Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Words, Pictures, And The “Nonlistening Space”: Visual Design And Popular Music As Forms Of Performance In First-Year Writing, Maria Lynn Soriano

2019 Faculty Bibliography

The chapter focuses on the importance of teaching visual rhetoric by examining a multimodal first-year writing course unit that asks students to create concert posters for their favorite bands or musical artists. In addition, students produce explanatory essays that translate their creation process into words, representing their imaginations on paper. Soriano discusses the ways that this unit has improved and enriched the writing of many of her students, including poster examples and supplemental materials for instructors who might want to adopt this assignment and challenge their students to invade their own “nonlistening spaces.”

Guilty Until Proven Innocent (2019-2020), Jacob Anderson

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this student example, Robinson addresses wrongful convictions, falsified evidence, and other major problems in the American justice system. Relying heavily on source material, Robinson confronts systemic problems by detailing the work of a particular nonprofit organization and highlighting the evidence for the necessity of that organization.

Wallace And Cole: Perception (2019-2020), Jodi Lang

CPN 101: Remix

In this remix as a “reframe” or reframing, the student annotated her own essay as if she was completing an analysis anchor assignment on someone else’s essay. This remixes shows how the student’s thought process changes through creating a layer of self or meta-analysis for what was once considered a “finished” essay on the topic of perception.

No One To Blame But Ourselves (2019-2020), Shelby Soule

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

This example of a research inquiry involves moving through various historical developments and statistics related to climate change (such as rising global temperatures, sea levels, ice sheets, and carbon dioxide emissions) in order to then contextualize global efforts to reduce climate change damage, such as the Paris Agreement. Throughout the research inquiry Soule uses an objective stance in presenting findings and developments ranging from the 1700s to present times, and supporting a conclusion that global devastation may be as close as 2100.

Perception And Entropy (2019-2020), Matt Gustafson

CPN 101: Remix

In this remix as a “reframe” or reframing, the student annotated his own essay as if he was completing an analysis anchor assignment on someone else’s essay. This remixes shows how the student’s thought process changes through creating a layer of self or meta-analysis for what was once considered a “finished” essay on perception and entropy.

Are Vaccines The Key To Alzheimer’S Treatment? (2019-2020), Myia Tyler

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this research inquiry, Tyler uses a metacognitive style of reflection walking the reader through her personal connections to topic selection and research process before presenting what she discovered in medical journal articles on the topic of using vaccines for Alzheimer’s treatment and prevention. In closely reviewing journal articles and their findings, Tyler is able to make comments about the challenges of developing a vaccine appropriate to humans (as opposed to the mice trials she reads about,) and the complexity of high failure rates in the past. Finally, Tyler comments on the financial issues involved in this treatment plan and …

Accusative Voice In Sarah Resnick’S “H.” (2019-2020), Taylor Esposito

Analysis

In this analysis example, Esposito conducts a close reading on the structure and grammatical choice to use the accusative voice (addressing “you”) within an essay by Sarah Resnick. Esposito discusses how Resnick’s choices are effective in reaching the reader on the difficult subject of addiction.

Why Is Truth And Reason Rejected? (2019-2020), Dina Hourigan

Analysis

In this student example we can see the moves of the analysis anchor assignment as Hourigan analyzes a concept as her object—reason, knowledge, or objectivity. Her analysis pays particular attention to the context of this object within a contemporary era where reason or objectivity may have different rhetorical value.

Government Funding For The Arts (2019-2020), Michael Kravchenko

Argument

In this example of an argument, Kravchenko makes the case for the need for continued funding for arts education. He points out the benefits of a funded arts education as increasing creativity, child development, and future career opportunities.

Housing First To Address Homelessness (2019-2020), Caitlyn Gonzalez

Argument

In this student example we can see a clear stance is taken by Gonzales as she argues that vacant homes should be used to house the homeless based on a “Housing First” program model. Her argument draws on examples, narrative, and statistics to persuade the reader as to why this model of government and not-for-profit intervention would help homeless individuals and families recover financial and social stability.

Transitions And New Beginnings (2019-2020), Lauren Toy

Critical Evaluation

n her critical evaluation, Toy focuses on the progress she has made in developing her writing process as a college-level writer. Rather than relying solely on personal experience, Toy balances her essay with an analysis of her own experiences and first-person perspective and the use of several sources on writing and the writing process, including the textbook They Say/I Say. She uses her sources overall to support the claims and observations that she is bringing to her own writing, while she is talking about having learned that writing skill.

My Journey Through Writing (2019-2020), Nicholas Delillo

Critical Evaluation

In this student example of a critical evaluation we can see how DeLillo makes claims about how his writing works based on citing from his essays within CPN 100, as well as citing from instructor comments and peer review feedback. By using his own writing and feedback he received as “texts,” DeLillo’s critical evaluation offers an example of critical evaluation in the form of an analysis, where the object of study is his own writing in CPN 100.

Ua12/2/28 Forensics Team, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the forensics / debate team.

"All Truly Great Thoughts Are Conceived While Walking": Academic Inclusion Through Multimodal Walkabouts, Cheryl Hogue Smith

Publications and Research

This article explores the value of including creative assignments in the composition class-room. Specifically, it demonstrates how a multimodal assignment can help struggling students develop the confidence to succeed on creative assignments and on subsequent more traditional academic assignments.

Tracing "Fake News:" The Printing Press, Social Media, And Politics, Aine Doyle

The Criterion

During the 2016 presidential election, “fake news” became a hot topic that shattered the American public’s trust of traditional news outlets and creating even deeper rifts between the two major political parties. Although the election made the American public acutely aware of “fake news”, the practice of appropriating images and quotations and manipulating information to influence public opinion can be traced back to the beginnings of the printing press. In this essay, I discuss how the phenomena of the printing press sets a precedent for other literacy tools—including social media—in how government and religious institutions used it to assert hold …

Social Media And Communication Centers: An Introduction, Janine Morris, Whitney S. Lehmann, Kevin Dvorak

Communication, Media, and Arts Faculty Articles

While many communication centers actively use social media to engage with different publics, there is a need for scholarship addressing how centers can best use social media to enhance student professional development, cross-campus connections, branding, and center visibility. This introduction to the CCJ special section on social media and communication centers offers a rationale for centers’ strategic incorporation of social media platforms. In particular, we discuss the importance of strategic branding, engaging different publics, and using social media to enhance consultant professional development as key features of social media use by communication center professionals.

"Fuck Tha Police": The Poetry And Politics Of N.W.A., Sandra Young

English Faculty Publications

No one withdrew after syllabus day. In the semester I piloted a first-year seminar course, the “Rhetoric of Protest Songs,” on the first day of class, I introduced the topic of the class and myself. However, before I gave students the syllabi, I confessed that I knew little about music. I told them I Googled and YouTubed, and read our text to gain knowledge about protest songs. I told them the “Rhetoric of Protest Songs” was a writing class, and rhetoric means persuasion. “In this class, you’ll write academic essays about protest songs. And we’ll listen to some music.”

My …

Writing For The Humanities And Arts, Shamecca A. Harris

Open Educational Resources

This dynamic English Composition course asks students to both create and engage with texts, in a variety of forms, that demonstrate how culture and personal experience inform a writer’s work. In this class, students will read and write voraciously about social, political, economic and cultural issues that influence their lived experiences and use the conventions of multiple genres to both reflect and respond to the times in which they live. Moreover, they will also consciously consider what it means to write academically at the college level through regular self-reflection and revision. In doing so, students will strengthen their rhetorical knowledge …

Standing Up Comedy: Analyzing Rhetorical Approaches To Identity In Stand-Up Comedy, Christopher Grabert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis addresses contemporary conversations about stand-up comedy and the art-form's capacity for facilitating complex rhetorical decision-making. I examine how stand-up comedians have positioned themselves on-stage through choices pertaining revealing personal behaviors, personas, and beliefs in public settings. Ultimately, I argue that the art of stand-up does not require truth-telling on-stage, and that there exists an implicit contract between performers and audiences which details comedians' license to share falsehoods, exaggerations, and embellishments on-stage without the repercussions that accompany these actions in other discourse settings. Finally, I evaluate how comics have handled this rhetorical "license," with some performers delivering easily identifiable …

Teaching Visual Literacies: The Case Of The Great American Dust Bowl, Mary F. Rice, Ashley K. Dallacqua

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Teachers and students require a range of tools to engage with visual texts. Using The Great American Dust Bowlby Don Brown (2013) as an exemplar text, we outline four conceptions of visual literacy: rhetorical, instructional, industrial and visuo-spatial and discuss their use in our literacy education practice. In addition, we provide a brief model of a second text, The Arrival (Tan, 2013) and a list of suggested texts for students at different levels (elementary, middle, and high school). We argue that these tools have the potential to deepen conceptions of visual literacies and empower teachers and students to understand …