COMM 482

Honors Seminar: Persuasion within Social Issues

This seminar-style course will introduce students to the fundamental theories and techniques of persuasion as they occur in various communication contexts, including commercial, interpersonal, public and mass media. A series of writing assignments will focus on the skills of critical thinking, persuasion, and the sophistication of argumentative essay skills. Essays of advanced composition shall be evaluated for their quality in both critical thinking and composition. The writing assignments will apply theoretical models of critical thinking and communication studies to rhetoric, examining message production, analyzing messages, and exploring the fields of electronic and print media, advertising (product campaign), political campaign strategy, and ideological campaign techniques for mass communication. Students explore ethical considerations of persuasive communication, learn about types of reasoning, and identify fallacious arguments as they occur in persuasion. Students will focus on the design and organization of persuasive messages within a speech format for an individual or group presentations for a live audience. This course offers honors students the opportunity to study, critique, discuss and present advanced topics to focus on the impact of persuasive attempts within ethical, social and political issues. Access to a computer with online capabilities may be required and computer access is available on campus. Enrollment is limited to Honors Program students. Details about the Honors Program can be found in the front of the Catalog and on the CRC website. As COMM 315, Persuasion, has a similar basis as this Honors course, this course is not open to a student that has received credit for COMM 315, Persuasion. This course is the same as HONOR 341, and only one may be taken for credit.

Units: 3.0

Hours: 54 hours LEC