Designed to serve as a framework in which high school debate students, coaches, and judges can evaluate the issues, arguments, and evidence concerning which agricultural policies best serve the United States, this booklet provides guidelines for research on the 1986-87 debate resolutions selected by the National Federation of State High School…

The first stage of a three-stage speech placement test that can be used by individual campuses of the University of Wisconsin is discussed in this paper. The following applications of this speech theory test are described first: to exempt students from the basic communication course, to place students in an appropriate communication course, or to…

In the present decade, many management and organizational communication scholars have explored a guiding metaphor--organizational culture. Japanese industry has developed a corporate model that may have provided the concepts involved in organizational culture: ideology, beliefs, rituals, myths, and symbols. Organizational culture is inextricably…

In the history of small group studies (in the field of communication theory and research), two factors contributed to the changes that led to Ernest Bormann publishing in 1970 his work questioning the value of the knowledge being reported and the appropriateness of the methods by which it was being generated. First, prior to 1965, a limited amount…

A study investigated the time honored notion that students who successfully complete a basic course in public speaking will experience less anxiety about speech situations, and will have significantly different emotional reactions to potential public speaking situations. Scales to measure communication apprehension, speech anxiety, and pleasure,…

Most faculty in communication departments find themselves in one of two "camps": theory or production. Better integration of the two will help to clarify the role communication departments play in the academic community, begin a more fertile and generative relationship among faculty, and establish a centered and coherent curriculum for…

To explain the role of empathy in forms of prosocial behavior, two studies were conducted to examine the relationships among different dimensions of empathy, communication, and prosocial behavior. Study one tested three models hypothesized to explain this process, an altruistic model, an egoistic model, and a dual-process model combining aspects…

This specialized bibliography was prepared for students and teachers interested in the growing literature which describes, directly or indirectly, homosexual liberation as a rhetorical movement. Thirty-eight references are annotated in the areas of (1) autobiographical accounts; (2) quantitative research; (3) history; (4) law; (5) literature; (6)…

Literature on the components of language and basic skills in speech acquisition is reviewed, and specific problems in communicatively disordered children, particularly hearing impaired and multihandicapped hearing impaired children, are investigated. Practical intervention strategies designed to promote intelligibility of spoken language and…

The ability to describe existence through speech and to change that existence through tools are among the most fundamental characteristics of humans. From the first efforts of humans to communicate--using hieroglyphic and pictographic systems of writing--through the development of the phonetic alphabet, to the emergence of computer technology,…

Two experiments examined nonverbal behavior patterns and relational communication perceptions associated with communication reticence. In the first experiment, pairs of friends and pairs of strangers engaged in nine-minute discussions. Subjects were rated by their interaction partners and by trained observers. Results showed that as their level of…

Both rhetorical theorists and attitude change theorists agree that characteristics of the source of persuasive communication can improve the persuasiveness of that message. Writers from both perspectives have approached this notion from two divergent perspectives. Isocrates was concerned with the speaker's prior reputation, which is quite similar…

For an academic department to successfully compete for resources today, it must keep its enrollments up by actively marketing its courses. The "minimal marketing" strategy used in the past, where departments designed programs and simply waited for students to appear, is no longer effective. At Central Missouri State University the…

An important influence on a presidential candidate's debating style, the "incumbency factor," has been largely ignored by researchers. An analysis of the argumentative style of incumbents, based on the 1976 and 1980 presidential debates, has isolated three distinguishing characteristics: (1) presidential incumbents tend to avoid extended…

Several forms of journal writing, both graded and ungraded and serving different purposes, were used to enhance instruction and outcomes of a basic course in oral communication. In-class journals, written in the first five minutes of class and intended to stimulate thought rather than to practice correct writing, were on a topic assigned by the…