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ComS 100A: Survey of Communication Studies
Test 1: Study Guide
Harris-Jenkinson
The test is worth 50 points and consists of a combination of multiple choice and true/false
questions.
The test covers the following textbook readings and lectures:
 Chapters 1 (Overview of Comm), 2 (Histories of Communication), 3 (Identities,
Perceptions & Communication), 4 (Verbal Comm), 5 (Nonverbal Comm), 6 (Listening)
from Communication in Everyday Life (Duck & McMahan)
 Lectures: Communication Process, Perception and Intrapersonal, Language, Nonverbal,
Listening
Please note: Some questions are very straight forward and involve rote memory (e.g., definitions,
lists), while others are application-based (you may be given an example and asked to identify a
concept). Other questions are based upon synthesis (you may not be able to find the exact
answer from lecture or in the textbook, but you should be able to figure out the answer if you
understand the material). Occasionally I use comic strips as the basis for questions
Materials needed:
 One scantron (green, #882, half sheet)
 One piece of binder paper (if you come across a question on the multiple choice or true/false
questions where you believe you need to justify your answer)
 One or two sharpened #2 pencils
 Your bright, cheerful, awake and READY smiling face
You should know (be able to identify based upon examples, give an example/definition for a
concept, etc.):
 The main needs communication fulfills
 The models of communication (linear, interactive, transactional) and what distinguishes each
from each other; know the “communication as action,” etc., terminology as well
 Relationships and communication (textbook)
 Symbols and referents
 Historiography
 Rhetorical studies
 Symbolic interactionism
 Altercasting
 Types of selves (look at the textbook!)
 Types of communication contexts (interpersonal, group, public, organizational, etc.)
 Self-concept, self-esteem, self-fulfilling prophecy—basically, if it has “self” in the word, know
it!
 Self-worth/self-esteem, self-concept
 Self-Disclosure definition and guidelines
 Johari Window
 Stages of interpersonal perception
 Selective attention, selective perception, etc.
 Primacy and recency effects
 Language abstraction ladder (S.I. Hayikawa)
 Language barriers (bypassing, polarization, allness, etc.)
 Metacommunication
 The conversation process (opening, feedforward, business, feedback, closing)
 Functions of language (aid to memory, enables us to abstract)
Harris-Jenkinson
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Test 1 Study Guide: ComS 100A
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Meanings of words (learned, arbitrary, etc.)
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Polysemy
Functions of talk (instrumental, indexical, etc.)
Burke’s Pendad (act, agency, etc.)
Difficulties in interpreting nonverbal communication
How verbal and nonverbal messages interact
Areas of study in nonverbal communication (proxemics, chronemics, haptics, etc.)
Differences between listening and hearing
Suggestions to improve listening
Reasons we listen ineffectively (barriers to listening)
Types of listening (discriminative, comprehensive, etc.); include Relational Listening (as
discussed in the textbook)
Fallacies
Harris-Jenkinson
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Test 1 Study Guide: ComS 100A