The 1988 vice presidential campaign became a quagmire for Dan Quayle and the National Republican Party. To regain their footing and rehabilitate Quayle, the Republicans adopted two classic strategies for coping (often studied in the academy): rhetorical apologia and minimal exposure. During the campaign, an accusation was made that Quayle used his…

Explores two non-academic programs concerned with improving communication effectiveness. Notes contrasting methods of evaluating speeches. (MH)

Discusses implications of debate judges' bias in theoretical argumentation. (CH)

Advice for teachers in aiding students to gain confidence in public speaking. (CH)

An updated version of a bibliography which appeared in a 1982 edition of "Rhetoric Society Quarterly," this 132-item bibliography is divided into books and articles and book chapters. The selections date from 1933 through 1989. (NKA)

The idea for the organization that later became the American Forensic Association (AFA) was conceived at a meeting of debate coaches at a tournament at the State University of Iowa in the fall of 1948. This group felt that something should be done to meet the growing needs and interests of high school and college debate coaches. The group…

Towson State University (TSU) conducted a public debate series within the Maryland State Penitentiary, that state's maximum security lockup. Following delays due to an escape and subsequent lockdown that preceded the first scheduled debates, the prison program began in 1983 with TSU students debating the right to privacy. The continuing prison…

In many college and high school forensics tournaments, the topic agenda is derived from "Newsweek,""Time," and "U.S. News and World Report." This use of three profit-oriented, widely circulated magazines as the agenda setting basis of extemporaneous speaking competition is philosophically and substantively damaging.…

In examining the role of Corax and Tisias in the development of rhetoric should be considered: (1) the recently-discovered transition from orality to literacy in the ancient Greek world, suggesting that rhetoric became a formal discipline at their hands through the medium of writing and that rhetoric existed in some form in the earlier oral…

Although scholars have tried to identify validity as a single characteristic, an alternative path treats validity as a confluence of characteristics, a multifaceted concept that is a product of the function of argument in a given context. From a functional perspective on argumentation, validity criteria change as the speaker's purpose is redefined…

Over recent years critics of debate have expressed disenchantment with the rate of delivery used by intercollegiate debaters. To determine how fast Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) debaters speak compared to normal public speaking rates, and whether CEDA has met its goal of providing a forum that is consistent with the rate of public…

The public, the media, and the candidates each bring a unique and sometimes contradictory set of needs to the political campaign debate that must be reconciled in designing formats to significantly improve debate practice. Five format suggestions address problems characteristic of debates, particularly at the state and local levels: (1) format…

Because students with stage fright are numerous, different from their college peers, and capable of being helped, the University of Illinois has created stage fright sections within the basic speech course. To meet the behavioral objectives of the course, the student should be able to define stage fright and recognize its common symptoms, describe…

In the game-like world of competitive tournament debating, fiat power is simply another rule of the game, a way of saying "hypothetically" or "for the sake of argument let us assume this affirmative plan to be implemented." While fiat power is just a way of saying "let's pretend," there are limits to the pretense. For…