The Communication Age: Connecting and Engaging
SAGE Journal Articles
Click on the following links. Please note these will open in a new window.
Journal Article 1: Lischinsky, A. (2008). Examples as persuasive argument in popular management literature. Discourse & Communication, 2, 243–269.
Abstract: In this article the author takes the use of examples as a means to
explore the processes of persuasion and consensus-construction involved in the legitimation of popular management knowledge. Examples, as concrete instances or events used to substantiate a wider argument, have been variedly regarded in different research traditions. Classical logic and rhetoric have considered them an inferior form of argument, useful for pedagogic or public debate but inadequate for higher forms of thought. This spirit still permeates much psychological research on communication, where the great persuasive import of examples has been contrasted with more scientific and formal resources for argumentation. Considered in this light, the contingent and episodic nature of examples seems to make them cognitively inferior to explicit statements of general rules. However, various strands of research on the nature of scientific knowledge have shown that implicit forms of knowledge are an integral part of scientific expertise. Examples may thus be more central to disciplinary thought than the conventional normative view seems to allow. In this spirit, we explore the use of examples in a hotly contested field, that of popular discourse on business and management. The profusion of examples in this kind of writing has been often noted, and almost as often criticized. The authors seek to explore more fully how these examples are deployed, examining the discursive devices that mark examples within the development of the text, their function as rhetorical moves, and their role in presenting arguments that are never otherwise made explicit.
Abstract: This study examines whether video streaming can reduce trait and state communication apprehension, as well as improve communication competence, in public speaking classes. Video streaming technology has been touted as the next generation of video feedback for public speaking students because it is not limited by time or space and allows Internet users to view video content without prior downloading. Seventy-two public speaking students in two treatment classes and two control classes taught by the same instructor participated in a quasi-experiment to test three hypotheses. Although students who had viewed their speeches online reacted positively to their video streaming experience, results revealed no significant differences in communication apprehension and competence between the treatment and control groups.
Journal Article 3: Crammond, J. G. (1998). The uses and complexity of argument structures in expert and student persuasive writing. Written Communication, 15, 230–268.
Abstract: This study investigated differences among student writers at three grade levels (6, 8, and 10) and between expert writers and students in terms of the uses and complexity of arguments presented in their persuasive texts. To analyze argument, a model was developed that could account for structural variations occurring across a range of writing situations. The characteristics of this model were defined using categories derived from a model of semantic representation in discourse. The structural analysis revealed that (a) argument was the predominant organizational structure for all writers, (b) more than 80% of students produced arguments involving some form of opposition, (c) embedded arguments identified in expert texts functioned primarily as countered rebuttals and in student texts as subclaims or reservations, and (d) expert texts contained relatively higher frequencies of warrants, countered rebuttals, and modals, and student uses of these substructures increased with grade.