The course is an innovative attempt to further develop in the student all the four primary communication skills—writing, speaking, listening, and reading. Writing and speaking skills are developed by most communication school curricula, since effective writing and speaking are obvious hallmarks of the superior communicator. But communication students get little direct guidance in developing their two other skills—listening and reading—although these are just as important because they enable the communicator to gather inputs for and feedback on their written and spoken communication. Hence, this course on the principles of the primary forms of human communication and their applications is being offered.

The course follows the seminar-workshop approach in which presentations or lectures by the faculty member are followed by hands-on exercises to enable students to apply the information and knowledge learned. After the course, the students are expected to have acquired a good grasp of the principles related to the primary communication skills, applied them successfully to specific communication situations, and internalized the methods involved for further development of these skills on their own.