I teach a class in public speaking and persuasion and my students, which are mainly business students, are often required to use powerpoint. They claim that it has made them very serial thinkers. This means they think in "lists" rather than in evidentiary terms to support their arguments. I know this isn't exactly what you are looking for, but several of them commented on the differences re: how to construct an argument from a rhetorical perspective and how they are being taught to think about business problems. A piece of anecdotal info. for what's it's worth. BTW, this is why the business school requires them to take this course and they have had input in constructing the syllabus. IB Irene Berkowitz Program Director, Curricular Publications and Systems Office of the Vice Provost Temple University tel. 215-204-7596 fax. 215-204 3175 berkowitz@mail.temple.edu

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bowseat@bethmazur.com 06/03/2003 9:12:00 PM >>> Does anyone know of research (formal or otherwise) on the effects of Power Point formatting on emerging writing styles, logical argumentation skills, or comprehension? I'd be grateful for any data for (or against) the current adage that "Power corrupts but Power Point corrupts absolutely."

On the "for" side, you may want to check out Edward Tufte's (who's acknowledged for the 'corruption" quote) very recent publication titled "The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint" ($7 on Tufte's site at http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_pp. I'm not sure that it includes any real research data, but I'm sure the argument will be interesting! Beth Mazur IDblog: http://idblog.org _______________________________________________ Air-l mailing list Air-l@aoir.org http://www.aoir.org/mailman/listinfo/air-l