A recent book that appeared a few years ago, "How Early America Sounded" by historian Richard Cullen Rath, connects well with much of the new, exciting, interdisciplinary and rhetorical research that the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) have supported, promoted, and…

Covel offers a primer on logic and describes how students react when they realize what a useful resource it can be in their real lives. His article includes useful definitions of critical concepts and logical fallacies. (Contains 2 figures.)

Drawing attention to widespread instances of discourteous speech and hate discourse that permeate US and world culture, Alleen Pace Nilsen maintains that our imperative as educators is to teach "students the benefits of being civil to each other." She proposes some avenues for enriching students' understanding of the power of civil…

Presents a biographical sketch of S. I. Hayakawa and the results of a recent interview with him over the impact of his writing. (KEH)

High school teacher Melissa Troise challenges students to recognize the relationships that exist between literary theories, such as Marxism, feminism, and postcolonialism, and urges students to expand their contexts for reading texts by accessing and combining theories. Troise believes theory provides students with the potential to better…

Presents classroom activities (based on "Language in Thought and Action" and intended for use at various grade and ability levels) divided into four areas of general semantics: (1) language as symbolic process; (2) meanings of words in context; (3) referential and emotive language; and (4) relationships between language and thinking.…

Describes two writing activities (based on S. I. Hayakawa's discussion of biased thinking in his book "Language in Thought and Action") that are designed to enable students to recognize and become sensitive to closemindedness. (KEH)