Guidelines for using humor in training are as follows: (1) use a modicum of apt, relevant humor in an informative presentation; (2) self-disparaging humor enhances the presenter's image; (3) humor is only one factor that enhances interest; (4) apt, relevant humor does not affect persuasiveness; and (5) satire has unpredictable results. (SK)

Focuses on the issue of generalizability of laboratory studies. Explores the utility of both laboratory and field studies. Maintains that many laboratory studies can have meaningful applied value to managers in spite of their extreme artificiality. Offers a rationale for each approach and criteria for assessing them. (SR)

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal which defends the applied value of laboratory studies to managers. Agrees that external validity is often irrelevant, and maintains that the problem of making inferences from any subject sample in management communication is one that demands internal, not external, validity. (SR)

Explores the rhetorical use of time in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Offers an explanation of the ideological heritage that temporarily unifies the discourse. Describes the letter's recent, historical, and spiritual time frames, accounts for the ideological purpose each serves, and explains on what ground they…

Defines and reviews the literature on organizational commitment and identification. Reports an empirical study which found that commitment and identification correlated consistently and similarly with relevant attitudinal, tenure, and demographic variables. Concludes that communication scholars are advised to refer to identification as a process…

Argues that meaning in a rhetorical work results from an interaction between discursive form and representational content linguists call "iconicity." Illustrates this approach through close analysis of passages selected from Edmund Burke's "Speech to the Electors of Bristol." Considers applications in broader contexts. (KEH)

Examines the fluctuating dialectic between object and method in three parts: (1) detailed reading of Herbert Wichelns' founding essay; (2) discussion of three influential responses to this dialectic by Ernest Wrage, Samuel Becker, and Edwin Black; and (3) analysis of Michael Leff's and Michael McGee's attempt to reconnect object and method. (KEH)

Considers, in a special issue on the topic, criteria for the admissibility of evidence and how methodology affects what is considered to be evidence. Argues that methodological debates are futile in the sense that observations are guided by implicit theories, and thus there is no evidence without explicit and clearly articulated theory. (SR)

Presents (in a special issue on criteria for the admissibility of evidence and how methodology affects what is considered to be evidence) five general criteria to evaluate evidence in the study of communication--that it should be consistent with a researcher's chosen epistemology; observable; gathered through systematic procedures; shared and made…

Responds to essays in a special issue on criteria for admissibility of evidence in communication research and how methodology affects what is considered to be evidence. Argues that communication research could benefit from a more connectional, conversational attitude toward scholarship. (SR)

Uses methods of microanalysis and naturalistic description to illuminate the forms, uses, meanings, and functions of hand gestures. Describes speakers' methods for making hand gestures relevant to the moment of symbolic communication. Finds that gestures are "exposed" by means of indexical uses of gaze and language. (SR)

Finds that naive human lie detectors follow content-related heuristics (like infrequency of reported events or falsifiability) but can flexibly change their strategy as they learn about authentic nonverbal cues that discriminate lies from truthful communications. (SR)

Examines the influence of verbal descriptions on impression judgments formed through communicative interactions among college students. Finds that only positive descriptions influenced judgments of negative persons and that order of presentation was not significant. Suggests that interactive judgment processes may differ significantly from…

Discusses the way in which technical communication has achieved a complexity that reflects quality as well as quantity as it matures into a significant field of study supported by both an historical base and a developing theoretical framework. (NH)

Normalizes titles of 634 "Human Communication Research" articles using linguistic reduction, elimination of common words, and terms with indiscriminate meaning, and tokenization of phrases and compound concepts. Finds that concepts were grouped into five large clusters: media, family, conflict, and learning; culture, social organization, and self;…