Reports on a study relating viewing film violence and aggressive verbal behavior. The effects of two viewing experiences in a nonlaboratory setting demonstrate the generalizability of previous laboratory results. (JMF)

Describes a study using the accentuation theory to predict differential effects of heckling on speaker credibility and attitude change, depending on whether the audience identifies with the heckler or the speaker. (JMF)

Children's sense of audience in writing can be enhanced by conscious audience analysis, exercises in taking other points of view, and writing sessions encouraging peer interaction. (DD)

Discusses the conflict between the intentional fallacy in reading (it is inappropriate to deduce literary intention from effects) and the intentional imperative in writing (intention is necessary to our understanding while writing). (DD)

Suggests that effectiveness of a given written work can be judged by how well the writer recognizes what the reader already knows and how well the writer provides the reader with new information. (DD)

Considers the impact of commentary on television viewer's perception and appreciation of sports events. (MH)

Attempts to define and measure the developmental levels at which children identify with characters and interpret scenes in children's plays. Available from: Children's Theatre Review, Children's Theatre Association of America, American Theatre Association, 1029 Vermont Ave., N.W., Suite 402, Washington, D.C. 20005

The nature of education for leisure and potential contributions to the field from social psychologists are examined. (GW)

Examines Henry Johnstone's (a former editor of "Philosophy and Rhetoric") ironic play on the different uses of the terms "rational,""argument," and "explanation," when he discusses two of his favorite philosophical topics, rhetoric and argument. (NKA)

This study examined the effects of low- and high-prior knowledge and peer and teacher audiences on high school students' writing. Forty high school juniors and 40 seniors wrote on both low-prior knowledge and high-prior knowledge topics, half writing for their peers, and half for their teachers. Results are presented. (Author/MT)

Describes three varieties of metatelevision: audience awareness and intertextuality or medium-reflexive structure; metagenericism or genre-reflexive structure; and autodeconstruction and ilinx or text-reflexive narrative. Metatelevision relies on the ability of the viewers to recognize artifice. (NKA)

Explores viewing of reruns from four eras, and identifies rerun viewer types from a sample of 489 people aged 15 to 92. Reports that rerun viewer types are heterogeneous in terms of rerun eras and content preferences. Finds that younger groups watch reruns from past eras more than older viewers. (MM)

Draws on a research project involving argumentative writing to contend that some student writing problems result not from a lack of familiarity with the academic discourse community but from certain audience postures that were positively correlated with the levels of socio-cognitive development as assessed by the Perry scheme. (RS)

Argues that texts may be especially rhetorically effective when the content, the medium used to convey the content, and the real life experiences that make the content relevant are formally or structurally similar. Suggests that formal linkage creates rhetorical effect, and uses Burke's theory of forms to explain the effect of formal links. (MS)