Discusses the post-presidential writings of Richard Nixon. Finds an overarching concern for the "will," which permitted Nixon to transform the standards of higher moral principle into the politics of expediency. Views Nixon's writings as a symptom of the ailing health of public morality in liberal society. (SR)

Examines the performances of Geraldine Ferraro and George Bush in the nationally televised vice-presidential debate in 1984 to determine differences in female and male patterns of communication concerning issues and decision-making. Suggests that rhetorical critics examine whether a masculine ethic has framed their analyses. (KEH)

Addresses the problem of school-sponsored assemblies featuring guest speakers who present creation science on school premises. A science teacher who spoke at a follow-up assembly established two goals: (1) to present authoritative information about evolution; and (2) to help students evaluate the creation speaker's arguments against evolution.…

George Orwell, in the essay "Politics and the English Language," criticized pretentious doublespeak and technobabble that numb the consciousness and hide political power plays. Judith Butler defends the "nuanced" prose of her fellow postmodernists as necessary to convey the complexity of their thoughts. Stephen Roney contrasts the two and…

The central focus in this article is that how language is used can constitute the basis for power relations. In the first place, power functions through linguistic expressions in relationships of superiority and subordination (commands, reprimands etc.). Secondly, language acts can appear as representations of discourse, i.e. linguistic and…

The case under study was a staff development program devoted to methods for instructional grouping called "cooperative learning." In this case study, the rhetoric of cooperative learning for mainstreaming was tested by examining the words and actions of teachers and administrators for congruence with rhetorical devices. Three kinds of information…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 15 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the role of public discourse in the soil conservation movement from 1865 to 1935; (2) Dwight D. Eisenhower's public imagery of the Soviet Union and Communist China as presented in…

Most freshman composition textbooks promote one discourse structure, usually stressing early placement of the points of an essay. This can lock rapidly changing writers into composing according to only one format. In addition, adhering to a prescribed structure rather than focusing on meaning too often causes structure--not meaning--to control the…

To investigate the influence of group settings on the receiver's perception of an inducement to rhetorical transactions, 45 undergraduates in a basic speech communication course were asked to rank from most important to least important a group of items that might help survivors of an arctic plane crash. After completing individual rankings,…

Many theoreticians have indicated that a major task of the nonpresumptive rhetor is to gain presumption, thereby shifting the burden of proof to the opposition. Rhetorically, Martin Luther King, Jr., sought to effect this shift in the burden of proof through the use of hierarchies of values. At the top of his value system was the love of God. The…

The rhetorical appropriateness of two of Shirley Chisholm's persuasive speeches on women's liberation were assessed using Afrocentric criteria for speech criticism developed by Molefi K. Asante (1979). The speeches addressed the controversy of whether the women's liberation movement was appropriate for women of minority cultures in the United…

A competency based learning approach as applied to public address instructional development can help to achieve the following goals: (1) to enable students to grasp the history of the period under study, (2) to enable students to develop and apply rhetorical criticism skills, (3) to provide students with a course format of high interest value, (4)…

Rhetorical criticism focusing on Norman Rockwell's paintings of the "Four Freedoms" provides reasons for the paintings' effectiveness within the context of Franklin Roosevelt's campaign to educate Americans about participation in World War II. The epideictic icons in Rockwell's paintings promoted identifications that constitute the…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The nine titles deal with the following topics: (1) the theory and application of presumption in public debate; (2) the rhetoric of transcendentalism; (3) speechwriting in rhetorical criticism; (4) the conspiracy argument as…

Suggests that an interpretive view of communication, with philosophical assumptions about the nature of persons and communication, provides a perspective from which scholars study argumentation. Presents arguments supporting the value of the interpretive perspective, and answers criticisms by showing how those criticisms are grounded in…