Much progress has been made in recent decades in improving the quality and quantity of speech competition. The forensic community has endorsed a justification of forensics that emphasizes its educational value. Some critics complain that current competition structure creates detachment from educational opportunities and leads to pandering to…

A study examined the mass media usage of deaf Nebraskans. Two categories were formulated to aid in selection of respondents: "experts," composed of individuals who have special training to teach deaf persons or to teach interpreters for the deaf; and "non-experts," consisting of individuals who have had no special deaf…

This digest addresses the question of health information and reporting in the mass media, focusing on its accuracy and on some researchers' ideas for improving the quality of the health information that is disseminated. The digest discusses accuracy in reporting, the role of commercial television, advertising, and the audiences for health…

A language-centered social interactionist approach toward writing and written communication involve writing and reading as acts of negotiation. Effective writing, which enables writers and readers to construct and share understanding, is a process of interpersonal contextualization. An analysis of the working drafts and revision of the…

Ronald Reagan's rhetorical presidency can be summarized as a leader attempting, at virtually every occasion, to stem the dissolution of the American spirit by celebrating the country's mythic past. Such attempts were Reagan's celebration of nationalism through a particular discussion of the interrelationships between liberty, freedom, democracy,…

After students' interest in literature has been stirred by journal writing, it is time for them to turn their private journal writing into writing for an audience. Instead of having students write the usual responses to literature, vary their assignments by offering them creative responses, either occasionally or as an individual alternative to…

Speech writing can be an excellent vehicle for helping students develop writing skills. The course described in this paper blends rhetorical principles and practices from public speaking, speech composition, persuasion and public relations with "real world applications." Students work on developing purposeful communication, a consistent…

Some critics of Robertson Davies' three novels that comprise the Salterton trilogy, "Tempest-Tost" (1951), "Leaven of Malice" (1954), and "A Mixture of Frailties" (1958) complain of their creaky novelistic machinery, suggesting that they merely show an essayist, or journalist, becoming a novelist. These three novels,…

In the present decade, many management and organizational communication scholars have explored a guiding metaphor--organizational culture. Japanese industry has developed a corporate model that may have provided the concepts involved in organizational culture: ideology, beliefs, rituals, myths, and symbols. Organizational culture is inextricably…

Newspaper and magazine coverage of the Spanish-American War represents the apex and the eventual eclipse of the hand sketch artist as news-gatherer and simultaneously the birth of the modern-day photojournalist. Perhaps of even wider impact was the strong new role of visual reportage. The daily barrage of drawings and photographs by William…

This paper discusses how "The Ladies' Home Journal" was used by its editor, Edward Bok, in his crusade for food and drug regulation in the United States between the years 1890 and 1906, and whether these efforts were influential in bringing about the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. The first section describes "The Ladies' Home…

Revision, based on a grasp of intertextuality (the relation of texts to one another and the writer's locus relative to her own text and the text of others) and the social nature of all discourse, is a larger process that can be observed in any single piece of writing. This larger conception of revision is a natural outgrowth of…

Offers suggestions for textbook writing and observations on subject, publishers, prospectus, advances, approach, reviews, audience, and deadlines. (MS)

Proposes a model for the revision process that recognizes that (1) reading and writing during revision are related; (2) a relationship exists between revision and the writer's knowledge of the subject, audience, and style; (3) revision strategies are based on heuristics; and (4) revision is involved in the recursive nature of the composing…

This revised and updated resource contains a total of 43 essays that serve to initiate graduate students and more experienced teachers into the theories that inform composition studies. Under Section One--The Givens in Our Conversations: The Writing Process--are these essays: "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product" (Donald M. Murray);…