Cmns 110 update

[Gary McCarron <gmccarro@sfu.ca>]

Title: Cmns 110 update

Hi everyone

Several people have emailed me to ask about the mid-term.  Most people are curious about the format, while others want to know what readings you will be responsible for.  One or two have asked about sample questions.

Here are some brief answers.  The format will be a very few short answers and then a choice of topics for one essay.  The short answers will expect you to be able to define some key concepts in just two or three sentences; the essay choices will be drawn from lecture material as well as from the readings.  In other words, I will compose some essay topics based on things I have lectured on as well as on your readings.  You will only have to write one essay, so with this much choice I think everyone will be fine.

I don’t have time right now, but I will circulate some sample essay questions (and perhaps a couple of sample questions from the short answer section) to give you some idea of the sorts of things you should be concentrating on.  As a general statement, pay attention to large themes and don’t get bogged down in details about names and dates.  If I expect you to know a name it is only because it will be one of the key figures discussed so far (Ong, McLuhan).  Do your best to make sure you can summarize the readings briefly.  That is, ask yourself what the reading is about, how does the author present his/her argument, and what question do you think the author is addressing.

You will be responsible for all the readings that have been assigned up to the date of the mid-term.  Similarly, anything covered in the lecture up until the date of the mid-term might appear on the exam.

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Cheers

Gary McCarron
Graduate Chair
School of Communication
Simon Fraser University
www.sfu.ca/~gmccarro
gmccarro@sfu.ca