bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Reorganization Perspectives of Personnel Administrators
Authors: Newell Charldean , Durst Samantha L.
Published: March 2007

This study examines whether human resource professsonals have a different view of reorganization than other admin istrators and whether that difference is attributable to concern about the human side of a reorganized agency, an assumption frequently made but not tested We find perspectives on morale, work settings, and incentives do indicate differences between human resource and other administrators However, human resource professionals do not differ from other administrators in their overall view of reinvention While human resource professionals are, literally, managers in the middle, viewing reinvention with a perspective more complete than that ofother managers, most still view it positively .
Linking Planning Theory and History: The Case of Development Control
Authors: Fischler Raphael
Published: March 2007

As a source of collective identity, planning history is valuable for purposes of professional socialization. But it can also provide insights into current dilemmas of planning practice as it explains the origins of institutions and techniques and documents the concerns of planners in earlier generations. This paper highlights the relevance of historical writings, by planning pioneers and by historians, to contemporary planning theory by analyzing how planning pioneers framed public problems and professional discretion in early development regulation. A case-study on the adoption of housing laws in late 19th-century New York City illustrates the benefits that planning theorists, including those working in a communicative perspective, can derive from historical research.
Embedding GIS Applications into Resource Management and Planning Activities of Local and Indigenous Communities
Authors: Kyem Peter A. Kwaku
Published: March 2007

Geographic Information System’s (GIS’s) capabilities for gathering and disseminating information have been hailed as democratizing, whereas the system is simultaneously criticized as inherently authoritarian. These contradictory characterizations of GIS permeate the current debate on transfer and applications of the technology in indigenous communities. This article reviews the debate in the context of GIS adoption in sub-Saharan Africa. A case study is presented to demonstrate how GIS can be used to assist local community representatives to plan for the protection of local forest resources. The results of the study, which was implemented at Kofiase in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, reinforce the belief that GIS can be used for the benefit of indigenous groups rather than for their disempowerment.
The Politics of Implementation
Authors: Bianco Martha J. , Adler Sy
Published: March 2007

This article examines how the public and private sector negotiate implementation of a controversial public policy, Oregon’s Transportation Planning Rule. The Rule, adopted in 1991, originally called for all localities to create plans in compliance with goals of a 20 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled and a 10 percent decrease in parking spaces over a 30-year period, which has presented a challenge to policy actors. This article places the implementation process within the context of a modified corporatist paradigm involving three actors: a directive state, the private sector, and litigious public interest groups. The authors examine how recent amendments to the Rule illustrate tensions among these actors and conclude that three important factors account for the successes and failures in the Rule’s implementation: persistent negotiation, threat of lawsuit, and a shared commitment among all involved to “do the right thing.”
The Structure of Ethical Choice In Planning Practice
Authors: Bolan Richard S.
Published: March 2007

The structure of normative influences on planner responsible to?, what is it that such responsibility obliges him or her to do?, and under what circumstances should obligation or responsibility. who is the planner responsible to? what is it that such responsibility obliges him or her to do? and under what circumstances should such obligations be activated? Answers to these questions create a three-dimensional matrix of obligation where all three dimen sions comprise a holistic gestalt—some— times consistent and sometimes in con flict. Within this framework is the notion of multiple moral communities, the pulls between good ends and right actions, and the ambiguities and complexities of the situational contexts of ethical choice.
The Planning Profession and Blacks in the United States: A Content Analysis of Academic and Professional Literature
Authors: Catlin Robert A.
Published: March 2007

One way to test an academic discipline's commitment to social justice in a multicultural society is to examine its literature's attention to the unique characteris tics and needs of a particular disadvantaged group. This paper examines the planning literature in regard to one disadvantaged group—black Americans. Journal of the American Planning Association, Urban Affairs Quarterly, and Planning are analyzed for five- year periods beginning in 1955 and running through 1989. After a summary of findings, this paper identifies pertinent planning-related issues that are affecting blacks now and will continue to do so into the next century. Measures to enhance the profession's sensitivity to these issues and thereby mitigate negative impacts will also be mentioned.
How the Others Plan: Exploring the Shape and Forms of Informal Planning
Authors: Briassoulis Helen
Published: March 2007

Informal planning, although non-institutionalized, leads to planned outcomes that serve particular interests. The informal planning path runs parallel to or mixes with formal planning, shaping the context of formal planning practice. As the subject of informal planning is very broad and relatively unexplored, this article merely sets the stage for further analysis. It does so by pulling several strands of thought from the literature on the informal planning process, with the aim of understanding and explaining observed socioeconomic and spatial phenomena. The shape, genesis, and causes of informal planning are examined; formal is compared to informal planning; and the design of a typology of informal planning is proposed. To conclude, the main directions of future research on the subject are indicated.
The Legal Issues Surrounding the TAAS Case
Authors: Saucedo Leticia M.
Published: March 2007

This article provides an overview of the legal claims made by plaintiffs challenging the State’s required passage of the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) exit-level test for graduation in GI Forum et al. v. Texas Education Agency et al . The plaintiffs filed their case alleging that the State’s graduation requirement violated minority students’ equal protection and due process rights as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act. Part 1 of the article summarizes the plaintiffs’ initial complaint and the effect of the court’s pretrial orders on the plaintiffs’ ability to introduce crucial expert evidence to support a pattern of discriminatory State educational policies. Part 2 of the article describes the role of the expert testimony provided at trial for the plaintiffs’ claims and also provides lessons for future litigation.
The Organization of Mental Health Services in Cuba
Authors: Camayd-Freixas Yohel , Uriarte Miren
Published: March 2007

This paper reviews the Cuban mental health system from a descriptive organizational perspective. It focuses on (a) the in terface between mental health, public health, and the socio- political structure; (b) inpatient treatment and rehabilitation programs; (c) the use of social networks in support of the dis charged patient; (d) community care, including descriptions of sectorization and dispensarization systems; and (e) primary to tertiary prevention strategies.
Schooling and Social Control: Symbolic Violence and Hispanic Students' Attitudes Toward Their Own Ethnic Group
Authors: Iadicola Peter
Published: March 2007

The concept of "symbolic violence" is explored in terms of Hispanic students' attitudes toward their own ethnicity. Mecha nisms of symbolic violence within the school are specified in terms of their role in differentiating and ranking students in terms of their knowledge of the "cultural arbitrary." The differentiating and ranking (D/R) mechanisms operationalized for the analysis are levels of norm-referenced testing, grouping, competition, and busing differences. The analysis is based on an analytic sample of 10 elementary schools and 118 male and female His panic students. The dependent variables are the level of ethnic salience and attitudes toward own ethnicity. The school scores on the four D/R factors that were assigned to individuals, and correlational and regression analysis was performed. Findings indicated that the D/R factors are mechanisms of symbolic violence. Differences were found between males and females and between the dependent variables.
A Children's Hispanic Background Scale
Authors: Martinez Ricardo , Norman Ralph D. , Delaney Harold D.
Published: March 2007

A 10-minute Children's Hispanic Background Scale, useful in identifving Hispanic acculturation level, is described. The 30-item scale assessed Spanish usage by the subject and significant others (23 items), food preference (2 itemns), and general cultural exposure (5 items). Ss were 92 Chicano fourth-grade children. Test-retest reliability was .92, p < .001; validity rs were .50, p < .01, with a school bilingual scale and .58, p < .001, with SES. Reported Spanish usage across three generations yielded highly significant matched-pair ts, and suggested an accelerated acculturationi from grandparents to parents to children. Parents spoke Spanish significantly less often to Ss than in general. General exposure mean lay between parent and child language means. Scale advantages and limitations are discussed.
Measurement of Acculturation in a Community Population of Mexican Americans
Authors: Burnam M. Audrey , Telles Cynthia A. , Karno Marvin , Hough Richard L. , Escobar Javier I.
Published: March 2007

A 26-item acculturation measure was administered to a probability sample of 1245 adult Mexican Americans residing in Los Angeles. This measure demonstrated high internal reliability for the total sample and for specific sex, educational, and language groups. Construct validity was supported by showing acculturation scores predicted length of exposure to U.S. culture. Data suggested that, among first generation Mexican Americans, those who were younger and male acculturated more rapidly than those who were older and female. This sex difference, but not the age difference, could be explained by educational and employment experiences. Among later generation Mexican Americans, those who were younger again had higher acculturation levels, possibly due to age differences in education and employment, or to historical factors differentially effecting age cohorts.
The Incorporation of Mexican Women in Seasonal Migration: A Study of Gender Differences
Authors: Guendelman Sylvia
Published: March 2007

This article compares sex differences in migratory behaviors, work patterns and conjugal relations in a cohort of male and female immigrants who move seasonally between Mexico and the United States. Gender comparisons are made using survey data and information from in-depth group interviews. The findings indicate that among Mexicans immigration to the United States reinstates men's traditional roles as providers while making women assume non-traditional roles. Female role expansion, through employment in the U.S., strongly influences conjugal relations in the direction of more equality. In contrast, failure to enter the American labor force implies a role restriction resulting in a loss of autonomy for many immigrant women.
Race, Gender and Self-Esteem among Youth
Authors: Martinez Ruben , Dukes Richard L.
Published: March 2007

This study examines the impact of race and gender on self-esteem among youth. Comparisons of the different groups on private (satisfaction with self) and public (intelligence) domain aspects of self-esteem indicate that patterns differ across race and gender. In general, minorities tend to have lower levels of self-esteem than whites on public domain traits, but this pattern does not hold for private domain traits, with blacks and Chicanos having levels greater than those of whites. The impact of gender also differs across the groups, with black, Native American, and Asian women having higher levels of self-esteem on public domain traits than their male counterparts.
A Spanish Version of the Expectations about Counseling Questionnaire: Translation and Validation
Authors: Buhrke Robin A. , Jorge Michael
Published: March 2007

Hispanic populations traditionally have underused mental health services, and those who have made use of these services tend to drop out at a higher rate than Anglos. One reason may be that theirexpectations of counselors and the counseling pmcess have not been met. Research has indicated that ethnicity is related to counseling expectancies, but little research has examined the expectancies of Hispanic populations, perhaps because many traditional research questionnaires are written in English. Two studies conducted in the development and validation of a Spanish version of the Expectations About Counseling questionnaire are described. Results indicate that this Spanish version is a viable and potentially useful tool for exanining counseling expectancies with a variety of Hispanic populations.
Acculturation, Stressors, and Somatization Patterns Among Students From Extreme South Texas
Authors: Montgomery Gary T.
Published: March 2007

Data were presented to test aspects of a model relating health and acculturation as proposed by Cervantes and Castro. The model was tested with a sample of 844 high school and college students who varied in level of acculturation along a continuum from Mexican to Anglo orientation. Questionnaires were administered that assessed level of acculturation and comfort with acculturation status, potential stressors, general health, and headaches. Aspects of the model tested were that level of acculturation could function both as an external stressor and as an internal mediator to influence both one's appraisal of environmental stressors and somaticlhealth outcomes. The model was supported in that (a) level of acculturation and one's comfort with acculturation status were related to differences in appraisal of environmental stressors, and (b) level of acculturation was related to somatic outcome.
Latinos and the American Pie: Can Latinos Achieve Economic Parity?
Authors: Tienda Marta
Published: March 2007

This article critically reviews trends in Latino economic and social inequality to clarify why Latinos appear to have benefited less from economic recovery than either Whites or Blacks. Existing studies provide clues but little conclusive evidence about the mechanisms undergirding the erosion of Latinos' relative economic standing because of (a) the stagnation of Latino research in a highly static and descriptive mode; (b) the inability of researchers to sort structural and individual mechanisms driving trends in inequality; and (c) a continued reliance on national or regional averages to portray changes in socioeconomic well-being of an evermore heterogeneous population. "Firstgeneration" studies were valuable in generating hypotheses about whether, how, and why the processes of stratification differ among Latinos. Using examples about labor market dynamics, the author illustrates opportunities for developing a "second generation" research agenda geared to refining hypotheses and formulating explanations about rising inequality among Latinos.
Challenges and Resources of Mexican American Students within the Family, Peer Group, and University: Age and Gender Patterns
Authors: Lopez Edward M.
Published: March 2007

Systematic examination of age and gender patterns in both challenges and resources experienced by Latino students during the college years is rare. In the present study, 100 male and female Mexican American undergraduates (50 lower division and 50 upper division) completed a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions offive challenges to completing college, along with associated resources. Challenges included financial difficulties, domestic responsibilities, academic discouragement, and racial and gender discrimination. Potential resources included individuals who helped students meet these challenges. No support was foundfor the hypothesis that upper-division students would reportfewer challenges and resources than lower-division students, norfor the hypothesis thatfemales would report greater challenges with domestic responsibilities. However, there was supportfor the hypothesis that males would report greater academic discouragement and racial discrimination.
Substance Use among Texas Hispanics and Non-Hispanics: Who's Using, Who's Not, and Why
Authors: Farabee David , Wallisch Lynn , Maxwell Jane Carlisle
Published: March 2007

The prevalence ofpast-yearand lifetime substance use, problem indicators, and the most important reasons for abstaining (among nonusers) were compared between Texas Hispanics and non-Hispanics, as well as among three subgroups of Hispanics who represented different levels of acculturation: Mexican born (i.e., least acculturated), U.S. born but relatively unacculturated, and U.S. born/highly acculturated. In general, prevalence rates among Hispanics increased as a function of U.S. acculturation, with the most acculturated group's rates more closely resembling non-Hispanics than Mexicanborn Hispanics. There were also significant variations by level of acculturation in the reasons given for abstinence. Whereas health was the most commonly cited reason for abstinence regardless of ethnicity, other important reasons (e.g., moral reasons versus influence of family and friends) varied significantly by ethnicity and acculturation. Results are interpreted with special regard to prevention.
Latino Voting Participation: Explaining and Differentiating Latino Voting Turnout
Authors: Arvizu John R. , Garcia F. Chris
Published: March 2007

Latinos orHispanics are the distinctive ethnic groups most rapidly increasing in numbers in the United States. Yet, this notably burgeoning population is disproportionately underresearched and underrepresented. Research exploring the reasons for the low levels of participation and representation is greatly hampered by the failure of research organizations to collect adequate data on Latinos as well as the misconception of the characteristics of this group. The Latino National Political Survey (LNPS) provides an unprecedented opportunity to begin analyzing the Latino political communities. This study analyzes some of the characteristics of Latinos that affect voting participation. Using the LNPS data, selected sociodemographic indexes correlated with voter turnout are examined. Logistic regression models empirically demonstrate the importance of distinguishing among subgroups and also confirms that socioeconomic factors, most notably life-cycle effect variables, are of critical significance in predicting voter turnout.
Academic Invulnerability among a Select Group of Latino University Students
Authors: Arellano Adele R. , Padilla Amado M.
Published: March 2007

The conceptualframeworks of "at-risk" and academic invulnerability were examined with 30 undergraduate Latino students enrolled in a highly selective university. Students were interviewed about their educational experiences to examine factors contributing to their academic success. Students were grouped (n= 10) based on educational attainment of parents: Group One-parents with 11 or fewer years of schooling; Group Two-at least one parent graduated from high school; and Group Three-at least one parent completed college. Interviews revealed thatstudents in Group One and Twofit the pattern of "at risk" but also demonstrated that with supportive families and teachers they were invulnerable to the negative consequences of educational risk. Group Three students, because of the greater "cultural capital" of parents, reported different experiences in school. Unexpectedly, 73% of all students had been identified in elementary school as gifted, lending support to the importance of enriched school programs for Latinos.
Acculturative Stress in Children: A Modification of the SAFE Scale
Authors: Chavez David V. , Moran Virginia R. , Reid Suzanne L. , Lopez Muriel
Published: March 2007

The following is a preliminary report of the psychometric characteristics of a modified version of the Societal, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturative Stress Scale (SAFE). The modified version, the SAFE-C, was designedfor use with school-age children. To assess its reliability and validity, the SAFE-C was administered to Latino and Euramerican children between the ages of 8 and 1O years. Cronbach s alpha revealed an internal consistency of .86. In addition, a multivariate analysis of variance found significant differences between the Latino and Euramerican groups, with Latino children scoring higher on the SAFE-C, thereby helping to establish the validity of the measure. It is suggested that the SAFE-C will facilitate more meaningful research into the acculturative process for Latino children.
Academic Achievement among Hispanic Students from One-Versus Dual-Parent Households
Authors: Battle Juan J.
Published: March 2007

Using data from a nationally representative sample of eighth-grade students, this research examines the relative effect of being in a one-parent versus dual-parent household on the educational achievement of Hispanic middle-grade students. It found that under most circumstances, students in dual-parent households do better than their counterparts in one-parent households. However, when appropriately controlling for socioeconomic status, students in one-parent households are not statistically significantly different than their counterparts in dual-parent households. The article concludes with suggestionsforpublic policy to bring about more parityforstudents in these varying types of households.
Self-Orientation and Depression Level among Dominicans in the United States
Authors: la Roche Martin J. , Turner Castellano
Published: March 2007

This research examines an interaction model in which self-orientation levels mediate the effects of perceived social support and general self-efficacy on depression level. Two dimensions of self orientation were included in this formulation: idiocentrism (the tendency to define oneself through self-attributes) and allocentrism (the tendency to define oneself in relation to others). We hypothesized that idiocentrism would interact with general self-efficacy and that allocentrism would interact with perceived social support to create an individual's depression level. The two hypotheses were tested using 85 low-socioeconomic-status Dominicans living in the United States by means of ANOVAs. No support wasfoundforeither hypothesis. Wefound, however; that this sample reported high levels of (a) depressive symptomatology and (b) allocentric orientation.
Mexican American Female Adolescent Self-Esteem: The Effect of Body Image, Exercise Behavior, and Body Fatness
Authors: Guinn Bobby , Semper Tom , Jorgensen Layne
Published: March 2007

Self-esteem, the evaluative manner in which one judges herself or himself; forms the foundation of emotional well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of Mexican American female adolescents' self-esteem with body image, exercise behavior, and bodyfatness. Two hundredfifty-four subjects, ranging in agefrom 13 to 15 years, were drawn from a predominantly Mexican American population located in the LowerRio Grande Valley region of Texas. Data were gathered through a self-report instrument consisting of self-esteem, body image, and exercise involvement scales and anthropometric measures. Results indicated significant positive relationships between self-esteem and body image and exercise involvement and a significant negative relationship between self-esteem and bodyfatness. Body image,followed by exercise, exerted the strongest explanatory power of subjects'self-esteem scores. Findings suggest that a degree of body distortion exists in female Mexican American adolescents.
The Prevalence and Circumstances of Child Sexual Abuse among Latina Women
Authors: Romero Gloria J. , Wyatt Gail E. , Loeb Tamra Burns , Carmona Jennifer Vargas , Solis Beatriz M.
Published: March 2007

This study examined the prevalence and circumstances of child sexual abuse in a community sample of Latina women, 18 to 50 years of age. Chi-square tests of independence and t -test procedures were used to assess the prevalence, characteristics of the victim, assault, perpetrator, disclosure, and long-term effects. One in three Latina women reported incidents of sexual abuse, regardless of acculturation or citizenship status. More than one third of the women also experienced revictimization, with more than 80% of initial incidents occurring from the age of 7 years. The majority of the experiences occurred in private locations, by young male perpetrators, known to the victim. Four women were forced to marry perpetrators of their abuse. Treatment implications and community-based interventions for Latina survivors of child sexual abuse are discussed.
Toward an Activity-Based Conception of Writing and School Writing Contexts
Authors: WIEMELT JEFF
Published: March 2007

In this study, the author examines the ways a small group of students and their teacher from an intermediate-level university writing class use the texts they create to negotiate private and shared public understandings of the complex interactional contexts of their work together. The author begins by examining some of the competing goals and motives that energize the participants' classroom efforts. To understand the sources of those diverse purposes and how they serve to shape and sustain subsequent classroom interactions, the author develops an activity-based framework of analysis that draws extensively from dialogical and functional-linguistic approaches to language, context, and interaction. Writing and written communication are portrayed as linguistically mediated and interactively structured processes of contextualization. Implications for how we conceptualize and organize classroom interactions, such as intensive peer review and student-teacher conferencing, and the central role that talk and writing must play in operationalizing those interactional contexts are discussed.
The Reader Written
Authors: SCHWEBKE LINDA , MEDWAY PETER
Published: March 2007

A researcher (Schwebke), in collaboration with her supervisor (Medway), investigated the production and reception of a corpus of documentary exchanges in which condominium owners voiced their opposition to renovations proposed by their board of directors. During the course of the research, which included textual analysis, interviews with owners and management, and readings with disinterested outside parties, the texts became radically unsettled, changing their meaning with each fresh stage of the process. The social reality that underlay and was referred to by the texts became equally indeterminate. Encounters with both texts and everyday readers were pervasively intertextualized; each new conversation was felt to be conducted in the presence of a growing collection of eavesdroppers. The two sets of outside readers—a group of “ordinary folks” and an academic—became virtual participants in the ongoing construction of meaning, with academic and everyday perspectives merging in unusual combinations. The analysis draws on Bakhtinian and poststructuralist perspectives to elucidate this experience.
The Stuff that Myths Are Made of
Authors: SHERIDAN-RABIDEAU MARY P.
Published: March 2007

This article modifies Donna Haraway's concept of (counter) myth building as a way to facilitate social action. Counter myth building, as both a resource and a process, recognizes limitations on individual agency but foregrounds the productive capacity to be more than a social and historical construct. Because myths are multiple and enactments are unpredictable, both building and enacting counter myths are at best complicated. GirlZone and RadioGirl provide two sites for investigating these complications. As grassroots projects, GirlZone and RadioGirl are explicitly devoted to building counter myths as part of an activist agenda for social change. These sites illustrate how the complex semiotic and material processes of myth building may provide potential resources for these and other activists.
Social Cognition and Written Communication
Authors: RUBIN DONALD L.
Published: March 2007

Considerations of audience awareness are receiving increased attention in composition theory and pedagogy. Sensitivity to audience characteristics exerts demonstrable effects on composing processes and products. Audience awareness is often conceived as a unitary, global construct, however. In fact, the distinctly identifiable dimensions of social cognition include (1) subskills, (2) coordination of perspectives, (3) content domain, (4) content stability, and (5) audience determinateness. These dimensions and their components are discussed along with their interaction with composing processes. This multidimensional conception of social cognition provides a framework for further composition research and teaching.
Survey of Academic Writing Tasks
Authors: BRIDGEMAN BRENT , CARLSON SYBIL B.
Published: March 2007

Questionaire responses from faculty members in 190 academic departments at 34 universities were analyzed to determine the writing tasks faced by beginning undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to undergraduate English departments, six fields were surveyed: electrical engineering, civil engineering, computer science, chemistry, psychology, and master of business administration programs. Results indicated considerable variability across fields in the kinds of writing required and in preferred assessment topics.
Some Effects of Varying the Structure of a Topic on College Students' Writing
Authors: SMITH WILLIAM L. , HULL GLYNDA A. , LAND ROBERT E. , MOORE MICHAEL T. , BALL CAROLYN , DUNHAM DONALD E. , HICKEY LINDA S. , RUZICH CONSTANCE W.
Published: March 2007

Incoming freshmen are typically required to write essays which are then holistically rated to determine composition course placement. These placement essays vary not only in topic, but also in the way the topic is structured. Two topic structures are most commonly used: Open (students draw on their own knowledge) and Response (students read a given text and respond to it). It has been established that students perform differently on topic structure itself. To investigate this effect, one topic was used but presented as (1) an Open topic structure, (2) a Response topic structure with one reading passage, and (3) a Response topic structure with three reading passages. The essays, written by college freshmen, were holistically rated for quality and analyzed for fluency, total error, and error ratios. The results indicated that the structure of the topic made a difference in quality, fluency, and total error, but not in any error ratio. These results suggest that, for placement testing, one should first decide which types of students one wishes to identify because each topic structure distinguishes low, average, and high ability students differently.
News Values and the Vividness of Information
Authors: KENNAMER J. DAVID
Published: March 2007

Cognitive social psychologists have examined the characteristics of information that make it likely to be incorporated into processes of memory, judgment, decision making, and inference. The “vividness” of information is the degree to which it is emotionally engaging, concrete, imagery producing and proximate. Vivid information is most likely to be used in these cognitive processes and also seems to satisfy most requirements for newsworthiness. Journalism practice systematically selects for vivid information, and journalism writing enhances or creates such vividness. It can be argued, however, that vivid information may not be the best information for use in decision making and inference drawing and that overreliance on it can lead to errors of perception and judgment. An example is the colorful but irrelevant personal anecdote. Journalism may select only what is vivid—concrete and personal events, conflict, sensation, and “bad news”—rather than what is truly informative, thereby institutionalizing errors of perception and inference in newswork.
Punctuation and the Prosody of Written Language
Authors: CHAFE WALLACE
Published: March 2007

Introspection suggests that both writers and readers experience auditory imagery of intonation, accents, and hesitations. The suggestion here is that certain important aspects of this “covert prosody” of written language are reflected in punctuation. In order to study systematically the degree to which punctuation reflects the covert prosody of written language, one would like to find independent ways of uncovering that prosody. Two such ways are explored here: reading aloud and “repunctuating” (inserting punctuation in passages from which the author's punctuation has been removed). The article focuses especially on the relation between “punctuation units” (stretches of language between punctuation marks) and the “intonation units” of speech, and the variations in this relation that are found among different authors and different styles. It explores the degree to which different pieces of writing are prosodically spokenlike, and the degree to which they capture the prosodic imagery of ordinary readers. “Close” and “open” punctuation are discussed, as are selected grammatical sites at which there is a discrepancy between punctuation and prosody. It is suggested that an awareness of prosodic imagery is an important ingredient of “good writing.”
Teaching College Composition with Computers
Authors: BERNHARDT STEPHEN A. , EDWARDS PENNY , WOJAHN PATTI
Published: March 2007

This program evaluation was undertaken to assess the broad, measurable effects of using computers to teach introductory college composition. In total, 24 classes were studied—12 control classes and 12 experimental—with the experimental computer classes meeting in the lab for half of their instructional time. Data on the success of the program were collected from a range of sources: pre- and posttests of student writing under both impromptu and take-home conditions; pre- and posttests of writing anxiety; records on attendance, tardiness, withdrawals, and homework and essay assignment completion; end-of-term course evaluation by both teachers and students; and self-report data collected from teacher meetings and teacher logs. Results favored the use of computers, with computer students revising and improving their posttest essays (especially discourse-level features) at levels significantly better than those of regular students. Those students in experimental sections who chose to compose on computers at the end of the term outperformed the group as a whole and performed significantly better than those experimental students who chose to compose with pen and paper. Attitudinal data from both students and teachers also favored the use of computers.
Traversing the Topical Landscape
Authors: McGINLEY WILLIAM , TIERNEY ROBERT J.
Published: March 2007

In light of recent theoretical and empirical developments in the areas of reading, writing, and learning, this article proposes a view of literacy learning in which various forms of reading and writing are conceptualized as unique ways of thinking about and exploring a topic of study en route to acquiring knowledge. Throughout this article, we take the theoretical position that a topic of study is analogous to a conceptual “landscape” about which knowledge is best acquired by “traversing” it from a variety of perspectives. In this system, different forms of reading and writing represent the “traversal routes” through which an individual can explore a given content domain. Specifically, we wish to argue that more complex or diverse combinations of different forms of reading and writing provide a learner with the means to conduct a more critical inquiry of a topic by virtue of the multiple perspectives or ways of “seeing” and thinking that these reading and writing exchanges permit. Finally, in light of this theoretical orientation, we contend that the ability to direct dynamically one's own reading and writing engagements en route to learning is central to conducting an inquiry of this nature. This perspective suggests a reexamination of a line of research that has pursued the question of how writing in combination with reading influences thinking and learning.
Cognitive Correlates of Explanatory Writing Skill
Authors: ROWAN KATHERINE E.
Published: March 2007

Explaining difficult ideas to lay readers is an important and frequently needed writing skill. When explaining, writers must recognize and overcome the confusions that lay readers may experience in learning abstract concepts. To date, there has been little study of this demanding writing skill. Consequently, this article identifies a particular class of explanatory discourse and proposes working hypotheses about the types of knowledge likely to be associated with skill in this genre. These hypotheses are explored through a study of individual differences in explanatory writing skill among 169 college students. The results of the study showed that variations in the accuracy and adaptiveness of the students' explanations were partially accounted for by measures of topic knowledge, social cognition, and discourse knowledge. A discourse knowledge index and a topic knowledge index were correlated with explanatory writing skill. Cognitive complexity, a measure of social cognition, was associated with adaptiveness in explaining but not accuracy. These findings suggest that explanatory skill is a function of several types of knowledge and that it may be as dependent on discourse or rhetorical knowledge as it is on topical expertise.
Regrinding the Lens of Gender
Authors: GRAVES HEATHER BRODIE
Published: March 2007

Recent trends in gender and writing research avoid or ignore the issue of essentialism while attempting to formulate a theory of “composing as a woman” that might rely on essentialist assumptions. Codifying the characteristics of “writing like a woman” or “writing like a man” can result in a limited—and limiting—conception of gender and its effect on writing. To illustrate this argument, this article uses as an example of I'écriture féminine the writing of Kenneth Burke and as an example of writing like a man the prose of Julia Kristeva. It argues for conceptualizing and studying gender as a secondary factor affecting writing rather than the principal factor.
Contrastive and Non-Contrastive Connectives
Authors: BARTON ELLEN L.
Published: March 2007

This article describes a set of metadiscourse functions arising from the use of contrastive and non-contrastive connective expressions in academic argumentation. Moving away from descriptions of connectives solely in terms of textual relations, this study describes interpersonal metadiscourse functions of contrastive and non-contrastive connectives within the presentation of claims and counterclaims in argumentative essays. It is proposed that interpersonal uses of non-contrastive and contrastive connectives mitigate counterclaims and emphasize claims based on the assumed roles and responses of writers and readers in an academic discourse community.
Data Analysis and Subject Representation in Empowering Composition Research
Authors: Addison Joanne
Published: March 2007

Data analysis and representation are important political acts in the research process. The types of data we select for study, the analysis we draw, and our textual and graphic representations of data all contribute to the ways in which the people involved in our research are positioned as subjects and the degree of individual and collective agency that can be constructed through the research process itself. It is because of the potential effects of our research on others that we need to demystify the research we do through laying bare our epistemological positions and opening our methods and methodologies to public criticism. Further, in the case of empowering research, it is important to include the research participants in the development of our research projects. This necessitates explorations into postmodern conceptions of subjectivity, knowledge formation, collaboration, and resistance as they relate to empirical research as well as redefining notions of validity and reliability.
Thucydides and the Plague in Athens
Authors: ALFORD ELISABETH M.
Published: March 2007

Commentary: When “Thucydides and the Plague in Athens: The Roots of Scientific Writing” was written in 1988, genre analysis was an emerging area for scholarship. Thucydides' Historiae, which includes numerous political speeches in context, provides a rich resource for exploring the ancient roots of rhetorical genres. Thucydides' text also sheds light on the origin of a specific scientific genre - the medical case history. In describing a devastating plague in Athens, Thucydides uses the Hippocratic approach, following an ancient genre or form that is remarkably similar to the modern medical case history. Thucydides' case history of the Athenian plague enabled 20th-century epidemiologists to establish a diagnosis of the illness (influenza plus toxic shock syndrome), predict its return, and validate their diagnosis during a 1987 flu epidemic. Although “Thucydides and the Plague in Athens” only hints at Thucydides' genre knowledge, his case history of the plague and his presentation of speeches display considerable insight into the social construction and function of these recurring forms. In explaining the speeches in his text, for example, Thucydides says, “[M]y habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions” (1.22). He prefaces his account of the plague with a statement of purpose: to help future scholars recognize future outbreaks of the same illness. These remarks, viewed in the context of genre theory today, suggest that Thucydides not only knew how to use genres but also understood their social origin and purposes.
Minnesota's State Organization Service
Authors: Rogers William C.
Published: March 2007

This article suggests a unique way in which volunteer organizations with limited funds can by cooperation receive the benefits of staff services which they could not individually afford.
What Happened To the Canadian Farm Radio Forum?
Authors: Ohliger John
Published: March 2007

The Canadian listening group project, the Farm Radio Forum, was the subject of great praise in its 25 year history before its demise in April, 1965. The project was established in 1940 because of converging influences through a working agreement between three organizations—the Canadian Association for Adult Educa tion, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. The author has attempted through analysis of correspondence, interviews, and available literature to account for the decline of the project. Three tentative con clusions are: 1. as the sponsoring institutions matured their con cerns diverged more and more, 2. a fully-working field struc ture for organizing and maintaining the listening groups was never established, 3. the groups never become integrated into the Ca nadian national system of institutions or its power structure.
New Designs for Adult Education Doctoral Programs
Authors: Boyd Robert D.
Published: March 2007

In the first part of this position paper the author assesses 1. the purposes of a university, 2. the nature of adult education, 3. the roles and qualities of the faculty, and 4. the conditions for educa cational experiences as they apply to the learners. The writer asserts that all four components must be considered carefully be fore developing new adult education doctoral programs. From the conclusions and definitions of the first section, the author deduces the specific attributes of adult education and denotes three phases of a proposal doctoral program in adult education.
Historical Notes On Adult Education in Germany To 1871
Authors: Pirtle Wayne G.
Published: March 2007

Systematic adult education in German was generated by social. political, and economic forces in the first half of the nineteenth century. First was the "Enlightenment" view of adult education as a means of self-help, the conviction that "knowledge is power." Ancillary to this was the emergence of science as a powerful force for technological, economic, and social change. In addition, the Industrial Revolution created a new social class, the industrial workers, whose leaders looked to adult education as a substitute for an inadequate system of public education for the young. These factors gave rise to a movement in adult education that became perceptible in the 1820's, seemed to disappear again under govern ment suppression of the 1850's, only to reemerge more dynamic than ever in the 1860's.
Differences in Educational Level and Subject Matter Difficulty in the Use of Compressed Speech With Adult Military Students
Authors: Watts Meredith W.
Published: March 2007

In this study, academic lectures were delivered to control groups in a normal auditorium setting while experimental groups heard lectures on the same material compressed to about 250 words per minute. All students were U.S. Air Force personnel. Both officer and noncommissioned officer groups were subjected to treatment. Two separate academic lectures were employed and subsequent data were placed in a 3-way analysis of variance de sign. It is concluded that, for these data, there are no significant differences attributable to treatment (students learn equally well from either mode). Significant effects are found with respect to military rank (officers being more successful than NCO's). There is an interaction between rank and subject matter and a more complex interaction among treatment, rank and subject matter.
Educational Participation and Dropout: a Theoretical Model
Authors: Boshier Roger
Published: March 2007

A "congruence" model based on self theory is proposed to account for adult education participation and dropout. Single variable explanations for these phenomena are rejected. It is contended that participation may be understood as a function of self/institution incongruence and dropout a function of intra-self and self/other incongruence. It is suggested that social, psychological and insti tutional variables typically studied in participation and dropout research merely mediate the congruence-dropout relationship. Data derived from 2436 participants enrolled in continuing non-credit classes in New Zealand are offered in support of parts of the model. The model is experimentally and administratively suggestive and replete with hypotheses capable of empirical investigation.
The Effect of Adult Student Participation in Program Planning On Achievement, Retention and Attitude
Authors: Cole J. William , Glass J. Conrad
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of adult student participation in program planning on student achievement, retention, and attitude. Participants in two in-service groups at a North Carolina hospital were assigned to two experi mental classes. One class participated in planning its educational program; the second completed a course identical to the one planned by the first, but was given no opportunity to participate in planning the course objectives and design.

The results permitted three conclusions: (1) adult student participation in program planning appears to affect positively stu dent achievement; (2) no evidence was found to support the pre diction that participation in classroom planning positively influ ences retention of information; (3) given a situation where prior attitudes are not firmly fixed, participating in program planning may have considerable impact on attitudes of adult students.