheating -- deceiving/misrepresenting information submitted on a paper/test/project

e.g. -- using materials/notes not permitted by the instructor during an examination

-- collaborating on a test/project when not authorized to do so by the instructor

-- receiving, giving or stealing parts of, or an entire test which has not yet been administered

-- substitution of one student for another during an examination

Plagiarism -- submitting work that is not expressly one's own as one's own

e.g. -- quoting verbatim or paraphrasing excessively another person's words (published or unpublished) without acknowledgment of the source

-- including facts, statistics, or other illustrative materials that are not common knowledge without acknowledgment of the source

-- submitting another's term paper, essay test answer, computer program, or project as one's own

Fabrication -- using "invented" information or falsifying research, data, or other findings with the intent to deceive

e.g. -- citing information not taken from the source indicated; failure to document a secondary source material

-- listing sources in a bibliography not directly used in the academic exercise

-- submitting lab reports or clinical data which contain fictitious/falsified information; concealing/distorting the true nature, origin, or function of such data

III. EVALUATION OF STUDENT PROGRESS