The Basic Communication Course at Illinois State University is entitled, Communication as Critical Inquiry (COM 110). This course is an integral part of the general education program at ISU. It is one of two courses that all ISU students must take in their first-year experience. As such, we service over 3,400 students annually.

The first-year experience for ISU students is comprised of COM 110, Communication as Critical Inquiry, and ENG 101, Composition as Critical Inquiry (ENG 101). The third element of this important first year sequence is Milner Library where students progress from one course to the next in their information literacy skills.

The overall purpose of the Communication as Critical Inquiry course is to improve students' abilities to express themselves and to listen to others in a variety of communication settings. Effective oral communication is viewed as an essential life skill that every person must possess in order to function in today's society. The course emphasizes participation in a variety of communication processes in order to develop, reinforce, and evaluate communication skills appropriate for public, small group, and interpersonal settings. The course content and experiences will enable students to assume their responsibilities as speaker-listener-critic in a culturally diverse world. In short, the course is designed to make students competent, ethical, critical, confident, and information literate communicators.