Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Arts and Humanities Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 17 of 17

Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Sisyphus Rolls On: Reframing Women's Ways Of “Making It” In Rhetoric And Composition, Kristin Bivens, Martha Mckay Canter, Kirsti Cole, Violet Dutcher, Morgan Gresham, Luisa Rodriguez-Connal, Eileen Schell Oct 2013

Sisyphus Rolls On: Reframing Women's Ways Of “Making It” In Rhetoric And Composition, Kristin Bivens, Martha Mckay Canter, Kirsti Cole, Violet Dutcher, Morgan Gresham, Luisa Rodriguez-Connal, Eileen Schell

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This is a multi-vocal, multi-institutional piece that examines ways women "make it" in rhetoric and composition. It is in the spirit of being more inclusive that we present our ideas about women's ways of making it in rhetoric and composition. This inclusiveness includes a written transcript of our audio narratives. Humbly, we present our work in this piece after four years of writing and revising in the work spaces we all know so well and offer several glimpses of the work women do as writing teachers. We honor all of the women who teach writing -- those who have made …


Writing For Social Action: Affect, Activism, And The Composition Classroom, Sarah Finn Sep 2013

Writing For Social Action: Affect, Activism, And The Composition Classroom, Sarah Finn

Open Access Dissertations

Due to the public turn in Composition and Rhetoric, many teachers look beyond the academy in order to give students a "real" writing experience for social change purposes. However, as Bruce Horner notes, this denigrates the real work that is done within the classroom. In this dissertation, then, I argue that we can find ingredients for writing for social action in our courses, and we can do so by studying activist students who are already writing for just change. Using a case study methodology, I learn from activist students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I find that these students' …


A New Field Of Dreams: A Study Of The Writing Major, T J Geiger Aug 2013

A New Field Of Dreams: A Study Of The Writing Major, T J Geiger

Writing Program – Dissertations

Within Writing Studies, the tension between pedagogy and theory, between teaching and disciplinary status receives much commentary. This dissertation explores that tension within the context of the undergraduate Writing major. I begin by reviewing scholarship about advanced composition, advanced Writing, and the Writing major. I read this literature in light of concerns about student subjectivity, authorship, and disciplinary participation. Through that reading, I explore the conflicted status of the student subject imagined within this literature. The subject I discern contains elements of what Susan Miller describes as the normative subject of composition as well as elements of a revised and …


The Apprenticeship Of Laurell K. Hamilton: How Aspiring Writers Learn To Write, Chelsea Ann Pierce Aug 2013

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 Aug 2013

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 …


Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Designing A High School Or Middle School Course (Or Unit) In Professional Writing, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema Jul 2013

Professional Writing In The English Classroom: Designing A High School Or Middle School Course (Or Unit) In Professional Writing, Jonathan Bush, Leah A. Zuidema

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

The article offers information on the development of professional writing course in English middle school or high school classroom. It mentions that a good syllabus not only provide answers to basic questions, but also to questions that Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins have pertained to as the essential questions. It notes that students learn from writing activities and assessments including how to write in genres, evaluate the settings of professional tools, and manage their writing processes.


I Think I Can, I Think I Can: Positive Education In The Writing Classroom, Olivia Marie Hoff May 2013

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 …


Emissaries Of Literacy: Refugee Studies And Transnational Composition, Michael T. Macdonald May 2013

Emissaries Of Literacy: Refugee Studies And Transnational Composition, Michael T. Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations

"Emissaries of Literacy: Refugee Studies and Transnational Composition" uses qualitative research in refugee communities and textual analysis of stories written by and about refugees to argue that the experiences of resettled refugees, as well as the experiences of the volunteers, aid workers, tutors, and teachers who work with them, do not fit neatly within composition's current paradigms for studying literacy in global contexts. Refugee identity and experience shows a complex link between literacy and citizenship which is complicated by the economic and geographic histories of linguistic imperialism. Refugee perspectives, and more precisely the challenges they pose, can help composition scholars …


Seven Strangers, Rhetorical Devices For Hospitality, Epiphany, And Repentance In The Media Flood, Jimmy Butts May 2013

Seven Strangers, Rhetorical Devices For Hospitality, Epiphany, And Repentance In The Media Flood, Jimmy Butts

All Dissertations

Beginning with the foundation that rhetorical devices are often inherently defamiliarizing, often to productive ends, this study explores the theories, ethics, and praxis behind defamiliarizing rhetorical tactics. Because of the cultural shift toward increasing novelty within 21st century media production, it is progressively difficult for the contemporary writer to speak into the boisterous public sphere, which in turn creates a growing need for uniquely unfamiliar modes of rhetorical intervention. Strangeness offers a lens for seeing deliberate stylistic choices within the information flood; additionally, it asks us to consider how we can compose for potentially disinterested audiences. The examination also suggests …


Reading And Religion: Reconciling Diverse Reading Patterns And The First Year Composition Classroom, Evelyn Baldwin May 2013

Reading And Religion: Reconciling Diverse Reading Patterns And The First Year Composition Classroom, Evelyn Baldwin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While tolerance is the supposed standard of the first-year composition classroom, the writing patterns and argumentation skills of self-identified Christian students often frustrate teachers and create classroom dissonance and interpersonal divergence. This work looks at what apologetic and devotional texts these students are reading before they enter the classroom and then analyzes these works to see how well their content aligns with Composition I reading and writing requirements. To do this, the study takes information from two very distinct groups: religious leaders of young adults and Composition I instructors. The study begins by surveying religious workers to identify the top …


Recitative: The Persuasive Tenor Of Jazz Culture In Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, And John Coltrane, Andrew Vogel Apr 2013

Recitative: The Persuasive Tenor Of Jazz Culture In Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, And John Coltrane, Andrew Vogel

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Jazz is more than music. Jazz is a culture defined by a progressive ethos encoded in sound. By putting the poetry and music of Langston Hughes, Billy Strayhorn, and John Coltrane into conversation, this essay demonstrates the versatility and vitality of jazz culture. However, jazz culture has come to be drowned out in America today, and so I argue for a return to the voices of jazz's past so that we can give a new ear to jazz artists working today. Such listening should be seen as a means to reinvigorate progressive values today and in the future.


Universal Design In First-Year Composition – Why Do We Need It, How Can We Do It?, Danielle Nielsen Jan 2013

Universal Design In First-Year Composition – Why Do We Need It, How Can We Do It?, Danielle Nielsen

Faculty & Staff Research and Creative Activity

Ensuring that all students can access information, demonstrate mastery, and feel comfortable in the classroom is important, yet first-year composition faculty may find reaching the diverse populations in their classrooms daunting. Learning styles, comfort levels with writing and English language skills, disabilities, and family life impact all students, leaving us to wonder how best to facilitate student success. This essay, in taking up the question of universal student success, explores Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the first-year composition classroom and its benefits to both students and teachers. I first define Universal Design for Learning and then attend briefly to …


Theoretical Communities Of Praxis: The University Writing Center A Cultural Contact Zone, Randall William Monty Jan 2013

Theoretical Communities Of Praxis: The University Writing Center A Cultural Contact Zone, Randall William Monty

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The fundamental purpose of Theoretical Communities of Praxis: The University Writing Center as Cultural Contact Zone is to investigate the situatedness of Writing Center Studies, defining it as an autonomous (sub)discipline and interdisciplinary contact zone within the larger discipline of Rhetoric and Composition. In order to meet this objective, a "Communities of Praxis" methodological and theoretical framework, based on scholarship of Critical Discourse Analysis, ecocomposition, and Contextualist Research Paradigm, is applied in the analysis of a variety of WCS discourses. In doing so, WCS is repositioned as a series of interrelated, triangulated contact zones that are based on collaborative interactions …


W.02 The Political Turn: Writing Democracy For The 21st Century, Brian Hendrickson Jan 2013

W.02 The Political Turn: Writing Democracy For The 21st Century, Brian Hendrickson

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The morning of the CCCC preconvention workshops feels a lot like the beginning of a marathon. The atmosphere is full of both excitement and apprehension as attendees slowly fill the seats around each table—a few seasoned veterans casual in their conversation and demeanor, as if the morning were just like any other, whereas others appear to be only half present, staring far off into space as if trying to focus on imagining what it will feel like to finally cross the finish line and not what it will take to get there. I arrived at this year’s “The Political Turn: …


Mapping Dissertation Genre Ecology, Kate Lisbeth Pantelides Jan 2013

Mapping Dissertation Genre Ecology, Kate Lisbeth Pantelides

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Though the pervasive rumor that the “traditional” dissertation persists because of the “I suffered, so they too should suffer” mentality — the professor revenge theory — students are often the ones eager to pin down writing genres so that they can master them. However, hopes to stabilize and thus capture the secret or equation of the dissertation genre are futile, since genres, like language, are alive: rhetorical, evolving, and flexible. Thus, to demonstrate the contemporary context of the dissertation genre, the conflicting perspectives of university stakeholders, the forces working on the genre to enact change, and the process by which …


An Open Source Composition Space: Redefining Invention For A New Technological Age, Carly Finseth Dec 2012

An Open Source Composition Space: Redefining Invention For A New Technological Age, Carly Finseth

Carly Finseth

This essay integrates composition theory with pedagogical practice to redefine what is traditionally viewed as the 'writing classroom.' Specifically, it explores how we can redefine rhetorical invention through the cultural foundations of open source communities. In "An Open Source Composition Space," writing is collaborative, authorship is negated by ideals of shared intellectual property, and students and teachers can learn from each other in a safe and supportive environment.


Veterans As Adult Learners In Composition Courses, Michelle Navarre Cleary, Kathryn Wozniak Dec 2012

Veterans As Adult Learners In Composition Courses, Michelle Navarre Cleary, Kathryn Wozniak

Michelle Navarre Cleary

Considering veterans in the context of research on adult and nontraditional students in college writing classes, this article proposes Malcolm Knowles’s six principles for adult learning as an asset-based heuristic for investigating how writing programs and writing teachers might build upon existing resources to support veteran students.