Public speaking techniques for enhancing the delivery of professional presentations are offered. Specific suggestions are made for body movements and style of body language, use of voice (breathing, phrasing, projection, volume, transitions, pauses), hand gestures, and controlling the audience through eye contact, attention to individuals,…

Discusses two kinds of rhetorical audiences: universal, and particular. Considers the approach a speaker takes regarding the audience type, which is usually a mixture. Discusses how a speaker brings the audience to the desired adherence despite the difference of audience type. (SC)

Presents an interview with theater director Jeff Church. Discusses difficulties encountered and accomplishments realized as a director of youth theater. Describes the goals of learning more about one's field, being open to new insights, and selecting materials. Offers suggestions about knowing the community. (CR)

Describes how data displays can be classified into four types: conventional, perceptual, informational, and aesthetic. Argues that conflicts among the standards can be resolved by allowing the rhetorical situation to guide the design process. Explores a case in information design to show how the rhetorical situation shapes data displays, telling…

Aims to help teachers find a way to help students enjoy Shakespeare through the process of performance. Provides guidelines gained from personal experience for teachers presenting the plays with secondary students that include the following: (1) audience consideration, (2) actor-ownership of the performance, (3) staging limitations, and (4)…

Finds that communication modality moderates effects of power of language style on attitudes toward speaker's recommendation but not on evaluations of the speaker. Indicates that systematic information processing is used to form attitudes toward a recommendation when arguments are represented in writing, whereas audio and audio-visual modes…

Investigates the relationship between video, literacy, and cognitive skills. Explores the question of why to use film and television in the classroom. Presents key concepts of media literacy: messages are constructions; messages have legal, economic, and political consequences; and individuals negotiate meaning in media. (SK)

Contributes to scholarship on agenda-building and public controversies, and on print media coverage of controversial art by examining media coverage of Robert Mapplethorpe's photography exhibit and the controversy that emerged surrounding National Endowment for the Arts funding. Finds two ironic outcomes of the controversy: increased museum…

Considers how visual metadiscourse provides design criteria for authors when considering the needs and expectations of readers. Notes the author's discussions of textual metadiscourse in technical writing classes since 1995. Notes an improvement in the cohesion and considerateness of student writing after rethinking their role as writers and the…

A study involving 111 adults with blindness examined the impact of watching television science programs with and without audio description. Results indicate respondents gained and retained more information from watching programs with description. They reported that the description makes the program more enjoyable, interesting, and informative.…

Examines the role of imagination in literacy learning using data collected over a 5-year period in the author's primary classrooms. Notes that the study progressed to a conceptual structure that proposes an inside-out theory of literacy learning. Argues that to be successful and meaningful to all, literacy teaching must begin and end with a focus…

Reports on Senator Arlen Spector's interview of Anita Hill during hearings on Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and her allegations of sexual harassment. Examines the social structures and argumentative strategies Spector invoked to place Hill in a position of "powerlessness." Argues that the key resource contributing to the…

Analyzes the discourse of radio personality Rush Limbaugh, pointing out that he uses the following rhetorical strategies to deliver his political message: anecdotes, stories, and metaphors; double bind; contingency; rapport; authority; humor; emotional words; pacing; questions; missing words; and absolutes. (PA)

States that conceptions of the hero, and the importance of appearance, have altered with changes in visual communication technologies. Discusses the celebration of models and "attractiveness" as fame depends on media whose function is to attract audiences. Concludes that this both democratizes and trivializes the hero, but also, through…

Explains how a teacher used tape--pieces hanging from her hair, her desk, and student desks--to help students remember some of the principles of writing represented in the acronym TAPE: topic, audience, purpose, and elaboration. (TB)