Investigates the relationship between social skills and depression in a college student population. Finds that depression is associated with a partial social skill deficit, most notable in terms of excessive social anxiety, low motivation to communicate with others, low social expressivity, and diminished behavioral involvement. (PRA)

Extends previous modality and source cue studies by manipulating argument quality. Randomly assigned college students by class to an argument quality by source attribute by modality factorial experiment. Finds the print mode produces only argument main effects, and audio and video modes produce argument by cue interactions. Finds data inconsistent…

Tested first, second, and fourth graders for understanding of private keys, that is, referential utterances used to inform selectively. Examined children's sensitivity to common ground context of utterance and appreciation of audience design and speaker intent. Found gradual development of understanding over age range. (BC)

Explores research relating parts of clauses to the communicative roles they play. Proposes that M. A. K. Halliday's system of analyzing sentences into one or more kinds of themes and a rheme is a useful system in conducting such research. Discusses implications of this system for understanding discourse production, structure, or reception. (RDS)

Discusses factors that have delayed the development of basic research on both sign language and the deaf community in South Africa and presents findings of a study conducted to determine effective sign language communication between deaf and hearing signers in South Africa, the SimCom project. (14 references) (GLR)

Examines how two factors (advisor role dilemma/role coalescence and use of foot-in-the-door or door-in-the-face strategies) contribute to the genesis and escalation of conflict in the texts of 14 actual advising interviews between college students and faculty, who must balance roles as students advocate or institutional gatekeeper. (SR)

An experiment with 766 homeowners compared 3 strategies for delivering radon test results to homeowners. Small improvements in consumer satisfaction were found for personalized messages (a telephone call or personal letter) over a form letter. No detectable improvement was found in recall of advice or compliance for any strategy. (SLD)

Discusses the widespread use of English as a world business language, reasons for its spread, standard and nonstandard "Englishes," and causes and cures for misunderstandings. (SR)

Provides a synthesis and extension of research on teacher clarity conducted since 1971. Examines the conceptualization of teacher clarity and research approaches to it. Supports the thesis that clarity is a relational variable. (SR)

Finds an inverted-U shaped relationship between frequency of exposure to rock and popular songs and affect toward the songs among undergraduate students. Finds no support for the hypothesis that subjective novelty and complexity interact with exposure in determining affective evaluations. (SR)

Offers a case study of a merger of two local theaters. Finds that organizational change causes customers to change vendors; the announcement of a merger fuels efforts by competitors to "steal" market share; and organizational change leads to more organizational change. (SR)

Reviews the scholarly work that uses content analysis to study political substance in magazines. Uses a modified version of Laswell's communication model to classify the current literature. Discusses problematic issues and offers possible solutions. (SR)

Finds, in studies on magazines published outside the United States, little linking of data to theory; little research on how to disseminate ideas; and a void in many areas of magazine publishing, for example, looking at magazines as vehicles for sociological study, examining content categories, and investigating types of specialized magazines. (SR)

Describes beta tests conducted of three desktop video-conferencing systems that provide audio and video control and that transmit images of both the work and the participants. Describes the systems, relates how college students have used them, and lists social and technical factors to consider when structuring and maintaining distance-meeting…

Analyzes a sequence of grammar instruction in a fifth-grade classroom to investigate how familiar instructional objects called problems, answers, errors, and solutions are made visible to the cohort. Discusses an "essential instructional fiction" which is essential to the coherence of the lesson in hand and which may hold relevance for…