Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Mode, Method, And Medium: The Affordance Of Online Tutorials In The Writing Center, Erik V. Holtz

Honors Scholar Theses

While the body of literature regarding online tutorials in the writing center is growing, researchers seem hesitant to fully endorse, or even commend, online writing tutorials. This seems appropriate for work in communication theory and human-computer interaction; working across a medium may be different, but this could create new and interesting ways of tutoring. This research reports on a comparative analysis of online and in-person tutoring at three different universities, focusing on tutor self-perceptions and on affordances, a concept drawn from systems engineering, human-computer interaction and ecological psychology. Unstructured interviewing is used to create a set of preliminary affordances of …

A Case Study Of Perceived Self-Efficacy In Writing Center Peer Tutor Training, Shaun T. White

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This explorative case study used mixed methods to examine and analyze the two following research questions using the psychological framework from Perceived Self-Efficacy Theory: 1) what variables of writing center tutor training affected the trainees’ perceived self-efficacy levels towards their work, and 2) what aspects of this training contributed to the attainment of persistence? Both questions were answered using quantitative and qualitative methods for analyses. The quantitative research revealed that the initial six week period of observation for peer tutors at the beginning of their training was highly beneficial for increasing their perceived self-efficacy levels in believing they could complete …

Proper Names As Narrative Gaps: A Deconstructive Reading Of Rosario Ferré And García Márquez, Dora Suarez

Honors College Theses

This thesis argues that language in general, and proper names in particular, are surreptitious examples of narrative gaps. In this way, in the context of literature, the narrative gaps enclosed in proper names enable the audience to become an active participant in a type of writing that exceeds the limit of the specific literary text at hand. In deconstructing the way in which proper names and nicknames are used by Rosario Ferré and García Márquez, this exposition shows how names, as conveyors of different identities, systematically enable an exercise of différance: they distinguish subjects while postponing an actual description of …

Shifting Spaces In Digital Rhetoric: Ephemera In The Age Of Infinite Memory, Geoffrey Gimse

All NMU Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

SHIFTING SPACES IN DIGITAL RHETORIC: EPHEMERA IN THE AGE OF INFINITE MEMORY

By

Geoffrey Gimse

The storage capacity of digital systems has expanded at an incredible rate over the past decade. This new and growing space and the rapidly evolving technologies that surround it have become an intrinsic component of the digital creative process, and yet they remain relatively unexamined. The methods by which creative works are offloaded from the human mind, abstracted into data objects, and ultimately placed into an external storage medium are an excellent starting point for this type of critical analysis. This paper seeks to …

Seeing The Sausage Made: How Compromise Works In Large Groups And Representative Bodies, James E. Crawford Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Inspired by the lack of Congressional compromise during the 2013 federal shutdown, I explore how compromise works in large groups and representative bodies. An on-line survey, personal interviews, and a discourse analysis of the Congressional Record yield a diverse collection of data, including personal and public stories of compromise. I examine the stories and other data through an eclectic mix of contemporary scholarship, borrowing literary theory from the Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin, socio-linguistic concepts from American linguist James Paul Gee, and moral philosophy from Israeli thinker Avishai Margalit. I also incorporate the work of political scientists Amy Gutmann and Dennis …

Nonfiction, Documentary And Family Narrative: An Intersection Of Representational Discourses And Creative Practices, Kristine T. Weatherston

Theses and Dissertations

Nonfiction, Documentary, and Family Narrative:
 An Intersection of Representational Discourses and Creative Practices explores the role of personal memory, family history, and inter-generational storytelling as the basis for making a nonfiction film. The film, American Boy, tells the story of my mother’s immigration to the United States after the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, opening a discussion of four generations of my family life in the context of historical events, exile, self re-invention, and identity formation. As a media producer and nonfiction author, I narrate my understanding of these events to my infant son, as a way of communicating …

Major Structural Relationships: A Survey Of Origins, Development, Classifications, And Assessment, Fredrick J. Long

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

A central feature to Inductive Bible Study (IBS) are Major Structural Relationships (MSRs), despite some variation in the number, identification, descriptions, and organization of them. These relationships are endemic to human communication; hence, their description is vital for accurate and holistic observation of biblical materials. The origin of MSRs is traceable to the 19th century art instruction of John Ruskin. He himself was aware that his insights into composition extended beyond artistic to musical and literary composition. Practitioners of IBS have continued to develop and describe rigorously methodologies surrounding the identification of MSRs, especially at Asbury Theological Seminary. A survey …

Rereading Romanticism, Rereading Expressivism: Revising "Voice" Through Wordsworth's Prefaces, Hannah J. Rule

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Talking About Digital Literacies, Jeanne Bohannon

Jeanne Law Bohannon

No abstract provided.

Helping Students Gain A Better Understanding Of Writing: Writing About Writing At The Two-Year College, Jessica Ulmer

Jessica Ulmer

No abstract provided.

What Can We Learn From Oil Spills? (Speech Text), Sharine Borslien

Sharine Borslien

No abstract provided.

Truth, Rhetoric, And Critical Thinking, Lajos L. Brons

Lajos Brons

Despite the extraordinary amount of attention critical thinking has received in the last few decades, the teaching and fostering of critical thinking in higher education is largely failing, and critical thinking has become an empty buzzword. However, given its importance as an aim of education, it needs to be “refilled”, but that is possible only after identifying the causes of the current failure, i.e. the obstacles to fostering critical thinking. Three such obstacles are identified in this paper, two actual and one hypothetical: (1) the lack of clarity and agreement about what critical thinking is, (2) current teaching practice, and …

Argumentation Analysis Presentation: Evaluating Rhetoric-In-Action, Evelyn Plummer

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Via a small group project format, students conduct a close analysis of a persuasive message (a speech, an editorial, a position statement, etc.) Referring to models of argumentation (e.g. Toulmin [1958], Eemeren & Grootendorst [2004] , Rieke, Sillars, & Peterson [2012]), the team members work cooperatively to examine the communicator’s rhetorical choices in structuring claims, selecting data, and establishing warrants. After assessing the effectiveness of the message, each team presents its findings to the class.

This activity accomplishes several additional learning objectives, including: collaborative learning, critical analysis, applied communication, reinforcement of classic rhetorical canons and/or Aristotelian forms of artistic proof, …

The Apprenticeship Of Laurell K. Hamilton: How Aspiring Writers Learn To Write, Chelsea Ann Pierce

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

How do aspiring writers learn to write? Laurell K. Hamilton’s blog records and presents her thorough apprenticeship to readers. This thesis is a case study of the writing process that she documents on her blog. The results reflect aspects of composition theory including formula deviation, character persona construction, audience function and awareness, diverse research possibilities, revision and motivation strategies, digital literacy and technology acquisition, and the blog as a genre. Hamilton also develops and contributes her own writing process theories. The study reveals that both aspiring and professional writers both adhere to common established composition theories and create their own …

Contentious Conversations, Missing Voices: The Ongoing Debate About Style, Megan Yates Grizzle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As I began to investigate the concept of style in Composition curriculums, I quickly realized two things: style is difficult to define, and student input about style is virtually absent from the previous scholarship on style theory and pedagogy. This project, therefore, does not seek to end the debate about style. It seeks to do exactly the opposite. I want to extend the ongoing conversation about style even further, this time to include student voices. My project seeks to triangulate discussions about style to include voices from scholars, practitioners, and students. Students are too often an afterthought, receiving instruction based …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Strategic Communication In The Amalga Barrens Wetlands Controversy, Laura Vernon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Laura Vernon conducts a study to discover how, against the odds, the Bridgerland Audubon Society (BAS), located in Cache Valley, Utah, influenced a change in public policy regarding the Amalga Barrens reservoir proposal. In 1991, the state of Utah proposed developing the Bear River in northern Utah and constructing an off-stream storage facility (a reservoir) on the wetlands known as the Barrens near the town of Amalga. The Barrens served as a bird habitat for migrating shorebirds and waterfowl. In the late 1990s, BAS led a grassroots effort to remove the Barrens as a proposed site from the Bear River …

I Think I Can, I Think I Can: Positive Education In The Writing Classroom, Olivia Marie Hoff

Culminating Projects in English

Self-efficacy research shows students who have strong beliefs about their abilities experience higher achievement and one of the most significant sources of these beliefs is the feedback people receive about their performances. Composition research indicates teachers provide feedback for various reasons, but the most significant motivation is to help students improve as writers. Although research suggests the best way to help students improve is by providing positive feedback and encouragement, many teachers continue to focus their responses on correction and errors. Because the field of positive psychology is mainly concerned with what goes right in life, research in this field …

Pietro Bembo’S Bias: Patronage, History, And The Italic Wars, Zachary M. Lizee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the Italic Wars, the Italian peninsula experienced foreign invasions and internal discord between rivaling duchies and city-states. Florence and Venice both faced internal and external discord due to the constant wars and political in fighting. Venetian Pietro Bembo wrote historical accounts of this period during the Renaissance. His contemporaries, Marino Sanudo, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Francesco Guicciardini, also wrote historical accounts of this time. My research spotlights Bembo’s history of the Venetian Republic. This history was written in a supposedly objective fashion, yet, scholarship shows that historical writing from this time contained bias. I focused on Bembo because there is …

The King’S Table: A Semiotic Analysis Of A Medieval Noble Banquet, Robert Raymond Shaffer

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores an expanded definition of the words profile and profiling in order to demonstrate how a person or people construct images of themselves in order to join with, mold, and position themselves over other people or groups. For the purposes of this thesis, profiles are manifested in the form of physical events or tangible artifacts and are composed to represent, define, and impose the character of the person presenting the profile. Specifically, I focus on an actual medieval banquet in honor of King Richard II hosted in London on September 23,1387.

I bring together semiotic theories common to …

The Readability Of Historical And Modern Writing, Sophia Chong

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This research explores the difference in readability of historical and modern writing. The goal of this project is to determine if modern academic rhetoric is easier to comprehend than a historical primary source about the same topic. This has been done using a variety of quantitative methods widely used to analyze the accessibility of writings to compare sections of “The Confederate Reader” by Richard B. Harwell. Upon examination, it can be seen that despite the widely perceived convenience in comprehending modern writing that in fact, a primary Civil War period source is more readable than its current day academic counterpart.