This article describes how 2 classrooms of 4-year-old children incorporated popular media (cartoons, television shows, video games, movies, and music) into their conversations with peers during writing. The findings assert that (a) children naturally incorporate popular culture into their writing, (b) children include popular culture in their…

Presents a study testing the ability of "trained" and "untrained" undergraduates to perceive stylistic differences in samples of business writing. Concludes that both groups have difficulty identifying tested differences, "trained" students having only a modes advantage. (MS)

Examines the way communication researchers write about the unconscious and its relationships with communication behavior. Shows that they use ordinary words to describe unconscious processes and are burdened by those words' implications of conscious agency. (SR)

Reconsiders the usual typologies of diagram presentations, questioning accepted taxonomies. Examines diagrammatic structures, revealing some hardened categories. Suggests that new discoveries can be made if questions are raised about how information is framed. (SR)

Describes a study of the administrative and instructional practices of large corporations providing written communication programs for middle management employees. (MS)

Follows particular parallels between oralist and electronic mediation to explore narrative or storytelling as a rhetorical form that transcends mediation. Reviews how writing-based cognition may bind progress in rhetorical practice and theory. Examines how narrative is media-transcendent. Reflects on the nature of media shifts. (SR)

A study investigated the mode of communication and the type of information that best serves an organization's purposes during the orientation interviews of new employees. Preliminary interviews with ten new employees and ten experienced employees indicated task-related performances for oral or written organizational communications--structured…

Examines the syntactic and stylistic features of an emergent phenomenon called Interactive Written Discourse (IWD), the written language occurring in simultaneous terminal-to-terminal typed dialogues. Finds that IWD is a naturally occurring register and a hybrid language variety, displaying characteristics of both oral and written language. Notes…

Investigates differences between college students' reading and listening processes in conjunction with variation in oral-based or literate-based language style. Finds that: listening required less cognitive effort than reading, irrespective of language style; listeners and readers alike best comprehended oral-based discourse; and that reading was…

Studies the distraction potential of 45 written usage elements, traditionally considered errors, for 2 different educated reading audiences: postsecondary business communication teachers, and executive vice presidents in large firms. Finds that the usage errors least distracting to both audiences were lexical elements and the use of an adverbial…

Presents an overview of Michel Foucault's approach to the study of historical systems of thought, arguing that Foucault's view of historical criticism and language-in-use have much to offer rhetorical theory and criticism. Discusses the nature of discourse for Foucault and examines the characteristics of the fundamental discursive datum, the…

Proposes a comprehensive model for communications research focusing upon printed messages published for juvenile audiences, and applies the model to futuristic images in children's fiction. (DD)

One of a series of semi-annual reports, this publication contains 23 articles which report the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instruments for its investigation, and practical applications. Articles are as follows: "Phonological and Articulatory Characteristics of Spoken Language" (Carol A. Fowler);…

Argues that language and written communication play a critical role in the reacculturation process that enables individuals to make a successful transition from the academic world to a professional environment. Reports results of a mail survey examining the technical communications abilities of aerospace engineering students and the technical…

Compares readers' and listeners' perceptions of powerless language features. Examines whether oral versions of powerless messages generate higher credibility ratings than written versions. Finds that subjects note more hesitations in writing but more hedges on tape, and that placing powerless speech in the written transcript reduces…