CTA 162 Interpersonal Communication

CTA 162 Interpersonal Communication

Bill Petkanas

PAPER

The paper for this course will be an application of one of the ideas or topics discussed during the semester. If at any time you are confused or unsure about this paper, your topic, how to do research, or anything else concerning this assignment, I encourage you to contact me. I am available for advice and direction and I'm very happy to make this as pleasant as possible. The idea here is that you should: 1) know what you are doing, 2) feel confident about what you're doing.

The purpose of this assignment is for you to gain some experience in the process of researching and writing a paper, with emphasis on the non-verbal aspects of a paper. You will accomplish this by looking at a topic from this course in a little more depth and applying this information to some interpersonal communication event.

CONTENT

The paper is a “how to improve your communication skills” and it should be divided into two sections:

1. The topic: This explains the topic you are writing about. Use the textbook as a your source and two references from the textbook as secondary sources. I will explain this procedure to you in class.

2. Application: Here you take the topic and use an example or two to illustrate how to improve interpersonal communication skills.

FORM & STYLE

The language of the paper should be crisp, clear, academic style. Carefully written and even more carefully proofread. Avoid awkward sentence structure by proofreading your paper out loud.

The entire paper should be four or five pages, double spaced. Each part, or section, should be subtitled, (like the subtitles on this sheet).

Make sure that you include the proper citations and bibliography for the style you use. Some of them use endnotes, some footnotes, and some use in-text citations. Some styles call your sources "references," others "works cited," or "bibliography." The most commonly used styles are APA and MLA, available in the library.

Important notice and policy on plagiarism

Since the development of the Internet, there has been a drastic increase in the number of cases of plagiarism. When I detect a plagiarized paper, it is my policy to give a student an "F" for the course and report the case to the Dean of Student Affairs. I have done this in all cases, without exception. I will explain what constitutes plagiarism in class.