Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Teaching Reflective Writing: Thoughts On Developing A Reflective Writing Framework To Support Teacher Candidates, Donna L. Pasternak, Karen K. Rigoni

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

To achieve licensure in the United States, many teacher candidates must demonstrate competency as reflective practitioners. This requires many of them to describe their experiences through reflective writing, a mode of writing that is far from the academic writing that is taught throughout their baccalaureate education. Much reflective writing is being assigned to teacher candidates without it being taught. In an effort to intervene in that pattern, the authors examined multiple sources and developed a framework to teach to their teacher candidates to support them to communicate their practices as effective, reflective practitioners. This paper documents the evolution of creating …

Entering The Conversations, Practices And Opportunities Of Multimodality Texts, Theresa Dark, W. Douglas Baker

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Structure Speaks: User-Centered Design And Professional Development, Nikki Holland, Christian Z. Goering

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This reflective essay situates a yearlong professional development endeavor led by a site of the National Writing Project within the language of technical communication. Developing rural writing teachers through four distinct design features—needs assessment, frequent contact, website redesign, collaborative planning through Google Docs—this work sought to put participants and providers on equal levels, sharing control of programming when possible. Professional development providers and teacher educators ultimately must model practices they desire to impacting students in the classroom.

Collaborative Power: Graduate Students Creating And Implementing Faculty Development Workshops On Multilingual Writing Pedagogy, Dorothy Worden, Brooke R. Schreiber, Lindsey Kurtz, Michelle Kaczmarek, Eunjeong Lee

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The increasing numbers multilingual students in US universities, whether international students or multilingual citizens and permanent residents, have made it clear that students’ language needs can no longer be relegated to the ‘experts’ in specialized courses or tutoring centers. All faculty will teach multilingual students, yet few faculty have received specialized training to prepare them to work effectively with the multilingual writers in their classrooms. While there is a need for professional development efforts designed to help faculty more effectively teach multilingual writing, institutional divisions between first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing instruction pose challenges for the organization …

Learning To Teach Writing In The Age Of Standardization And Accountability; Toward An Equity Writing Pedagogy, Shannon M. Pella

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Qualitative data from over three years of a lesson study project were analyzed through a situated learning theory lens in order to describe the connections between teacher learning and the variety of situations, or contexts that shaped the learning. The lesson study professional development model included planning, observation, and student data analysis protocols. The lesson study was situated in various middle school classroom settings, which provided multiple learning contexts. Additionally, teacher learning was shaped by the larger socio-political context often comprised of accountability rhetoric, standardization, and testing pressure. This study described how two teachers negotiated balance, or theoretical equilibrium, across …

[Review Of] The Promise Of Reason: Studies In The New Rhetoric. Edited By John T. Gage. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011; Pp. 272. $60.00 Cloth., Janice W. Fernheimer

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of "Hearing The Hurt: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, And Politics Of The New Negro Movement", Aric Putnam

Strategic Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Review of Eric King Watts, Hearing the Hurt: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, and Politics of the New Negro Movement (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2012) ix + 245 pp. (cloth).

Embodied Literate Practices Of Freshman Women Students: A Phenomenology Of Students In First-Year Composition, Carmen Lynn Christopher

English Theses & Dissertations

This project examines the experiences of freshman women students as they compose their first papers for first-year college composition. This study uses an interpretative phenomenological method to explore the lived experiences freshmen women undergo before they arrive at college and how those experiences inform these women’s practices in first-year composition. This dissertation has three main goals: to recover and clarify Heidegger’s interpretative phenomenology, to use that clarified method to explore freshman women’s experiences in first-year composition, and to suggest ways in which phenomenology might be used in the daily practices of writing instructors and administrators in higher education.

To address …

Multimodal Composing Across Disciplines: Examining Community College Professors’ Perceptions Of Twenty-First Century Literacy Practices, Elizabeth Bensen

English Theses & Dissertations

Providing a close examination of how professors approach twenty-first century literacy practices and production of multimodal texts, this project focuses on community college professors’ perceptions and expectations of students’ composing abilities pertaining to academic discourse across disciplines. Participants included 24 professors from a variety of disciplines at a large community college. The project examined survey responses, assignment guidelines, course syllabi, course outcomes, and video interviews of five of the 24 participants. Video interviews provided greater insight into participants’ perceptions and expectations. Additionally, research questions targeted course and assignment design, course outcomes, and assessment practices. Data findings suggest that despite access …

Community, Identity, And Transition: Student Veterans And Academic Writing At The Two-Year College, Mark Edward Blaauw-Hara

English Theses & Dissertations

Higher education is experiencing an almost unprecedented influx of student veterans. However, research is sparse on their transition to college, and, in particular, their experiences with college writing. Additionally, current scholarship focuses mainly on veterans at four-year schools. This dissertation describes six student veterans’ transitions to academic writing at the community college. Based on a case-study approach, the study seeks to identify key themes in student veterans’ experiences with learning and writing in the military and compare them to their experiences learning and writing in college. In addition to locating areas of disconnect, the study highlights typical strengths student veterans …

Creating Memories: Writing And Designing More Memorable Documents, James Eric Sentell

English Theses & Dissertations

If communication’s purpose is to enable action or belief (Johnson-Sheehan, 2012), then communication will be more effective—and thus more ethical—if the audience can easily remember it. However, the study of memory has long been neglected in English Studies. Therefore, communicators lack strategies for enhancing documents’ memorableness and an ethical framework for assessing (un)memorable documents and composing processes.

To develop an “ethic of memory” and identify strategies that enhance a document’s memorableness, I asked twenty subjects—ten teachers and ten college freshman—to walk down a high school hallway in which various posters and flyers had been posted by the administration, teachers, or …

"Indians Are Not Mascots": Using Critical Race Theory To Examine The Documentary In Whose Honor, Karina Greek

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Mad To Be Sincere: Authenticity, Irony, And Kerouac’S Response To Modern Reality, Jonathan Michael Devin

Masters Theses

This project explores the qualities of sincerity, authenticity, and irony in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road. The thesis asserts that that On the Road is neither ironic nor authentic, but, rather, that it both possesses aspects of traditional sincerity and anticipates the New Sincerity movement in contemporary literature. Through observing the characteristics of traditional sincerity and New Sincerity in the novel, the thesis amends the novel's critical position by showing a level of complexity, foresight, and nuance in the text. Ultimately, the thesis shows Kerouac's response to modern reality, presenting the limitations of authenticity and irony while esteeming the …

Facilitating A Pastoral Leadership Model For The Ulysses Church Of Christ, Warren Baldwin

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project intended to train leaders in principles of character-based leadership. I applied five principles drawn from Proverbs to the current situation of the Ulysses Church of Christ. The principles included community development, integrity, listening, ministering to the marginalized, and shepherding. I intentionally focused this character-based leadership training more on theological principles found in Proverbs than on skill development or leadership theories from the social sciences. I paid some attention to skill development and incorporated some principles from the social sciences, particularly psychology, but I placed greater emphasis on learning what …

The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy: A Metaphorical Look At Life, The Universe, And Everything, Thomas David Thompson

Communication Studies

A look at the integral use of metaphor as a heuristic in the process of human learning.

Utopian And Dystopian Literature: A Review Article Of New Work By Fokkema; Prakash; Gordin, Tilley, Prakash; And Meisig, Barnita Bagchi

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Agency, Desire, And Power In Schnitzler's Dream Novel And Kubrick's Adaptation Eyes Wide Shut, Ari Ofengenden

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Agency, Desire, and Power in Schnitzler's Dream Novel and Kubrick's Adaptation Eyes Wide Shut" Ari Ofengenden explores Arthur Schnitzler's novella and Stanley Kubrick's adaptation to offer insights into the ways in which desire disrupts and clashes with social structures (i.e., family, relationships, and society in general). Ofengenden shows how the dynamic in which disruptive desire is ideologically narrativized back into acquiescence with the status quo. Ofengenden interprets the narrative of the film as unique intuitions into action and agency where sources of agency are opaque to the subject and arise by an impenetrable combination of desire …

Paradigms Of Communication In Performance And Dance Studies, Nicoleta Popa Blanariu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Paradigms of Communication in Performance and Dance Studies" Nicoleta Popa Blanariu approaches from an interdisciplinary perspective the measure in which performing arts (theater, music, ballet, Indian classical dance, folk dance, etc.), as well as ritual performance constitute a corpus that may be analysed by means of theoretical and conceptual tools in communication studies and semiotics. Popa Blanariu analyses the relation between signification and communication in performing arts, between different codes and artistic expressions through which these are realized, between verbal and the other artistic "languages," and takes into consideration how "linguistic" functions manifest themselves within "languages" specific …

Why Jin's (金庸) Martial Arts Novels Are Adored Only By The Chinese, Henry Yiheng Zhao

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Why Jin's Martial Arts Novels Are Adored Only by the Chinese" Henry Yiheng Zhao posits that while the martial arts novel has a long history in China and that its modern school boasts of a number of authors of extraordinary popularity. Yong Jin (金庸) is the best known among them and his novels are read by Chinese wherever they are. Yet, English translations of his works have failed to impress. Zhao attempts to find out what is uniquely Chinese in Jin's novels and that makes his literary achievements ignored in the rest of the world. Zhao posits …

Stretching Beyond The Semester: Undergraduate Research, Ethnography Of The University, And Proposals For Local Change, Beth Godbee, Jessica Bazan, Megan Glise, Ariel Gonzalez, Katelyn Quigley, Brittany White

English Faculty Research and Publications

This article focuses on undergraduate research and mentoring through the lens of an “Ethnography of the University” course that engages students in writing and researching for local change. At our institution (Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin), “Ethnography of the University” is a writing-intensive English course in which students conduct semester-long, original, mixed-method research projects about some aspect of their undergraduate experience. Students move from asking questions of interest and importance to the campus community through stages of data collection and analysis and toward final reporting through multiple means: (1) article-length papers, (2) in-class presentations, and (3) research posters. Students present …