Book-length works of nonfiction prose are seldom the object of study when college English teachers, rhetoricians, or theorists are engaged in practicing their profession. Phyllis Frus McCord (in "Reading Nonfiction in Composition Courses: From Theory to Practice" 1985) proposes that the goal should be "to break down the hard line…

Including speech transcripts and judges' critiques, this book presents the results of the 1986 (1) National Debate Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the American Forensic Association, including the affirmative and negative presentations; (2) National CEDA Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the Cross-Examination Debate Association, including…

Religious symbol systems have the capacity to bring into place superordinate constructions of reality. One interesting construction of reality has been developed by the Unity School of Christianity, organized in the second half of the nineteenth century and perhaps the most successful of organized groups within the American New…

"Dust Tracks on a Road," author Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, is not a typical black autobiography. Hurston is a complex woman and author who addresses both black and white audiences, shifting the cadences of her voice to invoke a readership that can hear the textures of many voices and respond to an underlying call to a world…

Gerontologists have studied the role of memory and reminiscence in later life to see if life review leads to increased satisfaction in old age. Novelists offer some concrete examples of the varying ways that this review can affect the self-esteem of aging persons. Molly Keane, Elizabeth Bowen, and Peter Taylor all agree that late middle age…

Although composition theorists have rejected the "alchemy" of the traditional, impressionistic, unscientific view of composition as product in favor of a process oriented approach, they have as yet failed to reach a consensus about the epistemological bases that undergird this shift. An examination of parallel developments in literary…

George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy is used as the basis for the creation of a political subtext arising from one of America's most enduring literary myths--the American Adam. That subtext, when translated into a modern political context, pinpoints two central issues to face this democracy in the coming years, as well as a national ambivalence about…

This discussion asserts that the legitimate way to address the topic of value judgments in literature is to interpret the question as whether there are distinctively "literary" values and whether judgments can or should be made about literature on these grounds. Characteristic values appropriate to literature exist, just as moral values are…

The author presents an overview of Pascual-Leone's Theory of Constructive Operators, a process-structural theory based upon Piagetian constructs which has evolved to both explain and predict the temporal unfolding of behavior. An application is made of the theory to the demands of a discrete motor task and prediction of (a) the minimal age…

Although poems have fallen into disuse as vehicles of second language instruction, they are by no means as inaccessible as many think. A teacher's choice of poems for classroom use will begin with a consideration of learning goals; these govern choice of tone, subject, point of view, and the like. Variety is important, and several varied poems by…

This paper presents a strategy for the criticism of curricula-in-use, that is, for the criticism of program blueprints and materials as they meet the educational lives of the people for whom they were designed. One aim of the curriculum critic should be to enable the reader to view the curriculum from the perspective of the students. Empathic…

The rhetorical inventions of Kenneth Burke can help writers gain new perspectives on their topics and can put new life into the process of learning to write. The pentad, Burke's instrument for interpreting actual and potential motives, can help develop lines of thought that might never occur without some such model. Other inventional systems such…

The rhetorician Richard M. Weaver analyzed culture as profoundly ill and he viewed rhetoric as closely tied to culture. Rhetoric relies on the cultural focal point for its effectiveness; orators must operate on a basis of common, accepted, uncontested terms and premises to move their audiences, and mutual assent to a "tyrannizing image"…

The primary goal of presidential crisis rhetoric appears to be the unification of the people of the United States in support of presidential policy. John F. Kennedy's crisis speaking corresponded both to his conceptions of presidential leadership and to those of the people. If the President of the United States is seen as the personification of…

A rating scale was developed by Stephen Dunning for evaluating adolescent literature objectively. The distinguishing features of the scale's five categories are designed to produce a numerical score between 5 and 25 (each category a 1-to-5 ranking for poor/excellent quality), indicating the relative worth of a specific literary work. The first…