Previous studies of grading as instructional feedback reveal contrary patterns of motivation among public speaking students. That is, in some cases students who received lower grades on their initial speech assignments made substantial improvements on their subsequent speeches. In other studies, scholars have reported the exact opposite finding.…

This study gathered longitudinal and descriptive data on the nature of the basic communication course, continuing a tradition dating back to 1968. Now in its ninth iteration, convenience sampling and hard copy distribution of the survey instrument resulted in a total of 188 respondents (21 from two-year schools, 167 from four-year schools). This…

Describes a feedback method for teaching interviewing skills that requires dual evaluation of a student's performance by both the student interviewer and the interviewee. Illustrates benefits of this method with an analysis of 139 paired assessments of students' information-gathering skills in a "career interview" assignment. (PD)

The assessment of student learning in general education courses is of critical importance in higher education. This study examined the utility of a particular writing assignment, application essays, as a course assessment tool in a basic communication course. Application essays are one page compositions asking students to describe a communication…