Focusing on the impact of advertisers' persuasive selling messages on consumers, this paper discusses topics relating to the theory of psychological type congruence. Based on an examination of persuasion theory and relevant psychological concepts, including recent cognitive stability and personality and needs theory and the older concept of…

This paper provides a creative approach to developing literary understanding and writing ability in students in a college introduction to literature course. Eight assignments are described which pair literary works having some feature in common. A sample suggestion from the first group of exercises, concerned with characterization, is as follows:…

A study examined an approach to assisting students in increasing their awareness of the organization and demands of text during the survey process of SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Review, Recite). Twenty-seven college freshmen in a developmental reading course, were (1) introduced to the concept of SQ3R, (2) given instruction on types and uses of…

Although vast numbers of educational innovations have been introduced into the nation's schools over the past 20 years, few have succeeded in effecting affective, behavioral, and cognitive student gains. Many recent studies have focused, therefore, on school change processes and the formulation of strategies for successful innovation…

Recognition of teachers has been a focus of the Diamond Jubilee Year of the National Council of Teachers of English (1985-86), which honors the outstanding teachers of some of the nation's leaders in this collection of testimonials about the influence these teachers have had on their lives. Contributors to the collection are Margaret Walker…

A two-part study investigated the speed with which information about the explosion of the space shuttle "Challenger" was disseminated and the information holding and affect differences associated with different media channels. In the first part of the study, cross-sectional data were collected from 119 college undergraduates within 54…

Psychological well-being has been shown to be significantly influenced both by daily and major life events. The impact of two types of daily events on reports of physical and mental well-being was investigated in a multiple-time measurement design. Demand events which occur independently of one's volition, and desire events which arise from one's…

An 18-item survey was distributed to 308 faculty members at Tennessee Technological University to elicit information about the kinds of writing students are expected to do in courses both inside and outside the English department, the relative importance of writing in various courses, and the specific expectations faculty members have concerning…

An expert reading instruction teacher was studied for one academic year to explore his interactive decision making processes. Previous lines of research have indicated that, for some teachers, interactive decision making involves more than simply maintaining established routines that assure smooth activity flow and involves deviating from the…

Written and developed to assist speech and language clinicians in the ongoing process of providing support for classroom teachers in their efforts to enhance the oral language of their students, this manual provides a rationale and intervention activities for improving oral language in the classroom. The manual first discusses research supporting…

An earlier study showed that responses are remembered better when subjects produce them from cues, than when subjects read cue-response pairs. The decided memory advantage for generated targets relative to read ones is known as the generation effect. The present research is designed to study the generation effect for cues, following a…

Plateauing is an individual's conviction that continued progress is impossible. This conviction occurs as a consequence of long periods of occupational stability. When practitioners doubt the probability of promotion or the importance of their work and find their work to be boring and redundant, they are exhibiting symptoms of plateauing rather…

To investigate how Mexican-American students constructed meaning from English texts when engaged in reading and writing activities, a study examined 12 fifth grade Mexican-American students who lived in a "barrio" with literacy in both Spanish and English. The aim was to tap the envisionments (text interpretations or understandings, and…

A study of reader response to newspaper articles in a defamatory context tested: (1) the judicial assumption that the macro-environment in which statements appear is important to a reader's distinguishing between fact and opinion; (2) the possibility that a byline may influence a reader's characterization of statements; and (3) the idea that…

A study examined basic writers' written responses to literature and looked for the effects of practice and personality on the development of these students' responses. Subjects, 24 students enrolled in a 4-week summer enrichment program for high risk students at a large Southeastern university. Students were asked to read and respond in writing…