Because religious communicators deal with issues most profound and consequential to their audiences, it is imperative that they examine their motives, aspirations, and rhetorical methods, as well as the ethical dimensions of their communication. Religion operates, along with every other rhetorical system, in the world of contingency, of the…

This book illustrates how and why knowledge of verbal behavior is important to an understanding of politics by analyzing and describing verbal behavior studies pertaining to politics. Chapters in the first part of the book discuss the various characteristics of verbal behavior: the importance of verbal behavior in politics, construction of…

In public-speaking courses, the use of games--a specific type of simulation--can help to overcome three of the most basic problems faced by the teacher: the gap between the study of theory and the application of that theory, the limited experience gained by students confined to speaking situations within classroom walls, and student stage fright.…

Poor delivery, artificial analysis, and unrealistic organization are all pointed to by critics of competitive tournament debate. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative ability of students with debate and nondebate training with regard to analysis, organization, and speaking skills. Ninety-four participants in the Bicentennial…

At the third annual Cal-State Hayward Conference in Rhetorical Criticism, 22 upper division and graduate students from 16 colleges and universities of the western states presented papers on rhetorical theory, history, and criticism. Panels of faculty members from the same colleges and universities, acting as editor-critics, rated four of these…

A study was undertaken to determine the effect of role playing behavior as a variable in persuasive communication. Subjects were 52 male college students who were divided into two groups: those who held favorable attitudes toward the speech topic were assigned the role of speakers, and those who responded negatively toward the topics were assigned…

Current practices in intercollegiate debate encourage inadequate reasoning and the use of short cuts in debate presentations. Poor debate strategies have emerged. For example, the inclusion, by negative teams, of excessively detailed arguments in constructive speeches has caused affirmative rebuttals to be acutely simplistic or has forced…

One of a series prepared by the Hawaii Newspaper Agency, this teaching guide offers ideas on using the newspaper to teach critical thinking. It includes suggestions for developing critical awareness of the facts that content differs from newspaper to newspaper, that newspapers contain both factual reporting and opinion, the objectivity in news…

At the fifth annual Cal-State Hayward Conference in Rhetorical Criticism, upper division and graduate students from 14 western colleges and universities presented papers on the theory, history, and criticism of rhetoric. Panels of faculty members from the same colleges and universities selected the three best papers for commendation and…

Public utterances that defend illegal actions on moral grounds which supersede legal grounds display distinct rhetorical features. Rhetorical criticism of Thoreau's "Plea for Captain John Brown" (1859) and the Antony Towne and William Stringfellow letter in defense of the Berrigan brothers (1972) reveals five similar rhetorical strategies. These…

Non-language elements of bias in mass media--such as images, sounds, tones of voices, inflection, and facial expressions--are invariably integrated with the choice of language. Further, they have an emotional impact that is often greater than that of language. It is essential that the teacher of English deal with this non-language bias since it is…

Developed as part of a quinmester unit for high school on advanced performance in argumentation, this guide provides the teacher with suggested teaching strategies for a course of continued development of the concepts learned in "Performance in Argumentation and Debate" and provides training for varsity debaters. Range of subject matter…

The forms and concepts of cinema and television are examined in order to shed light upon the techniques of communicating ideas and achieving psychological effects on film. Part I of the book focuses upon basic cinematic and television concepts, including matters such as the language and grammar of cinematography, the syntax of editing, the…

"Affirmative action" studies have reached a point which has produced for academic women a "crisis" or "turning point" in their professional lives. The problem is clearly evident, but remedial action has been very slow in development. Data on salary, rank, tenure, status, and policy-making powers illustrate few changes from previous discriminatory…

Full study of small group communication must include consideration of task and socio-emotional dimensions, especially in relation to group problem solving. Thirty small groups were tested for their reactions in various "ad hoc" conflict resolution situations. Instructions to the groups were (1) no problem-solving instructions (control),…