This guide is intended for use in an eight-session course designed to develop the presentation skills required of persons employed in the manufacturing and service industries. The course is structured so that, upon its completion, students will be able to accomplish the following: identify the traits of good and bad speakers; research and organize…

This essay examines some Republican communication behaviors which account in part for accusations that the use of negative strategies was unprecedented during the 1988 presidential campaign. It also explores some of the effects of those strategies on political communication behavior during the first year of the Bush Administration. It is suggested…

This paper maintains that the best approach to writing across the curriculum is one that focuses on thinking and writing strategies that cut across a number of subject areas. The paper describes some methods and classroom tested activities found to be successful in teaching students the complex thinking skills involved in making and supporting…

The classic film, "Twelve Angry Men," where a lone dissenting jury member (Henry Fonda) implores his fellow jurors not to make a quick decision in a murder trial, is often cited as a resource for analyzing decision-making processes in groups. The film, used in group-process courses to show how conformity pressures can hamper effective…

In a study, 52 first-year college students were asked to complete questionnaires about their attitudes about legalizing drugs. The students were to offer persona judgments about hypothetical authors arguing for and against legalization. Next, the participants were assigned to read and evaluate essays for and against legalization, and then were to…

The classical concept of "ethos" (the establishing of the speaker or writer's credibility, his or her moral character) has acquired many meanings over the centuries and has played an important role in determining the many shifting perceptions of the teacher's role, both in the classical period and the modern period. The issue can be…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: At my university, students are required to take a two course sequence in freshman composition, EH 101 and EH 102. EH 101 covers six basic essay forms utilizing description, narration, process description, classification, comparison/contrast, and argument. Because EH 101 is a basic, required course,…

A review of literature in the speech communication field from 1978 to 1983 reveals developments emerging in the area of forensics, while a review of the contributions to theories of debate analysis reveals advances in both policy systems theory and in hypothesis testing. Although much of the research is directed toward forensics educators, it is…

To examine the influence that biological sex and psychological gender have on trait argumentativeness, 219 subjects were asked to complete the Argumentativeness Scale and the Revised Bem Sex-Role Inventory. Subjects were classified according to sex and gender, and two-way analysis of variance was conducted. Additionally, discriminate analysis was…

Richard Nixon's 1952 "Checkers" speech was an innovative use of television for political communication. Like television news itself, the campaign fund crisis behind the speech can be thought of in the same terms as other television melodrama, with the speech serving as its climactic episode. The speech adapted well to television because…

Various kinds of negotiations that may be used to teach interactional skills in the advanced English as a second language (ESL) classroom are discussed, and examples of materials are included. Seven distinctive features of negotiations are as follows: (1) there must be a minimum of two parties present at the interaction; (2) each party must have…

The construct of involvement, used by marketers and consumer behaviorists for many years as a predictive measure of the qualitative relationship between an individual and a stimulus, has long been defined as having affective or cognitive roots. However, definitions that favor one or the other too heavily are less helpful because they are too…

Reflecting the ideas, suggestions, and criticisms offered by members of Pi Kappa Delta as to the organization's future role in the forensic community, these proceedings deal with organizational structure and processes; competitive and noncompetitive outlets; pedagogy and research; and inter-forensic organizational cooperation. The papers are as…

This paper examines past media research on presidential campaign debates, reviewing literature from the fields of mass communication, political science, and speech communication, and considering regulatory changes (e.g., debate sponsorship and equal time provisions) and the growth of primary and general debates as an institution. Beginning with…

An empirical study examined politicians' use of public speaking teleprompters (PSTs) when delivering major addresses to determine if audiences made aware of this practice would more seriously question speaker credibility, sincerity, and communicative ability. After completing an initial survey about political attitudes and awareness, subjects, 36…