Aims of speech training in the junior college

RHETORICAND PHILOSOPHY. Edited by Richard A. Cherwitz. Foreword by Henry W. Johnston, Jr. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990; pp. xix + 314; $36.00.

POLITICS AND CULTURE: WORKING HYPOTHESES FOR A POST‐REVOLUTIONARY SOCIETY. By Michael Ryan. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989; pp. 250. $28.95.

THE ORIGINS OF RHETORIC IN CLASSICAL GREECE. By Thomas Cole. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991; pp. x + 192. $29.95.

THE VOX DEI: COMMUNICATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES. By Sophia Menache. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. 353. $39.95.

THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF JOHN WITHERSPOON. Edited by Thomas Miller. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990; pp. viii + 318. $29.95.

HENRY WARD BEECHER: PERIPATETIC PREACHER. By Haiford R. Ryan, Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990; pp. x + 179. $39.95

GUERRILLA PRINCE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF FIDEL CASTRO. By Georgie Anne Geyer. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1991. pp. ix‐445. $22.95.

RHETORICAL STUDIES OF NATIONAL POLITICAL DEBATES. Edited by Robert V. Friedenberg. Series Foreword by Robert E. Dentón, Jr. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990; pp. xiii + 223. $42.95.

ARGUMENTATION THEORY AND THE RHETORIC OF ASSENT. Edited by David Cratis Williams and Michael David Hazen. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. v + 230. $32.95.

CULTURAL LEGACIES OF VIETNAM: USES OF THE PAST IN THE PRESENT. Edited by Richard Morris and Peter Ehrenhaus. Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1990; pp. ix + 238. $42.50; paper $24.95.

POPULAR TRIALS: RHETORIC, MASS MEDIA, AND THE LAW. Edited by Robert Hariman. Tuscalloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 1990; pp. vii + 268. $32.95.

AMERICAN EVANGELICALS AND THE MASS MEDIA. Edited by Quentin J. Schultze. Grand Rapids: Academie/Zondervan, 1990; pp. 382, $15.95.

TELEVISION STUDIES: TEXTUAL ANALYSIS. Edited by Gary Burns and Robert J. Thompson. New York: Praeger, 1989; pp. 260. $39.95.

MAKING MEANING: INFERENCE AND RHETORIC IN THE INTERPRETATION OF CINEMA. By David Bordwell. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989; pp. xvi + 334. $32.50; paper $14.95.

BASS &; STOGDILL'S HANDBOOK OF LEADERSHIP: THEORY, RESEARCH &; MANAGERIAL APPLICATIONS. By Bernard M. Bass. 3rd ed. New York. Free Press, 1990; pp. xviii + 1182. $75.00.

DISCORDANT HARMONIES: A NEW ECOLOGY FOR THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY, by Daniel B. Botkin. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990; pp. xii + 241. $19.95.

CONVERSATIONAL COMPETENCE AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. By Ioanna Dimitracopoulou. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990; xi + 167. $44.50.

TALKING POWER: THE POLITICS OF LANGUAGE IN OUR LIVES. By Robin Tolmach Lakoff. New York: Basic Books, 1990; pp. xii + 324. $22.95.

RHETORIC AND CIVILITY: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, NARCISSISM, AND THE GOOD AUDIENCE. By Harold Barrett. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991. pp. xi + 202. $39.50; Paper $12.95.

RHETORIC IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIETY: MANAGING MULTIPLE IDENTITIES. By George Cheney. Foreword by Carroll C. Arnold. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1991; pp. xi +202. $29.95.     

Relationships between learning approach,procrastination and academic achievement amongst first-year university students

Individual differences in student learning influence academic performance, and two aspects influencing the learning process are the particular learning approach the students use and procrastination behaviour. We examined the relationships between learning approaches, procrastination and academic achievement (measured 1 year later as the grade point average (GPA)) amongst 428 first-year university students. Deep and strategic learning approaches positively predicted GPA, and a mediation analysis showed that the strategic learning approach also partly mediated the effect between deep learning approach and GPA. Less procrastination was associated with a strategic learning approach, but procrastination tendencies did not predict GPA. Recommendations are made for educating new students in cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, helping reduce their procrastination and facilitating the use of deep and strategic learning approaches.     

Integrating Research Proposals Into a Field Seminar: Feedback From Students

Teaching research to social work students continues to be the topic of an ongoing dialog within the profession. The literature suggests that some form of a “real-world” or “hands-on” learning opportunity has many benefits for teaching a subject that students often are reluctant to engage in. Using online survey methods, researchers gathered feedback from graduate students and their field supervisors about their experience of completing a field seminar that integrated an agency-based research proposal as part of the course requirement. Although there were limitations to this approach, many of the same benefits of actually implementing research were reported by students who completed only a proposal.     

Spelling! Developing a Good Foundation

This articie is a brief response to an article on spelling by David Waugh which appeared in Vol. 29(2). The authors argue that the Letterland system can be of great benefit in approaching spelling.     

Willingness to pay and experienced utility as measures of affective value of information objects: Users’ accounts

The article discusses two instant measures of affective value of information objects: Willingness-to-Pay (WTP) and Experienced Utility (EU). The potential utility of these measures for information retrieval research is positioned within a broader discussion of distinctions between instant utility and remembered utility and their relationship to immediate as opposed to retrospective subjective evaluations. The paper describes an approach for obtaining instant WTP and EU ratings in document evaluation in contexts of information search and thereafter reports results from a usability study of its implementation. Participants encountered no difficulties in use of the design format and in rating documents using WTP and EU measures. Although two measures were found statistically significantly correlated with each other, participants in the usability study offered different reasons for the ratings of WTP and EU made for the same document.     

Coping mechanisms of part‐time students

A characteristic shared by the majority of adult students is that they are undertaking part‐time study. For these adult learners one of the major difficulties is how to find time for their study. This paper reports the coping mechanisms that part‐time adult students adopt to meet the additional demands that study puts on their existing commitments to work, family and social lives. Data were collected from 53 part‐time students in eight universities in Hong Kong through semi‐structured interviews. A model featuring three coping mechanisms (sacrifice, support and negotiation of arrangements) within four domains (self, work, family and social life) was used for the analysis. Whether or not these coping mechanisms are operationalized to a sufficient extent can have a significant impact upon the students' progress with their courses. The analytical grid provides a framework for counselling and advising adult learners. Part‐time adult students can also use the model to evaluate their own situations and determine which coping mechanisms will work for them to deal with time management issues.