Examines the differences in quality ratings that 20 teachers in each of three high school curricular areas gave samples of written argument by college freshmen and investigates the relationship between the three groups of quality ratings and eight syntactic and mechanics-of-writing variables. (FL)

Shows that the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan have been rhetorical echoes of the original Populists. Demonstrates the durability and elasticity of a style born in nineteenth century grass roots political reform. (PD)

Relates how experience writing technical documents yielded insight into the nature of the problems attending the composition of technical discourse. (JL)

Analyzes the strategies employed in terminating conversational exchanges, with particular attention to argumentative sequences. Examines the features that distinguish these sequences from those that have a transactional character, and discusses the patterns of verbal interaction attendant to negative responses. Societe Nouvelle Didier Erudition,…

Discusses the elements of quality editorial writing. Briefly follows the development of the editorial page through U.S. history and offers strategies to ensure concise, persuasive student editorials. (HTH)

Presents a series of exercises designed to provide freshman composition students with a base for analyzing works rhetorically, to point out how language can be used persuasively, and to illustrate how satire functions. (FL)

Describes a course taught in 1980 to train college students to be intelligent critics of presidential primaries. Focused on primaries in New York and adjoining states. (PD)

Describes activities involving the reading and writing of television commercials that were designed to help first-grade students become alert to the structural and linguistic techniques used in commercial advertising. (HTH)

Discusses "language-in-use" as an index of rhetorical efficacy, suggesting that the substance and form of verbal reactions to discourse may reflect the degree of audience internalization. Concludes that language-in-use assists the critic in determining whether changes in thinking and behavior are occasioned by words or actions, or both. (JMF)

Outlines ideas for teaching an introductory course in propaganda, including an historical perspective and review of the etymology of the word and an examination of those characteristics that separate propaganda from other communication arts. (JMF)

Proposes that arguments used popularly in religious controversies are historically stable and that the rhetorical critic's attention to topics or sources of reference ("topoi") for argumentation enhances the analysis of such controversies. Examines the Catholic debate over vernacular reform and emphasizes the relatively narrow range of "topoi"…

Lists 157 significant titles relevant to speech literature of the South for the year 1977 in the following areas: public address--bibliography, history and culture, and practitioners; theater--history, bibliography, and criticism; speech education; and mass communication--educational/instructional, history/bibliography, programming/criticism,…

Describes conflicting findings about whether print advertisements are generally informative or persuasive; suggests research needs in this area. (GT)

Presents and tests the verbal-plan approach as a basis for predicting verbal behavior. (Defines verbal plan as "what an individual intends to say in a specific situation or a general situation.") (PD)

Finds that there are specific target behaviors for public speaking that can be acquired with instruction. Evaluates the three main components of the Fawcett and Miller public speaking package, a fourth component, and assesses the generality of trained public speaking behaviors over time, across settings, and across behaviors. (JMF)