The college speech communication classroom can serve as a laboratory for rhetorical theory and criticism. Applying the hypothesis of "experimental persuasion" to the study of oral expression, an instructor can promote in his/her students the development of story-telling skills of concrete depiction, dramatic action, the elements of…

A midwestern university is testing a program that uses the Apple II computer to help students in an advertising research course develop their skills in preparing and presenting research reports using computer generated graphics for both oral and written presentations. One of the course requirements is the preparation of a final project, including…

Mark Twain was a strong proponent of the superiority of the spoken word. Realizing the importance of conversational style, Twain derived from and acted in accordance with the principles of communication effectiveness which subsequently formed theoretical bases for communication instruction by such scholars as James Winans and Charles Woolbert. An…

An increase in foreign student enrollment and subsequent questioning of traditional concepts of western rhetorical practice, particularly freedom of speech, resulted in an evaluation of current teaching practices in South Dakota State University's basic speech communication course. In a summer session course, 36 international students responded to…

While there is a need for basic oral competence, speech communication programs should provide more sophisticated training in public eloquence. Such an advanced course should first be genre-centered instead of interaction centered. Instead of emphasizing the audience-speaker interaction, the course should center on the creation, analysis, and…

When people say that what they hear is "over their heads," they are describing a severe information-based complexity (I-BC) problem. They cannot understand what is said because some of the information needed is missing, contaminated, and/or costly to obtain. Students often face these I-BC problems, and teachers often exacerbate them. Yet…

A study examined the particular variables utilized in argumentative spots (political advertisements that attempt to tell the audience where the candidate stands on particular topics) of the 1984 GOP senatorial hopefuls, in an attempt to ascertain if any advantages were manifested in different commercial patterns in content and format of the ads…

The Developmental Speech Sequence Model (DSSM), based on a developmental approach designed to overcome deficiencies in public speaking, offers students guidelines for speech delivery but not at the expense of spontaneity. While some approaches provide step-by-step direction or are more abstract, the DSSM builds developmentally through a series of…

While covering various English language forensics activities in Japan, this special journal issue is heavily devoted to debate. The 22 articles in the journal are divided into five sections as follows: (1) general information on the Japan English Forensics Association (JEFA); (2) debate, including reports on debate tournaments around the world, a…

Debate paradigms, which at one time established standards to help judges evaluate arguments and rules to guide debaters' argument choice and strategy selection, no longer offer consistent guidance for either judges or debaters. An increased emphasis on creativity and flexibility has led to a general unwillingness to use a rigid debate format. The…

Speech class teachers can implement a pre- and post-speech strategy, using pre-speech and self-evaluation forms, to help students become active in directing their own progress, and acknowledge their own accomplishments. Every speech is tape-recorded in class. Students listen to their speeches later and fill in the self-evaluation form, which asks…

In response to a need for writers in corporations who are able to construct well-written speeches, a format for a speech-writing seminar for corporate writers has been developed. First, there are two kinds of seminars: open, for which anyone could register; and in-house, which is conducted for a specific company or organization. Second, in…

A study continued a series of empirical investigations into the psychological criteria people use to determine whether or not to make particular arguments. Two hundred volunteers enrolled in a required public-speaking course (1) responded to several demographic questions, (2) described the persuasive choices they would make in the scenario…

This directory lists 1650 individuals in New York state who are willing to participate in some aspect of public humanities programming including planning, proposal writing, research, presentation, or evaluation. The individuals listed are those who responded to a questionnaire that went to almost 8000 people from colleges and universities and from…

At Florida Junior College at Jacksonville, public speaking instructors employ Jerome S. Bruner's four factors of learning--predisposition to learn, structure of knowledge, sequence, and reinforcement--to plan an effective learning program for students with diverse academic backgrounds and goals. Specifically, six learning units, tailored to both…