Describes the context of the Valdez disaster in terms of an organizational crisis. Discusses the nature of scientific argument and the norms of scientific ethos as they represent an appropriate standard for measuring the ethics of profit-seeking organizations during times of crisis. (NH)

Uses "resemblance" and "similitude" as guiding metaphors for an exploration of two prevailing notions of academic writing as it is perceived in composition studies. Describes differences between student writing and academic writing. Shows how the concept of similitude may be helpful in reconceiving academic discourse. (HB)

Outlines five competing ideas about how the literal meanings of sentences can be determined. Studies people's intuitive sense of the literal meanings of sentences. Examines through two experiments people's judgments about the literality of sentences containing figurative language. Discusses implications of findings. (HB)

Discusses the problem of "overlap" sometimes experienced by interdisciplinary teams. Analyzes a brief segment of a team conversation in which overlap is discussed. Reveals participants' territoriality in the face of an ideology of interdisciplinary collaboration. (HB)

Discusses the Renaissance idea of "copia," a rhetorical and literary term indicating enthralling richness in terms of detail, variation, and figures of speech, which might now be termed "copias thinking." Offers examples from Erasmus, Rabelais, Montaigne, and Shakespeare. Discusses the uses for copias thinking. (SR)

Investigates the applicability of B. Weiner's attribution theory to compliance-gaining interactions. Finds that attributional dimensions (locus/controllability and stability) affected participants' persistence at seeking compliance, use of particular strategies, and perceptions of target sincerity. (SR)

Discusses the need for mathematical registers in aboriginal languages and presents some mathematics and language examples. Outlines information on the choices which can be made and the possible consequences for the language in making those choices. Contains 24 references. (ASK)

Examines the debate over creation and evolution in Wilmington, North Carolina's principal newspapers in order to consider the ways in which this debate exemplifies patterns of public discussion among academics and non academics, including conflicting attitudes about education, authority, and persuasion. Proposes ways to read and intervene in such…

Illustrates how examination of children's "condensed" utterances can reveal the emergence of complex thought processes. Shows how these expressions, often brief and easily overlooked, when negotiated and probed by the teacher, reveal multiple connections, the drawing of analogies, divergent frames of reference, intertextual…

Examines the role of gender and the nature of instructional discourse on beneficiaries and social change in development communication projects addressing health, nutrition, and population problems. Finds a shift from focusing on women and other marginal groups since the Decade for Women, toward emphasizing consumption and privatization. (CR)

Using computational analysis, describes and analyzes selected lexical, discourse, and stylistic elements of English in international management that are essential for public identification of management and the manager. (Author/VWL)

Investigates whether concreteness was related to a key characteristic of written composition--the cumulative sentence with a final modifier--which has been consistently associated with higher quality writing. Supports the conceptual-peg hypothesis of dual coding theory, with concrete verbs providing the pegs on which cumulative sentences are…

Speculates about one possible future where language and social interaction hijacks much of the action that would have been considered the province of cognitive psychology, respecifying and reorienting it as it does so. In this, language and social interaction becomes a fundamental discipline in the social sciences. (Author/VWL)

Proposes that language and social interaction (LSI) scholars can contribute to interdisciplinary efforts aimed at understanding and responding to child physical abuse. Discusses reasons why LSI scholars might shy away from such study and considers links between face-to-face family interaction and child physical abuse, demonstrating the relevance…

Although the "consensus thesis" assumes that learning difficulties arise from school structural deficiencies, a study of two English secondary schools concludes that the thesis fails to account for complexities of school development. Instead, open-ended dialog between contrasting discourses would foster dynamic school cultures. (SK)