Suggests that the crisis of authority in the discipline of English is mirrored in the crisis of audience in the job market. Argues that the job market, the politics of national accreditation, the controversy surrounding standards, and the fickleness of funding at all levels are driving English departments to mediate on questions of scholarship and…

Notes that feminist interventions are communicative acts that bring attention to shifting power relations within a specific discursive context. Argues that enacting feminist interventions in online environments changes the online community's identity and narrow sense of audience, and that creating feminist multimedia helps ensure a more human,…

Notes that one way to expose students to the problems associated with profanity is to tie the exploration and discussion of the issue to the persuasive writing assignment that is common in many undergraduate business communication courses. Presents a discussion of such an assignment. (SG)

Honoring students' home dialect is a complex task when preparing them to take state writing tests that require the use of Standard English. Working with students who had failed the test and were in danger of not receiving a diploma, Michelle Crotteau created a supportive learning environment in which students could develop linguistic and…

Most people dread sitting down to write, but the job becomes easier when certain writing strategies are followed. Most bad writing results from a lack of planning, not a lack of writing skills. Before determining the main point of a piece of writing, the writer should determine the purpose and audience. First, determine what needs to be achieved…

The atmosphere of focused interaction during a summer conference dealing with professional writing for children is recalled in this publication. The publication reports the experiences of diverse writers-in-residence who spent their days at Lake Chautauqua sharing their love and passion for children's literature--guiding, nurturing, inquiring,…

Composition studies is a plausible choice for a "potentially liberating influence" for psychology, because it offers a useful place from which to think about and critique the writing practices of the psychology discipline. One area in which psychology can learn from composition is audience. Writing guides for psychologists tend to speak…

By teaching about and considering the elements of visual design, communication can be effected and the needs of the reader/user more effectively met. As anecdotal interaction with children indicates, information seems to be communicated more effectively when the rhetor incorporates visual elements. To increase the ability of the reader to…

This digest presents details of some of the efforts to improve the clarity of written communication in business and the professions. The digest discusses the Plain English movement; writing in professional schools (particularly law and engineering); writing and the medical profesisons; and the public and professional writing. (18 references) (RS)

Poster sessions at professional meetings have become popular in recent years. Properly prepared poster presentations not only provide an excellent format for communicating innovative ideas or research results, but also allow for individual communication between the presenter(s) and interested individuals. Furthermore, poster session programs allow…

One of the most creative, active, purposeful and successful efforts of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), active from 1935 to 1939, was the Children's Theatre. Plays for production were selected on the basis of educational and cultural value, with special attention on sufficient realism to help children's awareness of self and place in the world.…

This paper reviews the newly emergent trend of audience-centered debate paradigms, such as the narrative and the issues-agenda paradigms, in light of an informal logic perspective on the argumentum ad populum fallacy. The paper demonstrates the complexity involved in the evaluation of ad populum arguments as well as the care which must be taken in…

A study focused on predictors of people's learning from public service announcements (PSAs) seen on television. Telephone interviews were conducted with 480 adults randomly selected from residents in Dane County, Wisconsin, in October 1987. Typical demographic information was obtained: sex, age, income, occupation and education. Commercial slogans…

To help business writers and writing teachers think more specifically about problems of writing collaboration, a study examined and analyzed a group writing project in the Auldouest Insurance Company (pseudonym) Department of Corporate Communication. The collaborative writing of the two page executive letter of the company's annual report involved…

Argues that, to break out of the empty rhetoric characteristic of most student writing, students and teachers must break the parent-child rhetorical pattern, in which parents and teachers assume the role of nonlisteners. (JAD)