Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Deconstructing Trailheads: Six Frames For Wilderness And A Rhetorical Intervention For Ecology, Casey R. Schmitt

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This essay applies rhetorical analysis to the semantically loaded locations at trailheads, parks, and nature preserve entryways. Using the trailhead markers of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore as a field-based case study, I identify six common rhetorical frames in the trailhead -- location distinction, danger, sacrifice, stewardship, prescribed activity, and tactical disruption -- and discuss how each perpetuates a problematic everyday nature-culture divide. In analyzing the rhetorical functions of physical places, I advocate for embodied critical methods and revisions to the rhetorics of nature preserves and conservancies.

The original "webtext" can be viewed on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

Editors' Letter: Call For Solutions, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

No abstract provided.

Ignoring Ethics With Style: Writing Sentences For "Non U.S. Persons", Ryan Smith Madan

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Ignoring Ethics with Style: Writing Sentences for "Non U.S. Persons" argues for the importance of understanding the ethical dimensions of sentence writing. To illustrate, I cite the stylistic features of a recent public exchange about the legality of government surveillance between Director of Intelligence James Clapper and U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall. I also discuss my own experience teaching writing to college students in order to reflect on need for a new generation of writers to recognize the relationship between clarity and ethics.

Writing In The Moment: Social Media, Digital Identity, And Networked Publics, Jacob Babb

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This article examines the impact of social media on digital identity. Social media reaffirms the values of communities through the repetition and reflection of those communities. The article addresses different examples of social media usage, such as the recent Internet outrage regarding Cecil the Lion, to explore the complexities of developing and maintaining digital identities.

From Product Reviews To Political Commentary: Performances In Amazon.Com Reviews, Brenda M. Helmbrecht, Meredith A. Love

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Do you want products or politics? Or BOTH?!

By LoveHelm on May 1, 2016

If you’ve been searching for an article that combines rhetoric, politics, and shopping… this is it! The authors address the rhetorical and political nature of Amazon.com product reviews. More specifically, they focus on Amazon reviews circulating shortly after Mitt Romney talked about his “binders full of women” during the 2012 Presidential Campaign (who says that?!), and reviews written after Texas State Senator Wendy Davis filibustered for 11-hours in her sassy pink Mizuno running shoes in summer 2013 (I seriously want those shoes!). The authors argue that …

Inside Voices: Collaborative Writing In A Prison Environment, Alexandra J Cavallaro, Melissa K Forbes, Larry Barrett, Robert Garite, Chris Harrison, Reginald Jones, Igor Kazakovs, Otilio Rosas, Luis Saucedo, Tobias Thurman, Agustin Torres, Antonio Walker

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This article and accompanying audio files explore how notions of collaboration in the writing classroom are challenged and altered when that classroom is located in a medium-security prison. Based on a for-credit multimodal writing course co-taught by the lead authors, this text (itself a collaboration between the instructors and ten of our incarcerated students) unpacks the processes and practices through which communication is regulated by the institutional authority of the prison (collectively termed the Carceral Communication Framework, or CCF) and places them in conversation with the innovations demanded by the prison's technological constraints. Contending that collaboration in a prison setting …

Storytelling Failure In The Vale Of Leven: How A Bacterial Outbreak Became A Wicked Problem, Kyle P. Vealey

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the rhetorical work of a public inquiry investigation into an outbreak of Clostridium Difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland that resulted in 143 cases of infection and the tragic deaths of 34 patients. In light of these deaths and subsequent protests from local citizens, the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland launched a public inquiry in 2009 to investigate the events precipitating the outbreak. Extending rhetoric and technical communication’s sustained engagement with post-accident reports, this study explores how citizens and government officials accounted for the causes, boundaries, and impact of the outbreak. Specifically, …

"Out Of The Dark Confinement!" Physical Containment In Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Protest Literature, Allison Lane Tharp

Dissertations

Most scholarship on American protest literature tends to focus on the protest literature of specific, politically marginalized groups, such as black protest, women’s protest, or working class protest. My project redefines how we read nineteenth-century American protest literature by investigating the connections between the protest texts of these three marginalized groups. In particular, I argue that mid-nineteenth-century protest authors incorporate images of physical confinement and entrapment within their texts to expose to privileged readers the physical and ideological containment and control marginalized subjects encounter in their daily lives. Drawing from rhetorical theories of argumentation and audience engagement, and incorporating historical …

The Revolution Will Be Computed: Fantasy, Apple Computer, And The Ethos Of Silicon Valley, Misti Yang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My thesis undertakes a rhetorical analysis of the discourse surrounding the development of the personal computer and Apple Computer as a case study in Silicon Valley discourse. The analysis spans twenty years (1964-1984) starting with San Francisco-area computer hobbyist clubs and ending with the release of Macintosh by Apple Computer. Symbolic convergence theory (SCT) and fantasy theme analysis (FTA) provide the primary methodology for my work. Because SCT/FTA developed from small group communication research, they are fitting tools for understanding how small groups of people impassioned about building something new can impact public discourse. I connect SCT/FTA with a materialist …

An Experience Like No Other: A Case Study On Summer Camp Culture, Sarah E. Rhett

Honors Theses

In “An Experience Like No Other: A Case Study on Summer Camp Culture,” I consider the stories of individuals as they remember experiences and encounters they had while at summer camp. As a camper, counselor, and staff member, I have experienced many sides of camp. Recognizing my own tendency to describe the camp experience with claims about how “camp relationships are the best” and how “camp is great,” I decided that I, and others, would benefit from a study that considers and critiques these commonly recited stories about camp as a master narrative. Indeed, as the number of summer camps …

Stories Of Single Mothers : Narrating The Sociomaterial Mechanisms Of Community Literacy., Kathryn Elizabeth Perry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In light of the increasing significance of community activist scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition and given the overwhelming nature of institutional educational inequity, this dissertation takes a close look at specific literacy practices and the corresponding networks that shape these literacy practices at a community literacy organization. Based on interviews with participants and staff at a local nonprofit called Family Scholar House (FSH), this project paints a complex picture of each stakeholder’s perspective on successful literacy. First, I employ Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to analyze three specific literacy moments at FSH: an application for government assistance, a financial aid appeal letter, …

To My Betas, Endless Chocolate Frogs! : Exploring The Intersections Of Emotion, The Body, And Literacy In Online Fanfiction., Brittany Kelley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the complex intersections of identity, including gender, sexuality, and social class, in the literacy practices of online fanfiction. Previous scholarship has focused solely on the gender and/or pedagogical implications of fanfiction communities, and my project engages and extends these conversations by analyzing how fanfiction practices provide a distinctive space to explore how we understand identity, digital technologies, and fannish participation. I conducted textual analysis of stories, authors' notes, "how-to" guides, and questionnaires and interviews. A close inspection of fanfiction practices provide insight into how digital technologies and literacy practices interact within exchange economies. My dissertation is divided …

Selling College: Student Recruitment And Education Reform Rhetoric In The Age Of Privatization, Paige Marie Hermansen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the success of for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) as a socio-cultural phenomenon that hinges on distinct public discursive strains and neoliberal rhetorics. This project examines the role of language in creating and sustaining particular discourses of higher education and how those discourses are reinforced and reflected in channels of discourse like documentary films and advertisements.

In the context of shifting demands on and representations of higher education, this project critiques the evolving rhetoric of American education and the shift toward a wider acceptance of privatization efforts, as well as the effect this shift has had on prospective …

Toxic Treasure Island: Finding Radium Instead Of Gold, Nicole Rejer

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This presentation explores the Navy’s controversial use of radioactive materials in former decades on Treasure Island. It highlights the incomplete cleanup of contaminated soil and radioactive materials, and how current radiation measures are damaging to present-day residents’ health. Finally, it explains the city’s current plans for redeveloping the island, and how many public officials are ignoring the entire radiation problem, as long as other environmental issues Treasure Island residents face on a daily basis.

A Tank Full Of Wishful Thinking: Crystallizing The Rhythms Of The Road, Leanna K. Smithberger

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This presentation is a personal exploration of American car culture — the roads that enable it, the everyday actions that sustain it, and the values that justify it. I use a constellation of mobilities, autoethnography, and rhythmanalysis in order to tap into the political, personal, and aesthetic ways our road-centered culture shapes and constrains our lives in mundane and extraordinary ways. I argue that our road system of mobility is largely taken for granted, and is stubbornly persistent due to deeply held cultural values. I use a variety of artistic, evocative methods, including narrative, poetry, and music, because I argue …

Make It Happen: How Libraries Can Start A Grassroots Campus-Wide Graduate Writing Initiative, Jen Salvo-Eaton

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

The University of Missouri-Kansas City's University Libraries played a major role in starting a campus-wide Graduate Writing Initiative at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Graduate Writing Initiative is a campus-wide effort to improve the process, quality, and impact of graduate student writing. Despite the challenges of reaching a graduate student population of commuters, full-time workers, parents, and online learners, UMKC Libraries helped devise ways to extend the reach of the Graduate Writing Initiative to all. Currently, UMKC Libraries remains a core service of the Graduate Writing Initiative and librarians serve on the campus advisory committee. This presentation will describe …

Rhetoric And Feminism In The Americanization Era: The Ywca's Rhetorical Education Program For Immigrant Women, Gracemarie Mike

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the Young Women’s Christian Association’s International Institute movement from an administrative perspective. Founded in the United States during the Americanization Era of the early 20 th century, the International Institute movement developed programs and services for immigrant women. One of the most prominent, and least examined, aspects of the movement was its work in the area of rhetorical education for non-English speaking immigrant women. Using a feminist, administrative historiographic methodology, this project positions the work of the International Institute’s administrators ecologically among other Americanization efforts taking place in this time period. Arguing that the International Institute movement …

Technical Communication In Place-Making Professions: Exploring The Network Pictures Of Urban Designers, Fernando Sanchez

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses how professional writing as a field can pay attention to broader definitions of design in order to help further conversations of spatial justice (the act of helping to promote equity in matters of development in urban spaces). I begin by noting the conversations that have circulated regarding the relationship between urban design and rhetoric, noting that professional writing can help add a unique lens to the conversation. The second chapter provides an overview of how design is discussed in technical communication scholarship. Here, I showcase how most of these discussions regarding research in design have centered on …

What Do You Mean, "Practice"? Theorizing The Writing-Music Connection, Callie Elise Compton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Researchers in the field of composition studies have frequently made allusions to musicians when they’ve discussed the role of practice in gaining skill. In doing so, however, they’ve risked making speculative rather than testable claims and separating composition studies from recent insights on practice from other disciplines such as education and music psychology. These fields, I argue, offer testable frameworks with which composition instructors and scholars can teach and study writing practice. Such frameworks are necessary because composition researchers need to supplement qualitative studies of writers and writing with quantitative data to generate replicable tests of teaching methods that may …

Crucial Community: Attention Deficit Disorder In The College Writing Classroom, Lauren Tullio

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.