The Department of Communication

Speech Communication

Speech communication? It's a college education with a real career potential. As Thomas Mann said, "Speech is civilization itself!"

What is speech communication?
Opportunities with a speech communication degree.
What is the curriculum like at Missouri Southern?

What is Speech Communications?
Speech communication involves the study of how human beings use symbols to communicate messages. With roots in classical Greek and Roman rhetoric, the discipline promotes skills and theory ranging from oratory and interpersonal influence to organizational and intercultural studies.

As part of your education, at Missouri's most affordable University, you are encouraged to take a well-rounded liberal arts curriculum and to participate in departmental and campus clubs and activities.

You may select a minor in a field of related interest. In addition, internships for credit can provide practical experience in developing professional competence.

What opportunities exist with a speech communication degree?
The ability to speak and write clearly, relate to people effectively, and to think critically are key qualities sought by employers. These skills are taught as an integral part of the speech communication discipline, enabling our alumni to achieve positions of leadership in government, business, and the profession, including:

Many choose speech communication as a pre-professional degree before ministerial studies or law school. Some choose speech communication as a means into a public relations career or into personnel management.

Working with an experienced adviser, the student gains valuable assistance in making choices and decisions as the present and future.

What is the curriculum like at Missouri Southern?
Missouri Southern's Department of Communication offers an extensive curriculum in speech communication which is strong in organizational communication and in public relations with attention paid to all other areas of the discipline.

For example, all majors take Introduction to Human Communication, a freshman-level survey course which examines the total field of communication and helps one make a decision as to whether or nor this is the field to major in.

Everyone in the College takes Oral Communication to learn about speaking skills and listening skills and to practice putting those skills in use. Public speaking, you'll discover, can be fun! And you can go on to take Advanced Public Speaking to put those skills to further use and to really gain greater confidence and facility in their use.

Voice and Diction is a course to help you with the voice mechanism, to understand it, and to understand the problems of making sounds correctly.

Interpersonal Communication helps you to get along better with others, while Small Group Communication puts those skills to the test in situations involving five to 12 persons. In Organizational Communication you'll study how messages flow through businesses, institutions, and all kinds of organizations, and in Advanced Organizational Communication you'll learn more about how employers and employees must interact to accomplish the goals of the organization.

You can study Intercultural Communication and learn how peoples of different cultures overcome their differences to learn effective communication. Persuasion helps you to learn how to influence individuals and groups, and in Professional Interviewing you will prepare yourself for professional fields which require information-seeking and -gathering, decision-making, interaction, and self-expression skills.

Gender Communication will help you learn about male-female symbolic interaction in a variety of situations and contexts. A course in Research in Communications prepares you for graduate study as well as for many of the research tasks involved in any organization or in public relations. Nonverbal communication helps you to learn to apply the principles of this fascinating field of study to selected perspectives. Political and Social Communication helps you learn to analyze critically speakers and speeches of leading social and political movements in national and international affairs, while International Communication leads you through a study of media around the world.

You'll end your career at Missouri Southern with Communication Issues, a capstone course for seniors, designed to synthesize all information from previous courses and show you how to put it all together.

 

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3950 East Newman Road, Joplin, MO 64801-1595, Phone: (417)625-9580 - FAX: (417)625-9585
Comments? Questions? Email Linda Perkins