Explores the response of a Vietnam veteran to the film "Platoon." Notes that the film combines two voices, the veteran as journalist-critic and as priest, which mystify rather than explain the Vietnam experience. Argues that this form of priestly rhetoric serves an enduring hierarchy of power and knowledge. (KEH)

Replicates a study by O'Donnell and O'Donnell (1978) to determine changes in the portrayal of sex roles in television commercials from 1978 to 1988. Examines gender and occupation of the person representing each product. Explores which sex is shown in more professional roles. Findings indicate conventional sex role stereotypes persist. (JS)

Analyzes argumentative essays written to both friendly and hostile audiences by high school seniors and college undergraduates. Finds level of intellectual development a more significant predictor of holistic paper scores than demographic variables. (MS)

Teaches researchers how to improve the quality of both the content and the delivery of research paper presentations. Covers the following topics: (1) understanding the medium; (2) using visual aids; (3) presentation design; (4) delivery; and (5) managing question-and-answer time. (FMW)

Compares three television networks' treatments of "A New Beginning" (a Reagan campaign film shown at the 1984 Republican National Convention) and examines the effects on viewers of one network's critical preview of the film. Assesses the uses and limitations of rhetorical criticism in television coverage of political campaigns. (SR)

Describes a four week collaborative writing unit designed to develop students' sense of audience by producing a magazine to orient fifth grade students to junior high school. Discusses how students developed the idea, conducted interviews, wrote articles, used computers to produce the magazine, and distributed copies of their magazine. (RS)

Describes a set of writing assignments in a high school English class in which students research controversial, complex issues and then write letters to government officials or persuasive essays for other students, thus learning about persuasive writing, and civic action, and becoming more exacting in their language and more precise in their…

Examines whether preschool children take the gender of the addressee into account when disputing during peer exchanges. Finds that both boys and girls modified their language use in mixed-sex groups, with boys using fewer commands when more girls were present, and girls using more contradictions in mixed-sex than same-sex groups. (SR)

Presents a functional working model of 15 points for planning and production of educational media. Discusses selection and analysis of subject, working/executive group, target groups, and media; surveying conditions in the field; analysis of subject/problem description/goal; selection of contents/detailed planning; operation in the field; editing;…

Gives seven responses from practicing English teachers concerning ways that they have implemented the writing of various kinds of letters by students into the English curriculum. Demonstrates the efficacy and success of such methods. (HB)

Hyperfluency, defined as discourse that is inappropriate and incompetent in the target audience's estimation, and its relationship to composition pedagogy are discussed. It is argued that hyperfluency can signal the growth of an individual's linguistic resources. (16 references) (Author/LB)

Describes the complex and sometimes conflicting components involved in reading assessment issues and proposes a solution that involves linkages among assessment audiences and approaches. Concludes with remarks about how school districts might pull together all the pieces and solve the assessment puzzle for themselves. (PRA)

Describes an assignment in writing documentation that turns the classroom into a laboratory for usability testing, giving students a clear sense of the reader responding to their text. (SR)

Presents a transcript of an interview with successful young adult author Jerry Spinelli. Describes the techniques and writing strategies used by Spinelli. Discusses ways of generating stories, and the author's concept of his audience. (HB)

Comments on the interview of bell hooks in the preceding issue of the "Journal of Advanced Composition." Comments on hooks's concepts of audience and power, race relations, multicultural education, and the politics of literacy. (HB)