What is “Comm-B”?

What is “Comm-B”?

Communications–B, or “Comm-B,” courses fulfill the second part of UW-Madison’s two-part Communication requirement, which is intended to enhance students’ literacy and research skills within specific academic disciplines.

This section describes the Comm-B requirement, outlines the general criteria and teaching expectations for courses that meet the Comm-B requirement, and specifies the learning outcomes associated with these courses.

Because effective research and communication vary across disciplines and professions, your Comm–B course might look different from others. However, there are several expectations that all Comm-B courses share, listed in the next section.

The Communication Requirement at UW-Madison

The text below is excerpted from the 2023-2024 version of the University’s Undergraduate Guide.

The General Education Communication Requirement helps to ensure that all graduates of UW–Madison acquire essential communication and research-gathering skills necessary for success in university course work and beyond. Communication–A (“Comm–A”) and Communication–B (“Comm–B”) courses train students to gather and assess information from a variety of sources and to present different kinds of information, insight, and analysis to diverse audiences. These courses are essential for students’ career success and their preparation for public life in a rapidly changing world.

While Comm-A courses focus exclusively on essential communication skills, Comm-B courses provide content instruction in a specific discipline and teach research, writing, and communication skills in conjunction with the course content. Comm-B courses are offered by departments across campus and vary widely in topic, content, and format.

Expectations of a Comm-B course include:

1. Various writing and/or speaking assignments throughout the semester, including both shorter and longer assignments; a total of 6-8 is ideal.
2. Assignments spaced throughout the semester, culminating in products that share the results of research in writing and at least one other mode of communication appropriate to the discipline.
3. Assignments totaling 20 pages of writing (in draft and polished form).
4. At least two assignments requiring students to submit drafts, receive and incorporate feedback, and revise.
5. At least two opportunities for students to present research findings, creative work, or other coursework in writing.
6. At least two opportunities for students to present research findings, creative work, or other coursework in modes other than writing (see a list of Strategies for Integrating Oral Communication in your Comm-B class).
7. At least one writing conference where students will have the opportunity to discuss their in-progress assignment(s) with their TA or instructor.
8. Additional opportunities to give and receive feedback from peers and instructors on their writing.
9. An information literacy component, where students learn how to gather and evaluate information in a specific field or discipline. It is recommended to have two hours of instructional time with a campus librarian, such as a two-part library workshop. These activities should be planned in collaboration with appropriate library staff members; contact the Director of the UW-Madison Libraries Teaching and Learning Programs (libinstruct@library.wisc.edu) for assistance in getting started.

Read more about the General Education Communication Requirements at UW-Madison.

Comm-B Course Learning Outcomes

While Comm-A is about establishing literacy proficiency, Comm-B is about enhancing literacy proficiency. By taking a Comm-B course, students will learn to:

• Identify and make skillful use of relevant, reliable, and high-quality research sources appropriate to the course subject and discipline
• Make productive use of the writing process, including brainstorming, outlining, drafting, incorporating feedback, and revising, to develop a fledgling idea into a formal paper, presentation, and/or project
• Share research, course content, or creative activity in writing and at least one other mode of communication relevant to the discipline. Other modes of communication may include presentations using one or more media, debates, discussions, poster presentations, and other forms of expression that convey course content.

Expectations for Comm-B Instructors

There is no “average” Comm-B student. Some students in your class may have tested out of the Comm-A requirement; others may have taken First Year Composition at UW-Madison or another school; still others may have taken a speaking-focused Comm-A course instead of a writing-focused one. All this to say: there are many paths students may take to your Comm-B course.

Teaching a Comm-B course means helping students understand how writing works in a specific field or discipline. Depending on the particular field of study, Comm-B students will learn different kinds of writing and communication skills. Students in a Comm-B biology course might learn to write up research findings in a formal laboratory report; students in a history Comm-B might learn to compare historical sources in a written review; and students in a business Comm-B might learn to write business memos to hypothetical clients.

Specific writing assignments will differ from course to course, but all Comm-B instructors should:

1. Spend time teaching and reinforcing writing and presentation skills. When possible, use class time to teach and model the writing and presentation skills students need to complete assignments in your course. Share models with students and talk with them about why the models are successful examples of the writing you want them to do.

2. Design writing assignments that promote drafting and revision. Scaffold your assignments to allow students to draft a writing (or speaking/presentation) assignment, receive feedback from you or peers, and revise based on that feedback. Let students know that successful writers take the time to review and revise their work and often share it with friends, reviewers, and editors.

3. Integrate communication in forms other than writing. Academics produce and disseminate knowledge through verbal and nonverbal products, including posters, presentations, flash talks, and infographics. They also collaborate to create knowledge and support each other’s work, whether through study groups, task forces, or multiple-author publications. As a Comm-B instructor, you can model these practices by integrating various modes of communication into your class (see a list of Strategies for Integrating Oral Communication in your Comm-B class).

4. Meet with students to talk about writing. Hold at least one 15-minute conference with each student to discuss writing or a presentation in progress. In the conference, praise what’s working well in the writing or the presentation, offer specific suggestions for improvement, and help the student set larger goals as a writer/speaker.

5. Offer specific, actionable, and timely feedback. When responding to student writing, prioritize addressing global concerns (e.g., argument, organization, transitions, use of evidence) before focusing on local issues (e.g., punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, style). Be sure to promote revision by providing students with specific, actionable recommendations and/or redirecting them to resources that can help improve their papers and presentations (for strategies on how to give helpful feedback to student writers/speakers, see Providing Feedback on (and Evaluation of) Student Writing).

6. Provide students with opportunities to receive peer feedback. Plan to facilitate at least one peer-review session in class, asynchronously, or a combination of both. You might set aside class time and have students work in pairs or groups before the paper is due. Alternatively, you might have them read a peer’s draft and write comments outside of class and then discuss their feedback in class (this can take up less class time).

7. Get to know students as writers. Because students’ prior writing experiences vary widely, consider asking them to share some of their experiences from high school and other college courses. You can do this as part of a first-week discussion, on Canvas (either as an individual assignment or a post to a shared class discussion board), or a pre-semester survey. Approach this information as an opportunity to get to know your students better and help them succeed in your class.

Please note: the above listed expectations may all fall on a single instructor or on a teaching team (in the case where there are one or more TAs for the course). For example, in a teaching team, TAs may be responsible for holding conferences with students.