Convinced that public speaking fears outranked all other fears, the authors combined their years of teaching novice speakers to set forth their techniques for reducing apprehension and sharpening communication performance skills. The three basic techniques stressed are cognitive structuring (or attitude change), relaxation techniques and skills training. All of the topics addressed herein are intended for students in basic speech communication classes. Some of the topics are: the process of communication, assessing yourself as a communicator, improving attitudes and reducing apprehension,...

Guaranteed to liven up any dinner party, this delightful, highly readable book offers color photos and scientific case-by-case explanations for 27 phenomena that appear to defy known science, including ghosts and poltergeists, the predictions of Nostradamus, and yogic levitation.

In this book, Lynne Kelly explores the role of formal knowledge systems in small-scale oral cultures in both historic and archaeological contexts. In the first part, she examines knowledge systems within historically recorded oral cultures, showing how the link between power and the control of knowledge is established. Analyzing the material mnemonic devices used by documented oral cultures, she demonstrates how early societies maintained a vast corpus of pragmatic information concerning animal behavior, plant properties, navigation, astronomy, genealogies, laws and trade agreements, among...