Indianapolis students of the IWU CAPS Com 115 course:

On Monday, April 9, at 6 p.m., we meet for the first workshop of the Introduction to Human Communication (COM 115) class. I look forward to meeting with each of you and learning what you might bring to our excursion through, what I have coined, the “Kingdom of Communication.”

I’m referring to it as a “kingdom” because communication is an expanse of study that can grow across its disciplinary borders and touch fields as diverse as journalism, business, psychology, sociology, and on it grows. For our five-week excursion, we will attempt to mark out a territory that includes both verbal and nonverbal communication, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, small group and organizational communication, speech communication and mass communication.

Because the course covers both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject of communication, we’ll all share in the joy of writing and giving speeches. So that your instructor can feel your pain, he too will write and present a speech, and it won’t be one that he has already given at the Rotary Club. Monday night he’ll also pass out maps for the journey, a.ka. syllabi.

Speaking of your instructor...

...Allow me to introduce myself and show what I can bring to the study as official facilitator. I have worked my entire career as an editor, writer and creative director in the areas of advertising, journalism, marketing communications and education.

This mini-resume will show you where I’ve been professionally…
■ Quinlan Keene Peck & McShay Advertising & Marketing
■ Anderson University Office of Publications
■ Gaither Music Company Marketing
■ Indiana Wesleyan University Marketing Communications
■ Jack Williams, Ink. (my free-lance business)

I’ve also served free-lance stints as…
■ Copy editor, publishing company
■ Feature columnist/Anderson Herald Bulletin
■ Running columnist/Anderson Herald Bulletin
■ Contributing editor/Community Spirit (magazine of Community Hospitals Foundation in Indianapolis)
■ Writer, North Anderson Church of God communications

The following career milestones make me feel either:
□ proud □ old □ proud to be old
■ Nearly 300 newspaper columns
■ Nearly 200 magazine articles
■ Approximately 500 print ads composed
■ Co-founder, editor of university alumni magazine
■ Editor, music product catalog with international mailing list of 1 million
■ Winner of three Addy awards for print communications
■ Mentioned in the Writer’s Digest book, How to Write Like An Expert About Anything

I have earned two degrees in Communication, the human kind and the arts kind…
■ M.A., Communication Arts/University of Notre Dame
■ B.A., Human Communication/Bethel College

Note also that the "View my complete profile" link in the upper right hand column provides some conversation starters in case you ever get stuck in an elevator with me.

Monday night’s comin’

As a lifelong laborer in the Kingdom of Communication, I pledge to do my best to make Com 115 an enjoyable, productive and unforgettable classroom experience. I hope you'll do the same! Here’s a sneak peek at Monday night’s goings on…

Discussion of chapters 1, 8, 10, 11 which of course you have already read by now ■ A lecture on the theories that keep communication eggheads in full time work ■ Form project teams so you can do some of the teaching next week ■ Watch “Speaking Effectively” video featuring a man having a bad hair day ■ Narrow topic for Workshop 2’s speech assignment (start thinking now!) ■ Do in-class communication exercise that ends with 50 situps ■ The instructor’s speech on how to give a speech ■ Sundry other things that I happen to think of ■ Did I mention I’m psyched for this class?

Speaking of Communication

“The word communication comes from the Latin communis, which means to share, make common, or even to have the possession of a common faith.”
— Communicating for Life by Quentin J. Schultze