To determine whether speech communication is a true academic subject, it is necessary to note the three traits that characterize a true academic subject: (1) a curriculum designed to promote knowledge and understanding rather than manual or practical skills; (2) a logically integrated series of courses that begin at the elementary school level and…

Mary Cunningham, a Harvard Business School graduate in 1979, received more than 30 job offers from major financial corporations. She accepted a positition as the executive assistant to the Chairman of the Board of Bendix Corporation. By October 1980, she had been promoted twice and held the position of vice president of strategic planning.…

A self-administered communication proficiency and training survey was completed by 122 female professionals and 80 of their direct supervisors in a study that investigated the perceptions supervisors have of their female employees' communication proficiency. The questionnaire for the female professionals asked for assessment of their present level…

The notion that rhetoric (and to a lesser extent, argument) is epistemic is an increasingly popular one today, although it can be traced to ancient Greece. The notion holds that rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, creates and shapes knowledge. Two ancient authors--Aristophanes and Plato--provide evidence that others had notions of rhetoric as…

Two hundred forty-five students in a basic speech making course were tested both before and after the course by the Rhetorical Sensitivity Scale (RHETSEN) and by their reactions to three hypothetical speech situations, to determine: (1) whether their rhetorical sensitivity scores would change after completion of such a course, and (2) whether…

In order to rate the importance of elements involved in a public relations curriculum, a study analyzed the responses of public relations educators from all academic associations teaching the subject as well as practitioners from all specializations. Questionnaires were sent to 544 people who rated 110 elements as not essential to essential on a…

To formulate, justify, and establish priorities for high school debate goals, one must consider only those things that debate can uniquely offer to participating students. The most important goal that debate offers is the development of critical thinking. Educators must continue to develop critical thinkers who can anticipate, discover, and…

Forty-two community colleges and one four-year college responded to a survey requesting information about theatre programs. The colleges ranged in size from a low of 395 students to a high of 30,000. The results of the survey indicated that theatre courses were required of communication majors at only one college, and were electives at the…

A study examined the lyrics of the lovesongs of the musical partnership Eurythmics (David Stewart and Annie Lennox), a popular music group. The method used was based on the James Chesbro study, which classified lyrics using a critical paradigm that combined Northrop Frye's hierarchy of communications systems (Ironic, Mimetic, Leader-centered,…

Furthering research on the explanations for gender differences in nonverbal expression, a study investigated the types of posed smiles depicted in sorority and fraternity photographs, and related them to whether or not the subject held a leadership position in that organization. Five sororities and five fraternities at a large eastern university…

To explore the quality of the basic course in speech communication it is useful to examine the role of graduate teaching assistants (GTA) and undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA). The first goal was to search the literature for information concerning the use (or lack thereof) of GTAs and UTAs and to explore the potential benefits and drawbacks…

To investigate the effects of mutual perceived understanding on the communicators, 86 undergraduate students in a speech communication course were asked to use a 382 item checklist to identify those feelings and sensations that described their own experiences of intense communication. Analysis of subjects' responses showed that 63 items were…

Business writers often use--or may be taught to use--strategies for verbal interaction analogous to those they use in conversation. Unfortunately, much current composition theory discounts analogies between verbal interaction in speaking and writing and therefore disallows applying the results of linguistic investigations of spoken language use to…

The growth in the popularity and importance of disadvantage arguments in debate has been, in some measure, due to the growing belief that debate should be viewed from a policy-making perspective. And, with the focus of contemporary debate shifting to the consequences of policy actions, there has been a concurrent increase in the sophistication of…

Like other types of dispute resolution, mediation brings the parties in conflict together to solve their problems. It provides a fresh perspective by introducing a third party who is entirely neutral and is skilled in helping parties solve their problems. With the increasing dissatisfaction with the formal justice system, mediation has been…