Objectives:

1. To practice the balance of scholar and practitioner by applying scholarship in relational communication to your lived experiences.

2. To analyze, apply, and critique relational communication concepts from units on culture and gender, the self, perception, language, nonverbal communication, and emotions.

3. To analyze relational communication concepts from a Dark Side lens.

Assignment: This class will be focused on engaging with interpersonal communication scholarship from the lenses of both scholars (i.e., using theorizing and empirical findings to analyze communication) and practitioners (i.e., understanding and applying knowledge of interpersonal communication to the "real world"). Thus, in this reflection paper, you will write about your lived experiences in a way that applies scholarship from relational communication. You will identify and analyze two separate communication experiences from your life.

You may explore experiences you've undergone in the past, or seek out new experiences for this assignment. Past experiences may include moments when cultural/gender communication was salient, conflicts, break-ups, or times of uncertainty or of joy. You may seek out communication experiences such as interviewing someone in a long-term relationship, attending/participating in a cultural event, observing a relationship in action, or interviewing someone from another (co-)culture.
You will then analyze your communication events by identifying and analyzing them in light of relational communication concepts from the course. Each entry should include:

1. A description of the event, including enough information to provide a context for understanding the dynamics involved. This section may contain information about what you thought, how you reacted, and how other(s) responded or felt.

2. An analysis of several aspects of relational communication illuminated in your experience, drawing from specific course concepts. Bold the course concepts you apply. Your application should focus on insights stemming from course concepts. You should identify helpful aspects of these concepts, as well as critiques of the value of the concepts used.

a. Each of your entries should apply concepts from different chapters in the text (Chs 1-6).

3. An analysis of the dark aspects of your experience. Where did you see elements of functional ambivalence? Was the experience wholly dark or light? What does this tell you about the dark side metaphor for relational communication?

4. An application of at least one academic source (e.g., journal article, book chapter, or book) to your analysis ( =2 total in the paper). Use these sources to advance and support your arguments. Websites and popular press sources do not meet this requirement.