COMM204 Public Speaking

Attendance is expected at every meeting. Students with one non-university approved absence should not presume to earn an A grade in thiscourse. A student who misses three class sessions should drop the class or accept the possibility of earning an F in the course.

Academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in this course. As public speakers, students are encouraged to pay close attention to plagiarism as it relates to global plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism and incremental plagiarism.

Any student who needs assistance because of learning disability should inform the Dean of Students’ Office of such disability, and advise Prof. Ikpah of the disability and possible desired accommodations.  

Cell phones and beepers must be turned off during class. Any student, whose cell phone rings during class session, will lose twenty points (20) from his or her course grade. Further, no abusive language of any sort will be accommodated during speech presentation or other classroom activities. You will lose 20 points if you are on your phone or computer during a speech presentation. Remember that presenters have spent a lot of time getting this speech ready for you. Therefore, it behooves you to  listen to their presentations.

Class will begin and end promptly unless for squally weather and/or other extenuating circumstances.  Infractions will be counted against students toward their final grades—student loses 20 points for an absence. Two late arrivals, two early leaves and/or one of both are considered an absence.A student is considered late when the instructor calls his/her name during roll call and the student is not physically present to indicate presence. Early  leave means leaving the classroom before the instructor officially dismisses class.  A student is considered absent when he/she arrives 31 minutes after a class session has started or fails to attend a class session.

a student who arrives after a speech has started must wait outside the classroom for the speaker to finish his or her speech before the late comer can enter the classroom. Any student who enters the classroom during any speech process loses 30 points.  

Any assignment that does not have a student’s name and class time on it will 20 lose points. Each student must append his/her name and class time on his/her work before submitting such work to the instructor to be graded. Students lose 20 points each time he or she forgets to write her/his name, class time and number of points assigned for the assignment. You will lose 30 points for using this class period to complete “other” projects during presentation or any other in-class project. Also, any student who uses this class time to surf the Internet or reply text messages or perform tasks not related to this class will lose 30 points for each occurrence. Please don’t do it. You will lose points.