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.

A riqueza dos Debates Parlamentares como fonte de estudo permite a quem os analisa alcançar uma abrangência temática conseguida por muito poucos documentos enquanto tal. O nosso trabalho contém um fio condutor transversal, a cortiça, abarcando áreas como a política, a indústria, a agricultura, o comércio interno e externo, os transportes marítimos e terrestres, as vias de comunicação, as finanças, os impostos, o pensamento político, e o pensamento económico. Destas formas de pensar tenta-se demonstrar a importância da cortiça enquanto produto internacional, nacional e regional, através das vozes dos ilustres deputados clarificando quando teve aquele produto dimensão suficiente para ser debatido na Câmara dos Senhores Deputados da Nação Portugueza. Tendo como base principal a pesquisa digital, através do site da Assembleia da República, são percorridos sessenta anos da Monarquia Constitucional (1839-1899) sendo incluída toda a riqueza conjuntural política, económica e social associada.

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 Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 382-394). Also available on the Internet.

This research focuses on contributions – oral and written – on the topic of linguistic diversity made by Members of the European Parliament during the plenary sessions from 2000 to 2003 inclusive and analyses the attitudes expressed by Members towards the concept of linguistic diversity, particularly as it applies to the national languages and the regional autochthonous languages of Member States. The analysis is set within a framework consisting of contemporary academic work and the classic work by Johann Gottfried von Herder and the German Philosophen. The European Year of Languages 2001 was widely supported by the European Commission; but an important question seemed to be what significance, if any, did maintaining linguistic diversity have for Members of the European Parliament in the years immediately following 2001. This research set out to discover to what extent issues related to linguistic diversity were given expression to in the plenary debates from 2000 to 2003, the years corresponding essentially to the fifth parliamentary term. Was only lip service paid to linguistic diversity in the years 2000 – 2003? Or did the European Year of Languages focus the attention of parliamentarians from all political groups in an ongoing way on issues of language use and preservation in the European Union, especially since the Union was to be significantly enlarged by the addition of ten Member States on January 1, 2004? Did the MEPs recognise that there were social and economic benefits accruing from pursuing policies of linguistic diversity? How important was linguistic diversity to the essence of the European Union in the eyes of its Members of Parliament? To what extent did MEPs espouse the use of just one language as a preferred method of communication in and around the Parliament? How much respect was there for the regional and minority indigenous languages of the European Union? Did MEPs regard linguistic diversity as an important consideration in determining the suitability of other countries seeking accession? The research reviews the response from the Commission in subsequent years to the views articulated by the MEPs. Finally, are there lessons in any of this for New Zealand?

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 (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 382-394). Also available on the Internet.