Many theorists agree that attention to audience in the act of writing is a very crucial component whether product or process oriented. Audience to the classical rhetorician is an audience to be persuaded, a weak-minded audience that needs someone to direct its thinking to a point of decision. Some high school teachers use this approach as they ask…

The paper disucsses the need for training in critical thinking and the effects of debate training across the curriculum as a teaching tool and learning mechanism. The debate training provided through the Oral Communication Program at Virginia's Radford University is described (design, implementation, results), along with data from a report on the…

To discover the components of a trustworthy source, a study evaluated the credibility of health-related news stories. Subjects, 192 college undergraduates, read one of four random versions of a one-page newspaper story about aspirin's ability to ward off heart attacks. They were told that the sources for the articles were: a medical journal (high…

A study investigated advertising executives' perceptions of the importance of culture in international advertising, as well as advertising message approaches used by international corporations. It was hypothesized that more nonculturally oriented managers would agree to the use of the same creative strategies to advertise in both domestic and…

A study examined the relationship between interaction involvement--a kind of communication competence--and communication behavior in a negotiation setting. Subjects, 120 college students, completed the Interaction Involvement Scale and were placed in same-sex dyads of three types: (1) mixed dyads of one high- and one low-involved subject; (2)…

Much discussion within media ethics has focused on the acceptability of surreptitious tape recording of news sources by media professionals. The most common legal and social arguments supporting secret taping assert that recorders "hear" and "remember" better, are expedient and practical, protect against libel suits, provide…

Historically, Americans have employed the rhetorical motif "reaffirmation of principle" to cope with the social evils in their midst. This concept refers to the tendency of groups to respond to outside hostility by regrouping and reaffirming their ethos through a form of self-address. Reaffirmation of principle, like managerial rhetoric,…

This collection of papers on semantics and cohesion is organized into two sections: Meaning and Semantics, and Textual Cohesion. Titles and authors are as follows: "Functional Text Semantics, Idioms, and Variability" (Jan-Ola Ostman); "On the Degree of Motivation in Signs Used in Metaphors Involving Plant Symbolism" (Ralf…

A study examined the composing processes of eight college freshman writers and the contexts for their writing when they composed in natural settings without narrow time constraints. Subjects, both traditional freshmen and adult learners with varying degrees of writing skill, were assigned two research tasks during which they kept tape-recordings…

A need exists for development of communication competence as a part of management. Although public relations literature has dealt with the nature of management counseling and when and why it should be practiced, the literature has not clearly defined the importance of audience analysis, location of the management counseling sessions, and…

This workbook with teacher's guide provides "hand-ons" experience for second language (L2) acquisition researchers in analyzing second language data. The sample data is organized into language categories including morphology, lexicon, phonology, syntax/semantics, spoken and written discourse, foreigner talk discourse, specific purpose acquisition,…

Noting that students often adopt a flat, lifeless style when writing a research paper, student papers were examined for evidence of the writer's presence. The presence of the writer is admittedly a subjective perception of the reader, but clues to the presence or absence of the writer can be identified. Though no one clue is definitive evidence,…

This paper argues that Dwight Eisenhower's use of television in the political campaign in 1956 helped mark the rise of the centralized presidential campaign strategy. To determine the impact of television on this campaign and describe the campaign's inner workings, the paper recounts (1) the Republican dilemma over the use of television and the…

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…

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…