Remaining Schedule

Here is the schedule for our remaining days together:

Friday, April 27 -- Group Speeches / Evaluations
Monday, April 30 -- Group Speeches / Make-up Day
Wednesday, May 2 -- Make-up Day

Thursday, May 10 -- Final Exam at 10:00am

Extra Credit #2 -- DEADLINE EXTENDED

Ashton and Sara have decided to extend their survey deadline.  If you haven't grabbed this easy 5 points, it's not too late -- it's good through the weekend!

Here's the second extra credit opportunity.  Scroll down to see the first -- it will be just below in a new post.

You are invited to participate in research study. The research is being conducted by a team of Graduate Communication Department students at the University of Missouri. Please read the following information carefully before agreeing to participate.

This team is gathering information about Facebook usage and impressions formed on Facebook. Survey questions will be asked to gauge your impressions formed about individuals profile's viewed and their romantic partner. You may skip questions that you do not feel comfortable answering and still remain in the survey. Full participation will take about 30 minutes.

We are offering extra credit for participating in this survey. To receive extra credit, you will be asked to include your name and instructors name at the end of this survey.

If you are interested, please visit the link below:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/fbimpressions1

The information collected in this study will be treated with strict confidence. Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by law. Your responses are anonymous and will not be linked to your identity in any way. Names for assigning extra credit and your survey responses will be gathered in two separate databases so that we cannot link the names of the respondents to their answers to the survey questions. If you have any questions about your rights as a subject of research, feel free to contact the Chairperson of the Institutional Review Board at (573) 882-9585. The researchers can answer any questions you have about the study to help you choose whether to participate. If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this study, please contact Ashton Gerding, algtf3@mail.missouri.edu or Sara Trask,slt9pd@mail.missouri.edu.

Thank you.

Ashton Gerding & Sara Trask

Extra Credit Opportunity

Extra Credit is Below!

Please email your students and/or post this on your Blackboard page:

Hello Comm1200 student,

You have been selected to recruit an adult who is at least 40 years of age to participate in a study by Kristi Wenzel and Hyun-Ji for extra credit in your Communication 1200 course this semester. You may choose to ask a parent or someone else you know to complete the survey as long as they are at least 40 years of age. The survey is open now and should take the person you recruit approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete.

At the end of the survey, the person will be asked to write your name and your instructor’s name so you can receive 5 points of extra credit. If you prefer to do an alternate assignment, please contact Kristi. If you have any questions about the survey or who you can recruit, please contact Kristi at kristinawenzel@mizzou.edu.

Thank you,

Kristi & Hyun-Ji

Please send the following information and link to an adult who is at least 40 years of age:

Hello,

You are being invited to participate in a study by Kristi Wenzel and Hyun-Ji of the Communication Department at the University of Missouri because you are at least 40 years of age. The purpose of this voluntary and anonymous study is to investigate the ways in which family communication impacts caregiver obligation and burden and the ways in which social media use influences the relationship that people have with media characters or celebrities.

If you agree to participate, you will be asked to fill out an online survey on SurveyMonkey that will take roughly 30-45 minutes. Your participation is strictly voluntary with the option to stop at any time if you feel uncomfortable with the questions asked.

Your answers will be kept completely confidential. When your results and those of other participants are combined and entered into a computer, they will not contain any identifying information that could connect the data to you. The results of the study may be published and/or presented at an academic conference but only the combined data from all participants will be made public.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this study, please contact Hyun-Ji Lee at hyunji.lee@mail.missouri.edu or Kristi Wenzel at kristinawenzel@mail.missouri.edu. If you have any questions about your rights as a research participant, contact University of Missouri Campus Institutional Review Board at (573) 882-9585.

At the end of this survey, you will be asked to give the name of the student who recruited you, along with the class instructor of that student: Amanda Edgar

That information will only be used to give that student extra credit for recruiting you. If you have questions about the survey please contact Kristi at kristinawenzel@mizzou.edu. Please click on the following link to access the survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FamilyandMedia

****If clicking on the link does not work, please COPY AND PASTE the link into your address bar.****

Thank you,

Kristi & Hyun-Ji

Group Speech Reminders

Don't forget that today is the deadline for letting me know which of the three group speech options your group will be working on.

You will also need to submit your group's Strategy Report (1 per group) by midnight Friday night.  Instructions for that can be found here or in your course handbook.  You can send those to me via email.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions about any of our upcoming assignments!

Rubrics and Videos are Out!

I wanted to let you all know that I've sent out the rubrics and videos for the informative speech.  I tried to find a way to edit the total, but it was a no-go.

Instead, I've just included your total percentage and your total point value in the body of the BlackBoard message.  The individual scores will be correct (and should add up to your percentage), but the scores at the bottom will be lower than what you actually earned.  DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT!!

The score I am recording in the gradebook is the score I typed out to you in the message part.  Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions!!

First Group Speech Deadline

Don't forget that tomorrow is the deadline for letting me know who is "leading" your group!  I have posted this information as it comes in -- go to "Speech and Exam Info," scroll down to "Group Speech" and click on the link that says "Groups."

Also, by Monday, I need to know (very roughly) which of the assignments you plan to do.  There are three options posted under "Instructions."  I don't need to know the specific topic yet, but if you have it, feel free to send it along!

As always, let me know if there are any questions!

Finding a Speech Topic

In a bizarre moment of research boredom, I realized that I forgot to tell you about my speech idea links (I think I told you I was going to tell you, but then spaced it).

If you are looking for a topic for your informative speech, head over to the blog and click "Speech Topic Ideas" in the top menu bar.  There are quite a few sites there that can help you get ideas for stuff you might teach us about.

I think the Global Issues Guide and Ted Talks are probably my favorite and, as you'll see, these can also help you when we get to the persuasive speeches.  For the informative, though, think in terms of giving us the background information.  When it's time to persuade us, you'll first have to fill us in on the background of your topic, right?  So for the informative, just stop there.  Things like history, definitely, description (your text goes over several ideas in the informative speaking chapter) make great informative speeches.

Let me know if you have little seeds of ideas that you want to run by me -- I'm happy to help!

Rubrics and Videos are Out

I meant to mention it in class this morning, but it was a frazzled Friday -- all of your rubrics and videos have been sent to your BlackBoard message inbox.  Go to the page for our class, then click "Messages" in the left-hand toolbar.

Each message as the rubric attached and a link where you can view your video.  Alternatively, I can email you your video if you have any trouble viewing it on the secure site (sometimes this trips people up).  You don't have to watch the video, but I do think it can be helpful.  Sometimes our concept of what we look/sound like isn't exactly accurate for others who are watching, so it's nice to be able to see what you look like from an outside perspective.  I highly encourage you to watch yourself (painful as I know it is).

Midterm Exam and Schedule Change

As a reminder, Monday is our midterm exam.  The exam consists of 20 multiple choice and 6 short answers questions covering chapters 1-6, 9, 13, and 15.  If you've gotten behind on readings, I would recommend starting NOW to get caught up, as the textbook is fair game for the exam, even though we didn't cover all of the details included in the chapters.

I had planned to cover visual aids tomorrow, but we will instead be discussing the next informative speech and doing a mid-term course evaluation activity that will allow me to get a read on how the class is feeling for you so far.

Not to worry, we will cover visual aids well before you need to incorporate one -- but that chapter is not covered in the mid-term, so I thought I'd save you some reading so that you can study for the exam instead.

See you tomorrow!

Documentary Screening

One speech under our belts!  If you're looking for an interesting evening out to celebrate, thinking about attending this intriguing documentary screening.  It describes one man's contributions to desegregation in Columbia, and it looks lovely!

Random Speech Selection

In the spirit of full disclosure, I wanted to post the engine that I use to randomly select speakers on speech days.

I use the numbers assigned to you on MyZou, first of all (you are all just numbered, alphabetically, 1, 2, 3, etc.).  Then I use The True Random Number Service to pull numbers 1 through 25.  Feel free to play around on it; it's kind of neat actually.  You will find that it is impossible to bias the generator.

On this first speech, we will need to hear 9 speeches on the first two days and 7 on the last day.  Remember that you need to come prepared on the first day, which includes having your outline uploaded to SafeAssign and having a paper copy in hand.  Otherwise, be sure you are familiar with the consequences of not being prepared in the course policies.  You may also want to review my rules for listening to ensure that you don't lose any points by being a poor listener.

Share Your Speeches

I hope you will all consider allowing the department to use your speech to help other students and TAs.  The form you will need to sign to do so is on page 7 of your course handbook.  You can also print it here.  Just bring the signed form to me any time -- your choice to do so really helps other students like yourself!  :)

Short Infos and SafeAssign

Just a reminder that your speeches are due in about a week.

Keep in mind that you will need to finish in time to upload your outline to SafeAssign (a tool available through our seldom used course BlackBoard site). Safe Assign can sometimes take up to 3 or 4 hours to process your documents; add to that the fact that I cannot let you speak until you're outline has been successfully uploaded, and it seems to me that you'd want to complete your finishing touches in time to upload on Thursday.

To access SafeAssign:
1. Open BlackBoard and find our course.
2. From the menu at the left side of the screen, choose "Course Content."
3. Choose the folder at the bottom of the screen (labeled "SafeAssign")
4. Click "View/Complete" under the heading "Short Informative Outline SafeAssign Submit"
5. Follow the directions on the following screens to upload your document.

If you have questions, please email me for help.  However, keep in mind that I often go to bed fairly early, which means that a panicked email sent at 11pm Thursday night will likely not reach me until I'm in the office Friday morning (and by then, it's kind of too late).

As per our course policies, if your outline is not uploaded when your name is called, you will be automatically reassigned to make-up day (and the appropriate penalty will be applied to your speech grade).  No excuses!

First Informative Speeches

To help you visualize your best Informative Speech, here's a sample of a good quality Famous Person Speech from a past semester. Notice that her organization is clear and that she does NOT read from her note cards.

iCom Meeting This Week

The Intercollegiate Communication Organization of MIZZOU is meeting this week, and they're hoping to gain some new members.  Free pizza and drinks and a great addition to your resume.  See their flier below:

Pinterest Audience IS Changing!

This is a really interesting article, especially in light of our audience analysis discussion on Monday:

Pinterest Expanding Its Audience Beyond Women

Want your picture in a Mizzou photo campaign?

See forwarded message below:

Hi there!

For Black History Month, One Mizzou is working on a campaign that would consist of a composite of photos of MU community members. The poster would be headlined with "I celebrate Black History. We are One Mizzou." 

The campaign is meant to use a striking visual with hundreds of small headshots to illustrate how our campus is truly inclusive and that the racist actions of a few students every February will not be tolerated on this campus.

In essence, I'm writing to you as the, The Diversity Committee in the Department of Student Life, to see if you could get the support of the students you work with and submit photos for the campaign. We're looking for simple headshots, not group photos, and quality isn't important since we're planning on using so many photos. Seriously, you could send a bunch of Photobooth/iPhone photos and we'd be ecstatic.

If this is something you'd be interested in, please let me know and spread the message. Photos can be sent directly to onemizzou@mail.com. Oh, and the tricky bit is how quickly we're putting this together. Ideally, we'd like to have all of the photos in by Wednesday, February 1st at 5pm. Time crunch, I know.

On behalf of the students of the One Mizzou committee, we thank you for helping to create a purposefully inclusive campus. 

All the best,

Sean

Article on Grading

As we approach our first teacher-student grading experience, I wanted to share the following article from Forbes magazine.  It has a snarky title, and I really do think that's unfortunate, because it's a really nice perspective that I struggle with (as a student) myself.  I think it will really help you understand where I'm coming from throughout the semester, which can only work to help us understand each other better.

The article is here.

Rules for Listening

This is NOT OPTIONAL!  You need to go through this Slide Show and READ AND UNDERSTAND the rules for speech day.  (There is no need to comment on the post, though you are welcome to leave a comment if you'd like.)

Welcome!

Good morning and welcome to a new semester of Public Speaking! I am really excited about this Spring, and I think you will find the course enriching and useful for whatever career you have chosen for yourself.

As we move forward through the semester, please remember to check this blog often (you may also opt to "Subscribe" using the box to the right). Otherwise, I am happy to help in any way I can, though I do appreciate your putting in effort to brainstorm and problem-solve a bit before you email.

You may also opt to stop by my office hours. I teach another class right after Public Speaking, but I will be in my office on class days from 10:00 - 11:30am. I am also around lots of other times, so if regular office hours don't work for you, shoot me an email and we'll work something out.

I hope all your classes are going well this week and that you're getting geared up for a fantastic semester!!!