A practical guide to designing and delivering interesting and effective presentations for adult audiences, this book covers the five stages of a presentation and offers tips for executing each one. The book discusses stage fright and how to use it, and it explores the use of macro maps for staying focused during presentations. The book also…

Because of the vast nature of the work of Ernest Boyer and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, it is appropriate to highlight specific ideas related to the basic course in communication and offer a response. First, further research must be done to determine the extent to which the basic communications course enhances student…

Noting that teaching assistants (TAs) play a particularly important role in speech communication, this paper reviews and categorizes relevant communication research from 1979 to 1991. The paper notes that research by speech communication scholars relevant to communication in teaching assistant training falls into three categories: studies…

A study investigated the reason for the decline in participation in NDT (National Debate Tournament) debate. An anonymous poll of forensic programs was conducted to encourage a frank and open description of the issues surrounding the problem. One hundred thirty colleges and universities in America (out of 354) responded to a questionnaire. The…

This paper outlines Martin Heidegger's argument that poetry is the germinating seed of linguistic life. It discusses his belief that language has its origins in the poetry of experience and his premise that society has lost sight of or has forgotten poetic origins, because of the forms of logic and grammar imposed on language by modern…

A rules-based approach to the problems of debate (such as that proposed by the American Debate Association) will fail to provide a solution to debate's ills and may only increase the problems. Debate's current problems have to do with debate performance, e.g., speaking rate, poor quality evidence, and irrational arguments. A solution to these…

This article is in response to Michael Burgoon's call in "Communication Education," October 1989, for the divorcing of speech education from the discipline of communication. It is argued that the lack of isomorphism between speech education and behavioral research in communication reflects a serious imbalance within the discipline, one…

Literacy is examined from the viewpoint of systemic linguistics. It is proposed that "literacy" means intervening in the social processes by working with written language, and this can not be accomplished by an individual alone. "Using written language" can not be isolated from "using language." While sociologically,…

A study compared Ph.D. programs in communication in the Central States Region. Fourteen colleges and universities responded to a 17-item questionnaire. Results indicated: (1) there were half as many Ph.D. as Masters degree students; (2) half of the Ph.D. students were residents of the state in which they attended school; (3) the average ratio of…

The spoken language of Israeli children from various socioeconomic and ethnic groups was compared in terms of pragmatic strategies of communication in order to evaluate whether disadvantaged children were linguistically deficient. Interviews were conducted with a sample of 11- and 12-year-old children from privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds.…

The linguistic philosophies of H. P. Grice and J. L. Austin are discussed, and ways of applying their ideas to learning activities for gifted students are suggested. Grice's work focuses on prerequisites for successful conversation, the cooperative principle, and features of conversational implicature. Austin's work analyzes the distinction…

Weaver Award winning speech communication instructor Craig Streff believes the most important goals of his interpersonal communication instruction are a strong cognitive and affective base, without which practical interpersonal skills are not likely to be developed. Given this overview, what he considers to be the most significant points of the…

The methods and materials used in a language lab (LL) are analyzed. The theoretical advantages of the LL are enumerated, including its ability to provide a variety of programs and activities and its provision of an opportunity for students to listen critically to their voices. In order to determine if these advantages are being used, a set of…

Discusses the role of speech communication departments in higher education, focusing on student apathy in the humanities and the general educational financial crises. Suggests that speech professionals look to rhetorical and literary theorists and historians for leadership in the renewed pursuit of humanistic aims. (MH)

This article discusses the relationship between intonation and enunciation. The premise is that intonation performs in dependent sentences what allocution and modality perform in independent sentences. (Text is in French.) (AM)