Discusses the history and rhetoric of the dialogue form and cites Plato's use of philosophical dialogue in the Gorgias. (MH)

Examines Churchill's use of archetypal metaphors in his speeches from 1930 to 1945. (MH)

Compares J. Agee's film reviews for "Time" and "The Nation," concluding he assumed a more knowledgeable, sophisticated audience in readers of "The Nation." Analyzes content, style, and structure of reviews, showing loose structure, deductive reasoning, and rambling style in "Nation" reviews, and coherent,…

Includes Thomas Dukes' rebuttal to Elizabeth Tebeaux's "The Trouble with Employees' Writing May Be Freshman Composition" (v15 n1) and Tebeaux's response. Dukes argues that inept freshman composition experiences are not the fault of the course itself. Tebeaux contends that freshman composition courses overemphasize expressive discourse.…

Discusses Mikhail Bakhtin's view of language acquisition. Contends that his ideas about language as ideology will allow syntactic and grammatical stumblings, as well as rhetorical failures, to be seen as possible manifestations of ongoing social and cognitive processes, rather than simply deficiencies of skill. (MS)

Contends that contemporary reading of "topos" is inherently metaphorical, having at its root a "place" metaphor with important ontological overtones. Indicates an imbalance by comparing two ways of interpreting the "place" metaphor, and the consequences for critics. (JK)

Identifies and assesses the means by which proponents of an orthodox or a heterodox stance regarding the position of women in the Catholic Church seek to reconcile women to their paradoxical situation. Gauges the potential of each to persuade church authorities to modify the institution's position on women. (JK)

Describes the relationship between ideology and rhetorical strategies by tracing Emma Goldman's use of argument by incongruity and embodiment. Argues that these strategies are inherent in anarchist ideology but were ineffective for an American audience. (JK)

Introduces a new method for studying influence of media on language. Compares radio call-in conversations and normal telephone conversations, where differences might be seen as aspects of the interaction between media and language use. (JK)

Critically examines contemporary interactional studies of the cultural specificity of human language. The study is a cross-cultural analysis of misconstrued communications in human interaction, ascertaining whether these interactions are crucially dependent on nonlinguistic variables. (CB)

Asserts that the complexities peculiar to "bottom-writings" (essays graded at the lower end of a holistic scale) are often overlooked. Analyzes organizational patterns of high-rated, low-rated, and professional writers, noting similarities between the latter two groups. Considers how teachers can work with the skills bottom writers…

Presents a taxonomy of jokes and wit as a useful, descriptive tool. Argues that humor processing may occur in a parallel rather than serial fashion by contrasting a serial-processing, incongruity-resolution model with an alternative dual-processing model. Also presents a taxonomy of the social functions of wit. (JK)

Extends G. P. Mohrmann's premise regarding the textual study of rhetorical discourse to indicate that (1) textual criticism should result in theoretical understanding of texts, not in autonomous theories; (2) the sequencing or timing of textual elements offers ground for critical judgment; and (3) foundational conceptions frame discourse and…

Argues that we are all fiction-makers/historians, that most failures of communication result from some willful or inadvertent but unknowing violation of the space and time we and others live in, and that most of our speaking is tribal talk. (EL)