This study investigated the discourse elements that teachers focus on in teaching French to multiethnic groups, and examined the extent to which teachers take into account the different cultural backgrounds of these students. Data are derived primarily from the observation of videotaped classroom activities. The subjects in the study were students…

A general discussion of the nature of ethical values of the specific issues related to teaching such values leads to several specific suggestions as to how to accomplish ethical value education in communication. Ethical values education should be integrated throughout the curriculum of higher education in general and communication education in…

Noting that effective writing instruction depends on careful planning informed by knowledge of the writing process and its variations in relation to different audiences and purposes, this teacher's guide explains the nature of the writing process and how it relates to instruction. The purposes of the guide are threefold: to highlight current…

The environmental movement of the 1960s and 1970s caused an increase in special interest magazines on the market and in environmental education programs in the schools. These magazines communicated science and environmental information, which often could not be found anywhere else, to an increasingly sophisticated audience. However, the field of…

During 1986, a movement against the production and sale of pornography brought together two extremely different factions--radical feminists and evangelical church groups. The two groups' reasons for attacking pornography and their tactics in attempting to halt its production and distribution differ significantly. Feminists have argued that…

The symbolic presence of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) has been and continues to be the pivot point in all summitry rhetoric between the American President and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. To examine some of the rhetorical choices made by Gorbachev to dramatize his vision of why Ronald Reagan refuses to…

The case approach to academic writing requires a student to use subjects in an active way while writing. This approach, appropriate in content courses as well as in composition classes, improves a writer's logic more quickly and effectively than concentrating on logic alone. In the case approach, a student is given a body of information about a…

Despite a growing trend to split the two areas, literature belongs in the composition class. In responding to literature, students can trace their own developing thought. They acquire, through literary discourse, a tool of discovery. This tool closely resembles expressive discourse, the mode, as James Kinneavy suggests in "A Theory of…

Focusing on how computers can and should be used in intercollegiate forensics, this journal issue offers the perspectives of a number of forensics instructors. The lead article, "Applications of Computer Technology in Intercollegiate Debate" by Theodore F. Sheckels, Jr., discusses five areas in which forensics educators might use computer…

Representing works published between 1970 and 1984, this annotated bibliography identifies a variety of readings that explore fundamental issues of ethics in interpersonal, public, and mass communication, and that examine from an ethical viewpoint how to and whether to employ particular communication tactics or techniques. The bibliography…

Noting that television debates have become a regular feature of the media politics by which candidates seek office, this annotated bibliography is particularly intended to assist teachers and researchers of debate, argumentation, and political communication. The 40 citations are limited to the television era of American politics and categorized as…

In support of research examining relationships between learner characteristics and the quality of online discussions, this paper surveys different methods for evaluating discussions. The paper will present coding methods used in our own research as well as methods used by others interested in quality online discussions. Key topics include what…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the rhetoric of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher; (2) the rhetorical strategies employed in the political speaking of George C. Wallace in the 1968 United States presidential…

Prepared as part of a project designed to provide an objectively measured indication of the quality of student writing in one school district, this paper presents analyses of the syntactic complexity of the argumentative and narrative writing of more than 500 seventh and eighth grade students and of the mechanical errors found in that writing.…

Designed initially as a way of understanding the often anomalous rhetoric of movement leaders, the Requirements-Problems-Strategies (RPS) framework for analyzing the rhetoric of social movements has been applied in recent years to analyses of other collective rhetoric and leadership roles in collectivities. RPS has also been used in conjunction…