By applying Kenneth Burke's concepts of Order, the Secret, and the Kill to the newspaper-audience-advertiser relationship, the narrow imagery that depicts that relationship only in economic terms can be counteracted. Burke's maps of hierarchy, mystery, and transcendence in human action allow the depiction of a complex meshing of patterns,…

Debate as an elitist activity can be defined in two ways: it may mean that entry to a tournament is restricted to only a few participants from any one school, or it may mean that although a wide range of students may participate in debate, only the best debaters are allowed to compete in prestigious national tournaments. The restriction on the…

Since the American Forensic Association has sanctioned recording individual events competition, it might be in the interest of competition to combine oral interpretation and radio/television broadcast competition into simultaneous competition. Voice development is a goal shared by oral interpretation and broadcasting, so oral interpretation…

Discourse analysis of an interview with a Mexican American immigrant mother concerning her children's education in the United States and her relationship with the school provides an understanding of the adaptations of an immigrant in organizational relationships and how language reflects and influences those interactions. The model of discourse…

Too many people become disillusioned by political language because they start with illusions about it--erroneous ideas and unrealistic expectations. It is better to start with realistic attitudes, practical information, and not-so-great expectations. When dealing with political language, expect (1) conflict, arguments and disagreements, and…

Although it is impossible to know in advance the credibility of political messages, such persuasive discourse can be analyzed in a non-partisan, common sense way using predictable patterns in content and form. The content of a candidate's message can be summarized as "I am competent and trustworthy; from me, you'll get 'more good' and 'less…

The purpose of the three papers that make up this document is to explore and redefine the role of debate judges. The first paper, by Leslie Phillips, begins with the assertion that the debate judge is first and foremost an educator, notes that judging is one of the forces that shape and direct competitive forensics, and goes on to consider…

The style of high school debate should emphasize information processing above all other skills. Debate, as an intellectual educational activity with a basis in scholarship, is not an end in itself but a means to the acquisition and refinement of useful skills that deal with reflective thinking and critical decision making, on both personal and…

Debate is structured argumentation consisting of four elements: a resolution or proposition; an affirmative position, speaker, or team supporting the proposition; a negative position, speaker, or team responsible for attacking the proposition; and a judge or group of judges who determines which position has better achieved its purpose. Debate as a…

Persuasion theories typically attempt to account for attitude change, but mass media reviews influence more ephemeral variables, the chief of which is "interest" in attending or otherwise consuming a cultural event or object. Reviewing and other forms of "evaluative journalism"--including much sports, consumer, and political…

Since the concept of "communication competence" is a relatively recent development in the field of speech communication, there is as yet no universal agreement as to its definition and constitution. However, it seems that the purpose of the study of communication competence is to inform classroom instruction. The efforts to define and understand…

Rhetoric handbooks and composition texts continue to teach that the main techniques of effective argumentation are based on logic--the use of evidence, deductive and inductive reasoning, definition of terms, and so on. Yet, as Chaim Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca argue in their book "The New Rhetoric," the most solid beliefs are those…

Designed to involve students directly and immediately in the process of intellectual inquiry by showing them that writing is a discovery process and by helping them in developing writing as a form of social dialogue, this book is organized to accentuate the dynamic, interactive character of the writing process. Chapter titles are: (1)…

The latter part of the twentieth century has brought explicit emotional appeals; some by advertisers for commercial goods and others from political and religious leaders. The religious appeals to feelings can be traced back in history to the revivals in the mid-eighteenth century where the "Great Awakening" opened up religious…

Michael Dukakis lost the presidential campaign debates of 1988 (or at least failed to capitalize as much as he might have) because he understood the debates to be genuine debates. Consequently, Dukakis acted as a debater generating an image of himself as a "benevolent technocrat," which was an error. It must be pointed out that the…