This paper discusses the emergent perspective in composition studies that sees discourse forms as producing material effects and writing classrooms and programs as part of an apparatus for producing subjective forms, which individual students are then induced to inhabit. The paper suggests that the closed circuit of the classroom is overdetermined…

A literature review traced a major theoretical shift in the understanding of how people read--from the passive reader who receives and decodes information to the strategic reader who actively chooses what, when, and how to read, reads interpretively, and interprets a text (such as a newspaper article) as an organized structure. The result is a…

The purpose of teaching speech is to give students enough basics and practice so they can become more confident and effective at the podium. Theory may be useful but there is no substitute for practice: students in a speech class taught at a community college gave six speeches during the semester, three of them solo speeches and two in groups. The…

Critical thinking skills are inherent in limited preparation forensic activities which, with some modification, can be successfully incorporated in virtually any classroom situation. Furthermore, extemporaneous and impromptu speaking provide educators with certain advantages over debate activities in terms of assessment and classroom logistics. In…

Students may forget that writing involves a relationship between writer and audience--a relationship foregrounded by speech-act theory. The writer should focus on what the audience is to be led to see about the subject. To be distinguished are "locution" (saying something), "illocution" (performance of an act in saying…

Based on the two assumptions that there is social value in writing proposals to seek funding and that there is no special mystique about proposal writing, this book provides step-by step guidance from idea to finished proposal. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, "The Preproposal Phase" deals with the planning and information…

A study investigated whether some level of writing apprehension or some expressed attitude toward writing might result in better essay scores. Subjects, 255 freshmen composition students at two campuses of the California State University system, were administered instruments designed to comparatively measure the quality of students' writing, gauge…

A study investigated what a group of 29 senior advertising students, part of "Generation X," at a midwestern university found "objectionable" in 35 selected contemporary magazine advertising executions. Using a Q-sort, students ranked the advertisements and completed a personal interview. The majority of the advertisements that…

A search of women's magazines yields countless missives on the virtues of female vigilance not only in protecting personal health but also in protecting spouse and family health. Indeed, the face and content of women's magazines has changed remarkably little from their 18th- and 19th-century predecessors, which circumscribed the ideology of…

In addition to the variety of programs, activities, scholarships, and brochures included in Memphis State University's (MSU) minority recruiting program, the institution uses two approaches to the use of media not normally used in recruiting African-American students. The first is a newsletter aimed at historically African-American churches and…

A study examined how student-writers accommodated a real audience--that is how they adapted their writing to communicate clearly and forcefully with an audience other than the teacher. Subjects, 18 students in a pre-composition, remedial English course at Indiana University East, were asked to revise the formal drafts into a…

Given the affective dimension of writing in the workplace, assignments based on casebook scenarios have definite advantages in a technical or professional writing course. An English professor surveyed faculty in the Schools of Business and Education at Rider College prior to revising a course in technical writing. A majority of faculty, when asked…

In a study, 52 first-year college students were asked to complete questionnaires about their attitudes about legalizing drugs. The students were to offer persona judgments about hypothetical authors arguing for and against legalization. Next, the participants were assigned to read and evaluate essays for and against legalization, and then were to…

Reflecting the ideas, suggestions, and criticisms offered by members of Pi Kappa Delta as to the organization's future role in the forensic community, these proceedings deal with organizational structure and processes; competitive and noncompetitive outlets; pedagogy and research; and inter-forensic organizational cooperation. The papers are as…

Raymond Yeager, director of forensics and professor of speech at Bowling Green State University, has reflected the best qualties which forensics as a discipline has contributed to education. As teacher and debate coach, Raymond Yeager believed that only through the rigors of competition would his students be able to acquire and develop the skills…