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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.
List of contents
Introduction: What is a Communication Center?
Part I: Developing a Communication Center
Chapter 1: A Brief History of Communication Centers
Chapter 2: Starting a Communication Center
Chapter 3: Successful Marketing of Communication Centers, Kyle Anne Barnett Love
Part II: Becoming a Communication Center Tutor
Chapter 4: Becoming a Peer Tutor: A Communication Perspective
Chapter 5: Tutoring Tasks: Invention
Chapter 6: Tutoring Tasks: Disposition
Chapter 7: Tutoring Tasks: Style, Memory, and Delivery
Chapter 8: Tutoring Tasks: Presentation Aids
Part III: Taking the Center Farther
Chapter 9: Tutoring Tasks: Special Situations and Diverse Populations
Chapter 10: Considering the Possibilities
Chapter 11: Assessment of Your Communication Center: Anathema or Asset?, Marlene M. Preston
Afterword: The Rhetorical Roots of Communication Centers, Linda Bartlett Hobgood
Appendix A: The Evaluation of Communication Center Directors: Procedures and Criteria
Appendix B: Tutor Training and Certification Programs
About the author
Kathleen J. Turner is professor and chair of communication studies and director of oral communication at Davidson College.
Theodore F. Sheckels is professor of English and professor and chair of communication studies at Randolph-Macon College.
Summary
Communication Centers: A Theory-Based Guide to Training and Management addresses what communication centers are and why they are valuable, examines their rich rhetorical roots, and offers advice to faculty who are asked to develop a communication center. Directors of established centers and peer tutors will also find valuable information.
