In most large-scale assessments of student achievement, several broad content domains are tested. Because more items are needed to cover the content domains than can be presented in the limited testing time to each individual student, multiple test forms or booklets are utilized to distribute the items to the students. The construction of an…

This paper reviews the established principles of composition of visual images, discussing the application of those principles to moving visual images in general and television pictures in particular. Fundamental compositional principles of the visual communication media are explored in relation to television as an art form--namely, direction,…

This essay examines the art of oral interpretation from a "vocal" perspective--that is, it focuses on the crucial nature of vocal dimensions in oral interpretation. Moreover, the essay argues for an interpreter's hierarchy of vocal needs (modeled after Abraham Maslow's 1970 theory). The interpreter's hierarchy of vocal needs involves…

Political communication has influenced greatly the study of modern public relations. The development of modern public relations can be traced back to the Ancients of Greece. The definition of "political communication" when applied to public relations is typically corporate in nature. That is, public relations defines the role of…

Sound practice requires sound theory, and if instructional technology is to mature either as a field or a profession, theory that not only speaks to those problems unique to the field, but is also conceptually sound is required. Instructional technology, though having a practical focus, must build conceptual theory bases rather than relying…

As current scholarship in composition is becoming increasingly influenced by post-structuralist theories of discourse, two approaches to teaching freshman composition compete with one another. At the heart of the controversy lies the question of the place of academic discourse in this pedagogy. The social constructionist approach (supported by…

A study examined the impact of teaching communication on the marital roles of communication teachers and their spouses. Subjects, two male and two female communication professionals and their spouses, tape recorded their responses to eight discussion questions in a comfortable conversational format. Four themes emerged from the transcripts of the…

What happens when the rhetoric of school reform meets the realities of school change? In this book, a teacher offers a down-to-earth, very personal, often funny account of what life is like in a middle-class, suburban high school where teachers, students, and administrators struggle against school bureaucracy, inertia, and the difficulty of…

Poststructural theory grapples with the hiddenness and complexity of oppression by questioning Western understandings of the self as a unitary, self-created, autonomous, essentialist entity. Feminist psychologists have shown that autonomy as a measure of maturity implies that women will never "grow up" because women's lives tend to be…

This paper, a research review, looks at the concept of rhetorical sensitivity and how it relates to persuasion. The paper maintains that rhetorical sensitivity and its measures, RHETSEN and RHETSEN 2, (developed in 1980 by Hart, Carlson, and Eadie) attempt to categorize the sensitivity people have for the rhetorical nature of interaction. The…

For instructors in college writing centers, doing research is crucial, both for understanding what they do and authorizing who they are. A dialogic relationship between the research undertaken and current theory is particularly crucial. The goal of this research needs to be understanding the relationship between the writing center and the larger…

Elaborating on the complex nature of literacy from a social, epistemological, psychological, and pedagogical perspective, this book describes the group of people called the "scribal society." The book notes that scribes were (and still are) not simply people who can decode and encode written language, or "text"--scribes must…

An updated version of a bibliography which appeared in a 1982 edition of "Rhetoric Society Quarterly," this 132-item bibliography is divided into books and articles and book chapters. The selections date from 1933 through 1989. (NKA)

Curriculum knowledge cannot be legitimized until its method of construction is examined. Dominant curriculum theories, those that are well established by tradition, usually provide research results reflecting a deterministic or imposed reality. The basic premise of this paper is that curriculum theorizing has, for the most part, been a utilitarian…

This study examined the sequencing of instruction in a course in physical therapy. In the first phase, a procedural elaboration sequence was designed using the Simplifying Assumptions Method. In the second phase, a prescriptive-theoretical elaboration sequence independent of the procedural sequence was designed. A descriptive-theoretical…