Intended for those new to the study of organizational communication, this revised annotated bibliography cites books and articles selected on the basis of clarity and comprehensiveness in providing background material or critical perspectives on organizational communication. The 27 citations in the bibliography focus on original literature…

A study was conducted to examine the presence and composition of nonverbal cues exhibited in a spontaneous dyadic interaction and to investigate the assumption that cue variation is inconsequential to the effect of nonverbal behavior implicit in methods that aggregate cue incidence across interactions. Subjects, 110 college undergraduates, worked…

Letters to the editor, one of the major ways citizens can respond to, and possibly even influence, public policy decisions, are good examples of public discourse. Those who take the time to write guest editorials or letters to the editor hope to go beyond self-expression to communication. They hope to influence the beliefs and attitudes, and even…

This study determined the effect of written persuasive communication on changing the attitudes of Egyptian preservice biology teachers toward teaching the topic of organic evolution. Attitude change was measured by administering an instrument (the Attitude Toward Teaching Evolution Scale) developed for the study. This 22-item, Likert-type scale…

Many students entering law school are surprised to find that the debating activities there (moot court, mock trial work, and trial advocacy courses) bear little resemblance to the debating they did at the undergraduate level. Those who teach, whether speech communication or prelaw, have an obligation to communicate to students the differences…

Noting the rediscovery by composition scholars of the tradition of classical rhetoric, this collection of essays explores the resurgence in the teaching of written discourse in college English departments. The 18 articles and their authors are as follows: (1) "The Revival of Rhetoric in America," by Robert Connors, Lisa Ede, and Andrea…

Facilitating consensual labor-management decision making may require interventions during, after, and before meetings. These interventions--including persuasion and mediation--may affect both the internal and the external processes of decision making. Communicative actions may help both the internal and the external decision making processes of a…

Written syntactic complexity is considered in relation to the four modes of discourse (argumentation, exposition, narration, and description). In a study of 153 children at three ability ranges within each of three grade levels (three, four, and five), syntactic complexity was found to differ significantly across the modes. The range of syntactic…

Focuses on the importance of integrating forensics programs into the speech communication curriculum. Maintains that debating and argumentation skills increase the probability of academic success. Published by the Association for Communication Administration Bulletin, Staff Coordinator, ACA 5205 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22041, $25.00 annual…

Reexamines existing research in persuasion by testing the predispositional and alignmental hypotheses. Evidence of past investigative failures is discussed and implications for future research are presented. (MH)

During the last 30 years, direct mail campaigning has become an integral part of the political process, and more recently has also become an influential fund raising tool for other political and religious groups. Analysis of over 70 examples of direct mail campaigns reveals at least 4 major content norms featured in most direct mail. First, the…

A person may be able to change others' attitudes toward him by his self-presentations. Female undergraduates (N=137) acting as superiors were assigned to evaluate subordinates in one of eight subordinate self-presentation conditions ranging from extreme self-effacement to extreme self-enhancement. Superiors evaluated the persuasive quality of an…

A two-part study manipulated structure demands (sequencing ideas, forming sentences, and complying with punctuation/spelling mechanics) in a persuasive writing task to measure the resulting effects on content operations (generating arguments/propositions). In part one of the study, 40 graduate students wrote preliminary and final drafts in one of…

The 35 exercises presented in this paper have been designed to simulate real-life experiences involving the process of persuasion and to enhance understanding of the persuasive process. Among the aspects of the persuasive process dealt with are the identification of persuasive events, emotive language, language intensity, source credibility,…

Violations of interpersonal spacing expectations have been demonstrated to influence a receiver's perception of the credibility, attraction, and influence of an initiator of such violations. Recent research on distraction and on personal space points to several potential strategies a persuader may adopt when trying to influence another individual.…