One of the most significant activities undertaken by members of small college speech departments has been the development of the Essential Undergraduate Curriculum in Speech Communication at the Small College. This paper reviews six aspects of this curriculum: (1) the "statement of domain"; (2) iterdisciplinary aspects; (3) questions of…

While there is a need for basic oral competence, speech communication programs should provide more sophisticated training in public eloquence. Such an advanced course should first be genre-centered instead of interaction centered. Instead of emphasizing the audience-speaker interaction, the course should center on the creation, analysis, and…

This paper poses questions about the pedagogical basis of public speaking courses, based on the issue of traditional course models versus models which are more closely aligned with current rhetorical philosophy. The discussion in the paper centers around the potential integration of current philosophy into teaching practice. It addresses three…

Using the Rhetoric and Communication Department of the University of California at Davis as an example, this paper addresses the problems of small communications departments that face increasing student enrollments by both majors and students seeking to enhance their communications skills, with no additional faculty to handle such a load. After an…