To identify and interpret some of the attitudes toward and levels of support for competitive forensic activities on college campuses, a study surveyed the chief administrative officer at every institution identified in the Speech Communication Association's 1988 Directory (339 of the 1,100 surveys mailed were completed). Questions concerned past…

The communication discipline has advanced the belief that arguing (high argumentativeness) is a constructive communication activity. Recent research efforts have attempted the integration of principles from argumentation, interpersonal communication, and conflict management, and several benefits of high motivation to argue and skill in informal…

The purpose of this study was to describe the strategies mothers employ to elicit clarifying information from their children in a situation in which the children were reporting a past event. Forty 2-year-old children individually participated in a mock birthday party with the experimenter. Immediately afterwards, the mothers (20 of whom had…

Noting that a series of mechanical rules created for pairing and placement of judges at the National Debate Tournament (NDT) may be useful in developing a computer program to pair tournaments, this paper focuses on the methods used to pair rounds at the NDT and also looks at some pairing options frequently employed by other debate tournaments. The…

Discusses ways of addressing superiors, inferiors and peers in a war zone setting, Vietnam 1965-70. Charts are given of address forms for enlisted men and non-commissioned officers. Also discussed are addresses during action. Degrees of intimacy for various titles are explained. (SC)

When tournament judges view a particular speaking event they are inevitably going to have different perceptions of that event. For example, typical descriptions for after dinner speaking events deal with time limits, originality, wit and creativity, and tasteful humor. Definitions of these terms vary, but efforts have been made to establish some…

In order to clarify and define the subject matter of argumentation, this paper examines the two senses of argument identified by D. J. O'Keefe and then proposes a third sense of argument as another legitimate perspective in argumentation. As discussed in the paper, O'Keefe's two senses of argument are a thing people make and a kind of interaction…

This journal issue is devoted to the critical social theory of the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas and its implications for argumentation theory and practice. Topics discussed in the six articles are: the main themes of Habermas' research and their relevance to argumentation, Habermas and the dialectical perspective on argumentation, a…

This paper examines Saint Augustine's obscurantist preferences in popular preaching (as distinguished from his episcopal instructions to other clergy) as a way of identifying one of the classical influences on Christian rhetorical strategy. The first section of the paper offers a comparison of Augustine's theoretical approval of homiletic…

The argument of this paper is that psychotherapy is essentially a rhetorical process that, as an alternative to or substitute for religious rhetoric, seeks to lead people to a secular state of grace. The paper first acknowledges the work of four scholars who have written about the rhetoric of psychotherapy: Erling Eng, Pedro Lain Entralgo, Lloyd…

This study reports the interrater agreement of the Maternal Language Classification Scale (MLCS), a functional language classification system, developed partly to avoid problems identified with previous scales. The MLCS is a comprehensive system for classifying the functional content of maternal language addressed to children whose mean length of…

Arguing that systematic analysis of message strategies ought to become a major focus of study within the field of speech communication, this paper offers a limited case study to illustrate the kinds of strategies that might be uncovered. The paper places the illustration within a persuasive context and indicates the kinds of approaches a speaker…

BOOKS, ARTICLES, AND AUDIOVISUAL PROGRAMS USEFUL TO LATIN TEACHERS WISHING TO REVITALIZE THE STUDY OF LATIN ARE LISTED IN THIS CRITICAL, ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. A FEW ITEMS FROM 1868 TO 1939 MERIT LISTING EVEN THOUGH OUT OF PRINT, BUT THE BULK OF THE MATERIAL DATES FROM THE 1950'S TO 1965 AND IS CONSIDERED AVAILABLE. THE SECTIONS OF THE…

Surveys of business managers provide evidence that organizations need help in developing employee communication competencies. Recognizing this need, the speech profession has begun to show an increasing interest in developing both undergraduate and graduate courses in organizational communication. The need for developing communication skills…