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,…

Tom Wolfe is widely regarded as the leading theorist and practitioner of New Journalism, the journalistic genre that combines the stylistic features of fiction and the reportorial obligations of journalism to produce a "novelistic sounding" but nonetheless factual literature. The saliency of Wolfe's stylistic boldness has prompted many…

Although current theories concerning the composing process overlap in useful and interesting ways, a paradigm is emerging. This article discusses two of the major assumptions of this emerging paradigm: that there are distinct purposes for each kind of discourse (for example, expressive, literary, persuasive, and referential) and that the relation…

The Watergate tapes reveal that Nixon and his aides were the prime victims of their own rhetoric in that they began to believe what they tried to sell the public. (JH)

While agreeing with Scriven's exposition of the cognitive approach to moral education, the author disagrees with and comments on three points: the argument against developmentalists, morality and rational justification, and the affective aspect of moral argument. (DW)

Traditionally, the focus of debate has been on what policy should be adopted. The concept of fiat, or authoritative decree or sanction, has enabled debate participants to discuss the relative merits of competing policies without deciding whether or not the policies being compared could be adopted in the real world. While, for the purposes of…

Academic debate may be regarded as an educational game since it includes the adversary quest for favorable decisions from a neutral judge within an artificial context defined by myriad rules and traditions. In academic debate, the requisite fairness is provided by such game rules as time limitations, speaker order, uniform resolutions, critic…

A content analysis was made of the advertisements broadcast during a half-hour of prime-time television, in an effort to discern the overt (obvious) and covert (underlying) themes present in television advertising. The analysis revealed an overt theme of a world view of individual determination, initiative, self-confidence and self-reliance, and…

The rhetorician Richard M. Weaver analyzed culture as profoundly ill and he viewed rhetoric as closely tied to culture. Rhetoric relies on the cultural focal point for its effectiveness; orators must operate on a basis of common, accepted, uncontested terms and premises to move their audiences, and mutual assent to a "tyrannizing image"…

The primary goal of presidential crisis rhetoric appears to be the unification of the people of the United States in support of presidential policy. John F. Kennedy's crisis speaking corresponded both to his conceptions of presidential leadership and to those of the people. If the President of the United States is seen as the personification of…

Defining "attitudes" as a structure or organization of beliefs, this paper advances a formal theory of the relationship between attitudes, other belief configurations, and overt behavior. The theory presented assumes that an attitude about a given topic consists of three major dimensions of belief orientation (favorability/unfavorability),…

A three-part study of the forms of rhetorical criticism is offered. Part one reviews the nature of genre criticism, enumerates several concepts of form and the types of genre criticism they produce, and discusses the implications of this relationship between form and genre. Part two is an essay on the methodological implications of form-grounded…

In 1978-79 the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association adopted a three-part testing procedure to certify debate judges and make them eligible for officiating at district and state tournaments. The development and application of the procedure required a blending of debate principles and administration. Certification as a debate judge required…