Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Meeting Paul As Rhetor: Creation, Nature, And The Law Written In The Heart, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

No abstract provided.

A Double-Sided Mirror: "Otherizing" And Normalizing The Silenced Voices Of Appalachian Women, Ashley Canter

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Appalachian region was not only exploited for capitalistic gains, but also put on display by outsider voices for being home to a supposed "backwards" and "barbaric" culture. Appalachians experienced exploitation working in mines and other industries that only benefitted those receiving the resources of the mountains. A once self-sustaining, individualized culture was now forced to be dependent and suffer through the "otherization" of its own people. Voices hidden in the murky skies and distant mountains of Appalachia were not only silenced, but more hauntingly, they were spoken for, manipulated, and marginalized. …

Girl Power, Caroline Olesen

The Corinthian

It is now in the 16th year of the 21st century, and as a species, we are trying to improve. We’re trying to reduce our carbon footprint; we’re trying to help the sick and the poor; we’re trying to combat racism, anti-Semitism, and sexism. But as of recent years, sexism has been more on the back burner – not because it is less important, but because of the huge strides that were made in the Western world in the 20th century.

Sexy Technical Communication, Tamara Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, Cassandra Race, Tiffani Reardon

2016 Faculty Bookshelf

Sexy technical writing…we’ve got to be kidding, right? But no, we aren’t. Good technical writing is powerful and clear and gets the job done. It brings people together and solves problems. Good technical writing purrs and hums like that BMW you plan to be driving someday.What’s not sexy about that? On the other hand, poor technical writing skills may lead to a lifetime of asking people if they want fries with that…or worse, selling vacuum cleaners door to door. There’s no need to ask what’s not sexy about that!

WE – your textbook authors – are a team of dedicated …

Blackfish-Ing For Buzz: The Rhetoric Of The Real In Theme Parks And Documentary, Steven W. Schoen

Faculty Publications

In 2014, a year of record tourism in the state of Florida, SeaWorld saw a drop of one million visitors to its theme park in Orlando. The decline followed Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s 2013 documentary film Blackfish, which presented the circumstances of orcas, or “killer whales,” held in captivity at parks like SeaWorld as cruel to the animals and dangerous to their trainers. In 2016, SeaWorld announced it will stop breeding orcas, and phase out its orca theatrical shows by 2019, a move widely attributed in the press to the impact of Cowperthwaite’s film. This article examines the film Blackfish as a …

Rhetoric In The Mass Media: Terrorism Or Freedom Of Speech?, Carolyn Rhoades

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

Terrorism is a widely debated topic on social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. This is due to the fact that a high percentage of users rely on sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a news source for developing stories and information. In a study conducted in 2015 by Pew Research Center, in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, research found that 63 percent of Facebook users and 63 percent Twitter users depend on these social networks for their news, which is a substantial increase from 2013. This paper presents a rhetorical analysis …

Sabbatical Summary, Paula Boyd

Sabbaticals

My career in writing studies was originally inspired by the convergence of my academic interests and my natural inclination to play with technology. In the 15 years since I was in school, the technology has changed, the way people communicate with technology has changed, the students' technological immersion has changed, and the scholarship had changed. My goal was to walk around in the 21st century landscape to try to reorient and re-inspire myself and make some connections between traditional and digital literacies. In particular, I was interested in reflecting on two areas that had become quite central to the scholarly …

Thresholds Of Invisibility: A Perspective On Moments Of Transition In Scholarly Rhetorics, Robert D. Gilmor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation suggests that certain historical moments of transition generate identifiable schisms in scholarly discourse that leave contemporary scholars unable to communicate with one another. At these moments of Augustinian "unlikeness," established scholarly commitments, such as logocentrism, are rendered invisible to the critics that rely on them as new forms and technologies become the (ostensible) talking points of discourse. The confusion at these moments contribute to a complex of discursive practices that can be called "thresholds of invisibility," or moments of transition and division, when scholars are captivated by new forms and less attentive to the continuing influence of already …

Alien Affects: Movement, Migration, And Landscapes Of Citizenship, Michael Andrew Lechuga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alien Affects is a materialist examination of the ways citizenship landscapes are shaped by three mechanisms of control - extraterrestrial film, border security, and the legal apparatuses of the State - that accelerate flows of dominant national citizenship and hinder the movements of migrants. As bodies move through borders and through communities in the US, they are subjected to techniques of citizenship control that divide citizens from aliens. This political division maximizes the State's capacity to benefit from the mobility of its preferred citizen groups while subjugating its alien groups - those who might be characterized as such because they …

Writing In College: From Competence To Excellence, Amy Guptill, Aly Button, Peter Farrell, Kaethe Leonard, Timothee Pizarro

OER Main

Writing in College is designed for students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to more advanced engagement with text. It is well suited to composition courses or first-year seminars and valuable as a supplemental or recommended text in other writing intensive classes. It provides a friendly, down-to-earth introduction to professors’ goals and expectations, demystifying the norms of the academy and how they shape college writing assignments. Each of the nine chapters can be read separately, and each includes suggested exercises to bring the main messages to life. …

Dining With The Cyborgs: Disembodied Consumption And The Rhetoric Of Food Media In The Digital Age, Maggie Cotto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores digital media productions based specifically on food and cooking in order to demonstrate that new communication technologies are increasingly incorporating all five of the bodily senses. In doing so, they contribute significantly to the emergence of new ideological apparatuses appropriate for a global community. These apparatuses – including the formation of a posthumanist subject, the use of technology to support embodied cognition, and the establishment of entertainment as an ideological institution – have become the harbingers of a rhetorical evolution. Based on the work of Gregory Ulmer, along with Jacques Derrida, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and …

Feminist Fissures: Navigating Conflict In Mentoring Relationships, Kathryn Gindlesparger, Holly Ryan

College of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Papers

Scholarship in rhetoric and composition has richly addressed the role of feminist mentoring and how a feminist perspective of mentoring might work across various mentoring configurations. However, there is little feminist rhetorical scholarship that discusses the transition from a graduate mentoring group to a faculty mentoring group. This case study examines how one group navigated the change from graduate mentors to faculty mentors, revealing how unarticulated conflict lead to the end of the relationships. In unpacking this narrative, this article argues that feminist mentoring scholarship has not done enough to openly discuss the role of conflict in mentoring. Lacking scholarship …

"Boys Learn The Teacher, And Then They Learn The Subject": The Importance Of The Teacher-Student Relationship In Engaging High School Boys In The Writing Classroom, Leslie Ellis

Masters Theses

This thesis explores methods for engaging high school boys in the writing classroom. Chapter one describes the differing beliefs scholars have about boys' educational situation, specifically in English language arts. Several researchers and scholars describe boys' situation as dire because boys have failed to improve as girls have over the last sixty years. These researchers cite various reasons for boys' academic stagnation, such as learning styles, hormones, brain structure and development, the feminization of the classroom, motivation, engagement, and teaching styles. These factors may contribute to the gender gap in writing. Other scholars deny the urgency of boys' lack of …

To Teach Reading And Writing Well: "Genre Awareness" In Basic Writing, Tara Peck

Masters Theses

In this thesis, I argue that a "genre awareness" approach should be implemented into basic writing instruction because it enables students to unpack ideologies and beliefs inherent in genres that basic writing students read and write. Because basic writing students often have little to no prior knowledge reading and writing in academic genres, instructors should teach basic writing students how to broaden their understanding of reading and writing to include readers, writer, context, and text; even more, instructors should teach basic writing students to see the connection between the larger scene and situations in which genres arise. My argument's foundation …

Developing University Students’ Argumentative Discourse: An Ill-Structured Issue Pertaining To Black African Immigrants And African Americans, Olubusayo Olojo-Adeoye

Wayne State University Dissertations

The overarching goal of this three-article five-chapter dissertation was to develop university students’ argument-counterargument integration abilities in persuasive essay writing on an ill-structured issue pertaining to black African immigrants and African Americans. Article One consisted of using phenomenography as a research approach to identify the qualitatively different ways university students perceive black African immigrants and African Americans. The university participants had 24 perceptions in which 10 pertained to black African immigrants and 14 to African Americans. The perceptions were grouped into six descriptive categories. The variations in perceptions were then used as statements for argumentation. The study implies that university …

On Writing Of Faith Broken Open And Other Evidences Of Love, Jennifer Sears

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Rewriting, Recapturing, Reenvisioning: Writing Assessment Revisited In The Hermeneutic Sphere, Judith Ann Fourzan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores the use of hermeneutics in reconsidering the role of writing assessment in composition. The traditional view of writing assessment is negative. In order to change this traditional view and enable composition faculty to utilize writing assessment and a valuable and necessary tool, a hermeneutic sphere offers the best framework upon which to recast writing assessment as part of composition and writing. A hermeneutic sphere is an interpretive methodology that allows for the investigation of any and all aspects of the subject at hand - in this case, writing assessment. The hermeneutic sphere works much like a heuristic …

The Bridge, Volume 13, 2016, Bridgewater State University

the bridge

Editor-in-Chief: Jill Boger
Managing Editor: Kelsey Leuenberger
Lead Designer: Ghada Masri
Photo Editor: David Hooker

Editors:
Hannah Green
Amanda Hankel
Kelci Sylvia
Caitlin Westgate

Faculty Advisor: John Mulrooney

Consultant: Cheryl Tullis

I, The Unreliable, Rigoberta Menchu, Rebecca Anderson '19

Outstanding Gateway Papers

There have been many discrepancies regarding the credibility of the book I, Rigoberta Menchu. In the so-called “autobiography” Menchu describes the mass destruction, misery, violence, and oppression towards the indigenous Guatemalan people during the Guatemalan civil war. However, according to research done by anthropologist David Stoll, there is an abundance of inconsistencies and exaggerations in this story. Due to the potential that there are skewed facts and false accounts, this book should not be entered into evidence for the Guatemalan Commission for Historical Health (GCHH). Menchu’s book contains very questionable truths not only about the book’s facts, but about …

Captain Ahab And Her Crew, Abigail Kauerauf '19

Outstanding Gateway Papers

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the novel’s anti-hero R.P. McMurphy unexpectedly parallels Moby Dick. In the infamous Melville classic, Moby Dick bites off the leg of Captain Ahab. Ahab thusly convinces his crew to join him in a revenge-filled quest to kill the white whale. The life of R. P. McMurphy presents a similar journey. While McMurphy attempts to restore the masculinity of the men on the ward so the men can live freely as they once had before the women’s liberation movement, women such as Nurse Ratched endeavor to hunt down these men and emasculate …