COMM 20008 - Communicating Public Policy

Course Credit: 1
In this course, students will draw on communication principles to critique, design, and defend public policies from across the world. We will focus on the role of rhetoric in public policy as we investigate how communities analyze a public problem, and create and justify policies to address the problem. This writing intensive course places equal emphasis on the content of public policy and the skills of good writing. As such, we will draw on readings such as Robert Asen’s work on Social Security debates in the United States, Amartya Sen’s writing on developmental policies in India, and Murray Edelman’s scholarship on political language, as well as instructional touchstones of good composition by George Orwell, William Strunk, Jr, and E.B. White. The course will feature regular brief writing assignments, an in-class debate, and a final project in which students design a policy that makes a positive difference in their communities. Prerequisite(s): COMM 11100, or one completed course in COMD [W]