Rules and regulations for debate and individual speech event activities are provided in this guide, which is designed for use by members of the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA). The guide contains (1) a calendar of speech events, (2) regulations governing event participation and conduct, (3) school membership requirements, (4)…

In the face of declining college enrollment and increased budget cuts, the speech communication department at the University of Nebraska devised a successful strategy to preserve and promote itself within the university. Outside authorities were selected for a department review committee. At the graduate level, the areas of concentration were…

In 1965, transcripts were collected of 72 sermons on the issue of racial integration preached between 1955 and 1965. The sermons, all given by Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, or Episcopal ministers in the southern United States, were examined to determine the position advocated by the minister. The sermons deemed segregationist were then…

The purpose of this study was to learn something about information-transmission procedures in offices. It was hypothesized that certain kinds of information and communication activities have particular properties, and that some of these activities are best pursued in face-to-face communication situations. Natural conversations involving an…

Puppetry has potential for illuminating many aspects of human life. One of these aspects, the system of language and speech, is explored here. An examination of the widespread use of a voice-modifying instrument to provide the puppets' voices demonstrates that traditional puppeteers act both as folk linguists and as folk sociolinguists. The study…

This paper describes and discusses the school leaving examination in oral English in South Africa, which is designed for those whose first language is English and involves the presentation of a prepared talk, reading aloud, and a conversation with a teacher. Each element of the test is discussed and evaluated separately. Problems of reticence in…

A model was developed to identify the communicative tasks that are most likely to facilitate successful consultation. Three distinctive features of process consultation were considered important to the model: the focus on the human element of the system, joint diagnosis between consultant and client, and the passing on of diagnostic skill. To…

Noting that older patients are often vulnerable in the hospital setting because they may not comply with the nursing staff's instructions, this paper offers a systematic method for teaching nurses how to evaluate older patients in a sympathetic manner and to focus on the patient's norms of behavior rather than those of the hospital. The paper…

This paper reports the personal experiences of a Fulbright scholar working in the Egyptian government's Cairo broadcast facility, offering an inside understanding of some of the broadcasting procedures used by Egyptian mass media. Besides descriptions of the broadcasting procedures at Cairo Radio, the paper contains notes on announcers' training…

College students in nine intact beginning speech classes served as subjects for a study testing the effects of humor on student recall of lecture information. The 156 subjects were exposed to one of three versions of an audiotaped lecture. One version amplified eight points in the subject matter with humorous material; and a third version (the…

This paper proposes the use of interaction process analysis to study negotiation behaviors. Following a review of current literature in the field, the paper presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of both labor/management and social negotiation processes. Central to the framework described are two systems of activities that together…

A study was designed to see how judge experience and training sessions influenced interjudge agreement during high school speech contests. Three groups of six judges each viewed a videotape of five poetry readings, gave the performers ratings and rankings, engaged in 30-minute group training sessions, viewed a second videotape of five poetry…

A descriptive field study was conducted in Seoul, Korea, to assess Korean interpersonal communication. The data for the study were collected through observations of interpersonal communication patterns among students in university classes, between faculty and students as well as among various faculty members, among business people, and between the…

Narrative observations were made of remedial interchanges occurring among school children (K-4) in open classrooms. Transcripts of interchanges were typed move by move and coded according to a hierarchical coding scheme (remedy, defiance, no response, relief, ending, and ambiguous). The interchanges of the kindergarteners and first graders were…

This booklet, a discovery/work text, asks learners to take a careful look at the ways they participate in communication situations, at the form their participation in communication takes, and at the personal and societal consequences of communication. Laboratory activities focus on techniques of communication and on strategies for dealing with…