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Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Obama Transforming: Using Functional Theory To Identify Transformational Leadership, Kristina Drumheller, Greg G. Armfield Dec 2015

Obama Transforming: Using Functional Theory To Identify Transformational Leadership, Kristina Drumheller, Greg G. Armfield

Speaker & Gavel

The 2008 presidential campaign convention speeches broke records as viewers flocked to the speeches by Obama, Palin, and McCain in numbers that rivaled American Idol ratings. Adapting functional theory (Benoit, 2007) to include transformational leadership characteristics (Bass & Avolio, 1990), President Obama‘s 2008 nomination acceptance speech was used test the adapting of functional theory for analyzing leadership claims. Secondary data were used as evidentiary support of Obama‘s efforts to make changes once in the White House. Results are discussed and framed within functional theory and transfor-mational leadership.


An Incubating Institution: Speaker And Gavel’S Current Criticism Section And The Development Of Twentieth Century Rhetorical Criticism, James Francisca Klumpp Dec 2015

An Incubating Institution: Speaker And Gavel’S Current Criticism Section And The Development Of Twentieth Century Rhetorical Criticism, James Francisca Klumpp

Speaker & Gavel

This essay traces the role of Speaker and Gavel’s Current Criticism section in the development of the dramatic changes that marked rhetorical criticism and public address in the late twentieth century. The essay argues that critics restricted from old line journals found outlets and developed their critical skills through the publication of their works in Speaker and Gavel.


Rhetorical Criticism: The Past Fifty Years, David Zarefsky Dec 2015

Rhetorical Criticism: The Past Fifty Years, David Zarefsky

Speaker & Gavel

Not quite fifty years ago, in its fourth volume, Speaker and Gavel launched a feature called “Current Criticism.” Under the editorship of Wayne Brockriede, the journal took on an added mission: offering criticism of very recent cases of public address. Rather than traditional scholarly studies, the critiques were moiré like editorials: brief statements of an author’s point of view, with supporting arguments and evidence, ob topics of current interest related to public policy. The best of these essays were collected in a book edited by Robert O. Weiss and Bernard L. Brock and published for DSR-TKA in 1971.