Communication Skills Lab (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Most liberal arts colleges, but not all, have core requirements — classes that you’re required to take before graduation. These requirements typically include a little bit of everything (English, math, science) to give you a well-rounded foundation of academic knowledge from which to base the rest of your college years. In these classes you’ll study history books, science books, economic articles, modern literature and even perhaps an art journal — all to help give you an education in a field that might not be your major. Learn what classes are essential for your major and for college graduation from liberal arts colleges.

Here is some advice from Patrick O’Connor, in the HuffingtonPost.com article “How Strong Is Your College Knowledge?” posted February 26, 2012: “Some colleges have graduation requirements, including specific core academic courses all students must take, while others have no core requirements at all. Make sure you know the expectations … and think about how much flexibility you want or need in your college experience — and remember, less structure isn’t always a good thing for everyone.”

What classes are included?

Introductory level courses in English and math are the most common. Basic English composition is necessary so you can compose papers and structure your thinking and writing. A course in public speaking prepares students to speak to peers, colleagues, teachers and community members intelligently and informatively. Proficiency in English and communication skills helps students studying humanities, arts, languages, business, social sciences and law.

Basic math courses in algebra and statistics help develop critical and analytical thinking. Proficiency in math skills is required for students pursuing engineering, science, finance, computer, business and medical studies. There may be other required classes, such as history, social sciences, economics, business, literature, philosophy and science. Usually you will be allowed to select one specific course in each subject (i.e. for a science requirement, you could choose between chemistry, biology, physics, etc.).

In “College Curriculum Competencies and Skills Former Students Found Essential to Their Careers” by Andrew A. Zekeri in the September 2004 issue of College Student Journal, a survey of former students revealed key college courses. “The key skills needed to improve their careers are oral communication, written communication, problem solving techniques, motivating and managing others, and setting personal and organizational goals. These competencies should be considered essential or basic skills for college graduates at the end of their general education requirements.”

Why are there core requirements?

Learn basic skills — Core requirements help freshmen develop the basic skills to function in college. Introductory classes in math, English and science prepare students to go on to more specific classes in a chosen major. It also helps new students get acclimated to college life, feel comfortable learning on a higher level and excel.

Well-rounded education — Even though college is a place to hone a specific skill in an academic major, it is also a place to take a variety of classes in many fields in order to get a well-rounded education of higher learning. Core curriculum, as reported by CollegeView.com in their post “Core Courses: Fulfilling your degree requirements,” “can vary depending on the school, program, or degree. At some schools, students must fulfill a foundation of basic, general core requirements such as reading, writing, and critical thinking, regardless of the major they plan to pursue.”

When to take required classes?

Consult your college guidebook, your career advisor and your major advisor for help with this one — they can tell you what needs to be taken when, whether it’s in a specific semester or year. Some classes, like prerequisite English composition and basic math, must be taken in the first semester, since they are skills you will need to master before going further in school. Other classes (such as science if you are a business major), can be taken any time before you graduate.

Some students prefer to take all their required classes the first year to get a taste of different academic fields. Others concentrate on their major first, then take a bunch of electives the last year before graduation. The year before you’re ready to graduate, check your transcript and list of required courses to make sure you haven’t missed any essential classes and ask your office of records about any required audits.

If you peruse the Questia site, you will find a diverse selection offering users:

• More than three thousand full-text online books across a wide range of communications subjects
• More than one thousand full-text academic communication journals
• More than 900 magazine articles and 200+ newspaper articles

For example, on argumentation and advocacy, you’ll find 366 articles from more than 77 issues. Questia features more than 1,500 issues of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly and more than 1,000 issues of Journalism History. Questia also offers 521 articles from the Business Communication Quarterly, more than 1,000 issues of Journalism History, as well as 410 articles of Women’s Studies in Communication.

Below are just some of our most popular communication books covering topics such as argumentation, interpersonal communications, and business communication that you’ll find on Questia:

Interpersonal Communication

Authors Hargie and Dickson provide an essential reference for the study of interpersonal communication. The book is concerned with the identification, analysis and evaluation of a range of skills that are employed widely in interaction. Detailed accounts are provided of fourteen areas, namely: nonverbal communication; reinforcement; questioning; reflecting, listening; explaining; self-disclosure; set induction; closure; assertiveness; influencing; negotiating; and interacting in, and leading, group discussions.

[Hargie, Owen, and David Dickson. Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory, and Practice. 4th ed. London: Routledge, 2004. Questia. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.]

Organizational Communication

Organizational communication (business communication) is one of the fastest growing of academic disciplines. Contributors Holiday and Kullman seek to critically examine the true impact of key current themes in management for the practice of communications. The book examines the wider context of management and the crises faced by organizations. One of its key features is that contributors have been drawn from a wide variety of countries, including the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway.

[Tourish, Dennis, and Owen Hargie, eds. Key Issues in Organizational Communication. London: Routledge, 2004. Questia. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.]

Intercultural Communication

The Routledge Applied Linguistics Series provides a comprehensive guide to the key areas in the field of applied linguistics. The target audience for the series is upper undergraduates and postgraduates on language, applied linguistics and communication studies programs as well as teachers and researchers in professional development and distance learning programs.

[Holliday, Adrian, Martin Hyde, and John Kullman. Intercultural Communication: An Advanced Resource Book. London: Routledge, 2004. Questia. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.]

Political Communication

Modern political communication research is very much an interdisciplinary field of study, drawing on concepts from communication, political science, journalism, sociology, and other fields. Editor Lynda Lee Kaid stresses theoretical overviews and research synthesis with the goal of bringing together the major thrusts of research and theory in political communication. This handbook approaches the field of political communication with an organizational structure that relies on six divisions, including theory, political advertising and debates, news media coverage, public opinion, international perspectives, and the impact of the Internet.

[Kaid, Lynda Lee, ed. Handbook of Political Communication Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Questia. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.]

Argumentation

Argumentation is an introduction to analyzing, evaluating, and presenting oral and written argumentation. It is based on a series of basic insights from the pragma-dialectical theory of argumentation. The book deals with the identification of differences of opinion, the determination of unexpressed premises, the exposition of argument schemes, the analysis of the structure of argumentation, the evaluation of the soundness of argumentation, and the detection of fallacies as violations of rules for critical discussion.

[Van Eemeren, Frans H., Rob Grootendorst, and A. Francisca Snoeck Henkemans. Argumentation: Analysis, Evaluation, Presentation. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002. Questia. Web. 17 Jan. 2013.]

Instead of searching for communication journals on trends, advocacy, and/or interpersonal communications, start searching through the books and articles on Questia.

Watch the short video below to learn how to perform basic and advanced searches through Questia:

Get the big picture

A great way to get an overview of your topic is to visit Questia, the world’s largest online library where you can read full-text articles and books on hundreds of subjects. Within the topic of communication you’ll find such categories as:

• Film
• Legal and ethical issues in journalism
• Advertising
• Linguistics
• Written language

You can continue to drill down by category and gain a focus that will frame your approach and make research and writing easier. For example, in the category of legal and ethical issues in journalism you will find several sub-categories including the fairness doctrine. Further exploration will present you with books and articles such as The First Amendment under Siege: The Politics of Broadcast Regulation by Richard E. Labunski.

You’ll be able to read a sample from the book including this excerpt from the Introduction, “The special position that the First Amendment is granted in our system is a recognition of the paramount importance of the free exchange of ideas to self-government. Freedom of speech and press provisions of the First Amendment are designed to prevent interference with the exchange of information if citizens are to make intelligent decisions when choosing public officials and shaping policy.”

Find your resources at school

If you’re a student or teacher, be sure to check with your school librarian for a list of available resources. Many libraries subscribe to research databases such as EBSCO and LexisNexis where you can search for and read articles from a multitude of sources.

You may also find that your school hosts a web page with a list of online resources such as one from the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Department of Communication Studies. Its list of resources related to communication studies includes links to sites on advertising, digital media, and visual communication.

On the Web

The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism creates its annual State of the News Media report, which in 2011 included a survey on how people use mobile technology to get local news.

A great resource for those interested in journalism is JournalistResource.org where resources abound for journalists, instructors and students. If you’re interested in research, you may want to read John Wihbey’s interview of Alison Head in his January 27, 2012 post titled, “Research chat: Information scientist Alison Head on student habits.” Head, a lead researcher of the University of Washington’s Project Information Literacy examines how students seek information.

“Yet educators may be surprised to learn that the most difficult part of course-related research is the beginning of the process, especially framing a research problem. When we surveyed more [than] 8,300 students at 25 U.S. institutions in 2010, more than 80% of respondents reported they had the most difficulty getting started on course-related research assignments. Another 66% could not define a research topic or narrow it,” Head explained.

Trade associations

College students who are preparing for a career in communications or journalism would do well to join a professional association such as the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s). Students can usually join such organizations at a discount rate and take advantage of numerous resources as well as the chance to meet and make connections with those who are established in the industry.

The 4A’s site hosts three blogs, one of which, the Inkblot is, “Less of a blog and more of a journal of ideas and observations, this is a place where industry professionals can share their thoughts on the state of the industry, where consumers can learn more about the creators of the products, brands, and campaigns they interact with every day, where advertising executives can mete out their knowledge and expertise, and where clients can visit to gain perspective on the effectiveness of campaigns.”

Enjoy!

Bate, David. Photography: The Key Concepts. New York: Berg, 2009. http://www.questia.com/read/120769912.

Bennett, Paul. Abnormal and Clinical Psychology: An Introductory Textbook. 2nd ed. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2006. http://www.questia.com/read/118349566.

Doyle, Christine E. Work and Organizational Psychology: An Introduction with Attitude. Hove, England: Psychology Press, 2003. http://www.questia.com/read/108122715.

Holzer, Harold, ed. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text. New York: Fordham University Press, 2004. http://www.questia.com/read/120747706.

Laird, Sally, ed. Voices of Russian Literature: Interviews with Ten Contemporary Writers. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1999. http://www.questia.com/read/120737022.

Moreno, Francisco Jose. Before Fidel: The Cuba I Remember. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2007. http://www.questia.com/read/120684318.

Nankivell, John H. Buffalo Soldier Regiment: History of the Twenty-Fifth United States Infantry, 1869-1926. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2001. http://www.questia.com/read/120745787.

O’neil, Judy, and Victoria J. Marsick. Understanding Action Learning. New York: AMACOM, 2007. http://www.questia.com/read/120712825.

Thompson, Graham. American Culture in the 1980s. Twentieth-Century American Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. http://www.questia.com/read/120737282.

Willis, Roy, and Patrick Curry. Astrology, Science, and Culture: Pulling Down the Moon. New York: Berg, 2004. http://www.questia.com/read/120752336.

Enjoy access to this free reading for a whole month, and have a wonderful holiday!

Find a topic, form a plan

Before you do anything else you need to decide what you will write about in your term paper assignment. Your teacher may have given you a list of requirements; be sure to read these and get all your questions answered before you start working.

You also need to know what kind of term paper your teacher wants. Examples of common types of papers can be found at the A+ Research and Writing site maintained by the Internet Public Library (IPL).

Term papers typically fall into categories such as:

• Research paper
• Essay
• Argumentative or persuasive essay
• Compare and contrast
• Narrative essays

Next, examine the possible topics that you can write about. A great site for researching topics is Questia, the premier online research and paper-writing tool for students. One helpful text is Shortcuts for the Student Writer by Jay Silverman, Elaine Hughes, and Diana Roberts Wienbroer.

The authors suggest that, once you’ve found your topic, you make a list of main points that might be in your paper along with any details that come to mind. Then start grouping the ideas into categories. You can do this easily with a computer or by hand with index cards.

“Then make a new list with the related points grouped together. Decide which idea is most important and cross out ideas or details that do not relate to it. Arrange your points so that each will lead up to the next. Be sure each section of your essay has examples or facts to strengthen your ideas.”

Freewriting

Teachers don’t just want you to repeat what others have said; they want to know what you have to say. A helpful technique to get you started is called freewriting. Here’s how it works. You set yourself a goal of writing non-stop for 10 minutes jotting down:

• What you know about the topic
• What interests you about the topic
• What questions you have about the topic

The questions you have will help form the backbone of your term paper and will give you a focus for your research.

Allen Brizee described a freewriting process that he called “prewriting” in his June 8, 2011 post for the Purdue Online Writing Lab titled, “Introduction to Prewriting (Invention).” To help get your ideas flowing Brizee suggested, “Brainstorm. Gather as many good and bad ideas, suggestions, examples, sentences, false starts, etc. as you can. Perhaps some friends can join in. Jot down everything that comes to mind, including material you are sure you will throw out. Be ready to keep adding to the list at odd moments as ideas continue to come to mind.”

Writing the introduction

It’s easy to get writer’s block, especially if you try to write your paper from beginning to end. Oddly enough, it’s easier to write the introduction to your term paper at the end of the process at the same time you write your conclusion. The purpose of your introduction is to, well, introduce what you’re going to say in your paper. You can do that best after you have already written the body of the paper.

Writing the introduction and conclusion at the same time allows you to:

• Introduce your topic and tell your reader what they will learn by reading your paper
• Summarize and bring together all of your main points in your conclusion where you will echo the promises that you made in your introduction.

The Cambridge Rindge & Latin School (CRLS) Research Guide has several Tip Sheets with advice for writing papers. Regarding the introduction, the writers said, “Start with a couple of sentences that introduce your topic to your reader. You do not have to give too much detailed information; save that for the body of your paper. Make these sentences as interesting as you can. Through them, you can hook a reader and get them very interested in the line of thinking you are going to develop in your project.”

At this point you have your intro and conclusion along with a list of main points to expand on. Now that your juices are flowing, you can complete the body of your paper with style and confidence.

Now that research paper-writing season is well underway, you may be hearing your professors discussing the need for primary sources as well as secondary sources. Sidney Silverman Library at Bergen Community College (NJ) offers a straightforward definition of the difference between primary and secondary sources. “Primary sources are original materials such as autobiographies, poems, diaries, documents, research articles, original data, or an original creation such as a piece of art.”  Materials that “describe, explain or interpret primary sources,” they explain, are secondary sources. “These include literature criticism, biographies, books about a topic, reviews, encyclopedias and dictionaries.” A well-written research paper includes a range of primary and secondary sources throughout in order to have a well-balanced collection of resources and facts. Learn how to distinguish between the two and discover some lesser known resources for each!

In Primary vs. Secondary, they also provide this useful checklist of examples:

Primary sources

• autobiography
• painting or object of art
• personal diary or letters
• treaty (government document)
• poem, novel, short story, etc.
• firsthand observer accounts of event
• play, film, television show, performance
• speech given by a person
• research report by researchers
• photographs

Secondary sources

• biography
• article reviewing or criticizing the art
• book about the person or event
• essay interpreting the document
• literary criticism of the work
• report on event years later
• biography of the writer
• commentary on the speech
• interpretation of the research
• explanation of photographs

Primary sources online

“Tens of thousands of archival collections can be found on the web,” says Leslie F. Stebbins. “These digitized primary resources provide researchers with unprecedented access to collections that previously were only available in one location and kept behind locked doors.” Also available online, notes the author of Student Guide to Research in the Digital Age: How to Locate and Evaluate Information Sources (Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2006), 68. are “information (which) indicates what is owned by a particular archive and…search aids that give a detailed inventory of the holdings of a particular collection and other descriptive information.”

In Find Digitized Primary Source Collections on the Web, Stebbins guides researchers to some larger online digital library collections, archival search engines and “tools that point to digitized and print collections,” and information on collections available outside the U.S.

And “If you have some flexibility with the topic you are working on,” the author suggests, “you might want to try one of the larger collections such as the American Memory Project. Locate an interesting collection and work backward to the development of your topic.”

Become a master of the primary and secondary resources, and you’ll have thoroughly researched term paper that both you and your professor can be happy with!

Sometimes when writing, we may begin a sentence without knowing how it will end. If you’re not careful, it could come out with the entirely wrong meaning. Self-editing prior to handing in work can help avoid some serious writing disasters.

“When something is awful, why not say so?” asks Richard Palmer, author of Write In Style: A Guide to Good English(London: Spon Press, 1993, 3).  He says so in the chapter on Disasters, – using the following passages to explain what to do to avoid such mistakes:

1.) In this set of instructions the writer gets into a hilarious mess through not thinking clearly or ‘hearing’ the words.

“When feeding the baby with a bottle, it must be held at a steep angle with the bottom tilted up and the neck held firmly down, otherwise an air-bubble will form in the neck. Do not allow the baby to drink all the feed at once, but give it a rest sometimes so that it can get the wind up. Finally, when the baby has finished the bottle, place it under the tap straight away, or allow it to soak in a mild solution of Milton, to prevent infection. If the baby does not thrive on fresh milk it should be powdered or boiled.”

A formal analysis of why this goes wrong would show that the loose use of pronouns sets up a farcical ambiguity. But a simpler explanation is that the writer is lazy. There has been no attempt to imagine how the words will ‘sound’, how they will affect the reader. Given that the passage is instructional, presumably intended to assist an inexperienced parent, that is a severe fault.

2.) The next extract, taken from an A-level English examination script, suffers from inadequate thought too, though in a different way.

“Fielding, having once been a play write [sic] *, moved into novels. In this novel he was not merely trying to parody Pamela, by Richardson, but his was make [sic] some clear social comments. To do this he had to use caricatures and situations, and this obviously could lead to a certain amount of disconnection of events.”

Even if we ignore the spelling mistake and the brief dive into illiteracy in the third line, this is an unholy mess. The candidate is not stupid, and underneath the drivel there is a sense of some useful points trying to emerge. But they are all jumbled together, linked by a ‘logic’ presumed to be adequate but which in fact is non-existent.

The writer needed to be aware of a very valuable principle. Never begin a sentence until you are sure of what you want to say in it and of how it will end.

If obeying that principle means that you write shorter sentences for a while, never mind. Better that than to land yourself in the kind of quagmire we’ve just waded through.

Click here for additional examples of writing gone wrong and what you can do to avert them.

Search expert Barbara G. Friedman emphasizes the importance of knowing how to evaluate Web site reliability in her book Web Search Savvy: Strategies and Shortcuts for Online Research (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005, 158). In Credibility at a Glance, she notes that one “quick measure of a Web site’s credibility is to look at the domain.”

Barbara G. Friedman explains:

Many journalists apply a hierarchy of trust when judging the credibility of a site. It’s actually not all that different from the standards applied to traditional information sources. For example, government information is considered the most reliable, probably because there are copious checks of (and restrictions on) the contents of federal .gov sites, and of the individuals who develop and maintain them. The Web sites of U. S. Senators, for example, must meet with restrictions set forth by the Secretary of the Senate, and are monitored for compliance by the Senate Webmaster. Military sites also rank high on the trust scale, for the same reason.

Following “.gov” and “.mil” sites, university sites are among the most trusted. Academia is a fiercely competitive profession. Research that includes questionable or inaccurate data is challenged quickly and loudly. The contents of peer-reviewed journals are representative of the best research in a particular field. Keep in mind however, when using “.edu” sites that they can also be the personal pages of students and staff members. In that case, the credibility of a site’s content diminishes.

To learn where .org, .net and .com sites fall within this hierarchy of trust, check out Credibility at a Glance.

says Wendy Lustbader, adding, “We have e-mail now…” In her Aging Today essay The Demise of Letter-writing, she acknowledges, “It is true that e-mail from dear friends can be printed out and given the heft of paper. I have done this, placing each email in a file folder labeled with the friend’s name. But I prefer my shabby boxes filled with 30 years’ worth of letters from these same friends. When I open them, envelopes of different colors and shapes, stamps of all varieties and postmarks greet me. I see my name written in familiar handwriting, addressed to past domiciles…However, when I open a file folder of accumulated e-mail, I remain unmoved by those pages of bloodless, typed uniformity.”

“I discover what I am thinking when I am writing by hand, on paper…I believe more depth and cohesion comes with writing on paper…”.

“Handwriting can tie us to our beloveds like nothing else. Somehow it calls forth the person more than photographs or video clips…Handwritten letters voice the language of the soul and are the rarest of treasures.”

If the author’s persuasive argument and this nostalgic time of year have you thinking about putting pen to paper, we encourage you to give it a shot.  And if you need a little help getting started, visit Letter Writing Guide for tips on letter mechanics, what to include in different types of letters (including business correspondence), sample letters, and more.

When you need to examine how people are reporting or commenting on different aspects of an issue or situation, these resources – among NoodleTools.com’s valuable guidelines to help Choose the Best Search for Your Information Need – are a great place to start.

Here are NoodleTools’ suggestions for opinion and perspective resources:

I want opinions on current issues:

• Yahoo News: Browse columnists and cartoonists, or search Opinion
• Headline Spot-Opinion/Editorials: Browse opinion/editorial in U.S. and some international newspapers
• PollingReport: Browse results of U.S. public opinion surveys

I need news from other countries’ perspectives:

• World Press Review: Get nonpartisan summaries of views outside U.S.
• Newspaperindex: Browse selected world newspapers
• ABYZ News Links: Browse international broadcast and Internet news, newspapers, magazines, and press agencies

I want multiple perspectives on hot social and political topics:

• Social Issues: Links to pro/con on current social issues
• Public Agenda: Analysis of public attitudes on social issues with overview, pro/con, organization links
• UN News Centre: News Focus: Browse for UN-related issues by region, country or topic

I want to compare news treatment:

• Newseum: Compare news reporting on U.S. front pages
• PressDisplay: Compare news reporting from 55 countries