SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
CMNS 261-3

DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION

Prerequisites:

CMNS 110 or CMNS 130

The purpose of this course is to help communication students develop skills in finding and interpreting print and electronic documents, skills you will find useful not just for other communication courses, but for many other situations in our increasingly codified and organized lives. Unlike other more theory focused courses, this is a course where you ‘learn by doing’, and this is reflected in the bulk of the mark(75%) deriving from research assignments. The course begins with a study of corporate research, since corporations and other essentially market-oriented organizations have increasing influence on our lives. Next we discuss in general terms the institution and organization of libraries and archives, and look systematically at the various realms in which information- as opposed to knowledge- can be located-computer databases, the Internet, and library reference sections. The various types of documents produced by governments, non-profit organizations and the legal system rounds out the focus of the course.

Required texts:

Rubin, R.B., Rubin A.M, & Piele, L.J.(2000) Communication Research: Strategies and Sources, (5th ed.). Belmont CA: Wadsworth

Course Organization

A two hour weekly lecture presents the concepts and sources necessary to do the assignments. A one hour weekly tutorial is available to provide group and one-on-one help in doing the assignments.

Grade distribution

Corporate profile(due week 5) 30%
Research Proposal(due week 9) 10%
Research Project (due week13) 35%
Final exam 25%

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will also follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current calendar, General Regulations Section).