Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Digital Rhetoric Of Cosmopolitanism: A Case Study Of Thai Students At Michigan Technological University, Aranya Srijongjai

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation lies at the intersection of social sciences and humanities. It aims to examine digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism of people from a marginalized culture as situated in the context of a transnational experience. I view that this rhetoric encompasses digital practices of cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitan repertoire, a set of skills or strategies used in communication via social media in everyday life. I also argue that this rhetoric is connected to other elements in its broader social and cultural networks.

To illustrate these ideas, a case study of Thai students at Michigan Technological University in the United States is conducted …

The Undergraduate 2019, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

Disruption, Remix, And Mediation: Analyzing "Bot" Algorithm Case Studies To Better Understand Rhetorical Agency In The Digital Age, Aaron Geiger

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Algorithms are ubiquitous components of digital age rhetoric and communication. Although they are integrated within our daily online functions, shaping our discourse and interactions with one another and with other algorithms, little is known how they shape rhetorical agency. Most of our online communication occurs through social media on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and we rely on social spaces like Wikipedia for updated information that is shaped by social constructs. We presume that since we program algorithms, their communicating functions mimic human discourse and can be shaped similarly.

However, a rich text analysis of three different case studies …

Spectrum 2019, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

“I Didn’T Want To Make Them Feel Wrong In Any Way”: Preservice Teachers Craft Digital Feedback On Sociopolitical Perspectives In Student Texts, James S. Chisholm, Alison Heron-Hruby, Andrea R. Olinger

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This qualitative multicase analysis investigated the role of “educational niceness” and “neutrality” (e.g., Baptiste, 2008; Bissonnette, 2016) in preservice English teacher feedback on sociopolitical issues in student writing. As part of the field experiences for several ELA methods courses at two universities, one urban and one rural, the teacher-researchers used Google Docs and other technologies (e.g., screencasts and Google Community) to connect preservice teachers (PSTs) with high school writers at a geographical distance so that urban-situated PSTs could mentor rural-situated writers and vice versa. Five methods courses over two semesters served as cases, and 12 PSTs from those courses participated …

Youtube’S Terms Of Service: Posthumanism, Algorithms, And Professional Writing, Sarah Bresnahan

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis aims to examine YouTube’s Terms of Service as it applies to content creators (known as YouTubers) who use the platform as a means of financial gain and how YouTube’s demonetization policy via an algorithm is negatively affecting them. I conducted a case study featuring one creator, Michelle Guido, and attempted to determine why some of her content is demonetized when it fulfills YouTube’s content standards for monetization. This study is meant as an examination through the lens of Dr. N. Katherine Hayles’s theory of posthumanism as stated in her book, How We Became Posthuman, and will offer insight …

From Tony Soprano To Donald Trump: Situating The Rhetoric Of The 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign In The Antihero Genre, Harry Bodell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In the wake of Donald Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, scholars and political pundits alike were left scrambling to understand what had occurred. While there is no single explanation for this unexpected turn of events, the present study argues that an overlooked and central aspect of Trump’s appeal was foreshadowed by the increased prominence of antihero protagonists in American media, particularly exemplified by the recent “Golden Age” of television wherein television series like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Mad Men and Dexter found critical and popular success by building compelling narratives around morally flawed …

Visual Rhetoric In Comics: The Rhetoric Of Sexual Assault In The Wake Of Mattress Girl, Brianna Marie Burke

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the visual rhetoric of sexual assault through the unique medium of web-based comics composed by noncommercial artists. The focus was on features compiled from Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen’s Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, as well as one related to representation of those involved in sexual assault: abusers and survivors, art style, act and gaze, size of frame and social distance, horizontal angle, and vertical angle.

This examination reveals four things about the rhetoric of sexual assault and consent in these comics. First, the comics are used as documentary-like, …

The Hero Never Leaves The Tavern: Complicating Narrative In Dungeons & Dragons, Christopher Nelson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis aims to explore how Dungeons & Dragons complicates storytelling elements such as the role of narrator and audience and the structure of the hero’s journey. Using the Game Trailers Archive’s Tabletop Adventures series as a case study, I analyze over 50 hours of gameplay along with studying Dungeons & Dragons’s history and what influenced its creation and narrative style. This study is meant as an examination of the role of audience and narrator in Dungeons & Dragons and the game’s narrative elements using the lenses of Wayne Booth’s theories on the narrator as stated in his book The …

Examining Political Discourse On A Crafting Website, Laura Steibel O'Brien

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Websites dedicated to leisure pursuits are often used to connect with others over a shared interest. Some allow and encourage participants to engage in discussion. This project examined the ways that one crafting website, Ravelry, attempts to maintain civil discourse among its users, as opposed to the sometimes hostile and aggressive interactions found on other sites. The study looked at its discussion moderation practices as its users discussed politics and then analyzed how this related to community norms and practices of civil public discourse. Discourse analysis of words, phrases, and interactions within representative discussion threads suggest that while Ravelry’s guidelines …

Poison Ivy's Green Screen Debut: A Rhetorical Criticism On Erasing Identity On Screen, Jennifer Baney

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates the loss of power on screen for female comic book characters. Specifically, I investigate how scenes create narratives using heteronormativity and over-sexualization of female characters. The artifact of analysis included in this project is Batman and Robin (1997). This text focuses on Poison Ivy, including the background of the character before dissecting her role in the film. Turning to Sonja J. Foss (2009) and her feminist critique as a guide to understanding the implications of this research. Using feminist criticism, I argue that Poison Ivy was put in a lesser position, removed of her power, and was …

Delivery, Facilitas, And Copia : Job Market Preparation And The Revival Of The Fifth Canon., Joseph Turner

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay argues that English Studies departments should implement training programs in oral delivery strategies for graduate students seeking tenure track employment. A sample a 13-week training program, modeled on elements of classical rhetorical pedagogy, can help students develop and refine stills in oral delivery necessary for academic job interviews.

An Analysis Of Writer's Block: Causes, Characteristics, And Solutions, Sarah J. Ahmed

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research suggests that writer’s block can have multiple causes and occur at any part of the writing process (Boice, 1985; Flaherty, 2015; Kaufman & Kaufman, 2013). A survey was distributed to a sample of 146 writers with experience in a variety of fiction and nonfiction genres. Research objectives concerning the causes and characteristics of writer’s block were investigated using mixed-method, qualitative and quantitative analyses. Effective solutions provided by writers were presented and described. Blocks with physiological and motivational components were the most frequently reported in general and were found to interfere with the composition process more than the creative …

Emergence: Developing Worldview In The Environmental Humanities, Rhonda D. Davis

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

While the environment has long played a role in humanistic expressions and investigations, the need for a more integrated look at the human-environment relationship has become ever more pressing. More than ever, humanities scholars are recognizing their ability to mobilize critical and creative action to address pressing socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and socioenvironmental problems. Teaching and engaging students through interdisciplinary methods, connecting students and communities, developing a sense of agency and responsibility for planetary sustainability has become a visible focus in higher education. My study aimed to understand how an environmental humanities class affects, if at all, the way students construct worldview. …

“Because We Have Chosen A Life Of Peace”: A Quantitative And Qualitative Study Of Vegan Food Narratives, Silke H. Feltz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Restaurants, grocery stores, fast food chains, and companies all over the United States introduce the consumer to more vegan products, dishes, and services than ever before. The rise of veganism therefore offers a rhetorical platform that should be studied. This dissertation discusses the rhetoric of veganism by analyzing food narratives of vegans through a critical intersectional lens and consists of three research stages. The first research stage investigates the narratology of Glenn Scott Lacey’s documentary, Vegan: Everyday Stories(2016). In particular, this rhetorical analysis focuses on the evaluative belief system of vegan storytelling by applying narrative and ideological criticism. The …

"Where Is A Story Before It Becomes Words?": Understanding Queer Composition's Place In Writing Studies Through Lynda Barry's What It Is, James Franklin Mcclure

Online Theses and Dissertations

Queer Theory has maintained an unstable place in Writing Studies because of the ever-changing political and social uses and definitions of the term “queer” in contemporary western society. In this essay, I discuss how composition scholars must reinterpret their understanding of Queer Composition from a writing genre to a writing heuristic in order to stabilize queerness in Writing Studies. I show how the Queer Composition heuristic functions within a text by using Lynda Barry’s creative and pedagogical text What It Is as an example that iterates queerness as an accessible and inclusive practice for all writers.

Stylistic Imitation As An English-Teaching Technique : Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses To Training And Practice, Min Yi Liang

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This action research case study project examines stylistic imitation as an English-Teaching technique and includes (1) a review of literature about the history of stylistic imitation and current college composition practice, (2) an analysis of the close imitation journals which were written by senior English majors and minors by following the model paragraph from Katharine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (1965), and (3) writers’ comments and reflections on doing stylistic imitation. Stanley Fish (2005) argued: “[s]tudents can’t write clean English sentences because they are not being taught what sentences are” (as cited in Stodola, 2013, p. 57). Lacking …

Writing Intensive In The Major: Literature, Laura Quinn

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

The goal of this course is for students within the major of Literature to study the kind of academic writing that happens in the field through investigation of various scholarly journals, articles within those journals, the kinds of motivating questions authors in the field work from, rhetorical moves specific to the field, and the like. Students will begin by looking at and rhetorically analyzing published work so that they may consider what it means to actively participate in scholarly conversations through writing. This is a Composition course, so the content of the course uses Composition theory and practices as a …

"Whole-Brained" Engineering Education In Undergraduate Studies At The University Of Dayton, Kylie Moellering

Undergraduate Voices

This inquiry is a case study which explores, explicates, and summarizes the recent shift to “whole-brained” engineering education for undergraduate-level students at the University of Dayton. This case study is primarily structured around the experiences and insights of an interviewee, Dr. Ken Bloemer, who is the Director of the Visioneering Center at the University of Dayton. The Visioneering Center is principally focused on promoting the progress of engineering education at the university. Voices from scholarly literature pertaining to this vision and other undergraduate engineering curricula are then used to reinforce the interviewee’s views and give deeper insight into the various …

Undergraduate Voices, Volume 1 (2018): Addendum, Amir Kalan

Undergraduate Voices

Additional articles approved for publication in December 2018 in Volume 1.