Mark Ward Sr., left, accepts the 2025 Book Chapter of the Year award from Theon Hill, president of the Religious Communication Association on Nov. 19 during the RCA annual conference in Denver, Colo.

Mark Ward Sr., a professor of communication at Texas A&M University-Victoria, has been honored by the Religious Communication Association for his theoretical contributions to speech communication research. His original study, “Speech Codes in Private, Locally Public, and Communal Speaking,” was published last year in a collection of scholarly essays and recently recognized by RCA as its 2025 Book Chapter of the Year.

The award was presented at the RCA annual conference held Nov. 19 in Denver, Colo. Ward’s essay built on 20 years of research among religious communities to propose an original addition to speech codes theory, a major theory in the communication studies discipline.

“Speech codes theory explains how a group of people constructs a distinctive culture by using language that encodes their assumptions about the nature of people, how they should relate, and what symbolic actions are meaningful,” said Ward. “In 2024 the theory was updated for the first time in 20 years.”

The theory’s originator, University of Washington professor emeritus of communication Gerry Philipsen, first published speech codes theory in 1992. With subsequent iterations in 1997 and 2005, the theory has gained canonical status in the field.

In 2021, Philipsen invited communication scholars to propose new additions to speech codes theory. Ward’s contribution was integral to the updated and expanded theory, which now appears in the 2024 book “Contending with Codes in a World of Difference: Transforming a Theory of Human Communication.”

Ward’s study makes the case for a new proposition that has now been added to speech codes theory: “Elements of a speech code can appear across the private, locally public, and communal contexts of their use.”

“Being the author of a new addition to one of the major theories in the communication discipline is an honor,” said Ward. “The updated theory will have a major impact on the field, from first-year textbooks to cutting-edge research. So proposals for adding to the theory were rigorously evaluated by leading scholars.”

Ward’s new proposition states that a group’s speech code is transmitted across three levels of discourse: the community at large, its local meetings, and private conversation. The basis for the proposition is Ward’s two decades of research in observing the culture of American evangelicalism.

“My research method is called the ethnography of communication,” Ward said. “I’ve observed that the evangelical speech code is transmitted at the institutional level by mass media, at the local congregational level by Sunday sermons and at the private level as church members engage in conversation. These levels together construct the distinctive evangelical culture.”

The new version of speech codes theory expands the number of propositions from six to 13. Contributors included scholars from the United States, China, Finland, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain.

In making an addition to speech codes theory, Ward’s academic career has come full circle. He entered graduate school in 2005, the year that speech codes theory was last updated. From his first semester and introductory course in communication studies, he was drawn to speech codes theory.

“Since then, the theory has been a foundation of my academic career,” Ward said. “I even had my fan-boy moment as a new professor when I met Gerry Philipsen at a conference and asked him to autograph my copies of his books.” 

To date, Ward has published nearly 50 works on religious communication and media, and last fall was named RCA 2024 Scholar of the Year. “I have a lot more left to write,” Ward said. “But having a part in the new version of speech codes theory, a version that will propel exciting new research for years to come, is a culmination of my work.”