In the past, rhetorical criticism relied heavily on an Aristotelian approach; critics judged a speech by how well it fulfilled the speaker's purpose and persuasion was the accepted goal of rhetoric. Political and academic forces have brought about a methodological perspectivism or pluralism of rhetorical theory, and in turn, caused a shift from…

A study was conducted to (1) describe the male/female participation and success in regional and national forensic individual events tournament competition, and (2) identify areas of gender-based inequity from these data. Letters requesting 1984-85 tournament results were sent to 44 individual events tournament directors, of which 20 were…

From their inception in 1856, the ultimate purpose of national political conventions and also the speechmaking at the conventions, have undergone significant changes. The role of the keynoter is gradually becoming more clearly defined by the dictates of tradition and precedent. Whereas the earliest keynoters were relatively free to discuss…

To better serve as a laboratory for argument, individual events competition should represent analogues of "real world" argumentation/communication situations. The individual events laboratory must fulfill a pedagogical function, and should also "create" knowledge about argumentation strategies, specific fields of argument, and…

As a study in the presentation of a public policy issue in education, the argumentative rationales of 139 opinion pieces (editorials, op-ed pieces, and letters to the editor) in "The New York Times" on the issue of school busing were analyzed. Material from the years 1971-75 was located through "The New York Times Index" and…

Aristotle's "Rhetoric" is divided into three books which describe the stages of preparing a public address. Book One establishes the philosophical position of rhetoric to logic. It also establishes four purposes of rhetoric and discusses three types of proof. Aristotle defines rhetoric as a faculty for providing two modes of…

A speechwriter who prepares a text for public address should first consider whether he or she is going to deliver the speech personally and should be careful to select a topic which the potential audience will not strongly oppose. From the introduction of a speech to its conclusion, a speechwriter should have definite goals, present an appropriate…

In most traditional introductory college composition courses students are generally advised to address the teachers or some other authoritative figure as their primary audience. To supplement this traditional approach, students should also direct their discourse to audiences who are not projected as superior critics. One paper assignment that can…

Town meetings or public forums arranged to discuss issues of interest to citizens are as old as the settling of the United States, and they continue today as part of the democratic system. The Public Agenda Foundation maintains this tradition through a special series of community forums, known as the National Issues Forums (NIF), that annually…

Three related experiments investigated the impact of happy and sad moods on the processing of persuasive communications. These experiments suggest that subjects in a happy mood are less likely to elaborate the content of a persuasive message than subjects in a sad mood. Sad subjects' attitudes and cognitive responses (in experiment 2, with 87…

Forensic directors (n=102) affiliated with Phi Delta Kappa responded to a survey to determine perceptions regarding participation of host school students in their respective forensics tournaments. When asked whether they permitted host school students to compete in their respective tournaments, 56% indicated that they did, but 75% of those had…

Since few debate tournaments can be administered successfully without employing some hired-judge pool, one of the fundamental ethical concerns facing the tournament director is the balance between filling all judge responsibilities and securing competent judges. The responsibility of securing competent judges can be met through a more extensive…

There is very little consensus among Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) coaches as to the assignment of presumption in value topic debate. There are really three types of presumption: (1) an identification with the status quo (existing institutions), (2) a psychological state (prevailing opinion), and (3) a decision rule (who must prove).…

A discussion of ellipsis, the omission of information from a communication, argues that the fairly precise logical notion of ellipsis as used in philosophical analysis can be applied in the sociological study of ideology. It is proposed that ellipsis is a simple explanation of the workings of the language in which much potent ideology is embodied,…

The criterion of topicality must be met by all advocates of academic debate policy in order to achieve effective and organized argument. The plan upon which each individual debate round is built must first satisfy the requirements imposed by the resolution. The policy proposal should answer the question of whether the affirmative plan, as a whole,…