Debate educators must evaluate the efficacy of debate in terms of its goals of developing reasoning skills and critical thought. Disputes regarding method, purpose, and style identify problems within debate that obstruct or confound its capacity to reach these goals. Research plays a critical role in the development of reasoning skills and the…

The responsibilities of serving as a certified, national parliamentarian are both time-consuming and rewarding, and include three areas: national conventions, board meetings, and being "on call." Careful organization of all pertinent documents and preparation are essential to success for the convention parliamentarian, who also serves as…

In looking at the forms language takes, linguists sometimes forget to ask the obvious question about the relationship between the forms language uses (phonology and syntax) and the function language is expected to play as a vehicle of communication. Probably the bulk of our daily communication involves the allocation and use of power, the politics…

In examining the role of Corax and Tisias in the development of rhetoric should be considered: (1) the recently-discovered transition from orality to literacy in the ancient Greek world, suggesting that rhetoric became a formal discipline at their hands through the medium of writing and that rhetoric existed in some form in the earlier oral…

Although scholars have tried to identify validity as a single characteristic, an alternative path treats validity as a confluence of characteristics, a multifaceted concept that is a product of the function of argument in a given context. From a functional perspective on argumentation, validity criteria change as the speaker's purpose is redefined…

This annotated bibliography lists 43 books, periodicals, and essays in the area of governmental-political communication. Topics include: social justice, lying, cheating, ethics, public duties, public policy, language, rhetorical strategies, and propaganda. (MS)

This 44-item bibliography, limited to the television era of American politics, is intended to assist teachers of debate, argumentation, and political communication; researchers of campaign debates; and debate sponsors and participants. Scholarly books and monographs; public affairs books, monographs and papers; academic articles and chapters from…

This 47-item bibliography lists selected sources which offer advice, instruction, and opinion on the subject of clerical reading, including when and how it should be done. Basic speech textbooks and articles; secular oral interpretation textbooks and articles; religious source materials; and classical collections of sermons are annotated and…

This paper discusses narrative as a culturally significant speech genre which can be analyzed to reveal important aspects of a culture's code, particularly its expectations for conduct. The paper argues that through an analysis of narratives an understanding of one important aspect of a culture's code, specifically, that aspect which deals with a…

The best art experience has often been characterized as a kind of balance between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the expected and the unexpected, the easy and the hard. Good directors and actors have the artistry to be able to play on the orientation reactions of the audience. They know how to structure a production or performance so that it…

Education in Illinois will face a number of problems in the 1980s: decline in student enrollment, inflation, and decline in public support of education. It is impossible to estimate how these forces will affect speech communication and theatre programs, but three factors suggest that real opportunities exist for speech and theatre among the…

Speech communication workers have been reluctant to use physiological variables in their work. The arguments against their use have ranged from a fear of invading the realm of the psychologist or physiologist, thereby damaging the uniqueness and disciplinary identity of speech communication, to a feeling by certain scholars that the appropriate…

A study to determine whether five Pittsburgh hospitals have communication training programs and whether the programs have been or are currently being evaluated examined the following research questions: (1) whether they have ever used a communication training program (i.e., writing, interpersonal communication, public speaking, group leadership);…

Protocol involves the behavior and procedures that are proper in any discourse community, including both what is spoken or written as well as what is not spoken or written. Students need to understand what proper protocol in corporate culture involves, how it is determined by formal and informal structures, and why such protocol is important. They…

Government officials, media critics, and the public at large appear to believe that the media "cause" or strongly motivate acts of terrorism. However, analysis using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic method can explain political terrorism without reference to desire for coverage. Terrorism would occur because of its symbolic value even with no…