597
Views
16
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Feminine style in presidential debate discourse, 1960–2000

Pages 3-20 | Published online: 03 Feb 2007
 

Abstract

Dow and Tonn's feminine rhetorical style is used to evaluate the argument structures used in presidential debate discourse. Results suggest that the feminine style element of references to personal experience is prevalent in debate discourse but that inductive structure and use of anecdotes and examples are less prevalent than one might expect. Further, feminine style elements, including references to personal experience and use of inductive structure, have decreased over time since the 1960 debate. Differences were also found in use of specific feminine style elements by political party, incumbency status and election outcome.

Notes

Danette Ifert Johnson (PhD, Northwestern University, 1994) is Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Ithaca College, 407 Muller Center, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA. Email: [email protected]. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Jaclyn A. Knopp and Justin D. Valleau with refining the coding scheme and coding debate transcripts. Completion of this project was supported in part by a Faculty Innovation Grant from West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danette Ifert Johnson

Danette Ifert Johnson (PhD, Northwestern University, 1994) is Associate Professor of Speech Communication at Ithaca College, 407 Muller Center, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA. Email: [email protected]. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Jaclyn A. Knopp and Justin D. Valleau with refining the coding scheme and coding debate transcripts. Completion of this project was supported in part by a Faculty Innovation Grant from West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.