Examines the effects of the preparation and presentation of a speech on the changing attitudes of the speaker. Concludes that individual attitudes are affected by the preparation stage more than the presentation stage. Draws implications for the teaching of public speaking. (JMF)

This paper provides an overview for a communication curriculum that has begun to include cultural diversity as part of its overall assessment process. First, the paper introduces the topic of assessment as it relates to cultural diversity and the student at-risk. Then the paper reviews the literature related to students at-risk and…

In response to projected increases in enrollment in public speaking at Missouri's St. Louis Community College-Meramec, a project was undertaken to develop a plan for incorporating gender communication into the public speaking course. The first phase of the project involved a review of literature related to women in education and gender research,…

Many speech communication educators and researchers look upon Dale Carnegie's public speaking course with derision for its methods as well as its motives. A comparison of Carnegie's course with university courses in speech communication reveals a number of differences between the two, which in part explains this attitude. Carnegie began his course…

A study compared Penn State University's computer-aided Reticence Program, for shy/reticent public speaking students, with two existing approaches: (1) oral interpretation and (2) the lectures, demonstrations, and coached rehearsals of more traditional reticence instruction. Thirty reticent students, including 9 males and 21 females, were placed…

The key question underlying this study was: What does the untrained population know about public speaking? The study thus focused on resolving the conflict between folk speech theory, or knowledge that students gain informally, and formal academic speech theory. An Inventory of Public Speaking Principles was devised to test six hypotheses which…

A study examined the effects of gender on academic achievement in speech communication courses. In order to test the research hypothesis that females would receive higher grades than males, 2,190 grades given by 74 speech communication teachers over a five-year period were examined. The analysis of variance placed gender of the instructor, gender…

A survey of 80 department chairpersons, directors of forensics, and debate coaches indicated an increased use of nontraditional, audience-centered debate paradigms since the National Developmental Conference on Forensics issued its report advancing alternative debate options during the 1970s. Report recommendations on expanding the role of…

Culture is a powerful force that may affect the reception and acceptance of communication. To determine if culture has an effect on perceived speaker effectiveness, students in one introductory speech communication class in a Florida university and a variety of courses in a university in the Bahamas, were given an 80-item questionnaire that was…

Representing works published between 1970 and 1984, this annotated bibliography identifies a variety of readings that explore fundamental issues of ethics in interpersonal, public, and mass communication, and that examine from an ethical viewpoint how to and whether to employ particular communication tactics or techniques. The bibliography…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 7 titles deal with the following topics: (1) two approaches to teaching public speaking at the community college level, (2) case studies from a communication skills peer-tutoring program for underachieving college freshmen, (3)…