Integrating debate on controversial topics into the syllabus enriches learners' interaction with the Spanish language and stimulates intermediate students to express themselves in Spanish. This article lists some practical suggestions for setting up debates as well as criteria for evaluating them. (Author/CK)

College and university fund-raisers offer suggestions for successful direct-mail campaigns, telephone campaigns, and fund-raising auctions. Ideas include specific persuasive techniques for different types of donors, motivational and support mechanisms for volunteers, and appealing activities and rewards for campaign participation. (MSE)

Suggests that students can learn to recognize media bias by studying media reports of current events or historical topics. Describes a study unit using media coverage of the second anniversary of the Palestinian uprising against Israel. Discusses lesson objectives, planning, defining bias teaching procedures, and criteria for determining bias. (DK)

Investigates the cultural and gender variations in the use of metadiscourse among U.S. and Finnish university students. Describes and analyzes the findings. Provides evidence for the universality of metadiscourse use and proposes more cross-cultural studies of metadiscourse. (HB)

This study found that 74 high school students with learning disabilities were more likely than 85 nondisabled students to expect that a teenager trying to convince a peer to engage in misconduct would use simple, direct requests and were less likely to expect requests that minimized the possibility of getting caught. (JDD)

A qualitative study is described investigating the university graduate student seminar presentation as a speech event and its status as a genre. Findings support Swales' (1990) contention that the graduate seminar is an independent genre related to the experimental research article, not merely an oral replication. (20 references) (Author/LB)

Obtained and scored argumentative writing samples of fourth, sixth, tenth, and twelfth grade students. Found significant grade level differences in writing samples scored according to Toulmin's model of argument and a holistic scoring procedure. Few children in any grade used features of opposition or response to opposition in written arguments.…

The movement toward quantitative, "scientific" planning in organizations ignores an element essential to progress: communication within and among disciplines to explore available options. For this reason and because of the growth of technology, it will be important for higher education to expand into the field of communications. (MSE)

To gain others' consistent and active cooperation, administrators should convince faculty and staff that a task should be done. An administrator who uses persuasion communicates a degree of respect that strengthens the supervisor-subordinate relationship. Compliance-gaining strategies may be classified according to expectancies and consequences,…

Compares business communication students' thinking styles with the processes and products of collaborative writing groups. Finds that (1) students with identical thinking styles do not naturally team up in forming groups, (2) thinking style is more important than academic major in influencing group success, and (3) thinking style variety within a…

Four classroom activities for French instruction are described, including an exercise in contextual grammar, lessons in interpretation of charts and graphs, an exercise in extracting cultural information from text, and practice in calculating in French and applying basic economic concepts. (MSE)

Explores role of discourse functions in children's use of "because" ("perche" in Italian). Disputes of 172 preschoolers were analyzed in terms of interactive move, argumentative strategies, and communicative acts. Results showed causal connective tends to co-occur with justification acts and may work as device introducing new information and…

Lack of student use of critical thinking operations can lead to faulty argumentation in discussing societal issues. Presents 12 common fallacies in student argumentation and discusses their implications for science education. (Contains 51 references.) (MDH)

Addresses the problem of school-sponsored assemblies featuring guest speakers who present creation science on school premises. A science teacher who spoke at a follow-up assembly established two goals: (1) to present authoritative information about evolution; and (2) to help students evaluate the creation speaker's arguments against evolution.…

Reports on a study in which 31 undergraduate students practiced academic argumentation by e-mail. In the two "tutored" e-mail study groups, discussion topics were selected by the tutor, while in the two self-directed "student-led" groups, selection was by the students. Results support the superiority of the student-led mode over the tutor-led mode…