Editing Quantitative Methods for Communication (Spring 2023) (section)

= Course Overview and Learning Objectives =

Welcome to COM 304: Quantitative Methods for Communication! We are excited to have you in the class. Nearly all communication jobs involve quantitative research in some way; in this course, we will provide you a foundation for doing quantitative communication research.

I know that for many Communication majors even thinking of math and statistics is traumatic, but we will work hard to provide the resources that you need to succeed and we will take things one step at a time. You can do this!


This course introduces students to a range of social-scientific research methods used to investigate human communication. By the end of this course, you will be able to:   
# Explain the types of research questions, methods, and analyses used by scholars who conduct social-scientific studies of communication, as well as by practitioners in fields such as marketing and consumer research, political polling, etc.; 
# Critically evaluate quantitative research reports, including those you may read in other courses at Purdue as well as those described in the popular media, appearing in business reports, grant applications, and so forth; 
# Design and conduct basic research studies about communication-related topics. 
 
The course is organized into three components which are addressed simultaneously throughout the semester: (1) Research Design, (2) Statistics, and (3) Statistical Software. 

The Research Design component focuses on the process of planning research, considering the range of choices researchers must make in order to conduct useful studies.  This component will not only help you conduct research, it will make you a more critical research consumer. 

The Statistics component is concerned with analyses by which numerical data can be synthesized, described, and interpreted. This component provides a strong conceptual introduction to statistics—with a limited amount of math—and will help you to be confident in analyzing basic numerical data for almost any purpose. 

The Software component is closely allied with the Statistics component. This component focuses on basic applications of the Statistics Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)—a powerful, but user-friendly computer program—and will give you an immediately marketable skill (something to put on the resume). This course should be of use to students with a number of goals, including those: (a) who are contemplating graduate study in communication or related fields; (b) whose current or future career may require them to answer questions by collecting and analyzing data (e.g., advertising, human relations, marketing, public relations); and (c) who want to develop their skills at critically evaluating research and knowledge claims made by “experts” on communication issues.