One way to elicit good writing from students is to expose them to great literature and have them write about the attributes they share with a character, or about the experiences they have had that parallel those in a work of fiction, or about how a work of fiction compares with real "life." Using James Joyce's "Dubliners" as a…

Intended for journalists in developing countries, this manual gives a detailed account of the functions carried out in the newsroom. The first section deals with aspects of the reporter's job, including news writing and stylistics, interviewing, and press law. The second section discusses the duties of the news editor, including maintaining…

The linguistic bases for bilingual education (i.e, the nature of language, the structures of the native and target languages in a bilingual education program, and the way the two language systems interact) need to be examined and understood as a sound basis for administrative and pedagogical decisions and procedures in the programs. Linguistics is…

In light of cultural stereotypes in which Black women function as strong heads of households while Hispanic women serve as obedient wives, a study examined whether Black and Hispanic subjects evaluated assertive speech differently when attributed to a male or female speaker. Subjects, 75 Blacks and 100 Hispanics, all undergraduate students…

A study comparing the dialects of Ozark and Appalachian English addresses a possible relationship between the two dialects. The study compares selected structures in the two dialects in order to (1) examine similarities and differences, (2) investigate the behavior of a range of ages (10-70+) to determine patterns of change, (3) examine…

According to S. K. Langer, people create meaning through presentational and discursive symbolism. Presentational symbolism, Langer suggests, is an abstracted sense of experienced life, while discursive symbolism is a series of subordinating or coordinating positions that set in motion the relation of ideas and permits the discussion of causation.…

Speech act theory jargon has several advantages over the traditional composition jargon. First, it is new and therefore potentially exciting. Its newness means that all students have an equal chance at it and need not feel that because they failed to understand a term presented in high school, that notion is forever lost to them. Second, jargon is…

The issue addressed in this paper is the relationship between form in fictional prose and form in other uses of language, particularly those uses important in composition theory. Form in composition theory has traditionally had two ways of identifying units of analysis: (1) the sentence and semantic units, and (2) pragmatic and rhetorical units.…

The five major articles in this journal issue focus on television criticism as an academic field. An introduction, entitled "The 'Scholar's Anthology': Televisual Studies" (Bruce Gronbeck), is followed by articles discussing the following topics: (1) the discourses of television quiz programs (John Fiske), (2) the dialectic of feminine…

Interpreting Aristotle's criteria for persuasive writing--ethos, logos, and pathos--as a concern for writer, language, and audience creates both an effective model for persuasive writing and a structure around which to organize discussions of relevant rhetorical issues. Use of this heuristic to analyze writing style, organization, and content…

These proceedings contain the following papers: "Corporate Conduct: The Importance of Proper Etiquette and Communication" (Glenna A. Dod and Susan L. Fay); "Establishing a System for Technical Editing" (Marlene A. Hobel and Kathy L. Urbach); "Office Technology in Business Communication Textbooks: Current Status, Future Recommendations" (Richard M.…

Discovering pleasure in words should begin at a young age. But the discovery can continue among college students if oral communication courses offer parallels to the art and music appreciation courses which are part of most collegiate curricula. Some class activities which can enlarge appreciation of oral language are: (1) students may be assigned…

A study of mother-child interaction focused on the contingent responses children make to various mother strategies to elicit language and the mothers' frequency of using that tactic. The subjects were six normal and four retarded children, matched for general language skills, and their mothers. Mother-child interactions videotaped at home were…

Current interest and controversy about the use of microcomputers with young children led to a study of 13 3- to 5-year-old girls and boys enrolled at the De Anza College Child Development Center in Cupertino, California. Designed to determine the effectiveness of the computer in enhancing language experiences and development of cooperative play…

As a powerful tool for education, language informs, influences, discloses, and communicates. Research on the use of language has found that it also discriminates. Among the different manifestations of sexism in language are (1) the use of "he" as a generic pronoun; (2) the "generic" use of "man" as an exclusively male referent; (3) the use of "you…