In this interview, Susan Wells discusses the teaching of public writing and the work of public rhetoric as they respond to both shifting and recurring political and social contexts. Drawing on insights from her extensive and current work on public rhetoric, including her foundational essay "Rogue Cops and Health Care: What Do We Want from…

In this reflective essay, Alan McCullough Jr., Felton Morrell Jr., Bernard Thomas III, Vincente Waugh, and Nicholas Shubert with their teacher, Amy Donofrio, share the youth self-authorship methods that empowered them to transform their labels from "at-risk youth" to "at-hope youth leaders" in Jacksonville, Florida. After…

"Newsweek" ran an article on "The Homosexual Teacher" in December 1978. At the end of a tumultuous two-year period framed by Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign in South Florida and John Briggs' proposition to bar gay and lesbian educators from working in California public schools, reporters concluded, "Most homosexual…

In everyday language, whether a school is described as "public" or not is determined by the way it is funded and by who is allowed to attend it. Ideally however, a public school should also be defined and evaluated by its unique goal--to renew a public by providing the young with the skills, dispositions, and perspectives required to…

Most every writing teacher can relate to the curse of reading yet another incoherent essay, the contents of which resemble an unorganized junk drawer of thoughts. Such essays cry out for a main idea. The remedy is a thesis, and teachers rightly take pains to help students discover this. Yet in spite of this, writing teachers ought to bear in mind…

In this interview Susan Jarratt reviews the trajectory of her scholarship and revisits some of the lessons learned from a variety of her projects while simultaneously drawing out historical and narrative continuities of seemingly disparate time periods and contexts. In doing so, she elucidates the value of scholarship as a political and…

This article reviews steps for planning and delivering a speech: (1) preparation; (2) presentation; (3) audience participation; and (4) summarization. (FG)

Presents a simple graduation speech that encapsulates the speaker's steps toward his or her own commencement, using humorous anecdotes. Advises would-be speakers to replace characters and incidents with those from their own school experience. (MLH)

Reviews characteristics of three computer graphics programs useful to speakers and teachers of public speaking: Chart-Master, Golden Software--Graphics System, and GrafTalk. (PD)

Outlines the use of story boards as a systematic method of organizing oral presentations. (SK)

Because of the increased need for students to learn how to communicate in an affective, persuasive manner, educators must emphasize effective communications as a key instrument in coping with our societal evolution. Specifically, educators must enthusiastically teach students to think clearly, organize ideas, and express thoughts. (NRJ)

Good design skills are the main focus of assessment practices in design education and are evaluated primarily by drawings and models. In some settings, design studio pedagogy tends to reflect only these content-oriented assessment priorities, with minimal attention paid to the development of oral communication skills. Yet, in many professional…

Asserts that impromptu speaking should be viewed as an event which develops students' organizational ability, creative thinking, audience analysis, and delivery skills. Presents various techniques to aid students and coaches in pre-tournament preparation for impromptu speaking. (MM)

Argues that presumption represents a multidimensional concept, not a monolithic one. Claims that in reaching a decision on a nonpolicy debate, the decision rule "one who asserts must prove" ought to be given primacy over the predispositions of a given audience or of society at large. (JD)

Describes the employment of surrogate speakers and examines their role in the 1980 presidential contest. Considers the advantages and disadvantages of their use and concludes that surrogates served the important needs of three groups--the candidates for whom they spoke, the audiences they addressed, and the surrogates themselves. (PD)