Tag Archives: senior seminar

Seniors! Take Senior Seminars in Spring, Even if You Plan to Graduate in Dec. 2023

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Most first- or second- semester seniors should take their senior seminar in the spring. The Department of Communication offers senior seminar courses in each of its three concentrations but 2 of them are offered ONLY in the SPRING: CMM454 Organizational Communication Seminar and CMM455 Relational Communication Seminar. (The Strategic Comm Seminar is offered every semester.)

First- and second-semester seniors concentrating in Organizational Communication or Relational Communication must take their senior seminar this spring. (Public Relations and Strategic Communication concentrators who will be first-semester seniors in spring 2023 are invited, but are not obligated, to take CMM 456 Seminar in Strategic Communication in the spring.) If you haven’t taken a pre-requisite research methods course, CMM352 Qualitative Communication Research Methods or CMM354 Quantitative Research Methods, this means you must get permission to take the seminar and research methods at the same time. Please meet with your major advisor SOON to discuss your path toward graduation.

Org Comm and Interpersonal Comm Majors Should Take Research Methods Courses to Prepare for Senior Seminars

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The Department of Communication offers two research methods courses (see below) that play a crucial role in preparing students for the subsequent 400-level seminar courses, CMM454 Organizational Communication Seminar or CMM455 Interpersonal Communication Seminar. For this reason, the Department strongly recommends you take one of them instead of CMM353 Persuasion & Social Influence prior to the semester when you take your senior seminar. 

Both methods courses, CMM352 Qualitative Communication Research Methods and CMM354 Quantitative Research Methods, help students become critical consumers of data and scholarly research as well as become familiar with techniques for how to design original research. Broadly speaking, CMM354 focuses on types of research and techniques that result in numbers-oriented data (e.g., surveys, experiments), while CMM352 focuses on types of research and techniques that lead to more context-centered data (e.g., observation, focus groups). Please don’t let the words “research methods” scare you! In the information age, being able to manage and analyze data are skills increasingly sought by employers from a wide range of communication-related industries and professions. 

In sum, these two research methods courses play a crucial role in preparing Interpersonal/Intercultural and Organizational Comm. students for their later 400-level senior seminar. Again, we strongly suggest taking one of the methods classes in place of CMM 353 Persuasion & Social Influence to make sure you are best prepared for success in the senior seminars.