Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Corporate Monster, Chelsea Adamczyk

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Mara Brokowski never wanted to be an agent of the apocalypse. Before the end of the world, she was her bank's Primary Compliance officer. Everything changes after she finds something strange and nefarious in her bank's files. In this twisted world, she must learn to overcome a crippling drug habit, learn to trust herself and others, and navigate a strange world of conspiracy, celebrity mutants, and evil plastic surgeons. Along with the help from an underground opposition group, Mara just might learn to defeat the...

CORPORATE MONSTER.

Teaching The Sun As Simile: Bringing Nature Into Language Arts Middle School Classrooms, Stormy Kage

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Teaching the Sun as Simile is an essay that explores an interdisciplinary approach to teaching middle school English Language Arts (ELA) by infusing nature and environmental studies. This essay defines emerging concepts of new literacy studies and eco-criticism, literacy, and composition as it relates to ELA pedagogy. Also, it provides an explanation for the importance and relevance of using nature to develop an ecosystem of better readers, writers and communicators in middle school general ed and special ed classrooms.

The Divine Double Voice: How Female Christian Rhetors Found Rhetorical Agency Through The Voice Of God, Cara Ryfun

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This piece discusses the ways in which three specific Christian female rhetors--Teresa de Avila, Frances Willard, and Maria W. Stewart--utilized the voice of God through biblical scriptures and divine revelations in order to empower themselves. Through the voice of God, these women found agency for their own beliefs and messages, and utilized a variety of rhetorical maneuvers in order to share their messages and quietly subvert patriarchal constructs within the church. These women found agency for their feminist messages within their Christian patriarchal constructs, and they set precedents for Christian feminist rhetors to follow.

Text By Mus, Mustafa Abubaker

Graduate Scholarly Works

This is why I have created a Twitter bot to generate interactive thread-based creative writing in the form of short stories called Text By Mus as my interactive media project in the graduate level course Web Content Development: Writing for Interactive Media PRWR 6850 instructed by Dr. Sergio Figueiredo. The account features “choose your own adventure” stories written in the literary fiction style. I would like to use the Twitter bot to combat the mass-market production of what is called literature in lieu of digital fiction being just as good as classical, all-time great fiction. This project presents a software …

Rosa: Interactive Active Graphic Narrative As A Tool For Teaching About Human Trafficking, Jennifer Jackson

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Rosa is a Choose Your Own Adventure graphic novel-style story on the topic of human trafficking for young adults to interact with on the web. I chose to create this project in an attempt to help fill the gap in youth education in the area of human trafficking.

The Support Needed For Spouses Of Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) Survivors: An Exploration Into Resources And Reference Materials, Brigitte Espinet

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is, indeed, an equal opportunity perpetrator. Of the millions of Americans who sustain a TBI each year, at least 230,000 people are hospitalized and survive, and more than 80,000 to 90,000 people experience the onset of long-term disability (“Report to Congress”). However, it would appear that the reference materials and resources available to those needing life guidance post-TBI are not at all commensurate with the incidence of its occurrence. More specifically, it seems the population most overlooked within the world of those affected by TBI is the partners of adult TBI victims.

Mezze: A Short Story Collection-In-Progress, Leata Thomas

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

"Mezze" is a middle-eastern custom similar to "tea" in the United Kingdom or "happy hour" in the United States. A variety of little foods for snacking at the end of the day. My Capstone offers a variety of short stories for one's reading pleasure.What I like about fiction writing is the guilt free, guileless freedom to tell a little lie and then grow it into a really big one! My sole purpose as a fiction is to entertain. the reader may smile or chuckle. I certainly hope that one's heart will be lighter and that one will feel a bit …

Dee: A Feature Length Drama, Laura Angelyn Mccarter

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

“DEE” is a feature length drama about a young addict who pursues a career in music in an attempt to keep her brother’s memory alive after his untimely death tears her family apart. The story explores how the characters deal with drug abuse, loss, broken families, toxic relationships, and pursuing one’s dreams. The film will feature original indie rock music for several of the characters who write and perform their own songs. It’s A Star is Born meets Beautiful Boy.

Reset, Victoria M. Banks

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Reset is a indie, science fiction, adventure game set in a near future where patients can choose to have an optional and controversial procedure called a “reset surgery.” The operation wipes patients’ memories, so they can forget their past and become a new person with a fresh start in life. However, when the protagonist, Rana, experiences headaches accompanied by flashbacks of her pasts, she becomes obsessed with finding out who she was and why she decided to erase her history. The player must help Rana recover her memories, piece them together to solve the mystery, and make choices that will …

The Rhetoric Of Substance Use Disorder, Morgan Carter

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A critical discourse analysis of the marginalizing language present in the field of rhetoric and composition and cultural studies around those with substance use disorder.

Recovering Grace: How One Man's Religious Movement Turned Into A Homeschool Cult, Kathryn Knight Harper

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

It turned out that the rules about Cabbage Patch kids and Troll dolls weren’t the only things that would leave lasting impressions on ATI students. This curriculum, as I was finding out, was more than just restrictions on toys and media consumption. ATI was the homeschooling program, but IBLP had rules and principles that touched absolutely every area of life. The homeschooling and seminar materials, all written by Gothard and honed over fifty years, were treated as the law by people in both of his organizations. There wasn’t room for debate, and there wasn’t room for dissention. Those who did …

The Talus, Carol Roddenberry

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Falling from a high place into an unknown abyss of strange characters and even stranger events takes readers far further than Humpty Dumpty and into a cats-cradle of mystery and humor. Jonah Tinderwunkel, the protagonist, mistakenly cast a curse upon himself at the age of fourteen. Now, twenty-eight years later he is a high-tech loner and loser who finds himself seeking help after a great fall. With a cracked cranium and smashed ankle (talus), he stumbles into a small Florida town off the beaten track—home to a mix of retired circus workers. As he recedes into a coma, his fate …

Margin Matters: How To Live On A Simple Budget And Crush Debt Forever, Jason Brown

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

According to NerdWallet, 75 percent of Americans do not live off a budget and half of them cannot produce $400 in an emergency. But how much you make isn’t the main concern—it’s your margin that matters most. This capstone, which includes several chapters from the book Margin Matters: How to Live on a Simple Budget and Crush Debt Forever, provides practical strategies for creating and sticking to a simple budget, eliminating debt permanently, and managing expenses to create the most margin at any income level. It describes how the author erased nearly $75,000 of debt in just under three …

Media Guide And Strategic Plan, Ella Greer

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

An MAPW candidate composes a strategic plan and media guide for a local government office.

Reflecting On And Shattering My White Lens: A Critical Autoethnography On My Experience As A White Editor Working With Authors Of Color, Kelsey Medlin

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This critical autoethnography aims to reveal how the cultural biases of a white majority industry impact the stories they select for acquisition and how they are edited. As an editor, I came to this topic from my personal desire to see if my own whiteness affects the way I view writers of color, their stories, and the audience that the companies market to. Thus, the purpose of this project is to explore the current conversations on the topic of diversity within the publishing industry and whether the conversation is making a connection between the lack of diversity in the workforce …

Life: Told By Death, Shannan Rivera

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Life: Told by Death is the story of Sam, a reluctant reaper of souls who isn’t cut out for his fate. This novel follows him from his unwitting entrance into the life of a reaper to his struggle with his new existence and all the way through to his eventual escape into the afterlife.

Absinthe Makes The Heart Grow Darker, Jennifer Sarra

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This creative thesis consists of the first seven chapters of the novel, Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Darker. Set in two time periods, 2017 and 1849, the plot centers around a newly renovated castle hotel in County Cork, Ireland. Newlyweds, Alicia and Greg Silvan discover a bottle of absinthe that is Spanish in origin. Alicia is haunted by the ghost of former owner, Keira O’Shea, as well as the disappearance of her father in hurricane Katrina. Alicia finds Keira’s handwritten journal and begins to read about Keira’s life and love and loss at the end of the Great Irish …

The Edugametional Podcast Episode 1: Souls Games And Information Literacy, Brian Zabell

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Abstract:

This Capstone project includes a 53 minute podcast audio file and a reflective memo detailing what sparked my interest in the topic along the journey I went through to get to where I ended up to create the podcast.

The podcast is developed the first podcast of a series about using peer-reviewed research articles to argue for educational gaming in the classroom, the merits of finding scientific and cultural literacies in educational gaming, understanding the value of why certain video game mechanics work and why, and how video games in general can retain educational value to a player.

This …

Carol And The Ugly Sisters: A Play In Three Acts, Judith Jones

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Carol and the Ugly Sisters, reflects the trajectory of two teenage African American girls growing up in 1960s Harlem. They met when Anita was 16, and Carol was 17. Anita, the protagonist, is from a lower middle-class family, and goes on to graduate Columbia University. Carol, her friend, dropped out of middle school, and is an unwed mother of three children, when she meets Anita. She remains mentally closed in a lower socio-economic mindset for the remainder of her life, and dies of the same alcoholism that killed her parents.

The Woods Of Wander, Stephanie Dinizio

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

The Woods of Wander is a children's novel about a young fox with a disability. The fox learns about mystical eggs that may heal him, and goes on a journey to find them. However, when he finds the eggs, the fox sees that healing is different than he expected.

Wonders For The Dead, Sarah Cook

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone project presents the first five chapters of a novel entitled Wonders for the Dead, which follows the lives of two sets of brothers whose lives intersect in an unexpected way. Ep Fairfax and his brother Francis are estranged, but when Ep finds himself in trouble and on the run he relies on Francis for help. Tom Mersy is a dangerous man, and when his brother Isaac is killed, Tom decides that Ep is to blame. He sets out to find Ep and have his revenge, but along the way both men learn more about themselves and the …

Highway 11: A Memoir, Judy Benowitz

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

When my sister, Valerie, committed suicide, I looked back to the choices we made and wrote this book. Highway 11 is the title of my 60,000 word memoir. I grew up on that swath of road between Monroe and Winder, Georgia. It was a whiskey soaked, Southern Baptist upbringing, in a blue collar family. I moved away, as soon as I bought a car, while Valerie got pregnant in high school and lived in Monroe all her life with her husband and two children.

My first stop was Atlanta, in 1969, for the “Age of Aquarius,” where I was a …

Patient Zero, Crystal Ramos

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A screenplay, "Patient Zero" is about Lillian contracting a zombie-like virus and the efforts of two people who love her, Jenna and Bill, to save her. The movie explores the binary opposites of heterosexual and homosexual love and how Jenna and Bill show their love for Lillian. In addition the impact of sexual abuse and rape are shown and the zombie transformation works as a metaphor for sexual abuse.

The Creative Voice--Dialogue Between Writer And Editor: A Portfolio, Valerie M. Mathews

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

An author's voice does not venture into the wild west alone; it rides with a full posse. On the surface of a published piece of work, the author appears to be the lone genius; yet, underneath in multilayers of revisions and conversations that carry an author's voice over the rooftops of the world, voice is an intimate communal affair. As an editor, I view co-creation as embodying the push-and-pull relationship that forms between writer and reader, including the editor. A good editor pulls out the best sound from the author even when the manuscript is a wild, caterwauling animal. An …

Secrets On Morgan Hill: A Story Of An Unlikely Friendship Amid An Apartheid South, Camille Kleidysz-Ferreira

Master of Arts in American Studies Capstones

Introduction

The Burden of History and Fiction

“How much of the burden of history can fiction bear?” – Margaret Walker

Comprehensive historical research can often become the inspiration for art. The greatest pieces of historical fiction, are a result of years of historic scholarship before the creation of a compelling historical narrative or fiction piece. Through my two-year ethnographic study and collection of oral histories of the black community, surrounding the historic Bethel A.M.E. church in Acworth, Georgia, I was told a story about a friendship between two little girls who remained friends until the end of their lives. What …

Doorway To The Deep: Memoirs Of Enduring Endometriosis And Embracing Life After Loss, Carma Peña

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

No one is spared grief. Yet while it is universal in nature, it is painfully specific in experience. Many people describe grief in terms of water, and often refer to it as coming in waves, while others have drifted so far from the proverbial shore that they are drowning in it. Doorway to the Deep explores this concept through personal reflections and private diary and journal entries.

The story commences on December 17, 1993 with my first diary entry when I was eleven years old. After enduring many years of endometriosis, the story climaxes on May 12, 2014 with my …

Swamp Bandit: The Legend Of John Ashley And Florida's Notorious Ashley Gang, Constance M. B. Briggs

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone presents the first five chapters of an historical novel about the life and legend of John Ashley and the group of men who make up his alleged criminal gang and reign in south Florida from 1911 to 1924. Considered the last frontier of the United States, Florida during this time is raw, untamed, and just beginning to be drained for land reclamation. Ashley makes local as well as national headlines, several of which are quoted in this story. Known as a “crack-shot” with a gun, he becomes a folk-hero to the local “Crackers,” native Floridians who keep from …

Short Works: Things Gone By, Novel: Creatives, Elizabeth B. Visscher

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

The theme of each short work will portray three life-changing intersections: The first short work will follow a man named, Early Easter, an elderly man struggling with the decision to let loss and age give way to bitterness or accept the ever-changing world and find companionship in Ayotunde, a fourteen-year-old boy. The second work will portray the conflicting paths of Idella, a newly-divorced mother, and Grace, her daughter, who is struggling to navigate this change in her mother’s life; these woman learn that relationships are as deeply rooted as ivy and even harder to upheave, as they toil to rip …

Editing In America, Don W. Fruman

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A survey and discussion of modern copy editors that attempts to provide perspective on their role in the communications and publishing industry. This capstone compares past research perspectives on copy editors with new survey responses to create a modern context for professional copy editors, discussing their skills, work environment, outlook, and professional role. This research also discusses the influence of evolving technologies on the role of copy editors and their perspectives.

If You Don’T Want To Talk About Food, Don’T Sit Next To Me, Judith L. Polk

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

If You Don’t Want to Talk About Food, Don’t Sit Next to Me has as its main characters the same qualities taken from the new philosophy of Le Cordon Bleu: “Aspire, Discover, Flourish, Delight, and Thrive,” and the memories made while a full-time student.