Core CMNS Courses Course Credits
Required: 9.00
- CMNS 112 Introduction to Communications Studies 3.00
- CMNS 132 Explorations in Mass Media 3.00
- CMNS 231 Cultural Industries in Canada 3.00
Credits 9.00
Choice Course Credits
Choose 3.00 credits from the following list: 3.00
- CMNS 209 History of Media 3.00
- CMNS 253 Society and New Media 3.00
Credits 3.00
Choice Course Credits
Choose 6.00 credits from the following list: 6.00
- CMNS 222 Decoding Media Strategies 3.00
- CMNS 235 Understanding News 3.00
- CMNS 236 Understanding Television 3.00
Credits 6.00
Choice Course Credits
Choose 6.00 credits from the following list: 6.00
- CMNS 260 Applied Communications Research Methods 3.00
- CMNS 261 Interpreting Communications Documents 3.00
- CMNS 262 Qualitative Research Methods in Communications Studies 3.00
Credits 6.00
Choice Course Credits
Choose 6.00 credits from the following list: 6.00
- CMNS 209 History of Media 3.00
- CMNS 222 Decoding Media Strategies 3.00
- CMNS 235 Understanding News 3.00
- CMNS 236 Understanding Television 3.00
- CMNS 253 Society and New Media 3.00
- CMNS 270 Visual Communications 3.00
- CMNS 360 Strategic Communications 3.00
Credits 6.00
Electives Course Credits
Required: 3.00
- ENGL 100 Academic Writing Strategies 3.00
Choose 27.00 credits from the following list: 27.00
- Humanities (Art History, History, English, Foreign languages, Linguistics, Studio or Performing Arts) credits 9.00
- Science/Applied Science (Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computing Science, Engineering, Geography, Geology, Math, Physics or Kinetics) credits 6.00
- Social Science (Anthropology, Communications, Criminology, Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology and Women's Studies), Business or Commerce credits 12.00
Credits 30.00
Total Program Credits 60.00
CMNS 112
Introduction to Communications Studies
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
This course is intended to introduce students to the history and theory of communication and media. It examines changes in communication technologies and symbol systems starting with the emergence of speech in human society and considers the relationship between the development of new media and forms of communication and patterns of social, political, and cultural development.
CMNS 115
Communications for Animation
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Students learn various communications skills necessary for success in the animation industry. Content includes presentation, writing and research skills, and scriptwriting for animation.
Note: This course is restricted to Animation program students.
CMNS 117
Exploring Popular Culture Through the Media: An Interactive Course for International Students
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
An introductory course for international students that starts with the concept of cultural intelligence and goes on to explore communication and culture in business and academic life. The course encourages students to identify and reflect on vocabulary, cultural values, attitudes and behaviours as these are displayed in radio, television, popular music, cinema, the Internet, video games, books, magazines and newspapers, and uses these areas to assist with communications skill development.
CMNS 120
Professional Writing for Artists
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course is designed to provide communications skills for practicing artists who need to write professional materials. It includes instruction in document organization and structure, a toolbox approach to grammar and usage, and an introduction to academic writing of essays and reports. The course includes instruction in writing proposals, grant applications and materials for workshop delivery, as well as practice in professional presentations.
CMNS 123
Fundamentals of Communication for Artists and Designers
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
The objectives are to help students develop theoretical fundamentals of communications. Topics will include interpersonal and group communications; mass media; basic research skills in selected communications topics related to imagery; and oral and written presentations that help students differentiate between description, analysis, critique and interpretation. The course also provides time for discussion of, and practice in, how to give and receive constructive criticism and positive feedback.
Note: This course is restricted to IDEA program students.
CMNS 131
Business Writing for Documentary
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course introduces students to business writing for the documentary industry. Students will write correspondence, proposals, fact sheets, production notes, media releases, and résumés using business formats.
CMNS 132
Explorations in Mass Media
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
This course examines the emergence and importance of mass media in society. It explores theoretical considerations and approaches to communications studies including the role of media in democracy, political economy of media, critical studies and media structures. A number of media industries are examined in detail, including print, broadcast and film, and the course considers other issues including new media and globalization. This is a writing intensive course.
CMNS 152
Communication Skills for Retail Marketing
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This writing for the workplace course covers letters, memoranda, and reports as well as a review of English basics in the context of business writing.
Note: This course is restricted to Retail Marketing program students.
CMNS 154
Communications in Outdoor Recreation and Tourism
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This writing for Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Management course covers reports, memoranda, press releases, articles, briefs and proposals.
Note: This course is restricted to WLP and REC program students.
CMNS 159
Communications for the Legal Administrative Assistant
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course emphasizes English basics (grammar, spelling, punctuation, correct usage), proofreading skills, and business writing.
CMNS 165
Writing Skills for New Media
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Communications 165 is intended to foster writing and presentation skills for work in the new media industries. The course encourages students to explore techniques and career trends in technical and professional writing.
CMNS 170
Presentation Skills for Public Speaking
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course focuses on the dynamics of organizing material, overcoming shyness and developing poise as a speaker in a variety of contexts. Attention to research, voice training, nonverbal communication, and strategies for timing presentations are key components of this course. In addition, this course uses video equipment, enabling students to see themselves on camera, as well as to benefit from feedback from others, as they refine their ability to project, to organize their thoughts, and to address audience needs.
CMNS 174
Wilderness Leadership Communications
3.00 credits (6,0,2) hrs 08 wks
This course in writing and speech for wilderness-leadership professionals covers business correspondence, spoken presentations, and proposals.
Note: This course is restricted to WLP and REC program students.
CMNS 179
Writing for Legal Assistants and Paralegals
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: ENGL 100
This course is planned to help develop listening, speaking and writing skills for work in the legal profession. Listening and speaking assignments include observation and discussion of a variety of materials presented in non-written form. Writing assignments address three goals: to equip students with the tools they need to write accurately and appropriately; to provide opportunities to practice translating from speech and observation to written formats, as is often required in legal practice; and to master format, tone, layout and style in general and legal correspondence.
Note: This course is restricted to Paralegal/Legal Assistant program students.
CMNS 190
Article Writing
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course covers researching and writing articles for publication in news media and magazines. In addition, this course emphasizes the analysis of magazine readership, techniques of researching and interviewing, the current market for articles, and development of an effective prose style. Students write three articles in suitable format and submit them for publication in established periodicals.
CMNS 191
Writing for Magazines
3.00 credits (8,0,0) hrs 08 wks
Corequisite: CMNS 221, 351 and 371
This course teaches students the fundamentals of magazine writing, starting with generating story ideas and pitching them to editors. Learn how to write short, front-of-the-book articles, profiles, first-person accounts and other magazine features.
CMNS 205
International Interaction II
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 105
This course provides students with an awareness of appropriate written communication tools for business interaction in a North American setting. Students completing the course will be familiar with selected business writing formats, citations, conventions, matters of style, on-line and print resources, and rhetorical frameworks in written and electronic interactions.
CMNS 209
History of Media
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course introduces students to a variety of perspectives on the history of media and guides them through a history of social and cultural development as seen from the perspective of transformations in communication, symbol systems, and media technologies from orality to networked digital media.
CMNS 220
Advanced Business Writing and Editing
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: ENGL 100
This course focuses on researching, organizing, writing and editing extensive business documents: reports, proposals, memoranda, and media releases. Emphasis is on clear style and logical organization.
CMNS 221
Editing and Writing for the Business of Publishing
1.50 credits (3.43,0,0) hrs 07 wks
Corequisite: CMNS 241 and 351
This course teaches business writing in a publishing context. The curriculum addresses issues involved with career preparation in publishing, prepares students for the internship, and includes a strong component of copy editing and proofreading.
CMNS 222
Decoding Media Strategies
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course offers a critical introduction to the study of popular culture and popular media. This course explores the development of contemporary popular culture as an expression of the tensions unleashed by the emergence of mass consumer society, post-industrialism, and media. Popular culture is seen as a mode in which modern societies play out tensions between consumerism and citizenship, democracy and social control, ethical and social responsibility and individualism, creative expression and political-economic domination. We explore critical issues in popular culture and media through an examination of key debates, historical trends, and ethical issues.
CMNS 223
Communications Skills, Applications and Contexts for Design and Art Direction
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 123
CMNS 223 is intended to familiarize students with the role of designers and illustrators in business, and to define a broad resource of opportunities as they acquire the vocabulary, conceptual skills, and writing competencies appropriate to a wide variety of professional contexts in illustration and design.
Note: This course is restricted to IDEA program students.
CMNS 231
Cultural Industries in Canada
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course provides an overview of the cultural industries in Canada - those industries that create and disseminate meaning. The course introduces students to print, broadcasting, film, the Internet, and other cultural industries in Canada and internationally. It explores the business structure and economics of principal sectors, and key regulatory and policy issues in their social, political, cultural and global contexts. This course utilizes cultural theory and political economy approaches to study and critically analyze these industries and their role in society.
CMNS 235
Understanding News
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course introduces students to the institution and industry of making news in our society. It focuses on the social, political, professional, economic and technological forces which both shape and constrain news production in modern Canadian news organizations. Students are expected to monitor print, broadcast and online news on a regular basis throughout the course.
CMNS 236
Understanding Television
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
The phenomenon of television is considered by many to be one of the defining social, political and cultural features of the 20th century. Television has had a profound effect on domestic and public spheres as well as on our personal and collective senses of time; it has contributed in fundamental ways to experiences of ourselves and our society. This course looks at the issues and content of contemporary television using concepts from cultural studies theory and television studies and looks at the world television has created.
CMNS 241
Software for Magazine Publishing
1.50 credits (6,0,0) hrs 04 wks
This course introduces students to InDesign, a key software program used in the magazine publishing industry for text and page formatting and design. Familiarity with computers and knowledge of word processing programs are recommended.
CMNS 250
Introduction to Technical Writing
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: ENGL 100
The course includes the examination of technical reports and the study of the role of technical writing in corporate and scientific settings. It covers technical writing for science, engineering and the professions and emphasizes definitions, process analysis, writing instructions, resume preparation, and an extended formal report.
CMNS 253
Society and New Media
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course is an examination of information technology as a new medium of communication in society and related present and future implications. Attention is paid to "social software", including web logs, instant messaging, and short text messaging. The course looks at some major applications of new media surveillance, privacy, and power; dating and relationships, community and politics, education, and popular music. This is a writing intensive course.
CMNS 260
Applied Communications Research Methods
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
This course serves as an introduction to the practices and methods of applied qualitative research methods. Students will exercise their curiosity and intellects as they explore research methodology through readings, discussions, lectures, and media works. The course sets the stage for students to deepen their understanding of theoretical, conceptual, interpretive, representational, and fieldwork practices, as well as to explore the fundamental questions related to audiences, authors and purposes of research.
CMNS 261
Interpreting Communications Documents
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 and 132
The purpose of this course is to help Communication students develop skills in finding and interpreting print and electronic documents. It is a course in which students "learn by doing" in practical research assignments. The course raises for discussion and analysis topics such as database research techniques, web page evaluation, documents and secondary sources, archives and libraries, and government executive and legislative documents.
CMNS 262
Qualitative Research Methods in Communications Studies
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112, 132 and one of the following 200-level Communications Studies course - CMNS 209, 222, 231, 235, 236, 253, 260, 261 or 270
The course introduces students to a variety of qualitative research methods utilized within communication and media studies. It also explores the philosophical, ethical, and political backgrounds against which the social construction of knowledge in understandings of communication, media, and society takes place. We will approach qualitative research not only as a set of techniques for gathering and evaluating data, but as a nest of problems posed to responsible, ethical, politically aware knowledge-building practice.
CMNS 270
Visual Communications
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: ENGL 100 or CMNS 120
This course is intended for students of communications and business who are interested in examining what we see in the mass media and how we see it. Using photography as the basis, the course explores vision as a physiological and psychological phenomenon, examines the history and use of the camera and develops a number of perspectives for analyzing images. Students then examine in detail different aspects of visual media, including topography, newspapers, magazines, advertising, movies, television/video and computer images, analyzing the "framed" world in mass media representation. Assignments are practical projects.
CMNS 280
Fiction Techniques for Professional Writers
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
This course has students preparing short stories and novels in commercial genres such as mysteries, romances, thrillers and science fiction. Discussion of the market for such fiction in Canada and the U.S. Students submit three assignments (such as three short stories or a novel synopsis and two chapters) in marketable form. Students should discuss their plans with the instructor before registering.
CMNS 302
Advanced International Interactions II
3.00 credits (5,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 301
This course is designed to help McCrae Institute students prepare for positions of responsibility and leadership in the international business community. The focus of the course is advanced written communication skills in a Canadian business context. The course builds on a base of rhetorical concepts and principles to address context, audience, and credibility in international communications. Assignments will include written correspondence, proposals, reports and associated business documentary forms.
CMNS 305
Advanced International Interactions I
3.00 credits (4,0,0) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 105 and 205
This course is designed for McCrae Institute students preparing to work overseas. The course is grounded in concepts in intercultural communications, and challenges students to move intellectually towards intercultural competence as they develop and practise verbal and non-verbal communication skills appropriate to leadership roles in international business from a Canadian base.
CMNS 345
Web Content Development
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 220 with a minimum C+ grade
This course helps develop content for Web pages intended for advocacy, marketing or self-promotion, both by writing new material and by revising existing text for hypertext formats.
Note: Prerequisites may be waived by permission of the instructor.
Note: The student is expected to have basic computer skills including word processing, e-mail, and web navigation, as well as access to e-mail and the web from a home computer.
CMNS 351
Magazine Editing
3.00 credits (7.43,0,0) hrs 07 wks
Corequisite: CMNS 191, 221 and 371
This course introduces students to the major tasks of an editor employed by a trade or consumer magazine. Topics covered include assignment and fix letters, editing and fact checking, media ethics, manuscripts, media ethics, editorial packaging, headlines and decks, pagination, and dealing with freelance writers and other magazine staff including art directors and publishers.
CMNS 354
Advanced Communications Skills for Tourism Management
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 154 or equivalent, or any first year University Transfer English course
Intended for students registered in the Tourism Management degree program, CMNS 354 develops advanced skills in written and verbal communications, including technical writing, presentation skills, and information technology applications.
Note: Prerequisites may be waived by permission of the instructor.
Note: This course is restricted to Tourism and Communications program students.
CMNS 360
Strategic Communications
3.00 credits (3,0,1) hrs 15 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 112 or 132 or 220
This applied course provides an overview of the range of skills and strategies required for working in corporate, community and government communications fields. The focus is on practical information and media design, and utilizes a case-study approach in which students work both alone and in groups in simulated communications projects. The course covers topics such as relations with the public, media and government, internal organizational communications, working with stakeholders/investors, crisis communications, corporate advertising and public branding. Students will create communications pieces, develop corporate/organizational identities, and develop and present complex strategic communications plans for a business, government, or non-profit/NGO client.
Note: Prerequisite may be waived by permission of instructor or coordinator.
CMNS 371
Foundations of Design, Layout and Production for Magazines
3.00 credits (7,0,0) hrs 07 wks
Corequisite: CMNS 241
This course covers magazine design from both theoretical and practical points of view. Topics include an historical overview of magazine design in North America, a survey of the various roles and tasks of art directors, photographers, photo editors and designers in magazines, and the four elements in publication design: images, typography, colour, and layout.
CMNS 400
Magazine Internship
6.00 credits (0,0,35) hrs 06 wks
Prerequisite: CMNS 191, 221, 241, 351, and 371 as prerequisites or co-requisites
This course is an industry internship arranged by the student with faculty assistance. Classroom sessions prepare the student for the internship, and further preparation is provided in co-requisite courses.
