Oral Communication
Official Description[edit]
Fundamentals of Oral Communication (29-102)
An overview of the theory and guided practice of the skills utilized in intrapersonal, interpersonal, group and public communication. The student will perform an interview, small group discussion, informative speech and persuasive speech.
Overview[edit]
Take quizzes over cheap theories and give speeches for which you've been given no classtime preparation.
What actually happens[edit]
Bullshit. Pure, unadulterated bullshit. This is a class that was obviously designed as a freshman blowoff class, and is the least useful class you could take at Northwest. A large portion of the time you spend on this class will be in quiz form on the course website, all of which can be completed using nothing but the summaries at the end of each chapter, and quick glances through the chapter on a few select problems. This is also a way to destroy your grade, as it's extremely easy to forget about that which is beneath you. Nonetheless, this is a required credit, so you need to do these quizzes. There will also be a midterm, which simply tests how well you've memorized what's in the book, as it's over definitions, as well as the opinions and theories of whomever wrote the book. Fortunately, most of the names are extremely descriptive, and the theories are the kind that can be thought up by anybody who wants to make a quick buck by selling books to Northwest.
Also, there are speeches. The Northwest style is to stress form over content, so you're actually better off giving bad speeches that follow the format to the letter than good speeches. There's not much to say about them, besides that the book doesn't really address speeches. There are a couple chapters about self-knowledge and the like, and there are also some chapters late on that talk about speech-giving, but that's typically too late to help you on three of your speeches, and really not much help at all on the fourth.
