Purpose
Throughout the course you will be learning terms and concepts that communication researchers
use to evaluate theories and research, across paradigms. These theory write-ups are your
chance to use those concepts to evaluate a theory and learn what these theories can tell us
about people’s communicative behavior. Working together, groups will compile a book of 10
theory summaries. Using the provided assignment template, the group will identity the
theoretical origins, including a short bio of the original creator of the theory and a review of their
most current work. Each write-up will also identify the theory’s key theoretical assumptions and
paradigmatic perspective, including critiques of the theory and perspective of alternative
paradigms. By the end of the semester, each group will have compiled a 20 to 30-page book,
summarizing 10 foundational communication theories. In addition, each group will be assigned
to create a video abstract of one theory (*See Abstract Video Assignment Description).
Specifics
Each of the following sections needs to be supported with references to scholarly resources
(i.e., your report needs to cite 2-4 credible outside sources in addition to the textbook):
1) History of the theory: Where (discipline) did the theory originate? Who is/are the
theorists associated with the theory (where do/did they work? What do/did they
research)? What was the impetus for developing this theory?
2) Describe the intellectual roots of the theory; from what intellectual (meta-theoretical)
traditions does it originate? Which of Craig’s traditions does this theory apply to? Which
of Turner’s schemes does the theory fit under?
3) What are the main tenets of the theory? (i.e., briefly summarize the theory and its
tenets/propositions/axioms etc.)
4) How have communication researchers used this theory? What specific contexts or
topics have been studied? (e.g., interpersonal, organizational, group, intercultural…)
5) Present one empirical study that used this theory to guide the scholar’s work. Pick a
study in which the theory played a central role (not the hot dog waved over the fire…).
Complete citation, research questions or hypotheses, brief description of the method,
main findings. Explain how this theory enlightened this particular study.
6) What are both strengths and weaknesses of this theory to study communication?
The Turn-In
1. Each write up once double spaced should be 3-4 pages in length and turned in through
SafeAssign in BlackBoard. Assignments MUST be turned in to SafeAssign by the due date in
order to be accepted for grading. Assignments submitted late to SafeAssign will be subject to
late deductions per course policy. Only .doc or .docx formats will be accepted to Safe Assign, if
you submit using another format then you may be docked up to 5 points and asked to resubmit
the
assignment. Make sure that you confirm submission by attempting to re-submit the assignment.
SafeAssign will only let you submit an assignment once so by attempting twice you will receive
confirmation that your submission was accepted or not. There should also be a time stamp
showing when you submitted- if you do not see this then you have not submitted the assignment
and should try again. Wifi is not a dependable internet connection for uploading documents; if
you are having technical difficulties please visit the trouble shooting tab on the class Blackboard
page.
1. One person from each group will be responsible for uploading and submitting the
assignment. The grade for this is shared, which means if the write-up is turned in late the
late deduction will apply to the groups grade (this encourages all group members to
contribute in a timely manner).
2. Use APA style (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/):
o 12pointTimesNewRomanfonto Doublespaced
o 1inchmargins
o Includeatitlepage
o IncludeafullydevelopedAPAReferenceSectionofoutsidesourcesandthetextbook