Attempts to clarify Richard Weaver's ideas on rhetoric. Outlines the historical development of his classification of arguments and analyzes his axiology of argument and its political applications. (JMF)

Examines the act of protest suicide as a form of rhetoric, and studies three representative cases of protest suicide for insight into the act. Claims that viewing protest suicide as a form of "symbolic inducement," reveals it to be a rhetorical act whose motivation, form, and impact can be understood. (SKC)

Addresses the issue of the relationship of ethics and speech communication, with emphasis on the distribution of responsibility among theorists, critics, researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students. (PD)

Discusses the theme of the 1978 Southern Speech Communication Association Convention, "Many Interests, One Concern," in relation to the shared communication heritage of the divergent professional interests represented. The antiquity of human communication points up the importance of the concern with speech communication and suggests…

Describes and examines 150 tape-recorded compliment sequences. Reports that the course and outcome of compliments and compliment responses are affected by: (1) the way a compliment is worded; (2) the type of statement that precedes or follows the compliment; and (3) the status and sex of the compliment participants. (RAE)

Examines I. A. Richards' theories concerning the relationship between communication and values. Argues that Richards is an axiologically oriented theorist of rhetoric and communication. Notes that by applying this perspective to research on compliance-gaining, compliance-gaining is seen as a value-laden, symbolic, communication process. (MM)

Discusses problems arising from the treatment of oral interpretation as communication. Two aspects of particular interest are the notion that the communicative situation demands a particular style of performance, most often described as suggestion; and the view that the audience is the most important single element in the interpretative situation.…

Discusses the role of speech communication departments in higher education, focusing on student apathy in the humanities and the general educational financial crises. Suggests that speech professionals look to rhetorical and literary theorists and historians for leadership in the renewed pursuit of humanistic aims. (MH)

Discusses the effects of informative message organization on listener learning and concludes that the specification of organization as a critical variable for communication effectiveness in informative speaking doesn't appear to be justified. (MH)

Presents the text of a speech given by Professor Wallace A. Bacon at the forty-seventh annual convention of the Southern Speech Communication Association, April 1977. (MH)

Reports the development of a Verbal Systems Analysis procedure for investigating significant form in verbal communications through a process which operationalizes two of the central concepts of form in Kenneth Burke's theory of symbolic action. (MH)

Explains how information theory can be applied to the study of oral interpretation in ways that help performers understand and use the channels available to them in sharing literature with listeners. (PD)

Includes books, monographs, journal articles, and doctoral dissertations. (PD)