The class will be organized into as many as 4 teams of 5-6 students each, working together to complete a semester-long oral and written project.

This project will be presented to the class on December 3, with the written paper due no later than December 14.  All teams will be expected to work together to complete both activities. Teams will also be expected to complete several team assignments during the course that will generally relate in helping teams complete their semester-long project. Note: it is essential that all students be in class both of these days for all four team presentations. Failure to be present without instructor permission may result in a zero for your team presentation grade. Teams will also be expected to complete several team assignments during the semester that will generally relate to helping teams complete their semester-long project. You can find each of these team assignment details on the menu to the right.

Teams will work throughout the semester to develop and present a review and analysis of a film of their choice that allows for a critical evaluation of the elements of interpersonal communication. This review will include the following elements as pages and/or sections, with an approximate weighting in terms of length:

  • Title page
  • A brief overview of the story contained in the book or movie. (10-15%)
  • A simple definition of at least three applicable concepts from the textbook. (5%)
  • “Thick description” of several instances in which each of the chosen text concepts was evidenced (Descriptions should include as much dialogue as possible and figuratively transfer the reader to the scene.) (35-40%)
  • Clear explanations of how the text concepts were illustrated in all supporting instances; the student’s analysis should contain some discussion of both verbal and nonverbal elements of interpersonal communication (30-35%)
  • A summary/conclusion section to complete the project paper/report. (5-15%)
  • References page

Your review and analysis should be compiled into an APA-styled paper report that adopts an academic writing approach while striving to find a narrative style. All sources must be correctly cited as they are used. At least five peer-reviewed journal articles related to the elements analyzed should be included.  Any additional web-based sources may be used as well. This paper should be in the range of 4000-5000 words, not including the title page and a References page listing full citations for all cited sources.

Each team will also present their review to the class on December 3. Order of presentation will be determined in advance. Teams will make a 20 to 30-minute presentation, being mindful of the time limit, while providing a reasonable version of the paper/report’s content. Whenever possible, teams should include appropriate clips of the film via YouTube to help illustrate key points from the paper. The paper will be due in the appropriate Blackboard dropbox no later than midnight December 14, 2025. The presentation is worth 100 points and the paper report worth 150 points, making this activity worth 250 points.

Notes on the Team Project

  • This project represents a major portion of your grade in this class, so it will require a major effort on every student’s part. While team members are typically graded identically for all team assignments, each team member will complete an evaluation form after the completion of each team activity. You will rate your fellow team members on various aspects of their contribution to the team effort.  I will take these evaluations into consideration when I assign project grades for each team member.
  • The team project will include several team assignments, with each assignment designed to be a “building block” for teams to complete various aspects of the activity. These assignments will typically occur every 2-3 weeks.
  • The goal of this project is to get your team to work together in different ways with different goals and outcomes. It is a challenge to work over a long period of time on a single project with a group of people that you must depend upon for their contributions and collaborations.  Yet it is that challenge that will aid you and your team in skills to manage time lines, availability of team members, key milestone dates, etc.
  • There will be time built in nearly every week for teams to meet (usually with me for a brief face-to-face progress report). However, it will be crucial for teams to also determine when and how to meet outside of class. Virtual meetings will probably be a reality for many teams but try to work out times when you can all meet face-to-face.  It is likely that you will make more and better progress in those settings.

Rubrics for This Project

I will evaluate your oral presentation and your written paper based on these rubrics:

Oral (each team member will be  evaluated individually on these criteria):

  • Quality of content (30 points) – how appropriate is the content to the topic?
  • Engagement with audience (20 points) – Does your presentation make an impression?
  • Speaking skills (25 points) – how good of a speaker are you? How do you use your voice to communicate?
  • Presentation quality (15 points) – What’s your presentation like? Do your slides support your speech?
  • Language skills (10 points) – Do you use words in a creative and impactful way?

Written (the team as a whole will be evaluated on these criteria):

  • Writing Quality (40 points)– What is the writing like? Do the sentences make interesting statements or ask pertinent questions? Do the sentences connect ideas together to form paragraphs that address a particular situation or concept? Do the paragraphs in the work lead the reader to some kind of outcome or conclusion? Also, are there spelling errors and/or punctuation problems? Are sentences structured correctly from a grammatical point of view?
  • Organization (25 points) – Is the work organized in a meaningful way that aids the reader in being able to follow along with what is written? Do paragraphs follow each other in a logical order? Are the structure elements arranged in a logical or meaningful order?
  • Content (25 points) – Does the work address the topic? Are the various points of the topic represented in the paper with adequate examples?
  • References/sources  (10 points) – Do the sources appear to be cited correctly in the References section? Are the sources properly cited in-text?