The study of conflict and its management is diverse in that it involves many academic disciplines, sub-disciplines, and specific situations. One aspect of this diversity can be found in the revelations regarding television evangelists such as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Oral Roberts, and Jimmy Swaggart. The effects arising out of the publication of…

The most common criticism of CEDA (Cross Examination Debate Association) debate tournaments voiced by coaches and students alike centers on the quality of judging. If the debater is completely unaware of the qualifications or credentials of the critic, he or she will be unable to fulfill the judge's expectations. Debates are then lost not on…

A proposed reconceptualization of inherency as practiced in debate and argumentation theory. (CH)

Offers suggestions for designing a yearbook advertising section that sells the products and services represented. (TO)

Criticizes the values clarification approach for avoiding the structure of values, for allowing judgmental activites, for embracing moral relativism, and for not being founded in theory. (DW)

Tells how to introduce a reading program in a school or school system and how to dispel administrative skepticism. (RB)

The Speech Communication Association's (SCA) decision to participate in a boycott of convention facilities to press for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has been ineffective (not a single state has ratified the ERA since the inception of the boycott) and may be counterproductive. In Illinois, the boycott was aimed primarily at the…

This collection represents most of the papers and programs presented at the 1979 Summer Conference on Argumentation sponsored by the Speech Communication Association and the American Forensic Association. Two keynote addresses are included along with a distributed paper on argumentation as a communication process. The other 23 papers and programs…

Rhetorical movement theory suggests two portrayals of social movements: the establishment conflict, or radical innovational portrayal, and the innovational, in which the movement is seen as upholding traditional values while suggesting institutional modifications or additions. A third portrayal, the competitive, lies on the midpoint on a continuum…

This paper contends that views of science as "objectivist" or "subjectivist" not only represent inaccurate and extreme positions on a continuum but also obscure the importance of argument in the scientific enterprise. It examines the role of argument in the objectivist view of science by exploring the analysis of Henry Johnstone, Jr., of the…

This paper contends that the rationality of the logic of good reasons is constituted in its use. To support this claim, the paper presents an analysis of the relationship between being reasonable and being rational. It then considers how following the logic of good reasons leads to rationality in the behavior of individuals and groups; the latter…

Some authorities wish to persuasively define rhetoric as formal or public speeches, while others hold to a more traditional and broader definition pointing to the relevance of speech-act theory to support them. Central to speech-act theory is the illocutionary act (uttering at least one sentence of some language under certain conditions). Two…

An act of rhetoric has attitudinal significance; that is, a part of rhetoric involves persuasion. Further, attitudinal frames of reference relate to and result from the retrieval of stored information (memory, etc.) and the generation of arguments. By studying the relative strength that subjects use in arguing an "issue-concept," the…

Two hypotheses were tested in an experiment on the generalizability of McGuire's innoculation theory of attitude change: that subjects would be less influenced by counterpersuasion in a small group communication setting if an initial persuader employs a two-sided refutational message than if he employs a one-sided message; and that subjects will…