The 1988 Vice-Presidential debate between candidates Dan Quayle and Lloyd Bentsen served as a rhetorical forum for airing the policies and behaviors of each candidate. Elements of compliance-gaining and apologia were interrelated and overlapped throughout the debate. Both candidates effectively maneuvered these strategies and avoided direct…

The principles of synergy, particularly as described by Charles Hampden-Turner in "Maps of the Mind," can be applied to critical thinking in television broadcasting. Synergy is the process by which one need or person combines optimally with another. A metaphor for the idea of the concrete and the abstract working together while they are…

A study developed an analytical tool for the critiquing of FCC legal arguments in the dimensions of purpose and quality. The supposition of the study was that law is an inherently rhetorical activity. The model elaborated was a situational matrix created out of the classical typologies of rhetorical occasions and oratory: the forensic,…

Focusing on the issue of the training and preparation of the communication specialist in communication consulting, an investigation of the persuasive elements in the client-consulting relationship suggests that more direct focus on consulting as persuasion can lead to more responsible and effective enactment of the role of both consultant and…

One of the central themes in marketing's consumer research has been that of isolating various desired product attributes that determine consumer purchasing patterns. The best way to identify determinant attributes, however, has become the subject of a controversy that has yet to be resolved. Overall, marketing researchers have generally embraced…

A study examined the coverage of the 1984 Jesse Jackson presidential campaign in the "New York Times,""Washington Post,""Chicago Tribune," and "Los Angeles Times," noting (1) the number of stories that mention Jackson; (2) the total column inches devoted to the stories mentioning Jackson; (3) subject matter…

A high school speech communication instructor who also coaches the debate team has drawn a number of conclusions regarding concurrent teaching and coaching. First, forensic programs generally take too much time and energy from classroom work, and an inordinate amount of relaxation and "recharge" time. Forensic coaches who teach need…

Locus of control is a personality trait that influences human behavior in many situations. Internal-external control reactions to a persuasive message and the recall of the message were examined in two studies. In the first study, 35 undergraduate students' locus of control was measured using Duttweiler's Internal Control Measure. On the basis of…

Recent research in persuasion shows that while message recipients often use little cognitive effort when assessing message validity, they may instead rely on a heuristic processing strategy. This study used a priming-like paradigm to manipulate the reliability that subjects apply to the heuristic "message length implies message strength." Subjects…

Advocates and teachers of critical thinking tend to deny that intuition and justification are logical, even though they assume that both processes are rational. However, it can be demonstrated that the relation between intuition and inference, between justification and explanation, is dialectical and complementary, so that there is no mystery as…

In the name of responsible argument, persuasive rhetoric need not eschew all the devices used by propaganda. Emotion is not only inevitable in discourse, it is the necessary base for action. Educators should not consider propaganda evil for the very reason they consider poetry good: its emotional power. This kind of thinking creates a specious…

Dale Hample's cognitive model of argument is designed to reflect the operation of syllogistic thought processes. It has been suggested however, that the model applies more closely to abstractly worded arguments than to concrete thinking and that it also may work better with more interested respondents because it seems to describe the central…

A full century before Patrick Henry's persuasive battle for the rights of oppressed people, a San Juan Pueblo Indian medicine man known only as Po-Pay was the masterful communicator and agitator who orchestrated the first American revolution to drive the Spanish back into Mexico. Seeking mineral wealth, cheap labor, and the maximum number of…

Composition instruction directed at native speakers of English has focused on the composed product rather than the composing process. The teaching of English as a second language (ESL) students has had a similar emphasis, with much classroom time devoted to sentence manipulation and usage exercises. Such exercises have little effectiveness in…

In the game-like world of competitive tournament debating, fiat power is simply another rule of the game, a way of saying "hypothetically" or "for the sake of argument let us assume this affirmative plan to be implemented." While fiat power is just a way of saying "let's pretend," there are limits to the pretense. For…