Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Discourse Communities In The Digital Age: The Effects Of Streaming On Discourse Of Gaming Communities, Russell Beason

English Theses

This thesis applies of John Swales’ theory of discourse community (DC) to online streaming sites—a context that creates what this thesis defines as a streamed-discourse community—while examining the context of online streamed discussions, and why they are relevant to rhetorical barriers to digital community building within composition/rhetoric scholarship, especially discourse community research such as Swales' that considers how discourse within a group can create distinct types of communities and social activities.

Final Master's Portfolio, Quinn Mcadam

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio demonstrates exploration of technical communication through the research lenses of the automotive industry and the beauty industry, as well as through direct experience with both technical editing and technical writing. It exemplifies how technical communication contributes to the everyday lives of people worldwide, and how it can constantly be improved moving forward in everyday situations. With two research essays and two practical projects, this portfolio demonstrates the current climate of technical communication: a balance between academics and practitioners. In a time when technical communication is still new, there is much exploration to be done, and this collection of …

Ethos In Early Chinese Rhetoric: The Case Of “Heaven”, Yong-Kang Wei

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Though applicable in many Western historical-cultural settings, the Aristotelian model of ethos is not universal. As early Chinese rhetoric shows in the example of cheng-yan or “ethos of sincereness,” inspiring trust does not necessarily involve a process of character-based self-projection. In the Aristotelian model, the rhetor stands as a signifier of ethos, with an ideology of individualism privileged, whereas Chinese rhetoric assumes a collectivist model in which ethos belongs, not to an individual or a text, but rather to culture and cultural tradition. This essay will be concentrating on the concept of Heaven, central to the cultural and institutional systems …

"Don't Put An 'Or' Where God Puts An 'And'": Constitutive Rhetoric In Queer Appalachia., Brooke Elizabeth Boling

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachians who use the word “queer” to specifically refer to being gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and/or asexual, are regularly faced with negotiating how these parts of their identity can exist simultaneously, as many both within and without the region believe it is impossible to be Appalachian and queer at the same time. Despite rampant homophobia in the region and external narratives suggesting that queer Appalachians do not exist, these folkx have carved out spaces for themselves to assert their identities and create community and belonging through rhetorical actions. Many of these spaces are online, taking place through digital …

Metaphor And Emotiveness As Rhetorical Devices In Abbas’S Address To The Pope, Aysar Yaseen

Journal of the Arab American University مجلة الجامعة العربية الامريكية للبحوث

Managing any linguistic event means steering the situation towards serving one’s own purpose or goals via careful wording of one’s message. This is immensely achieved through using emotive words that address the receiver’s emotions rather than his/her intellect since managing linguistic occurrences is closely intertwined with subjectivity and emotiveness. In other words, language must be warm, intimate, and sentimental and addresses conscience to effect persuasion. Furthermore, Language is the carrier of image. For the image to be understood, two conditions must be met. First, image must be accessible, i.e. exists or can be imagined in the immediate context and culture. …

Communication In The Ruins: Walker Percy And The Art Of Symbolic Mediation, Justin Bonanno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes to explore the mediating function of the symbol through the work of Walker Percy. In the first chapter, I provide the necessary background for undertaking this project. First, I situate Percy in his historical moment and review key events in his life that helped to shape his philosophy of communication. Second, I sketch out some of the primary coordinates in Percy’s thought. Percy’s hermeneutic of the self requires an understanding of the difference between sign and symbol, dyadic and triadic events, environment and world, and immanence and transcendence. Third, I review some of the key intersections with …

Cancel Culture: Posthuman Hauntologies In Digital Rhetoric And The Latent Values Of Virtual Community Networks, Austin M. Hooks

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores how modern epideictic practices enact latent community values by analyzing modern call-out culture, a form of public shaming that aims to hold individuals responsible for perceived politically incorrect behavior via social media, and cancel culture, a boycott of such behavior and a variant of call-out culture. As a result, this thesis is mainly concerned with the capacity of words, iterated within the archive of social media, to haunt us—both culturally and informatically. Through hauntology, this study hopes to understand a modern discourse community that is bound by an epideictic framework that specializes in the deconstruction of the …

A Maker's Perspective Of Materiality: Observing Material Change Through Legacy Craftsmanship, Maker Intent, And Contemporary Manifestation, Adam Swift

Masters Theses

Simple handmade objects have important stories to tell about the hands that made them and the environments they pass through. This project observes the thinking, materials, and process involved in craft work through the lens of materiality. I wrestle with materiality by presenting a personal making project, in front of L.C. King Mfg. Co., a Tennessee workwear company that maintains century-old manufacturing practices and values. With the interactive – and interdisciplinary – perspective of cultural rhetoric as the guiding theoretical framework, this display of both freshly created (the leather bag project) and progressively experienced (the chore coat) material realities aims …

Doing Things With Arguments: Assertion, Persuasion, Performance, Blake D. Scott

OSSA Conference Archive

In “Three Perspectives on Argument,” Wenzel argued that scholars should orient their research around the well-known triad of rhetorical, dialectical, and logical perspectives on argument. Despite the success of Wenzel’s triad in orienting pluralistic research, he nonetheless maintained that an “eventual synthesis” of the three perspectives was both possible and desirable. In this paper I reconsider Wenzel’s idea by asking what might be preventing such a synthesis today. I argue that one obstacle to this is a common philosophical assumption about rhetoric that opposes assertion to persuasion, truth to effectiveness. Following Barbara Cassin, I challenge this assumption and consider how …

Should Logos Be Opposed To Ethos? Commentary On Adelino Cattani’S ‘Persuading And Convincing’, Marcin Koszowy

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Persuading And Convincing, Adelino Cattani

OSSA Conference Archive

I’ll propose a distinction based on historical, theoretical, and linguistic considerations between:

- two different ways of inducing a change of mind, that is persuading and convincing.

- two different ways of proving, that is rhetorical argumentation and logical-experimental demonstration.

There is a tendency to keep a distance from persuasion in favor of conviction. In everyday language, the difference between the two terms appears clear, and it is a distinction developed theoretically by many authors from Plato and Kant to Perelman. In particular:

1. Persuasion is centered chiefly on the speaker: it enhances one’s will and ability to modify …

Developing Critical Thinking With Rhetorical Pedagogy, Elizabeth Ismail

OSSA Conference Archive

The development of critical thinking skills is emphasized as a fundamental attribute of successful graduates (Ritchhart & Perkins, 2005; Willingham, 2008). Some critical thinking textbooks inform students to “see beyond the rhetoric to the core idea being stated” (Moore and Parker, 2009, p. 21); however, other scholars have begun to suggest that rhetoric is intrinsically interrelated to critical thinking and plays a pivotal role in everyday interactions (Saki, 2016). This paper explores the later.

Harmony In Diversity. On The (Possible) Existence Of ‘The Canadian School Of Argumentation’, Federico Puppo

OSSA Conference Archive

By looking at the birth and evolution of the informal logic movement, and by clarifying which kind of relations in a diversity we need in order to understand what “school” means, we would like to consider the hypothesis that there is something which could be called ‘the Canadian school of argumentation’ or, at least, of a Canadian tradition amongst those that make up the greater field of the study of argumentation.

Political Culture In The Cities Of The Northern Black Sea Region In The "Long Hellenistic Age", Emyr Dakin

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to examine the political culture of the Greek North Pontic cities of Olbia and Chersonesos through a rhetorical analysis of the honorary decrees passed by their respective ekklesiai during the Long Hellenistic Age (third century BCE until the mid-third century CE). The study seeks to achieve two main goals: to examine these decrees to understand the political framework of the two cities; and to understand the relationship between the elite recipients of the honors and the demos that awarded them. This investigation employs evidence from early fourth century BCE until the incorporation of the …

Friendship In The Digital Age: Implications From A Philosophy Of Communication Approach, Tiffany Petricini

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Friendship is a central relationship-style that grounds us. Much of the literature on the effects of technology on our relationships, especially friendship, has taken a skeptical approach. The notion of friendship is historically-situated, thus, it requires attention in each era and has prompted questions throughout human history. Our time is no exception. Changing cultures and redefinitions of basic human institutions have led us to our current moment, in which we are experiencing a loud and continuing debate on the effect of technology on our lives. Advancements in science have allowed us to understand our past and present in new ways. …

The Effects Of Service-Learning On Writing And Rhetorical Development, Christopher Iverson

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores the effects of community engagement on college writers years after completing first-year composition courses with service-learning partnerships. Since the 1990’s, scholarship has connected service-learning pedagogy and the gains that student writers stand to enjoy when writing for audiences beyond the classroom and purposes beyond the grade (Bacon, Deans, Wurr), while others have warned of the consequences of hastily planned service-learning partnerships (Mathieu, Cushman). These predictions and cautions have guided the larger conversation of community engagement in writing studies to include community-academy partnerships that involve students to varying degrees or not at all while guiding academic stakeholders in …

Exploring The Spaces In Between: A Theoretical And Phenomenological Examination Of The Construction Of Disability Identity And Culture, Alma Silver

Antonian Scholars Honors Program

Throughout my journey of growing up, I never questioned my innate tendency to reassure people that they could look beyond my disability to see the “real me.” As I gradually began to deconstruct the framework of my disability as a barrier that needs to be overlooked, and therefore more openly claim my identity as a disabled woman, I came to explore the nuances of disability identity and culture. To expand my understanding beyond the limits of my lived experience, I explored theoretical discourse and conducted a series of seventeen interviews with people who self-identified as members of the disability community. …

How We Talk About The Press, Erin C. Carroll

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 2017, the term “fake news” was so popular that it received the “Word of the Year” honor from the American Dialect Society. Since then, its popularity may have abated some, but its use persists. Most obviously, anti-press speakers weaponize the term fake news to undermine journalists and the press as an institution. Perhaps more surprisingly, however, the term is also in regular rotation among many who would seem to support a free and independent press, including scholars, teachers, and journalists themselves.

The continued and often-uncritical use of fake news should worry us. As thinkers across disciplines have recognized for …

Open Educational Resources In A Core A2 Pilot, Julie Sullivan

USF OER Faculty Grant

This report compiles student insight of particular Open Educational Resources (OER) incorporated into a Rhetoric and Language (R&L) course pilot. Using OER textbooks not only reduced costs for students, but also encouraged students to take ownership in the text assessment process. The views expressed by students through reading reflections, class discussions, and survey feedback created ample information for deciding whether particular texts or readings were a good fit for the course moving forward. While the final decisions around whether to include these texts in future courses, or in a textbook designed specifically for this upper division course, remain to be …

What’S In A Name? Exploring The Definitions Of 'Public' And 'Speaking', Joseph M. Valenzano Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

The purpose of this essay is more of an intellectual exercise than an attempt at a pragmatic redesign of the basic course. Essentially, I submit that we as a discipline have lost sight of what the phrase “public speaking” actually means and have erroneously and dangerously equated it with simply delivering formal presentations. When the term is broken down into its component parts of “public” and “speaking” it is understood as something much broader, and thus allows for the curricular flexibility forwarded by Hess (2012), West (2012), Valenzano (2013) and Wallace (2015), to name a few. In this essay, I …

The Politicization Of Water: Transboundary Water-Conflict In The Indian Subcontinent, Ananya Gupta

Honors Papers

The Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau birth ten of Asia’s most prominent rivers providing irrigation, energy, and drinking water to over two billion people across several countries today. Therefore, transboundary water sharing is a constant source of conflict for several South Asian countries that rely on rivers to support their primarily agrarian economies.

In recent years, climate change has drastically increased global temperatures. As a result, the Indian subcontinent has been plagued with extreme riverine flood and drought events.

Climate change-related events like riverine floods and drought, exacerbate the politicization of conflict between nations that share natural …

Challenging Public Rhetoric Justifying Immigrants As ‘Indecent', Aaron Martin, Lisette Lemerise, Riya Chhabra, Sudharshana P. Kanduri, Julia Beleshi

Honors Scholarly Publications

Elites employ various rhetorical strategies in public discourse, including on the topic of immigration. As such, those with influence rely on storytelling to shape views about the narratives related to immigrants as a minority out-group. This has significant consequences, particularly in areas of policy development. Policy shapers have isolated immigrant groups by creating certain ideologically derived criteria well beyond citizenship for them to eventually receive “full American” status. Further, such status first has required immigrants to unduly prove their “worthiness” as exceptional—like being extra hardworking and very law abiding. Our essay seeks to show how foundational rhetoric is often intentionally …

The Revealing Love Of God: A Systematic, Hermeneutic, And Phenomenological Approach To Thinking Well About The Love Of God, Daniel L. Nelson

CGU Theses & Dissertations

“The medium is the message:” theological reflections on the idea that God is love. I am proposing that the idea of the self-revelational nature of God’s being functions, among other ways, rhetorically, such that the content of revelation (God’s love) determines the rhetorical mode of its communication (giving orders, inviting, begging, etc.). The three aspects of rhetoric that Kenneth Burke emphasizes in A Rhetoric of Motives—the use of identification, that it is addressed and, as such, is convincing (persuasive)—are examined in terms of revelation. Chapter one seeks to clear the way for what is commonly understood as special revelation by …

Examining Place Meanings In The Social Media Of The U.S. National Park Service, Camille Marcotte

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

National parks are important ecological and cultural resources worldwide, and in the United States, many have begun to use social media to guide visitors’ experiences and to communicate about special qualities of place. But, how exactly are social media messages crafted, and how do they attempt to structure viewers’ ideas about national parks? To answer these questions, this study used rhetorical discourse analysis to examine a one-year sample of texts and images from Facebook posts drawn from three large U.S. national parks. Results of this study showed that parks use different stylistic devices and methods of persuasion to make claims …

President Trump’S Manipulation Of Digital Rhetoric To Maintain His Presidential Status During The 2020 Election, Elena Renee Gregory

Honors Theses and Capstones

Rhetoric is the driving force fueling every persuasive, informative speech or message relayed by an individual or institution. It has had a momentous influence and effect on our world history and the way that events of both positive and detrimental value have unfolded within the timeline of human existence. As society and our world have advanced, so have our discoveries and usage of technology. In order to assimilate to these advancements however, society has inevitably found new ways to integrate everyday actions with the technology that has been created. This unification has brought forth a new wave of technological platforms …

Planning For People In Communities And Outdoor Recreation Places: Fostering Community Cohesion, Shaping Place Meanings, And Exploring Imaginaries, Yumiko Jakobcic

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines people’s relationships to place and community. The papers are linked by three broad themes: 1) place meanings, 2) community connections to resource places, and 3) innovative qualitative research methodologies.

The first paper used ethnographic methods in a case study of Vermont’s Winooski Valley Park District to examine how regional park districts can strengthen community relationships. It explored how the district serves visitors and communities, stimulates community interactions and cohesion, and perceives the outcomes of these efforts. Results showed that regional park districts connect people with nature and with others across neighborhoods, communities, and regions. These unique places …