In the writing classroom, the instructor appears to be the mediator, recognizing the contributions of each required text and of each student, whether in class discussions or written assignments. Undergraduate college students usually regard mediating in whatever style as the instructor's task, not their own. But in the research paper assignment,…

A study examined some of the reasons behind communication apprehension. The participants were 240 students (120 men and 120 women) from a southern community college enrolled in the basic public speaking course. Their writings were collected over a period of 7 years and selected randomly for analysis. The second week of the semester, students were…

The news on Channel One, with its impression of vague anxiety, looks and sounds like regular television news, only more so. In either case, the news is just "filler"--its real function is not journalistic but commercial, meant to lead into advertisements (ads). Mass advertising tends to assume that its audience will not be studying it…

Based on the idea that to beat the competition and impress college admissions officers a student must write a first-rate college application, this guide provides easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for applications that get results. The guide contains worksheets, checklists, and examples that will help the student in the admissions process.…

The issues confronting education today challenge educators on all levels and make it more imperative that colleges, school boards, and administrations work together. Collaboration on writing projects between college writers and elementary school writers, and between freshmen English high school writers and college writers at the University of…

The kinds of questions administrators, teachers, parents, the community, and children ask from under each of their hats makes educators and others aware of the information needs that people have for judging the success of schooling. Each audience, each role, asks slightly different questions, and the information needed to answer those questions is…

A study examined the ways in which the staffs of communication units in agricultural extension agencies in Malaysia select media to transfer knowledge to their clients. A survey method of data collection was employed, whereby 95 staff of communication units from 11 development agencies were asked to respond to self-administered questionnaires.…

Literature instructors become frustrated as they read poorly written student essays. The problem is partly the students' lack of experience: they have not read a lot or written a lot. Literature classes can be more interesting and effective if teachers coordinate two kinds of emphases: allowing for discovery and moving toward productivity. In…

Role-playing is proposed as an ideal technique to teach language because it prepares learners for the unpredictable nature of real-life communication, teaches appropriate language use, and boosts self-confidence. Theories that have paved the way for the current communicative approach to language teaching are reviewed, role-playing is defined, and…

College faculty who teach writing courses might find an examination of early religious literature helpful when trying to explain "writing for an audience" or "audience awareness" to their students. The Jesuit priest who preached to and wrote for the Indians in Brazil during the early colonial period, Jose de Anchieta, is a…

In many advertising programs, students spend a great deal of time coming up with creative strategies, writing copy, and preparing layouts based on objectives provided by a client (or professor) and directed to an already established target market. Seldom, however, do students learn firsthand about the advertising decision making on the part of…

Providing a way to organize and document third- through sixth-grade student writing through the use of writing folders and other organizing aids, this book is for educators who believe that writing and word processing strategies and skills are best taught as students do real writing for a variety of readers. The book includes mini-lessons to…

Using a textualist approach (looking at meaning above and beyond overt message elements), a study examined televised public service announcements (PSAs) about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) produced by the Ad Council and the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Both ads identify young people who should be concerned…

A study examined a number of concepts drawn from recent research on the social contexts of writing as it is conducted in academic and professional communities to determine how novice writers learn the rhetorical and linguistic conventions that constitute specialized, disciplinary literacy. These concepts were applied to a close inspection of three…

This guide was designed to help teachers consider the essential nature of communication in the teaching-learning process and to share responsibility for communication across the curriculum. The guide has four sections. The first section examines the role of communication in one teacher's classroom. A discussion of this teacher's belief that…