Fanfare for fifty: A brief history of the Central States Speech Association to 1981

Communication Studies, Spring 1999 by Reid, Loren

Originally, theJournal was issued twice a year; in 1958 it went to three, and in 1961 to four, issues. Each editor left his own imprint on his volumes. Of many possible examples, I can mention only two.

Keith Brooks, The Ohio State University, editor 1958-61, initiated several features. One was an occasional guest editorial; that of N. Edd Miller, University of Michigan, president 1958-59, on "The Role of the Regional Speech Association," still makes good sense. The single-page feature by Franklin H. Knower, The Ohio State University, president 1938-39, "It's More Fun to Know," is fun to read. "Can a person communicate how he feels by the way he looks?" "YES!" came the answer, along with the source, "with a high degree of accuracy." "Is the strong, silent man the best administrator?" "NO! Good leader behavior and frequent communication are seen to be associated." (All this was twenty years ago.) A short series listed indispensable books for a teacher's library; along with Shakespeare, the Bible, and Aristotle's Rhetoric, were Wallace (ed.) History of Speech Education in America and Brigance (ed.) History and Criticism ofAmerican Public Address.

James W. Gibson, University of Missouri-Columbia, editor 1969-1975, improved CSSJ's appearance. He went to a slightly larger page size, achieved better balance of text and heading on inside pages, ditched the CSSA bird that had appeared on covers so long that its edges were worn, and adopted a new cover typography. A "Special Reports" section accommodated short studies not appropriate for a major article.

Over the years, advertising pages declined from a peak of twelve to fifteen or twenty, to a mere one or two. Each 80-page issue contains about eight articles, all longer than formerly. News and book reviews have disappeared. Information about the Association itself, never extensive, has become minimal. A four-hour meeting of the Executive Council may be given half a page of Journal space, or none at all. Annual conventions are noted briefly.

A reason for the change in editorial content is that the rationale for CSSA itself has changed. Present worries about the certification of teachers, or of college acceptance of high school credits, are slight. In Communication Education, the profession has an outlet for articles on the improvement of instruction. Dennis Gouran, Indiana University, editor 1980-19--, writes that editorial policies are determined after consultation with previous editors and others.

Prospective contributors wonder about the odds of getting a manuscript accepted. Donovan Ochs, University of Iowa,, reported in 1977 that 431 articles had been submitted in a three-year period and 115 published; slightly under one in four. Gibson put the figure at one out of every five or six; Gouran at one in five. In the last eight years they recall only one manuscript from a high school teacher.

It is fair even for a biased observer to say that CSSJ has, over the years, ranked as one of the two best regional publications. It reflects the interests of a mature profession. Its articles reflect careful research; they have been reviewed by the editor and his staff, plus an occasional outside referee, and are on specialized topics representing the current state of the art.Journal pages are fully open to younger scholars.