Studies visual discourses and visual modes of viewer engagement structuring negative political commercials. Finds that, using strategies of pictorial direct address and pictorial narrative, texts construct their visual arguments by creating ambiguity around the natural versus symbolic status of pictorial expression. Shows how pictorial realism can…

Critiques the logical revisionism of Stephen Toulmin, taking to task his "biased" assumptions about power and knowledge, among other limitations, while advancing his "simplified" system of discursive logic for the teaching of writing and rhetoric. (TB)

States that engineering students, faculty, and administration agree that writing instruction is important in engineering education. Suggests that, as an alternative to technical writing, if students learn how to approach an issue, form an arguable idea, then logically prove it, this deep level of writing/thinking comprehension can be used to…

States that, in "The Etiology of Hysteria," Sigmund Freud's "seduction theory" asserted that child sexual abuse was the single cause of adult hysteria. Argues that Freud's failure to persuade his audience can be attributed not only to their denial of sexual abuse but also to his failure to clarify how pschyoanalysis could…

Defines arguments as conclusions that one makes regarding issues. Describes how to construct a basic argument. Discusses important critical thinking terms related to making arguments. (PM)

Introduces a model of the roles of challenge and defense in everyday, informal arguments. Represents six basic types of challenge (acceptability, relevance, sufficiency, consistency, consecution, and completeness) and distinguishes between direct and indirect defense. Suggests that commitment rules in arguments tend to be conservative for the…

Examines the "ethos" (the perceived trustworthiness of authors by readers) gained for Charles Darwin by means of the interpersonal metadiscourse he used in two chapters of the "Origin of Species." Concludes that Darwin used metadiscourse to create an "ethos" for his readers that informs, impresses, and wins them over…

Analyzes controlling speech acts at a series of Methodist Church business meetings in the midwestern United States. Specifically, a comparison is made of how speakers in the roles of minister, chair, and ordinary group member encode directives and disagreements as the group tries to achieve consensus on programing and administrative issues.…

Analyzes business communication to generate an approach to ethics based in the rhetorical process of corporate life. Extends the Aristotelian paradigm for ethical communication to the rhetoric of business by studying the role of language in creating and disseminating values. Demonstrates the model with two case studies. (MM)

Responds to Charles Willard's critique (in a previous article in this issue) of the author's critical study of argument spheres. Argues that critical analysis is essential for generating a social theory of argumentation. Emphasizes the independence and integrity of the spheres project in arguing against Willard's various substitutions and…

Responds to an article criticizing the author's inclusion of unresolved argument as a feature characterizing interactional argumentation (published in an earlier issue). Traces the disagreement to different uses of "paradigm case" and "prototypical case," and attempts to clarify these differences. (MM)

Examines the relationships between Irna Phillips, the most powerful woman in soap opera production from the 1930s through the 1960s, and the sponsors of her radio soap operas. Explores how Phillips represented women both in her scripts and in her public relations efforts. (MM)

The authors discuss how to write an effective, persuasive letter to an elected official. They encourage business communications instructors to promote letter writing to their students as a means of political activism. (CH)

Argues that the future tense underlies both literary criticism and the discipline of rhetoric as conceived by Aristotle and that Aristotle gives the argumentative arts a middle ground which makes them distinct and yet weds them inextricably with those claiming greater or lesser degrees of generality. (RAE)

Argues that rhetorical criticism has approached the new persuasions and propaganda of 20th century America only with great difficulty, and that a greater understanding of the relationships between the new managerial rhetoric and the old criticism will resolve discrepant critical perspectives on modern social influence. (JAD)