William Keith - Böcker

From the pundits to the polls, nearly everyone seems to agree that US politics have rarely been more fractious, and calls for a return to “civil discourse” abound. Yet it is also true that the requirements of polite discourse effectively silence those who are not in power, gaming the system against the disenfranchised. What, then, should a democracy do?This book makes a case for understanding civility in a different light. Examining the history of the concept and its basis in communication and political theory, William Keith and Robert Danisch present a clear, robust analysis of civil discourse. Distinguishing it from politeness, they claim that civil argument must be redirected from the goal of political comity to that of building and maintaining relationships of minimal respect in the public sphere. They also take into account how civility enables discrimination, indicating conditions under which uncivil resistance is called for. When viewed as a communication practice for uniting people with differences and making them more equal, civility is transformed from a preferable way of speaking into an essential component of democratic life. Guarding against uncritical endorsement of civility as well as skepticism, Keith and Danisch show with rigor, nuance, and care that the practice of civil communication is both paradoxical and sorely needed. Beyond Civility is necessary reading for our times.

From the pundits to the polls, nearly everyone seems to agree that US politics have rarely been more fractious, and calls for a return to “civil discourse” abound. Yet it is also true that the requirements of polite discourse effectively silence those who are not in power, gaming the system against the disenfranchised. What, then, should a democracy do?This book makes a case for understanding civility in a different light. Examining the history of the concept and its basis in communication and political theory, William Keith and Robert Danisch present a clear, robust analysis of civil discourse. Distinguishing it from politeness, they claim that civil argument must be redirected from the goal of political comity to that of building and maintaining relationships of minimal respect in the public sphere. They also take into account how civility enables discrimination, indicating conditions under which uncivil resistance is called for. When viewed as a communication practice for uniting people with differences and making them more equal, civility is transformed from a preferable way of speaking into an essential component of democratic life. Guarding against uncritical endorsement of civility as well as skepticism, Keith and Danisch show with rigor, nuance, and care that the practice of civil communication is both paradoxical and sorely needed. Beyond Civility is necessary reading for our times.

Packed with the latest research, best practices and plenty of hands-on applications, Keith/Lundberg's PUBLIC SPEAKING: CHOICES AND RESPONSIBILITY, 3rd Edition, equips you with everything you need to become an excellent public speaker. Based on rhetorical theory, the text focuses on the role of choices and civic engagement/responsibility--emphasizing the importance of civility in public discourse. It describes the audience as a "public" to which the speaker belongs, rather than as a separate entity defined only by demographics. Completely up to date, the 3rd Edition includes new coverage of "fake news" and "lightning talks" as well as an entire chapter devoted to special kinds of speeches like TED Talks, PechaKucha, poetry slams and more.

Packed with the latest research, best practices and hands-on applications, Keith/Lundberg's PUBLIC SPEAKING: CHOICES AND RESPONSIBILITY, 4th Edition, equips you with everything you need to become comfortable creating an outstanding speech. Working from a conversational framework, you'll learn to approach public speaking as a way of continuing important public conversations with specific audiences. The authors emphasize the importance of civility as the ethical grounding of speech in public as well as address "fake news" and the problem it poses for doing research. An all-new chapter takes a deep dive into online presentation skills, covering everything from eye contact on Zoom to using graphics in a mediated presentation. Expanding the formats of public speaking, the final chapter is devoted to special kinds of speaking like TED Talks, PechaKucha, poetry slams, toasts and more.

In this volume a baker's dozen of creative Canadians make personal responses to the state of the arts in Canada: Northrop Frye and Guy Rocher write on general cultural trends; Hugh MacLennan and Gérard Bessette on fiction; Ralph Gustafson and Michèle Lalonde on poetry; Robertson Davies and Gratien Gélinas on drama; George Woodcock and Jacques Allard on non-fiction prose; Godfrey Ridout on music, and Aba Bayefsky and Humphrey N. Milnes on art.The essays were written to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the University of Toronto Quarterly. The contributors were invited to discuss the changes, problems, challenges, and achievements in the arts in the last fifty years. Since all the authors had personal experience of at least a large section of the period surveyed, the editors welcomed personal reminiscence as well as description and assessment. The result is a varied group of essays in each of which the character of the individual artist is clearly evident; together, they provide a complex, many-faceted, lively, and living discussion of the cultural development of Canada.This anniversary collection of essays is a valuable and provocative source for courses in Canadian studies and for anyone interested in the development of the arts and humanities in Canada.

This volume of E.J. Pratt's selected poems introduces Pratt's poems to the college and university student, to provide the kind of information needed for an informed reading of the poems. The volume offers a full sampling of Pratt's poems chosen on the joint basis of representativeness and intrinsic value. This includes the major long poems, The Witches' Brew, The Iron Door, The Titanic, Brébeuf and His Brethren, Towards the Last Spike, and important shorter lyrics including 'Newfoundland,' 'Come Away, Death,' and 'From Stone to Steel.'The editorial approach has been historical, chronological and biographical. The introduction locates Pratt in his Newfoundland and Canadian contexts and discusses the development of his work in terms of his early modernist contemporaries, concluding that E.J. Pratt remains the most important and influential Canadian poet up to the mid-fifties. As such, he has been an key figure in shaping the Canadian literary imagination of his day and the later poetics of landscape adopted by Earle Birney and Margaret Atwood.The reader is provided with annotations, textual notes, a biographical chronology, and an introduction which locates Pratt in his Newfoundland and Canadian contexts and discusses the development of his work in terms of his modernist contemporaries. The printed volumes is supplemented by the electronic resources of the Selected Pratt website at http://www.trentu.ca/pratt/selected.

If you feel like the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, you’re not alone. If you often feel there’s nothing you can do about it, you’re also not alone. Along with this increasing anger, fear, and frustration, much confusion still prevails on the appropriate communication practices for responding to difficult situations and improving our lives. Communication experts Robert Danisch and William Keith explain why and how we can practice radical civility in this practical guide to everyday “political” communication.This guide begins with examples of radical civility to show the potential of this kind of communication to change minds and bridge differences. The authors then unpack the three foundational principles of radical civility as useful theoretical tools for thinking throughout interactions with others in civic spaces. This is then followed by a three-step process for practicing radical civility drawing on research into active listening and its importance for creating connections, validating other views, and opening up possibilities for future conversation. The guide concludes with evidence-based communication practices and prescriptive recommendations for how to do each and show examples of each in action.Radically Civil: Saving Democracy One Conversation at a Time is a much-needed communication-based antidote to polarization, preparing students, researchers, and community leaders to be responsible participants in today’s society.

If you feel like the world has gone to hell in a handbasket, you’re not alone. If you often feel there’s nothing you can do about it, you’re also not alone. Along with this increasing anger, fear, and frustration, much confusion still prevails on the appropriate communication practices for responding to difficult situations and improving our lives. Communication experts Robert Danisch and William Keith explain why and how we can practice radical civility in this practical guide to everyday “political” communication.This guide begins with examples of radical civility to show the potential of this kind of communication to change minds and bridge differences. The authors then unpack the three foundational principles of radical civility as useful theoretical tools for thinking throughout interactions with others in civic spaces. This is then followed by a three-step process for practicing radical civility drawing on research into active listening and its importance for creating connections, validating other views, and opening up possibilities for future conversation. The guide concludes with evidence-based communication practices and prescriptive recommendations for how to do each and show examples of each in action.Radically Civil: Saving Democracy One Conversation at a Time is a much-needed communication-based antidote to polarization, preparing students, researchers, and community leaders to be responsible participants in today’s society.

PUBLIC SPEAKING: CHOICES AND RESPONSIBILITY, 2e delivers a practical, up-to-date resource that will sharpen your public-speaking skills and empower you to make the best choices for your speech audience and situation. Hands-on applications enable you to analyze what you learn and immediately put it into practice. The Second Edition includes new coverage of Monroe's Motivated Sequence, discussions of TED talks and PechaKucha, extended treatment of fallacies, and expanded emphasis on outlining. New Remix features apply the latest research in business and social science to public speaking skills. In addition, MindTap digital learning solution provides an array of tools and apps to help you maximize your course success. PUBLIC SPEAKING will help you master your skills -- and use them to make a difference in your career and your community.

'There is probably no single quality or characteristic – besides love of the countryside – that must inevitably distinguish a rural writer,' notes W.J. Keith. However, 'what distinguishes rural writing that belongs to literature from that belonging to natural history, agricultural history, etc., is, as Richard E. Haymaker has observed, the writer's "means of revealing Nature as well as describing her"...In the final analysis the rural essayist paints neither landscapes nor self-portraits; instead he communicates the subtle relationship between himself and his environment, offering for our inspection his own attitudes and his own vision. We may be asked to look or to agree, but more than anything else we are invited to share. Ultimately, then, the best rural writing may be said to provide us, in a phrase adapted from Robert Langbaum, with a prose of experience.' Keith argues that non-fiction rural prose should be recognized as a distinct literary tradition that merits serious critical attention. In this book he tests the cogency of thinking in terms of a 'rural tradition,' examines the critical problems inherent in such writing, and traces significant continuities between rural writers. Eleven of the more important and influential writers from the seventeenth century to modern times come under individual scrutiny: Izaak Walton, Gilbert White, William Cobbett, Mary Russell Mitford, George Borrow, Richard Jefferies, George Sturt/'George Bourne', W.H. Hudson, Edward Thomas Williamson, and H.J. Massingham.In examining these writers within the context of the rural tradition, Keith rescues their works from the literary attic where they have too often been relegated as awkward misfits. When studied together, each throws fascinating light on the others and is seen to fit into a loose but nonetheless discernible 'line.'

This book, a critical study of the essays and novels of Richard Jefferies, an English writer of the latter part of the nineteenth century, is an attempt to define the nature of Jefferies' contribution to English literature, and to isolate the more important and effective qualities of his work. Although he was not a major figure in English letteres, Jefferies was highly regarded for his essays on nature and the English countryside, studies of rural conditions, and regional novels; his work mirrors the rapid change taking place in agriculture at the time, and is of interest today to social historians and economists. This study begins with a brief biological account, and then proceeds to a discussion of individual works. An important feature is a comprehensive bibliography of Jefferies' books and pamphlets, arranged in order of publication to assist the readers in checking chronology. (Department of English Studies and Texts, No. 13)