Writing represents the writer's dialog, first, with himself, and later, with the reader. Both processes take part in the communication and influence its shape and content. The successful writer persuades by making present those things which are not in the immediate environment and by balancing the conflicting demands of stability and flexibility.…

Explains four visual composition preparations providing both concrete experiences to stimulate student writing and a nonverbal means of teaching the internal structure of discourse. (MM)

Teacher developed U.S. history curriculum materials involve high school students in analyzing rival historical interpretations. Students learn how to deal with arguments through the booklet "A Guide to Critical Thinking" and then analyze and debate interpretations. Appendices include sample materials and a matrix of content with associated…

Two studies assessed the effectiveness of a health education curriculum geared toward teaching resistance to pressure to smoke. One study investigated pupil ability to identify persuasion and resistance skills portrayed in videotaped recordings. The other study examined the effectiveness of videotapes as a teacher training device. (CJ)

Examines Rockwell's "Four Freedoms" posters and considers the historical circumstances during which they were mass-distributed. Observes how these paintings that praised the political and religious values of Americans were used to educate the people about the necessity of participation in World War II. (PD)

Provides a classification scheme for recognizing and analyzing the elements of graphic persuasion embodied in political cartoons. (PD)

Findings support (1) the claim that the power of style is directly related to judgments of competence in a hypothetical court case and (2) less strongly, the claim of a direct relationship between power and communicator attractiveness. (Language style features included intensifiers, hedges, polite or hesitation forms, and deictic phrases.) (PD)

Examines reactions to male and female discussants who express positions of dissent in small decision-making groups. Results indicate that both men and women were persuasive when they used well-supported arguments. The use of qualifiers (tag questions, disclaimers) only had an adverse affect, however, when used by women. (PD)

Develops a model of negotiation rule use that incorporates both content and relational dimensions and focuses upon interaction as the dependent variable. Assesses how winners and losers in mock negotiations differ in their use of communication rules. (PD)

Describes use of debates to teach English as a second language students how to separate the relevant from the irrevelant in written and spoken English and the mental discipline to use only pertinent information. (BK)

Presents a study of the differences in perceptions of messages of eminent Black and White political leaders by Black and White college students. Results indicate that roles are differentiated across a large number of communication variables as a function of race. (JMF)

Describes a five-step unit approach for using media within a language arts program. (RL)

Discusses Barbara Jordan's keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention which succeeded in pleasing the immediate audience of partisans while not offending the general audience. The success is attributed to Jordan's ability to appeal to two seemingly contradictory sets of values. (JMF)

Variables for effective communication in institutions of higher education are identified. Described are basic principles of communication, the variety of available forms of institutional communication and their purposes, and some indicators of their effectiveness. (JMF)

Twenty audiotapes, containing lies or true statements, were recorded and judged by 100 subject-listeners, aged 15-30. As a group, subjects displayed better-than-chance accuracy in judging veracity, which confirms previous studies. A tentative profile is drawn of an individual adept at detecting lies. (SJL)