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…

Rhetorical critics must examine terrorism to determine what contributions they can make to the understanding of rhetoric and to the evaluation of proposed responses to the terrorist threat. Not only must the rhetorical acts of crusader terrorists be viewed as rhetoric, but they must also be considered a rhetorical genre. This genre, with the…

The Standards of Learning Objectives for Virginia Public Schools in the areas of theatre arts, oral communication, and journalism explicitly stated in this guide reflect the scope and depth of these elective subjects and identify some appropriate ends for instruction. The guide outlines the program goals, objectives, guidelines, and SOL objectives…

Based on his own experiences with public speaking courses, the instructor of a speech communication course for adults brings students to the task of speaking in front of the room gradually to reduce speech anxiety or communication apprehension. During successive class sessions, students speak sitting in their seats, standing beside their seats,…

A descriptive, qualitative research design was used in a study that examined the formal socialization process in high technology organizations. The primary objective was to determine if organiations involved in high technology tended to exhibit similar symbology in the discourse produced by management for the formal socialization process. Data…

A background paper sent to the participants of the Nairobi Conference inviting them to take part in a brainstorming on "Africa's Role in the North-South Dialogue on Communication" introduces this booklet. It is comprised of four articles, "Intensifying the Dialogue," which summarizes the proceedings and recommendations; "A…

Public relations education is frequently criticized as being misdirected and incapable of imparting necessary job skills. This essay argues that contemporary public relations training overemphasizes print journalism at the expense of managerial skills and social science theory. Further, traditional justifications for journalism-based public…

In order to discover and evaluate the nature of large-scale, standardized assessment programs in colleges and universities in 1986, a survey followed up the Committee on Assessment and Testing (CAT)-sponsored study of 1982. A questionnaire was mailed to speech departments of more than 2,000 institutions, asking first whether the institution has…

Students in the speech and theatre department at a Rhode Island university can receive one to three credits for forensic tournament participation and/or student coaching. A four-part evaluation system was designed to grade tournament participation. Students are notified by memo at the beginning of the semester that their final grades will be based…

Coaching rhetorical criticism events is demanding because it places demands on a forensic coach's knowledge of rhetorical theory and method and is time consuming. However, it may become a simpler event to coach if there is an understanding of the process of developing a speech for rhetorical criticism and specific strategies that can be used in…

A speech given by C.A. Holeman at the Kitakyushu University English Study Society (ESS) Intensive English Training Camp in 1985 concerning the history and status of ESSs is presented in this booklet. The contents of the lecture are organized according to the following topics: history and number of ESSs, names, activities, debate, types of…

Intended for anyone approaching parliamentary procedure for the first time, this booklet is designed to provide a lucid explanation of parliamentary rules and the reasons for them. Chapter 1 discusses organizations, considering such things as bylaws, officers' titles, impartiality of the chair, boards, and committees. The second chapter--on the…

Defining communication reticence as anxiousness due to a lack of basic communication skills, a study was conducted to determine (1) whether significant differences exist in the distribution of sex roles between reticent and nonreticent populations, (2) whether reticents and nonreticents differ in masculinity and femininity, and (3) which qualities…