Intended to assist debaters and coaches who will be debating the 1983-84 national high school debate topic, this booklet combines discussion of general debate theory, and information specific to the topic: "What changes are most needed in the procedures used in the United States justice system?" The eight chapters of the booklet contain…

A study was conducted to describe male and female participation and success in both debate and individual events national competition and to identify areas of gender-based inequity. Data from three 1984 national tournaments (National Debate Tournament, American Forensic Association's National Individual Events Tournament, and the National Forensic…

Dominant sensory metaphors play a major role in speech, and this dominance further manifests itself in other behaviors involving particular sensory modes. Communicators use one of the five senses as dominant metaphor in their speech: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, oflactory, or gustatory. Interpersonal attending, which teaches the importance not…

As a step toward the study of invention, an investigation dealt not with public arguments or the results of invention, but with arguments that may have occurred to the rhetor but were discarded. To avoid problems of self-presentation and retrospection, thinking aloud and reconstructive protocols were avoided in favor of providing 37 college…

Monetary support is essential to the survival of speech interpretation programs in the 1980s, and the community is one viable alternative to dwindling academic channels of support. Two strategies have proved vital to securing community support for the interpretation program at an Indiana university: (1) networking, maintaining a group of faculty…

This course description summarizes a course that was designed for individuals, both interviewers and interviewees, who desire the skills and techniques necessary to serve effectively in their respective roles. The course was prepared especially for students wishing to gain: (1) an understanding of the interviewing process; (2) the prerequisite to…

A study tested a delivery skills method of instruction for reducing public speaking anxiety. Subjects were 59 male and 71 female undergraduates (ranging in age from 17-49) enrolled in a basic public speaking course at a midwestern university during the 1986-87 academic year. The Personal Report of Public Speaking Apprehension (PRPSA) which…

A study examined procedures used to test the oral communication skills of students between the ages of 15 and 18 in the United Kingdom, with special attention given to strategies which might be of value to adopt in the United States. Subjects were 4 pairs of students tested from a randomly selected sample of 112 schools. Twenty-two assessors were…

Joseph Priestley, in his "A Course of Lectures on Oratory and Criticism," developed a psychological theory of style. The "Course" covers three main topics: traditional rhetorical arts of invention, arrangement, and style. Borrowing from the ideas of David Hartley, the association psychologist; Joseph Addison, the aesthetician;…

Teaching the basic course in speech communication can be challenging in many ways. A class debate revitalizes the course, while offering an excellent means for evaluating learning at the end of a semester course. Proficient use of interpersonal skills is necessary to organize group members and control group discussion; sufficient knowledge of…

A theory explaining the essential nature of comedy is explored in this paper. The first part of the paper posits the theory that comedy is a relatively harmless divergence from an expected norm or outcome, and discusses the following elements of the theory: (1) the divergence from reality, (2) the notion of expectation that includes the entire…

Developed as a result of the growing interest in public speaking in business and other professional sectors, this annotated bibliography contains recent citations of public speaking and related subjects in the popular press. The citations are drawn from trade journals, magazines, and books in print, rather than from scholarly or academic works.…

Intended for a largely European audience, this paper offers an overview of current definitions and goals of instructional communication and communication education teaching and research in the United States. The first major section of the paper looks at recent advances in instructional communication studies, concentrating on field research,…

A small college's communication arts curriculum, designed for students either going on to graduate school or interested in meeting more immediate vocational needs, is described in this paper. The following components of the curriculum are discussed: (1) use of field experience courses, (2) use of on-campus "practicum" courses and extra-curricular…

The keeping of journals by students in the basic speech course is the focus of this paper, which is divided into three parts. Part 1 examines the benefits of journal use to students and teachers and points out that three types of learning can thus be encouraged: the development of thinking skills, personal growth, and content learning. It also…