Measurable effects of a communication skills course: An initial study

The results of this study demonstrate that changes in students’ writing and speaking skills over the period of a semester can be reliably measured. Using the American College Testing Program's College Outcome Measures Project Speaking and Writing Assessments, students’ gains are identified and attributed to particular rhetorical components of the speaking and writing processes. The major gains occurred for the relatively lowest entry level sub‐groups in both speaking and writing. Students demonstrated a larger gain in speaking skills than in writing skills over the period of a semester.