This paper offers a tentative and exploratory discussion of the assumptive bases and ethical implications of a theory of interpersonal listening based on empathy. The first major section of the paper presents a brief historical overview of the empathic tradition, particularly as it relates to interpersonal communication study and to theory…

To eliminate the rapid pace, heavy reliance on evidence cards, and professional jargon associated with the debate style of the National Debate Topic (NDT), the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) proposed the use of a value topic--instead of a policy topic--to restore balance among argument, analysis, and evidence in debate. Initial…

This paper examines United States Representative Hale Boggs's 1971 speech on the House floor, in which he denounced J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for wiretapping members of Congress and infiltrating campus student groups. Following an introduction to the objectives of the paper, the first section reviews Boggs's…

Examines the direction of recent literature on rhetorical theory and suggests potential issues that might confront speech communication scholars. (PD)

The role of questions as an instructional resource was examined by depriving conversationalists of their use. The ability of third parties to reconstruct the resultant dialogues after they had been randomized was taken as an index of conversational structure. (JB)

Examines speech communication defined problems of reticence and/or communication apprehension pointing out the inappropriate use of the medical model to deal with such problems. Suggests that a specialist called a "rhetoritherapist" deal with these problems through training in various rhetorical subprocesses. (MH)

Examines the act of protest suicide as a form of rhetoric, and studies three representative cases of protest suicide for insight into the act. Claims that viewing protest suicide as a form of "symbolic inducement," reveals it to be a rhetorical act whose motivation, form, and impact can be understood. (SKC)

The relationship between features (e.g, use of Yes/No questions and conceptually simple questions) of adult speech and autistic children's response adequacy was examined within unstructured dyadic conversations. As the number of facilitating features in adult speech increased, the proportion of adequate child replies increased. (Author/DB)

Explains a speech accommodation theory for the interaction between a receiver's decoding ability and a speaker's voice tone on compliance with requests for help. Good decoders complied more with the fast request, whereas poor decoders complied more with the slow request. (RAE)

Discusses Book 3 of Aristotle's "Rhetoric," especially the negative attitude expressed toward rhetorical delivery. (SRT)

Describes international amateur radio talk (IART) as a clear case of the significance of the channel or medium as a restrictive factor in discourse and analyzes sample texts of IART. (HTH)

Results indicated that normal-language children responded meaningfully to print settings that contained reduced nonprint cues while language-disordered Ss did not. General language ability was correlated with print awareness, but knowledge of specific oral lexemes was not necessary for accurate print responses. Parent questionnaire data suggested…

Describes the use of a maze to teach students how to construct the speech outline. Provides an example. (PD)

Reflects on 50 years of teaching in the speech profession and what is entailed in complete teaching of communication. (PD)

Reviews 15 documents in the ERIC system on the basic course in speech communication covering philosophy, research, teaching approaches, and challenges. (PD)