Communications (COM)

A study of the use of writing, reading, and discussion as a means of discovering, questioning, and analyzing ideas, with an emphasis on audience, context and the use of revision. This course satisfies the Basic Writing Proficiency Requirement. It does not satisfy a general education requirement in the Humanities and Social or Behavioral Sciences.

The rhetorical theory and applied practice of digital writing. Topics include word processor alternatives, social media for professional development, multimedia writing, and collaboration and project management.

An introduction to the systematic study of language. Focus on the core areas of linguistics, such as sound patterns of language (phonology), form (syntax, morphology), and meaning (semantics, pragmatics), as well as applied areas, such as language, variation, language acquisition, psychology of language, and the origin of language.

This course surveys dialects of English around the world, including the U.S., U.K., Canada, India, Africa, and the Caribbean, focusing on vocabulary, word and sentence formation, and sound patterning.

This course examines the structure of the English language from four different approaches: traditional-prescriptive, descriptive, generative, and contextual.

Beginning with basic concepts in language development, this course traces the evolution of modern English, from its Indo-European roots, through Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Middle English and Early Modern English.

Analysis of human and synthetic speech intended for technology mediated environments and devices. Focus on talker characteristics that affect speech intelligibility and social factors that affect talker characteristics. Attention to design characteristics of technology-mediated speech and how humans react to it.

The analysis of language "flow" beyond sentence boundaries. Working with both spoken and written discourse, students will consider culture and gender-related patterns, and will apply findings from discourse analysis to communication problems in politics, education, healthcare, and the law.

This course focuses on strategies for communicating scientific information in professional and general settings. Students develop genre documents, learn how to adapt scientific information to various audiences, and complete exercises on style, grammar, and other elements of effective professional communication. Emphasis on usability, cohesion, and style in all assignments.

This course introduces the theory and practice of standards-based web design and development. The course focuses on an agile, incremental approach to building accessible, usable, and sustainable web pages that work across all modern browsers and web-enabled mobile devices. The course also provides a rhetorical and technological foundations for quickly establishing competencies in other areas of digital communication such as web application development.

A production-intensive course in applied theory and practice of developing web-based applications emphasizing interface and experience design using emerging Web standards and backend development using Ruby-based web application frameworks.

A production-intensive course in the theory and applied practice of working with application programming interfaces (APIs), especially Web-available APIs for exchanging and mashing up content and data.

A study of the literature of science from the Renaissance to modern times.

The study of covert and overt persuasion and their influences on society and individuals.

The history and structure of mass media, from print through film and broadcasting to the Internet, and their influences on American society.

This course introduces students to the general theories and practices of political campaign communication today. It investigates how those rules and types apply in the current presidential campaign. More generally, the course teaches students to produce written and oral discourse appropriate to the humanities.

Explores ethical and legal issues concerning communication in diverse contexts, such as: the mass media - e.g. print, broadcast, and electronic; government and politics; organizational hierarchies - e.g. public and private sector workplaces; academic life - e.g. the classroom, student, and faculty affairs; and interpersonal relations - e.g. love, friendship, marriage.

An investigation into a topic of current interest in communication, which will be announced by the instructor when the course is scheduled.

An investigation into a topic of current interest in communication, which will be announced by the instructor when the course is scheduled.

This course will discuss a variety of measures and properties of networks, identify various types of social networks, describe how position within and the structure of networks matter, use software tools to analyze social network data, and apply social network analysis to areas such as information retrieval, social media and organizational behavior.

This course will investigate and experiment with both conceptual and applied efforts to humanize technology. We will question the goals of humanization and its relationships to concepts such as design ethics and user-centered and emotional design. While the focus of the class will be on computer technology and programming languages, we will also look at humanization with regard to industrial design, engineering, architecture and nanotechnologies.

Principles and practice in the communication of technical materials. Students work on the design, writing, and revising of reports, articles, manuals, procedures, proposals, including the use of graphics. Works by modern writers are analyzed.

Principles and strategies for effective document and information design, focusing on print media. Students design, produce, and evaluate documents for a variety of applications, such as instructional materials, brochures, newsletters, graphics, and tables.

Principles and practical applications of editing at all levels, working with both hard and soft copy and including copymarking, copyediting, proofreading, grammar and style, and comprehensive editing. Attention primarily to documents from science, technology, and business.

Introduces students to the issues, strategies, and ethics of technical and professional presentations, and provides students with opportunities to engage in public address, video presentations and conferencing, and group presentations. Analysis of audience types and presentation situations, group dynamics, persuasive theories, language, and mass media.

An introduction to the problems of communication across cultures, with emphasis on the interplay of American civilization with those of other cultural areas.

Introduction to the principles and practices of modern American journalism. Students will analyze news stories and media, and will cover and report on campus area events. Student-generated news stories will be discussed, analyzed and evaluated.

A cooperative arrangement between IIT and industry, the internship provides students with hands-on experience in the field of technical communication.

Consent of department. For advanced students. Based on the selected topic, this course may or may not be applied to the humanities general education requirement. Consult the course instructor.

An introduction to the systematic study of language. Focus on the core areas of linguistics such as sound patterns of language (phonology), form (syntax, morphology), and meaning (semantics, pragmatics) as well as applied areas such as language variation, language, acquisition, psychology of language, and the origin of language.

An introduction to statistics and data analysis tailored to the needs of communication and information professionals. Emphasis is placed on developing intuition as to which analyses are appropriate given one's questions of interest as well as how to interpret and communicate the results of analyses. Students will analyze real data sets using SPSS in the computer lab.

Analysis of the variations of the English language throughout geographic and cultural regions of the world.

Analysis of English grammar from four major perspectives: prescriptive, descriptive, transformational-generative, and contextual perspectives. Different methods for analyzing sentences, ways of applying each method to problems in editing and writing, and contributions of linguists such as Noam Chomsky. While focusing on sentence structure, students also look at the structure of words (morphology)and larger units of text (discourse) at various points in the semester.

Study of the origins and development of key features of the English language through its important stages, including Old, Middle, and Early Modern English.

Analysis of human and synthetic speech intended for technology mediated environments and devices. Focs on talker characteristics that affect speech intelligibility and social factors that affect talker characteristics. Attention to design characteristics of technology mediated speech and how humans react to it.

This course examines linguistic theory as it relates to everyday problems. The course is divided into four sections, each of which expose students to an application of these topics to broader issues. Topics include sound patterns of speech, sentence structure, meaning and language and society.

Analysis of spoken and written texts on the intersentential and metalinguistic levels (e.g. semantic roles; given-new information; deixis and anaphora; presupposition and entailment; direct and indirect speech acts; schema theory). Applications to social and professional issues such as intercultural communication; sociopolitical discourse; discourse in educational, legal, and medical settings; narratives and literary texts.

Broad coverage of concepts and issues in current and classic scholarship in the field of technical communication. Intensive work in bibliographic research methods for academic genres.

This course focuses on strategies for communicating scientific information in professional settings. Students develop a literature review, proposal, and feasibility study; learn how to adapt scientific information to various audiences; and complete exercises on style, grammar, and other elements of effective professional communication. Emphasis on usability, cohesion, and style in each assignment.

An introduction to principles of user-centered design and to methods for conducting user experience research. Students will learn how to plan and conduct projects that evaluate the design, interface, and experience of a product or service. Course work includes designing studies, collecting and interpreting data, and reporting findings and recommendations from the perspective of user-centered design.

Principles and strategies for effective document and information design focusing on print media and familiarizing students with current research and theory as well as with practices in document design. Students design, produce, and evaluate documents for a variety of applications, such as instructional materials, brochures, newsletters, graphics, and tables.

Principles and practical applications of editing at all levels, working with both hard and soft copy and including copymarking, copyediting, proofreading, grammar and style, and comprehensive editing. Attention primarily to documents from science, technology, and business.

Theory and practice of structuring and designing information for web-enabled devices. This course emphasizes web standards, accessibility, and agile design methods.

A production-intensive course in applied theory and practice of developing web-based applications emphasizing interface and experience design using emerging Web standards and backend development using Ruby-based web application frameworks.

A course that explores the theoretical and applied intersections of the rhetorical tradition and digital communication technologies.

A production-intensive course in the theory and applied practice of working with application programming interfaces (APIs), especially Web-available APIs for exchanging and mashing up content and data.

Teaches the essentials for the development of instructional materials, including analysis of human performance problems, strategic interventions, specified learning tasks, and validation instruments.

Course covers all aspects of federal and foundation proposal cycle, from proposal development through review and decision-making process. Emphasis on research proposals incorporating quantitative and qualitative methods, but activity-based proposals addressed as well.

Corporate and independent roles of technical communicators. Concepts and techniques needed to market services or to address the marketing needs of clients. Modes, goals, and strategies for verbal and written interaction with clients, corporate decision-makers, and communications staff, with attention to presentation technologies.

An examination of conceptual foundations and applied uses of structured languages and databases for structuring information with an emphasis on approaches to single-sourcing materials for presentation in digital and print formats.

Analysis of the nature and uses of knowledge in organizations and groups with attention to technical communicators' roles and tasks in collecting, codifying, storing, retrieving, and transferring information within organizations. Emphasis on web-based strategies, techniques, and tools.

Intensive work developing and using systems to create and deliver content digitally and in print. Special emphasis on project management and large-team collaboration. Formerly known as COM 537.

Practice in developing written and spoken academic genres (e.g., reviews, articles, conference papers, CVs, job talks). Special attention to analyzing and evaluating academic journals; submitting items to journals and conferences; managing time during the research, writing, and publication process; revising work and providing feedback to others; and mastering the conventions of academic writing.

Have you ever wondered why more men choose to portray themselves as women online than the reverse? Or why there are more boys than girls in China? Or why vibrator technology was seen as a medical necessity in the 19th century? Have you ever thought about how the interplay between technology and gender constructs everything from our modern military to how we choose to spend our free time? To where we work? This course explores the history of technology by using gender as a category of analysis. It also looks at how technological objects and tools participate in molding elements of our culture that we may take for granted as logical or timeless. By looking at change over time, we will analyze the different ways technology affects how we live and see ourselves and how gender defines technological priorities.

The examination and application of research on cultural dimensions in communication such as individualist versus collectivist. Also, an examination of topics from a theoretical linguistic perspective such as contrastive rhetoric. These topics are then related to best practices in web and document design.

This course focuses on the latest work in science and technology studies and the history of technology from ethics in genetic engineering to the social dimensions of computing. Other topics include the intersection of gender and sexuality with new technologies, the role of communications media in "rewiring" our brains and our social connections, and the role of the world wide web in constructing national and global technocracy. In the course, students will read and discuss works by academics as well as journalists in order to offer grounding in the historical, social, and economic background of key technical topics and the presentation of technical topics for wider audiences. The course will also focus on the ways in which authors leverage different information technologies to communicate to wider audiences and how those methods are evolving.

Principles, strategies, and resources for teaching technical communication and for developing and assessing technical communication curricula, especially at the postsecondary level.

The study of covert and overt persuasion and their influences on society and individuals.

This course introduces students to the general theories and practices of political campaign communication today. It investigates how those rules and types apply in the current presidential campaign. More generally, the course teaches students to produce written and oral discourse appropriate to the humanities.

This course explores ethical and legal issues concerning communication in diverse contexts, such as: the mass media - e.g. print, broadcast, and electronic; government and politics; organizational hierarchies - e.g. public and private sector workplaces; academic life - e.g. the classroom, student, and faculty affairs; and interpersonal relations - e.g. love, friendship, marriage. Students will research and write an article length paper, and may also do additional research and/or classroom work.

An investigation into a topic of current interest in communication, which will be announced by the instructor when the course is scheduled.

This course will discuss a variety of measures and properties of networks, identify various types of social networkds, describe how position within and the structure of networks matter, use software tools to analyze social network data, and apply social network analysis to areas such as information retrieval, social media, and organizational behavior.

This course will investigate and experiment with both conceptual and applied efforts to humanize technology, especially computer technology. We will question the goals of humanization and its relationships to concepts such as design ethics and user-centered and emotional desigh. While the ficus of the class will be on computer technology and programming languages, we will also look at humanization with regard to industrial design, enginereing, architecture, and nanotechnologies.

The internship is a cooperative arrangement between IIT and industry. It provides students with hands-on experience in the field of technical communication and information design.

Permission of instructor required.

Projects will require students to complete a theoretically based analysis of a practical communication situation, create a document appropriate to the situation, and write and analysis of or commentary on the choices made in the production of the document. (Credit: Variable. Most M.S. students take 6 credits of project studies)

Permission of instructor required.

This course addresses the logic of research design. The first part of the course focuses on formulating clear research questions and hypotheses. The second part addresses various designs (surveys, correlations, experiments, mixed designs, etc.) and their potential to test hypotheses.

This course is intended for graduate students in technical communication and related fields who are planning to conduct qualitative research in a variety of settings.

This course is for doctoral students of technical communication who have a command of general research methods but who require a deeper understanding of methods for the collection and analysis of quantitative data.

This is a variable credit course which Ph. D. candidates sign up for as they work on their dissertations. Permission of instructor required.