Analyzes Alexander Richardson's clothing metaphors which connected Ramist precepts to social values and philosophic assumptions drawn from the fields of fashion, psychology, and Puritan theology. Describes how these metaphors presented the Puritan community with an orientation toward listening and inculcated the Puritan speech community with…

Uses William R. Brown's theory of interventional rhetoric to describe a strategy of "participation"--a communicative strategy by which one community of Ohio Mexican Americans employs discourse to reinterpret social roles and expectations. Notes that this strategy attempts to maintain cultural identity while reducing intercultural…

Uses meta-analysis to test three models of the "sleeper" effect (a theory proposing that in the long term low credible sources may actually attain greater attitude change in message recipients than high credible sources). Concludes that the sleeper effect does exist, and offers suggestions for practitioners and theorists. (SR)

Examines cultural and personal values constraints on apologia through a case study of Governor Ray Blanton's apologia. Applies Bitzer's concept of functional communication and extends Jamieson's concept of the constraint of antecedent genre upon the rhetorical situation, examining of the impact of a speaker's antecedent rhetorical style upon later…

Discusses a broad spectrum of role expectations and negative assumptions thrust upon the communications consultant hired to teach business communication to adult employees of companies. Suggests useful tactics to deal with these behaviors. (SR)

Discusses two objectives in teaching rhetorical criticism to undergraduates: helping students develop a critical perspective that embraces criticism as illumination and evaluation; and helping students gain knowledge and abilities relevant to responding critically to communication. Describes strategies for achieving these objectives. (MM)

Traces the theoretical significance of using names as titles for situations, and applies this analysis to the United States' intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) programs. Argues that the names given to ICBMs preserve their utility as weapons by linking them to the myths of the nineteenth-century western frontier. (MM)

Argues that, as human resource development programs in organizations expand, communication educators need to address the issue of training communication trainers within the context of the consultation process. Outlines a college course on communication training and consulting, including course structure, major assignments, and ethical…

Argues that there is an inextricable link between scholarly productivity and instructional quality. Discusses implications of divorcing "Speech" from the discipline of communication. Proposes an 11-point plan to separate departments that wish to participate in an emerging discipline of communication. (SR)

Determines which oral communication skills are necessary for success in business, and which communication skills are in greatest need of improvement among persons in business. Reports that listening, message, and emotional behaviors stand out as the most important to success. (MM)

Examines Ronald Reagan's 1987 State of the Union Address as a quest story that reaffirms his vision of America's endless search for freedom in a persuasive, archetypal pattern that produces a common vision of the future through the mythic appeals of the past. (RAE)

Investigates the impact of varying levels of time compression on comprehensive, interpretive, and short-term listening. Finds that comprehensive listening performance deteriorates significantly as speech compression levels increase, while interpretive and short-term listening performance remain stable until a high degree of time compression is…

Examines whether communication apprehension mediates the effect of nonverbal involvement cues (head nods, eye contact, body orientation, etc.) on state anxiety, interpersonal attraction, and speech duration in information gathering interviews. Finds that nonverbal cues affect loquacity and liking, but that a speaker's communication apprehension…

Considers Walter Fisher's criticisms of the "rational-world" paradigm, as well as his defense of the narrative paradigm. Concludes that a useful argumentative tradition, best represented by the informal logic movement, avoids the dangers identified by narrative proponents. Notes that the narrative paradigm largely fails to fulfill its…

Relative timing of 15 stutterers' speech was compared with 15 nonstutterers, using two fluent utterances of the same phonetic content. Relative timing was not influenced by whether the talker was a stutterer or not, nor by the presence of fluency or disfluency in the environment in which the utterance occurred. (Author/JDD)