Examines October 1992 press releases distributed by the public relations staffs of the major political parties to determine whether they established issue salience. Concludes that an active public played a pivotal role in issue ordering, helping determine the presidential election outcome. Posits that one reason for increased audience influence is…

Describes the steps involved in writing a successful proposal, including management, costs, style, and audience considerations; and identifies the essential elements for a useful needs assessment and provides criteria for helping develop and use one. (Author/LRW)

Argues that the relationship between writer and reader (or audience) must be reimagined in writing theory so as to recognize that neither is knowable or static. Suggests that Thomas Kent's theory of paralogic hermeneutics could help teachers advance a theory of audience that would act as a bridge between actual writing and theories of language.…

Outlines the internal usability review, a systematic examination of documentation to identify basic usability issues and solve problems. Discusses typical user problems and explains the review steps that eliminate documentation problems before they become problems for the customer. (SR)

Discusses problems that arise in evaluating social participatory art. Contends that concentrating solely on the social policy function during project development can have the effect of drying out the artistic content of the work. Proposes that evaluation processes are needed, but they must evolve from the structures of the projects and the needs…

Describes the basic characteristics of the "carnivalesque enactment" and its therapeutic potential. Explains a case study of the drama project at the Rabin Children's Medical Centre, how the carnivalesque enactment was developed step by step, and the kind of effect it stimulated among the children. Suggests new theatrical experiments with…

Examines the place creative writing might logically take in the study of literature. Contends that rather than supplanting conventional literary criticism in the classroom, such writing--what the author terms "imaginative response"--can readily complement and ultimately enrich formal analysis. Defines "imaginative response" broadly as responding…

Presents a brief quiz designed to focus on facts often forgotten or about which misperceptions typically swirl, and to concentrate attention on the lives of children and young adults during the Renaissance. Notes that the answers to the quiz are followed by explanations arranged, like the quiz, in three sections that provide some information about…

Explains the creation of the New Visions/New Voices festival which focuses attention on developing new scripts for young audiences. Notes that unlike other playwriting programs, New Visions does not require a complete script for application. Outlines the selection, casting, rehearsal process, dramaturg involvement, and post-reading discussions of…

Recounts and analyzes how e-zines were used in first-year writing courses to enhance students' rhetorical sensitivity to considerations of audience. Concludes that through the use of e-zines, students, on their own initiative, began exploring ways to use writing to provoke an audience to consider alternative views, a project which encouraged some…

Proposes that in addition to entertaining, film offers up subject positions; mobilizes desires; influences its audience unconsciously; and helps construct the landscape of American culture. Notes that film can provide a pedagogical tool for offering students alternative views of the world. Concludes that as a form of public pedagogy, film combines…

Asserts that directors and teachers should understand a script from the points of view of the audience, playwright, and characters. Explains how making notations in a script can help actors find, make and remember choices while acting. Explains a notation system for "scoring" a script. Concludes that teaching students how to score their parts…

Defines and analyzes the ideological conditions which motivate a writer to conclude a screenplay with an open ending. Questions whether screenwriting instructors in the 1990s should encourage their students to write nonclassical Hollywood cinema endings. (KEH)

Examines Susan Sontag's February 1982 Town Hall Address as a case study of strategies and constraints associated with contextual reconstruction (whereby rhetors address perceived conflicts between text and context). Traces the development of these concepts in Sontag's writings. Discusses the counter-intentional understanding of Sontag's speech by…

Reprints the inaugural address of the 1986 president of the National Council of Teachers of English. Examines issues in English instruction such as emphasizing facts over reasoning; developing a sense of audience; mechanics; dialects; and literature instruction. (RS)