Recent criticism of rhetorical invention faults the discipline for not promoting "advanced literacy," defined as the use of critical reading and writing abilities to serve social ends. Aristotle's vision of rhetoric has contributed significantly to a cognitive view of invention, but Aristotle also acknowledged the importance of social…

Timing and speed are suggested to be the two general factors of coordination that differentiate people across a variety of motor movements. This study provides evidence for a third general factor of coordination, that of force control. Subjects that exhibit low variability in reproducing a target force with one effector, such as the finger, show…

Focusing on the nature of revision in lyric poetry, a study investigated poets' writing processes. Primary data sources included poets' commentary, letters, recorded conversations, interviews, and essays. Two case studies were also conducted--an evaluation of two poets at work (one a novice and one an experienced poet) and a textual analysis of…

A teacher educator describes his teaching experience in China and his finding that the Western behaviorist, alphabetic, linear mode of thinking has been widely adopted in education in that traditionally ideographic culture. The contrasting relationships of language, thought and behavior in the American and Chinese cultures is examined, and it is…

The conceptions of information needs of seven American and seven Swedish mechanics employed by a Swedish multinational machine industry are compared by using perspective text analysis to analyze their verbal responses to three open-ended questions concerning their need for work-related information. The structures embedded in the texts are…

This exploratory study describes fourth-grade students' opinions and knowledge about fractions. A coherent and elaborate fraction knowledge base results when students establish connections between their conceptual knowledge and procedural knowledge of fractions. One possible juncture between concepts and procedures might involve establishing…

Composing written text in an educational context engages both students and teachers in struggles between convention and choice, resulting frequently in the negotiation of compromises with which neither teachers nor students feel comfortable. The linguistic traditions of a discipline are powerful determinants of the nature of the language in which…

Student knowledge in a subject area prior to and after instruction has traditionally been assessed by administering a pre- and post-test, usually multiple choice, though recent studies criticize the use of even the best-constructed multiple choice tests. This study assessed college freshmen's knowledge before and after a laboratory experience in…

A study tested a model of bargaining rite by examining procedural rituals, organized fantasies, and ritualistic language in teachers' negotiations. Specifically, it sought to identify the communicative forms that create shared consciousness, to describe shared fantasies, to illustrate the role of group fantasy in forming rhetorical visions, and to…

Reading courses at the college level strive to improve advanced reading proficiency as well as basic reading skills. The use of a problem-solving model is one way to provide students with an organized approach to comprehending, investigating, and resolving problem statements. The problem-solving model begins with a problem statement provided by…

A study assessed the role of orthographic structure in college students' perceptual recognition and judgment of letter strings. Lexical status, word frequency, bigram frequency, log bigram frequency, and regularity of letter sequencing were orthogonally varied across a series of experiments. Six-letter words and their anagrams were used as test…

Many people are interested in computer aids to rhetorical invention and want to know how to evaluate an invention aid, what the criteria are for a good one, and how to assess the trade-offs involved in buying one product or another. The frame of reference for this evaluation is an "old paradigm," which treats the computer as if it were…

This study compares intra- and inter-rater agreement and reliability when using three different rating form formats to assess the same stimuli. One format requests assessment by marking detailed criteria without an overall judgement; the second format requests only an overall judgement without the use of detailed criteria; and the third format…

Previous studies indicate increasing, significant univariate and multivariate correlation between reaction time (RT) tasks and intelligence. Using multiple regression analyses, data from an earlier study by Brown and Boretz were reanalyzed to further investigate the relationship between the speed at which an individual is able to process stimuli…

Using Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956), this study explores whether the San Diego Schools are teaching and/or testing higher level cognitive skills. The Taxonomy arranges cognitive processes in ascending order in six areas; (1) recall of knowledge; (2) comprehension; (3) application; (4) analysis; (5) synthesis; and (6)…