The student who has come to be called "reticent" expresses concern about many oral, communicative behaviors, ranging from public speaking to meeting strangers and carrying on a few minutes of "small talk." A rhetorical method of instruction was utilized in a study conducted to determine the effects of treatment on a selected population of twenty reticent college students. Goal setting, including student alteration of self-perception in communicative situations and the demonstration of sufficient skills to cope with these situations, was accomplished. Assessment of the effects of instruction over a twelve-month period was accomplished by evaluation by the instructor and eight outside observers of a progress journal and five videotaped interviews. Of the original twenty students, seven were assessed as having made adequate improvement, and three were assessed as having made minimal improvement; an association between improvement and students' ability to apply rhetorical methods to communication was noted. (This is the third in a series of five papers on communication reticence.) (KS)