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Chelsea Sather
Nancy Roche
Writing 1010-018
4 December 2014
The world of Communication:
Exploring literacy practices
The Communication Department is an interactive community that uses multiple
literacy practices to engage their students in ways such as clubs, classes that allow them to
work first hand, and public outreach projects completed by their students. Literacy
practices are more usefully understood as existing in the relations between people, within
groups and communities, rather than as a set of properties residing in individuals (Barton
Hamilton 8). The Communication Department engages their students by allowing them to
have the opportunity to work within their major in ways that interest them particularly.
This paper will be written solely on the practices that students within the Communication
Department use, focusing on the ways that Communication majors become engaged within
their majors. Not to be confused with talk about general education classes required to take
before Communication courses.
Background and Definitions
Literacy Practices can be seen as something that goes way beyond the stereotypical
definition of simply reading and writing, literacy practices are seen as a form that shapes
the context that a society uses. (Barton Hamilton 7). For example within a certain
atmosphere you may use a different way of engaging in conversation than you do within

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another, such as the way you speak/act at school verses how you engage yourself within
your social circle. This view of literacy practices is to deeply analyze the way a social
community runs, why a certain context is used within the group and things that you must
gain knowledge of to be within the loop. The best example of this is the way that an office
works, there is certain terminology that you must gain in order to completely understand
what is going on within that community. As a Communication major I could not just walk
into another department and be able to completely understand the way that it functions
with out being aware of their literacy practices.
The Communications Department at the University of Utah is a strong and focused
department that is completely dedicated to their students. As a freshman you start your
path into the University with a worrisome question of what would be the best possible
major for you. This can be a really scary question because it will determine what kind of
jobs that you will be able to apply for with the degree that you earn through out the next
four years. Although the process may make you anxious, the Communication Department
makes this as easy of a process as possible for you offering you as little or as much guidance
as you may need to plan out schedules, make the decision of your major, or talk about what
classes may be best for you. This was proven to me after my appointment with Travis
Ciaramella an academic advisor for the Department of Communications. He used a written
text to explain to me exactly what classes it would require for me to complete my major
and where I should begin.
Opportunity is out there
As a Communication major there are many diverse job opportunities out there for
you depending on what way you wish to focus on utilizing your expertise. As a

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Communication major you may chose to go into the business world with your degree
working jobs like human resources for a company, you may also chose to go into
advertising working as a marketing specialist, or into education and work as a school
counselor. These are only a few of the fields that you could go into after leaving the
University and entering into the job field. A beneficial part of the work that the
Communication Department does by engaging their students in the world of
communications first hand is that you have already gained knowledge of the literacy
practices used within the field that you are going into. Rather than going in with just an
idea of the study of what you are going into through this program you have not only gained
the literacy practices of the study but hopefully the carrier you wish to go into.
I recently heard about a way that the Department of Communication reaches out to
the public through their community-engaged program Voices of Utah which is a program
where they provide individuals with resources such as education, food, and housing while
they have student journalists writing about the experience that come through this project.
This program is an amazing way that the University not only positively represents their
public outreach but by also working towards bettering that individuals life while also
giving their students interested in journalism a first hand experience at what their job field
would be like in a real life situation rather than a classroom, giving them first hand
experience of the practices.
Involvement in the Department
The Utah Daily Chronicle is directly written by students in a way of both informing
the community of what is going on through out the campus and through out our area and
preparing students for their future jobs by giving them the practices of journalism. The

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Utah Daily Chronicle is an insightful resource for students to find out what the professors at
our University are researching and what the outcome of that research may be also, what
new is going on across campus, and many others exciting things with new posts every day.
This has a positive impact on those involved because it gives them the knowledge of the
practices involved within the world of writing for the press, they must not make the
information that they are writing about themselves but about exactly what it is at hand.
This first hand practice gives them an upper hand in entering into the job field because
although the may be a new journalist outside of their work for the University of Utah they
are well aware of what this job is asking for and the what the society entails.
The authors of The Public Relations Student Society of America-Parry D. Soreson
Chapter refer to the Public Relation Student Society of America as an organization that
serves to build a legacy of leadership within the students interested in public relations
working to build their knowledge of the field and to connect the students with professional
opportunities within public relations. This is a program that works with students to make
them better applicants for jobs and especially to give them the knowledge and experience
needed to get a job. The PRSSA at the University of Utah works directly with other public
relation organizations to gather knowledge and to provide those students with an
abundance of contacts within their field of interests, which is really beneficial to the
students. This in many ways works as a way of networking and building your prospects for
the future outside of your college education.
All of these programs that the University of Utah has have one similar focus, to build
their students and give them first hand experience in their field of interest. Through these
programs it only proves the goals of the Department of Communications to build strong

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and capable students that become successful within the job field. Through the service
orientated outreach programs to the journalism experience and finally with the public
relations networking club the University of Utah is exploring every possible way that they
can to get their students engaged within the practices of their major that is applicable
within the world outside of college. The practices that they push through their flyers and
websites are an exact demonstration of the definition of literacy practices that I provided in
the beginning of the paper, this department works towards the practices that you utilize
within a group rather than within an individual building on the relations between others
rather than the students themselves.
Why it matters
The literacy practices that the Communication Department utilizes is the fact that
not only should their students be learning to the reading of the course and writing about
what theyve learned but that they should also be shown and involve themselves in the
exact practice of what they are studying. A lot of what the Communication Department is
about is the way that companies/universities must connect themselves to the public
through literacy such as written texts like journalism or speeches and outreach programs
involving the public relations sector. It is fascinating to me that through my investigation
of the Department of Communications I have gained the knowledge of how involved and
integrated the community is that I have decided to join.
Through my research I have concluded that being a part of the Department of
Communications is not only about the study of communications and what it entails but that
the Department of Communications is always working towards a new way to get their
students involved in the first hand experience of what they are passionate about which is

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something that really sets their department above other departments that arent capable of
engaged their students within the practices of their future carriers.

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Works Cited
Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton. "Literacy Practices." Situated Literacies: Reading and
Writing in Context. London: Routledge, 2000. 7-8. Print.
Public Relations Student Society of America- Parry D. Sorensen Chapter. Np. 21 Nov.
2014 Web. 4 Dec. 2014.
<http://communication.utah.edu/students/undergraduate/prssa.php>.

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Inventory
Literacy Practices
Advertising for Public
Relations Society of
America Pamphlet

Artifact

Club for the Community of

PR Majors. Flyer found in
Communication
Department
Awareness/Advertising
Illustrating the
for Voices of Utah
opportunities of the
community. Found on the
Communication page
News wrote by students
Found on the
The Daily Utah Chronicle
Communication page
What is it really about?
Asked an advisor
Informational hearing.
Interview with an advisor
of Communications.
Advertisement of a a
Found on the
course offered Humanities communication page.
in Focus
Shows the versatile
interests of the
communication
department.
Systematic Information.
Found on the
TeleComm Lab Reserver.
communication page.
Shows the way it is made
easy for students within
the community.
What does my major
Found on the
stand behind?
communication page.
Communication mission
Shows the foundation
statement.
behind the department.

Location
Located in LNCO

Website

Website
Located in LNCO
Website

Website

Website