Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This study examines whether middle-school students' dense, extended engagement in an argumentation curriculum promoted development of argument skills, specifically increased use of direct counterargument and improved argument evaluation skill. A total of 56 students in two classes participated twice a week for three years (grades 6, 7, and 8) as part of their regular school curriculum. Students attended an urban middle school affiliated with a large university and were predominantly Hispanic and African-American and from lower and lower-middle socioeconomic backgrounds; 20% were from middle-class Caucasian families. In addition to its central element - electronically conducted pair dialogs on social issues - the curriculum encompassed a range of activities including small group preparation of arguments and reflective activities. A third class of 23 served as a comparison group; they also met twice a week over the same time period. They addressed similar social issues in more traditional whole-class discussion and wrote essays. Assessments of dialogic argumentation skill and argument evaluation skill initially and at the end of each of the three years indicated that that the curriculum promoted the use of counterargument generally and the direct counterargument skill specifically. Performance of the experimental group increased over time in both respects and exceeded that of the comparison group. Students participating in the intervention also engaged in more sustained direct counterargument sequences than did students in the comparison group at the final assessment. Parallel improvements in argument evaluation skill of the experimental group relative to the comparison group suggest that evaluation skill responds to practice much the same way as does argumentation performance. Theoretical implications for our understanding of developmental mechanisms are considered, as well as educational implications.

The purpose of this study is to illuminate the presence and rhetorical effect of anecdotes in President Clinton's major health care address. It is the health care debate that shows most clearly how Clinton tries to direct a multi-level campaign that attempts to identify his interests (passage of the Health Security Act) with the interests of Congress and the American people. The analysis of his address and remarks during the week of his Joint Session of Congress appearance will demonstrate how Clinton uses anecdotes as a rhetorical tool to address different audiences, and will argue that this use of anecdotes functions to heighten emotional appeal while promoting identification with his audience. Clinton relies on the pathos of anecdotes to pass a health care bill, which will be analyzed according to Kenneth Burke's discussion of political rhetoric. This study adopts a Burkeian perspective on political rhetoric as a means for investigating the problems Clinton faced in confronting the complex and divisive issue of health care. / Graduation date: 1994

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Texas Christian University, 2007. / Title from dissertation title page (viewed Apr. 25, 2007). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 269-277).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2009. / Thesis directed by Ted A. Warfield and Robert Audi for the Department of Philosophy. "July 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-164).

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 1994. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement and English abstract inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-172).

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 1994. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement and English abstract inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. [166]-172).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1967. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 450-456).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: John M. Keller, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Apr. 9, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.