COM 326 Public Speaking
Instructor: Deepa Pillai
Gotta tell you this, so this semester I was really experimental and took a lot of communication modules in spite of being a sociology major student and I have zero absolute regrets. I should say that one big difference sitting in for both types of classes are, professors in communication classes are so much more friendlier and they really hype you up in the class as versus for sociology professors, yes they are friendly but I think it’s kinda hard for you to go up and have a friendly conversation about things apart from study related, ya get what I mean right?
Public speaking as the name says, yes my fellow reader you will get graded on based on your speeches. It might sound quite intimidating as that’s the reason why I think a lot of communication major students drop this class (subtle hint @ all my friends lol).
Why you should take this class?
- For all the speech topics, you have the absolute power to choose what to present on. Being a sociology student, I thought this gave me an edge in a way, because I’m not going to lie haha but all of my speeches except for the special occasion one were all sociology related topics. I do know that for the informative speech a lot of people tend to choose the style of speeches of how-to’s like how to use a camera for example because it’s much easier and even she suggests this format as the one which is popular but yep you can choose anything you want to talk about in the given time.
- I have mad respect for this professor because she is so encouraging and one of friendliest professors ever in UB. As I said, I’m definitely not the best speaker and there were many times during consultation that Prof Deepa would just really boost my confidence up. This is also one of those classes that you can see yourself growing because I would say 90% of this class is based on what you like & what you want to present on which also means you do your own research and we all know that, it takes quite a bit of time heh.
- I realized towards the end, you definitely will see yourself becoming closer with the rest of your peers, it’s quite a wonderful feeling actually. Because of the nature of speeches like whether informative or persuasive or even special occasion ones, there definitely will be some emotional speeches or some really personal ones and the very fact that a person chooses to speak about that in the class, really will help understand your class mates better. This class was like a safe space that you could speak about anything so long as it fits in the type of speech and you’ll be okay. I don’t think you’d see this in a lot of classes in UB because number one, even though this class is an elective for students taking communication, I know a great deal of students who’d drop this (a lot of my friends did because actually being graded on how well you speak is a huge deal) and because of that I think class sizes would be just a nice size (not too big nor too small either).
- I really like how Prof Deepa used to give us tiny feedback forms that we could write for other speakers. Tip: yes, do it for all your peers too! the more you do it for others, the more you’d get in return.
- For this semester, she changed quite a few things because based on the previous reviews, we didn’t have an exam. We had 4 speeches – the initial one for 10%, informative & persuasive speech for 25% and the special occasion speech for 20%. The last bit was an evaluation form which you had to submit a small reflection for 15% and the attendance consisted of 5%.
- If you’re worried about how Prof Deepa grades her students, honestly I think she’s lenient. Also because sometimes when we had 2 days of speeches, she used to grade the first day speakers a bit more leniently because usually the dates were in a way that we’d only have 4 days to prepare versus day 2 speakers who had 1 week. Prof Deepa also looks at your overall improvement in the class so if she thinks you’re showing visible improvements you’ll honestly be doing great.
- Lastly, one more thing that I absolutely loved about this class was that the people in it were just so supportive and friendly. I had a few moments of sudden thought lapses for my final speeches which obviously made me lag a bit and I remember there were quite a few people in the class who were throwing encouraging words at me. I thought it was a shit speech because of my obvious muddle in the middle section but when I received my feedback forms people really were too nice that melted my heart (literally, no joke.) Also, Prof Deepa thought I could bounce back well so hey that wasn’t too bad heh.
For the first time in 7 years, Public speaking won’t be offered in Spring 2020 which is kinda sad because I really will say this is one of those classes which is really applicable to your life later on too. The skills that you learn especially, speaking only for 8 minutes or even speaking just for 5 minutes will really help you for presentations in other classes.
BTW, If you’re worried that you might not be that excellent in your speeches, I think it’s alright because that was me too. Like what SG-UB kid mentioned in one of the previous entries, she marks you also for research and another thing is whether you have improved on your last speech to the current one too.
Definitely will recommend this class taught by Prof Deepa!
My grade for this course: A-
COM 474 Intercultural Communication Research & Cross-adaptation
Instructor: Blake Hendrickson
I know a lot of people who say his classes are really difficult but at the same time he’s a super approachable professor. I guess it’s because of how the whole class is structured like and the content too was really broad, I don’t think it was an extremely hard how-Blake-always-has-his classes like? (also I’m taking his classes for the first time ever so I might be biased here).
Blake is one of those professors who will make an effort to get to know you as a person much rather than a student and it’s something not a lot of professors will willingly do. I
What exactly do you learn in this class?
Since it’s a 400 level class, there was also a research component but Blake had mercy on us lol and gave us a mini research assignment which I’ll get on to later. But because the class is about intercultural communication & cross adaptation, we learnt about a lot of theories in this field, some important scales that you can measure how ethnocentric a person is to the culture, how would you classify a stranger in the culture? theories from different scholars like Kim & Hofstede’s were important ones, types of cultures like whether individualistic or collectivistic which really lays the framework if you look at the world are some of the topics. We also got to delve into biculturalism, intercultural relationships, non verbal communication from different cultures and even relationship initiation cross culturally which was a special topic by Blake!
How the class is structured like:
| What you have to do | Graded percentage |
| 4 cultural encounters | 20% |
| 3 Active learning activities | 15% |
| 1 Mid-term exam | 25% |
| Discussion Leader assignment | 20% |
| Discussion leader mini research proposals | 10% |
Why you should take this class?
- First things first, I’ve always heard Blake’s exams are always super stressful and yes I agree after taking this class. But to be honest if you go through how this class is planned by, it’s just one exam and majority of the other class points are through other assignments/activities which I think is a big, big plus. On the other hand, this class definitely has a lot of work to do (btw cause 400 level module) but it’s fun work rather than boring work like learning for class quizzes or any activity that makes you remember information which you’ve learnt.
- It forces you to get out of the class atmosphere and test out theories that you’ve learnt like whether it applies to real life or does it contradict? This class had 3 active learning activities (aka we got to do 3 different activities as a class outside of school) & cultural encounter assignments that makes you have conversations with an international student in Singapore. Fun fact, I helped Blake plan out an entire active learning activity (a conversational scavenger hunt) which turned out to be a success as well! ^.^
- Most of the theories which you’ll learn from this class, I thought were relatable. Like for instance, did you ever realize when you have a conversation with a stranger there’s always a subconscious ordering of topics?
- It’s one of those classes because of how the activities are structured like that you’ll get to know your class peers a lot more, a lot of our group activities were grouped with people whom I didn’t really know of. This might seem challenging for some but at the end of the day hey I think it’ll about team work and getting out of your comfort zones.
- For this class, Blake also had a class party at the last day and everyone had to bring a dish that they culturally associate themselves too. Tbh, my first time ever attending a class in UB that we’ve got a class party. 🙂
My grade for this course: B+
COM 490 Social Media
Instructor: Jessica Covert
Professor Jessica is one of the nicest and the most helpful ones I’ve come across in school. Really, if you ever sit in her class, I can hands-down say her optimistic attitude and super cheerful voice helps you get through the class. Social media as the name suggests, you’d be learning about various social media platforms. We explored perspectives like – death and dying on social media sites (so what happens to your account when you die, who can take charge of your account etc), how do you present your self on social media versus in reality, risk communication, negative & positive impacts of having online relationships were some of them.
Why you should take this class?
- I’ve heard from quite a bit of my friends that her classes are an easy A and this is so true. For this class we didn’t have any additional readings so everything was based off from her slides as well as any additional article that we had read in class. Also as the class name suggests, social media – I thought that a lot of the information that was taught things that I know but it’s just wrapped up in a proper name, ya know.
- Her class project was interesting as we had to develop an app that tries to communicate a social issue and pitch it to the class for the final day. Also she gives a prize for the winning team!
- She is very friendly and approachable, just like Blake haha! I remember once our group had some difficulty finding an appropriate journal article and she stayed back with us in class helping us to narrow some which I thought was super nice of her.
- In terms of class content, I think it was a “social media” class the content wasn’t particularly difficult, maybe just some key words here and there that you’ve got to remember. I think her tests are easy because there’s just slides and what more really can you ask for?
My grade for this course: B+
My SIM-UB Academic Journey 