Theodore F. Sheckels

The Rhetoric of Public Places examines the communicative aspects of physical spaces that contribute to public memory and activity. It explores how these places, ranging from memorials to sites of commerce, engage with and shape public discourse. The book envisions such sites not merely as background settings but as active, rhetorical entities that resonate with symbolic significance and invite nuanced interpretations. Structured into three sections, the book begins by presenting theories and methodologies of rhetorical critique, outlining how spaces act as texts with persuasive elements. The subsequent part explores places of public memory, such as war memorials and sites representing civil rights movements, examining how these spaces convey messages and reflect collective memories. The book closes with a discussion on places of public activity, including recreational sites and transportation hubs, shedding light on their roles in shaping societal narratives and the everyday experiences of individuals. Encouraging students to both better understand and critique the implicit messages embedded in public spaces, The Rhetoric of Public Places is an exemplary text for courses in communication studies, cultural geography, public history, and urban planning.

Political Problems and Personalities in Contemporary Maryland provides a comprehensive rhetorical analysis of contemporary politics and political communication in Maryland at both the state and local levels. Theodore F. Sheckels and Carl Hyden approach rhetoric in a broader sense, arguing that actions by political players – including decisions on housing policy, urban redevelopment policy, and transportation policy—are not in a separate category from their messages. In many cases, they argue, actions are messages, often with important material consequences. Rather than focusing solely on previous or upcoming elections, as political communication has traditionally been examined, Sheckels and Hyden give considerable space to non-election topics, responding to current shifts in political communication scholarship and encouraging others to examine political communication at the local and state levels elsewhere in the United States. Scholars of communication, political science, rhetoric, and history will find this book of particular interest.

Featuring a balance of practical advice and sound instruction, Speechwriting: A Rhetorical Guide provides readers with essential knowledge to prepare and deliver well-constructed and well-researched speeches appropriate for a variety of contexts. The first part of the book discusses traditional rhetorical theory in a way that is direct and easy for students to understand. The chapters cover such topics as audience and the rhetorical canons of invention, elocution or style, disposition or organization, delivery, and memory. Chapters in the second part then apply the rhetorical principles to four different types of speeches: inaugural addresses, commencement addresses, a variety of persuasive speeches, and a number of ceremonial ones. The text includes excerpts from actual speeches, illustrative speechwriting samples with commentary from a prospective speech writer, and a set of exercises that encourage readers to think about how the sample speech might be improved upon or modified if they were the one writing it. Speechwriting connects rhetorical theory to modern situations and settings to emphasize real-world application. The text is an exemplary resource for courses in speech and writing as found in departments of communication studies, English and composition, political science, education, and any other discipline in which people are frequently asked to speak or address an audience.

Featuring a balance of practical advice and sound instruction, Speechwriting: A Rhetorical Guide provides readers with essential knowledge to prepare and deliver well-constructed and well-researched speeches appropriate for a variety of contexts. The first part of the book discusses traditional rhetorical theory in a way that is direct and easy for students to understand. The chapters cover such topics as audience and the rhetorical canons of invention, elocution or style, disposition or organization, delivery, and memory. Chapters in the second part then apply the rhetorical principles to four different types of speeches: inaugural addresses, commencement addresses, a variety of persuasive speeches, and a number of ceremonial ones. The text includes excerpts from actual speeches, illustrative speechwriting samples with commentary from a prospective speech writer, and a set of exercises that encourage readers to think about how the sample speech might be improved upon or modified if they were the one writing it. Speechwriting connects rhetorical theory to modern situations and settings to emphasize real-world application. The text is an exemplary resource for courses in speech and writing as found in departments of communication studies, English and composition, political science, education, and any other discipline in which people are frequently asked to speak or address an audience.

The Rhetoric of the American Political Party Conventions, 1948-2016 establishes the rhetorical goals of the thirty-six political party conventions that have taken place since 1948 against the backdrop of the fundamental changes that television brought to the conventions. Theodore F. Sheckels analyzes these conventions to determine whether the gatherings met or failed to meet those goals, including addressing civil rights, unifying divergent wings of the party, celebrating the triumph of a single wing, overcoming dissent inside and outside the meeting hall, overcoming—or capitalizing on—scandal, reconstituting the party after defeats, arguing for change, and advocating for inclusion. Sheckels observes that although speeches are the primary vehicle through which attendees strive to reach these goals, the crucial addresses are not always by the principal players; often, events other than speeches such as negotiations, demonstrations, and media spin can be just as consequential. Sheckels discusses both the similarities and differences in the ways in which the conventions do business and constitute and reconstitute what the political parties are, aiming to persuade the public with rhetorical images and messages. Scholars of communication, rhetoric, political science, and American studies will find this book particularly useful.

Theodore Roosevelt began explicitly using public address as what he termed a "bully pulpit" during his presidency. Public address provided him the opportunity to talk to the people-and thereby put pressure on reluctant public figures to effect policy. In doing so, Roosevelt significantly enlarged the rhetorical impact of the presidency. After Roosevelt, presidents have used this "bully pulpit" to different degrees, but the idea of speaking directly to the people on a regular basis--as well as to Congress--has inarguably affected the presidency and the nation's politics. The Bully Pulpit contains words of every president from Theodore Roosevelt onward. The opening chapter introduces readers to various ways of studying presidential rhetoric. Selections include inaugural addresses, foreign policy pronouncements, State of the Union addresses, political campaign and convention speeches, farewell addresses and eulogies, press conferences, and written texts and tweets. The book includes famous speeches as well as relatively unknown gems, such as Wilson speaking on woman's suffrage, Harding on civil rights, and Truman rallying the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Brief biographical sketches, head notes, and discussion questions provide readers with background, context, and opportunities for reflection. The Bully Pulpit is the ideal anthology for courses in presidential rhetoric, American public address, and political communication. It also serves as a valuable supplementary text for courses in political science.

Communication Centers: A Theory-Based Guide to Training and Management offers advice based on extant research and best practices to both faculty who are asked to develop a communication center and for directors of established centers. Broken into easily understood parts, Turner and Sheckels begin with the development of communication centers, offering guidance on the history of centers, how to start a center, and, in a contribution by Kyle Love, creative approaches to marketing. They provide a communication perspective on selecting and training tutors, and then address how to train the tutors in their tasks of helping students with invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery as well as presentation aids, including consideration of special situations and diverse populations. The authors explore ways to broaden the vision for communication centers, and conclude with chapters on techniques for assessment by Marlene Preston and on the rich rhetorical roots of communication centers by Linda Hobgood. The volume concludes with appendixes on guidelines for directors and for certification of tutor training programs. Communication Centers is a valuable resource for scholars in any stage of developing or improving a communication center at their university.

Rhetorical Criticism: Empowering the Exploration of “Texts” encourages students to analyze texts of various sorts—speeches, advertisements, memory sites, and more—to gain a clear understanding of what the text has to say and how it persuades or otherwise affects its audience. The book clearly and succinctly helps students build the skills required to easily and effectively practice rhetorical criticism. The book begins with a chapter that defines “rhetoric,” “criticism,” and “text,” demonstrates how theory-based rhetorical criticism can be exciting, and emphasizes that there are many diverse lenses through which to illuminate texts. The proceeding chapters explore various types of rhetorical criticism, including classical, The Chicago School, Burkean, fantasy theme, narrative, genre, mythological, Bahktinian, ideological, feminist, and constitutive. Each chapter begins by explaining the theory in which the critical approach is based. It then explains how a critic utilizing that particular type of rhetorical criticism manages the critical process and offers the reader an extended example of the critical approach in use. Conversational in nature and inclusive of a wide range of critical methods, Rhetorical Criticism is ideal for undergraduate courses in rhetoric-oriented courses.

Rhetorical Criticism: Empowering the Exploration of "Texts" encourages students to analyze texts of various sorts--speeches, advertisements, memory sites, and more--to gain a clear understanding of what the text has to say and how it persuades or otherwise affects its audience. The book clearly and succinctly helps students build the skills required to easily and effectively practice rhetorical criticism. The book begins with a chapter th

Suggesting that politics and power are at the center of Margaret Atwood's fiction, Theodore F. Sheckels examines Atwood's novels from The Edible Woman to The Year of the Flood. Whether her treatment is explicit as in Bodily Harm and The Handmaid's Tale or by means of an exploration of interiority as in Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride, Atwood's persistent concern is with how the empowered act towards those who are constrained within the political, economic and social institutions that facilitate power dynamics. Sheckels identifies an increasing sophistication in Atwood's exposition of power over time that is revealed in the later novels' engagement with social class, postcolonialism, and a globalism that merges science and commerce as issues relevant to politics and power. Acknowledging that Atwood is not a political theorist but a novelist, Sheckels does not suggest that her work should be viewed as political commentary but rather as a creative treatment of the laudable but ultimately only partially successful ways in which women and other groups resist the constraints placed on them by institutionalized oppression.

This book rhetorically and historically examines the contextual and experiential dimensions of a wide range of public places—from memorials to stadiums—that are rife with political implications. Fourteen public places ranging from the national to local, from 9/11 memorials to a baseball park are analyzed. The authors investigate the histories of these public spaces, examine their designs, and discuss their political implications in order to outline their role within the public sphere. This book begins with a loose theoretical framework for understanding public places as rhetorically drawn from extant scholarship, and concludes with a systematic means of exploring the allocation of power by public places. Recommended for scholars of communication studies, rhetoric, political science, and architecture.

Communication Centers: A Theory-Based Guide to Training and Management offers advice based on extant research and best practices to both faculty who are asked to develop a communication center and for directors of established centers. Broken into easily understood parts, Turner and Sheckels begin with the development of communication centers, offering guidance on the history of centers, how to start a center, and, in a contribution by Kyle Love, creative approaches to marketing. They provide a communication perspective on selecting and training tutors, and then address how to train the tutors in their tasks of helping students with invention, disposition, style, memory, and delivery as well as presentation aids, including consideration of special situations and diverse populations. The authors explore ways to broaden the vision for communication centers, and conclude with chapters on techniques for assessment by Marlene Preston and on the rich rhetorical roots of communication centers by Linda Hobgood. The volume concludes with appendixes on guidelines for directors and for certification of tutor training programs. Communication Centers is a valuable resource for scholars in any stage of developing or improving a communication center at their university.

Political Communication in the Anglophone World: Case Studies, by Theodore F. Sheckels, extends political communication scholarship—primarily rhetorical scholarship—into the extensive English language arena outside the United States and the United Kingdom. While wrestling with the extent to which insights derived from and approaches used in political communication research focused on the United States can be used in other nations with different government structures, different media operations, and different political cultures, Sheckels provides insight into a variety of political communication topics ranging from the role gender plays in campaign politics to the politics involved as one speaks upon the occasion of leaving high office. This book explores how Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau used moments of media attention to push his foreign and domestic policy agenda, as well as another Canadian Prime Minister, Kim Campbell, and the difficulties she faced because of her gender. Sheckels also examines Jamaica’s Michael Manley and his shift from advocating socialism to later supporting free markets, and reggae artist Bob Marley and his musical shift from concern for Kingston’s poor to embracing pan-Africanism. Popular media images of Africa are also considered, as the book investigates Mwai Kibaki’s attempts to unify Kenya, Nelson Mandela’s presidential rhetoric, and Thabo Mbeki’s “I am an African Address.” Finally, Sheckels goes to Australia to consider Gough Whitlam’s unprecedented dismissal as prime minister, and Kevin Rudd’s farewell speech after being replaced by his own party members. Asking new questions and using novel rhetorical approaches, Political Communication in the Anglophone World illuminates how communication proceeds, whether the medium be speech, song, website, or pirouette.

Suggesting that politics and power are at the center of Margaret Atwood's fiction, Theodore F. Sheckels examines Atwood's novels from The Edible Woman to The Year of the Flood. Whether her treatment is explicit as in Bodily Harm and The Handmaid's Tale or by means of an exploration of interiority as in Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride, Atwood's persistent concern is with how the empowered act towards those who are constrained within the political, economic and social institutions that facilitate power dynamics. Sheckels identifies an increasing sophistication in Atwood's exposition of power over time that is revealed in the later novels' engagement with social class, postcolonialism, and a globalism that merges science and commerce as issues relevant to politics and power. Acknowledging that Atwood is not a political theorist but a novelist, Sheckels does not suggest that her work should be viewed as political commentary but rather as a creative treatment of the laudable but ultimately only partially successful ways in which women and other groups resist the constraints placed on them by institutionalized oppression.

In Gender and the American Presidency: Nine Presidential Women and the Barriers They Faced, Theodore F. Sheckels, Nichola D. Gutgold, and Diana Bartelli Carlin invite the audience to consider women qualified enough to be president and explores reasons why they have been dismissed as presidential contenders. This analysis profiles key presidential contenders including Barbara Mikulski, Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Kassebaum, Kathleen Sebelius, Christine Gregoire, Linda Lingle, Elizabeth Dole, Dianne Feinstein, and Olympia Snowe. Gender barriers, media coverage, communication style, geography, and other factors are examined to determine why these seemingly qualified, powerful politicos failed to win the White House.

Maryland Politics and Political Communication, 1950-2005 is not a survey of all that occurred between 1950 and 2005. Rather, this book focuses on a set of interesting political events in which communication is a very important variable. These events, be they elections or episodes of governance, are also_arguably_the most dramatic ones during the period. It begins with an examination of George Wallace's 1964 and 1972 campaigns in the state's Democratic presidential primary, considers William Donald Schaefer's flamboyant communication strategies as Baltimore mayor and the vicious 1986 U. S. Senate campaign between Democrat Barbara Mikulski and Linda Chavez, and runs through the 2002 gubernatorial race between Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert L. Ehrlich. Sheckels highlights the similarities and differences between political communication at state and national levels and looks forward to questions and scenarios that may emerge in future elections.

Maryland Politics and Political Communication, 1950-2005 is not a survey of all that occurred between 1950 and 2005. Rather, this book focuses on a set of interesting political events in which communication is a very important variable. These events, be they elections or episodes of governance, are also—arguably—the most dramatic ones during the period. It begins with an examination of George Wallace's 1964 and 1972 campaigns in the state's Democratic presidential primary, considers William Donald Schaefer's flamboyant communication strategies as Baltimore mayor and the vicious 1986 U. S. Senate campaign between Democrat Barbara Mikulski and Linda Chavez, and runs through the 2002 gubernatorial race between Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert L. Ehrlich. Sheckels highlights the similarities and differences between political communication at state and national levels and looks forward to questions and scenarios that may emerge in future elections.

Islands, both literal and figurative, recur in fiction authored by many prominent Canadian women writers. Using a critical lens based on Northrop Frye and Julia Kristeva, this book closely examines fourteen novels by eight twentieth-century authors, emphasizing works by L. M. Montgomery, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood. Several of the novels, such as Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, Laurence's A Jest of God and The Diviners, Atwood's Surfacing and Bodily Harm, Alice Munro's The Lives of Girls and Women, and Gabrielle Roy's The Tin Flute, are among Canada's most well-known. Some of the works discussed present the island as a redemptive retreat, but in most cases the island's role is ambiguous, ranging from a temporary respite from life's pressures to a nightmarish trap.

With films such as Muriel's Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert finding recent success in American theaters, Australian cinema has never been as popular in North America as it is today. This new study argues that post-1970 Australian film is best described not as exhibiting phenomenal variety but as focused on a conception of heroism characterized by the love of freedom, the resentment of authority, and attachment to the land, along with anti-intellectualism, fatalism, and occasional sexism. Tracing these themes through one hundred films, Scheckels explores the ways in which they are reflected through depictions of men, women, aboriginals, and youth, with each demographic group posing its own unique generic and cultural questions. Including films both elite and popular, excellent and flawed, Celluloid Heroes Down Under offers film-by-film discussions in seven chapters, making the volume both a highly readable study of a particular cinema and superb reference guide for its readers. Unlike previous studies of the nation's film output, Sheckels's work presents its subject not as a miscellaneous collection but as a focused endeavor, a cohesive and undervalued component of world cinema.

Sheckels provides the first book-length study of Congressional debating. The limited work on the topic in the communication discipline has argued that such debating is tedious and inconsequential. Sheckels, however, offers a new paradigm, derived from the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, that counteracts this assumption. This paradigm also counters the often unvoiced assumption that debates are inherently biopolar with the initial premise that they are instead polyphonic. The polyphony, however, goes beyond the recognition of the multiple speakers who participate and the drama they enact, to the awareness of the voices these speakers introduce within their discourse. These voices range from the words of authorities to the narratives of average Americans, from classical prosopopoeia to what Bakhtin terms stylization. Speakers also sometimes enact what Bakhtin terms double-voiced discourse; furthermore, there are moments of what Bakhtin terms carnivalesque energy. Bakhtin's work finally alerts the critic to the illusion of finalizability in Congressional debates. After outlining this paradigm, Sheckels uses it to examine six Congressional debates, ranging in date from a 1960 Senate filibuster on a civil rights matter to the 1999 House debate on articles of impeachment and includes analyses of such flash points as the Confederate flag, sexual harassment in the military, and partial-birth abortion. These case studies reveal both the utility and the flexibility of the Bakhtinian perspective. Thoughtful analyses that will be of great interest to scholars and researchers involved with rhetoric and political communication.