This study was designed to investigate four problem areas of communication research: source credibility, language intensity, the gender of source as it affects the source's persuasiveness and credibility, and the scarcity of multifactor studies using gender of source as one of the independent variables. Independent variables for the study, which…

Isolates a dozen problems with diction and sentence structure that comprise the "gobbledygook syndrome." (RL)

A survey of 210 professional communicators measured their sensitivity to the problem of readability, especially as it has been treated in the plain English movement (the drive to improve written materials and to make the unreadable readable). The results of the survey showed that 23% of the communicators rated the plain language concept…

Maintains that linguists and educators sincerely interested in black education should concentrate on devising a performance instrument to measure the degree of command of the style of any given Black English speaker rather than on establishing linguistic remediation programs to correct a non-existent remediation. (Author)

The technical complexity of the language of academic journals is discussed in terms of graduate students' needs for information, especially in developing countries. An examination of problems in two articles in "Language" and one in "American Anthropologist" points out the nature of the difficulties and some of the solutions. (Author/LB)

Examines samples of language usage from the Australian mass media, pointing to the media's influence on student language and to the need for teaching students how to understand media language usage. (RL)

Examines the nature of communication symbols in American society in an attempt to interpret features of racist language. See CS 703 548 for availability. (MH)

Suggests it is more valid to teach business students when it is and is not appropriate to use "commercialese" (stock phrases commonly used in business letters), than to launch a head-on attack on it. (GT)

After describing scenes that reveal a pattern in which whites regard blacks' speech behavior as threatening, aggressive, or hostile, and in which blacks disagree with their interpretation, this paper explores differences between black and white cultural assumptions, values, and conventions of aggressive behavior to account for the different…

Two methods of analysis, logical and psychological (or, loosely, aesthetic and functional) are used to investigate the many kinds of languages man uses to communicate, the ways in which these languages operate, and the reasons for communication failures. Based on a discussion of the nature of symbols, since most languages of communication draw…

A comparative study of turn-taking in North American and Spanish conversation investigated (1) differences in styles for the two cultures and (2) any resulting misinterpretation of communicative intentions. Data for the first were drawn from two dinner parties, one with four American women, conducted in English, and one with four Spanish-speaking…

Verbal and nonverbal patterns of communication found in the black community are discussed in this paper. They have been selected on the basis of their potential as interference factors in intergroup communication. A section on black language describes and explains the following categories: rapping, running it down, jiving, shucking, copping a…

This learning activity package is designed to help apprentices understand some of the different ways in which words can be used to mean different things, depending on where and when one uses the words. It provides examples of words and phrases that are used in the workplace in ways different from the way they are used in regular conversation. Five…

This publication presents 20 conference papers in French and German on aspects of linguistic research. Papers include: "Objectivite et subjectivite dans la connaissance du langage" (Mahmoudian); "Focalisation et antifocus"(Bearth); "Remarques sur la notion d''etymologie populaire'"(Chambon); "Sur la construction serielle en malgache"; (Fugier)…

This guide addresses problems in communication occurring between teachers in training and their observers/trainers, particularly after an observation session. It presents a series of activities intended for workshop use and designed to encourage communication that conveys intention and meaning more effectively. The activities include exercises in…