The piece of evidence that best reflects my knowledge of the first learning objective of

the communication discipline at Bryant University, to describe the communication discipline and
its central questions, is the first discussion prompt written for my Senior Seminar in
Communication Theory course. For this course, we were required to read one chapter per week
in our textbook, Applying Communication Theory for Professional Life: A Practical
Introduction, by Marianne Dainton and Elaine D. Zelley, and write a 600-1000 word discussion
prompt in response to this reading each week. There were a total of twelve chapters and
discussion prompts assigned throughout the duration of this course. The discussion prompts were
intended to be written with a summary of the chapter, followed by an application of a specific
idea or ideas from the chapter on a larger scale, while including 2-3 discussion provoking
questions in the discussion prompt or at the end of it. The discussion prompt, as well as the
discussion questions, were then to be used to participate in the discussion-oriented nature of the
course. Since in class participation and the discussion prompts accounted for a large portion of
the overall grade for the course, it was essential that each chapter was read thoroughly, each
discussion prompt was written to effectively demonstrate my understanding of the chapter, and
each discussion question could be used in class to facilitate an ongoing discussion amongst my
professor and classmates.
The discussion prompt which I have chosen to reflect my knowledge of the first learning
objective was written in response to the first chapter in the textbook, which is titled,
Introduction to Communication Theory. This chapter essentially provides an introductory look
into the communication discipline by touching upon its central ideas and questions. In writing
the discussion prompt for this chapter, the summary effectively describes the communication
discipline and its central questions. Some of the questions which are central to the

communication discipline regard what communication actually is, what the different established
definitions for communication are and the distinctions between them, what the different contexts
in which communication occurs are, and what the nature of communication competence is. The
discussion prompt then takes a deeper look into the widely varying and interchanging experience
that is involved in the process of communication with others. In doing so, it reflects some of the
main goals of the first learning objective, being to summarize the broad nature of the
communication discipline and to distinguish the communication discipline from related areas of
study. Since the first chapter in this textbook reflects the ideas of the first learning objective and
some of its main goals, the discussion prompt I had written to summarize and apply the ideas in
the chapter on a larger scale effectively demonstrate my knowledge of the first learning
objective.