Discusses Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis" and investigates its influence on our national psychology over the years. (MH)

Considers the limits of freedom experienced by the student in the classroom and the idea of true freedom as freedom from consequences. (Author/RK)

Explores the reasons for people's fear of public speaking and the need for adequate speech training in high schools to foster positive attitudes toward public speaking. (JM)

Identifies and illustrates characteristics of conservative resistance rhetoric and examines the psychological origins and ideological statements of this rhetoric in the West Virginia textbook protest. (MH)

Argues that the social construction of the cigarette in divergent synecdochic forms or "representational ideographs" is based on varying degrees of narrative and scientific knowledge. Broadens the existing theoretical perspective derived from Kenneth Burke and Michael McGee to include Jean-Francois Lyotard's view of narrative and…

Argues that (1) Chaim Perelman's philosophy and the New Rhetoric project reflect his Jewish heritage and Talmudic habits of argument; and (2) because Perelmanian philosophy enacts Jewish and Talmudic thought, the New Rhetoric charts a "third way" between Enlightenment metaphysics and the more extreme expressions of postmodernism,…

Examines interaction between demonstrative and rhetorical modes of visual argumentation by drawing upon two examples: the first includes illustrations from paleoanthropological debates on the origins of modern humans; the second references the widely disseminated "march of progress" image of human evolution. Concludes that rhetorical…

States that "Ren," the first Chinese "manifesto of egalitarianism," written in 1896-97, was an important spiritual contribution to the republican movement toward the end of China's last imperial dynasty. Argues that the persuasiveness of its nontraditional egalitarian argument is explained by the writer's skills in exploiting…

Examines persuasive effects of story and statistical evidence for different message topics--100 students read three story or statistical messages and completed posttest measures. Indicates that persuasiveness of evidence varied by message topic. Reveals that statistics were rated as more scientific and less personal than stories, but these…

Compared the perceptions of persuasiveness of text of undergraduate students (n=195) to those of text-based persuasion and conceptual change experts (n=7). Findings show overlap between the students' and experts' conceptions of persuasion and also show the importance of type and form of supporting evidence and the affective nature of the text.…

Examines the relationships among nonverbal behaviors, dimensions of source credibility, and speaker persuasiveness in a public speaking context. Finds numerous associations between nonverbal behaviors and attributions of credibility and persuasiveness. Discusses advantages of analyzing nonverbal cues according to proximal precepts. (SR)

Advances a justification for instituting limited rules governing the conduct of debates. Contends that declining participation calls for establishing rules designed to minimize the abusive debate policy practices presently affecting policy debate. Refutes D. A. Herbeck and J. P. Katsulas's position on the supposed educational dangers of the debate…

Examines three alternatives for limiting negative fiat: (1) limiting to United States public actors; (2) limiting to proposals found in the policy literature surrounding the topic; and (3) including caveats or parameters to the resolution indicating the appropriate scope of negative counterplans. (MS)