Joe Nathan, author of "Free to Teach: Achieving Equity and Excellence in Schools," argues in favor of educational vouchers; Lew Finch, superintendent of the Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District, Minnesota, argues against vouchers. (MLF)

Examined persuasive appeals and responses to appeals among kindergarten, second-, and fourth-grade friends and acquaintances. Also evaluated social perspective-taking, friendship, and self-interest reasoning as predictors of appeals and responses. Children, paired with a friend or an acquaintance, participated in a task designed to examine sharing…

Freshman composition students wrote five arguments according to specifications and created a metaphor to significantly support each argument. Fifty-four pairs of metaphor and no metaphor papers were rated. Results showed that student-produced metaphors did not increase argument persuasiveness, but quoted metaphors from published sources did.…

Argues that the practice of delaying bad news in business letters by using buffer sentences is misguided, for it is based on a false notion of how people read. Suggests structuring letters on the type of argument and situation, rather than palatability of the message. (PD)

Describes an approach to composition instruction in which the students are given a body of real or fictional evidence about a particular case and asked to interpret or explain it by means of a closely-reasoned argument. (HTH)

Found that (1) motivation to argue is heightened when high argumentatives expect to encounter a person who also enjoys arguing; and (2) low argumentatives have less motivation to argue regardless of the adversary. (PD)

Examines and suggests improvements in the broadcasting speech event (radio newscast reading) in forensic competition. (PD)

Outlines the need to develop specific decision rules for the various judging paradigms in academic debate. Uses the policy-making metaphor as an example. (PD)

Examines the slow growth of a body of knowledge about how information can best be communicated without necessary reference to overt persuasion, from Henry Day's "Art of Rhetoric" through contemporary explanatory rhetoric. (FL)

Professor Perelman, University of Belgium, rectifies false impressions of his ideas, explains certain errors in the "new rhetoric," and critically responds to several scholar-teachers who have used his ideas in this country. (PD)

Describes various teaching models that have proven effective in teaching argumentation. (HOD)

Discusses three ethical problems with the use of evidence by student finalists in the Persuasion Section of the 1981 National Forensic Association's "Individual Events Nationals": (1) fabrication of sources and data; (2) source deception; and (3) plagiarism. (PD)

Describes how public television and radio can be utilized to help students prepare for forensic competition. (PD)

Shows how newspaper columnist Goodman's sermonic rhetoric is rooted in comparison. Examines examples of her editorials to explore their epistemic function and their force as argument and as symbolic action. (PD)

Examines James Kinneavy's "Theory of Discourse," arguing that he fails to provide compelling support for the theory, and that a number of specific assertions fail to hold up under scrutiny. Discusses weaknesses in his handling of referential and persuasive discourse. (HTH)