Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Mind The Gap: A Case Study In Instructor Intention And Feedback, Meredith R. Grady

Theses & Honors Papers

While effective instructor written feedback is critical, the process is often the least understood and is a detriment to student success when improperly applied. This case study identifies strategies that characterize successful instructor written feedback for students' written assignments in an introductory college composition course. My research examines instructor feedback within the diverse environment of the community college thus highlighting the importance of instructor knowledge of composition pedagogy and feedback methods and approaches. A review of literature on instructor feedback identifies instructor and student collaboration as a key component for success together with understanding of historical trends in the field …

Negotiating A Professional Identity As An International Tutor At The Writing Center, Heejung Kwon

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

The ethos of international teaching assistants or non-native speaker professionals in the field of writing studies has been researched with a specific focus on teacher identity in classroom settings. The status of international tutors can become a topic of discussion in terms of their credibility, language proficiency, writing competence, and self-efficacy. In this presentation, I discuss how I situate myself as an international tutor at a writing center and ways to self-train and professionalize myself as a better tutor, as well as explore ways to think about mentoring relationships for prospective international tutors.

Strategies For Tutors Developing Long-Term Relationships With English As Second Language Students In Writing Centers, Andrew Yim

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

This poster is looking at strategies for tutors looking to develop long-term relationships with ESL and ELL students in writing centers. The strategies that are included within this poster are taken from my own experiences and other readings. Furthermore, the poster looks at different writing centers throughout the United States that have programs that encourage these long-term relationships.

To Correct Or Not To Correct: The Ethics Of Addressing Grammar In Writing Center Tutorials, Vicki R. Kennell

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

Although students often ask for grammar help, writing center tutors are conflicted over whether and how much to provide such help because of how they internalize the tutoring mandates found in training manuals, tutoring literature, and writing center policies. This results in disconnects between what happens in tutorials and what tutors and writers think happens, with grammar being prioritized regardless of stated agendas or document needs. Solutions to this problem include educating writers and instructors, as well as educating tutors to address grammar productively when and if it is warranted.

Sounding The Horn: Howling About The Moral Outrage Of The Politics Of The Gray Wolf, Paul H. Veridian

Browse All Undergraduate research

In this paper I will show how through the use of a moral argument, the article titled “OR-7’s Sister Dies Grisly Death…..” is used to persuade the audience about the moral outrage being perpetrated upon the gray wolf population by the state of Idaho. I will show how the author uses the tactics of vilify and ennoble, melodrama, naming, god and devil terms, and the tragic frame to get this done. The use of the moral argument creates moral outrage in the audience, which polarizes the issue.

April Fools’ Day, A Celebration Of All Things Creative, Steven Gimbel

Philosophy Faculty Publications

April Fools' Day is unique among our holidays because it is the only one for which ingenuity is required. Other festivals are celebrated with expectations of prepackaged icons. Try serving something other than turkey for Thanksgiving and you are likely to face a revolt. Holidays are bastions of repetition, but April Fools' Day is a commemoration of creativity. [excerpt]

The Theory Of Imaginative Resistance: Narrative Conflict & Contested Realities In The Right To Die Versus Disability Studies Perspectives On Medical Euthanasia, Jessica Fawley

Open Access Theses

In this thesis, I introduce a philosophic concept termed "imaginative resistance," a concept which targets the unimaginability of narratives, which I argue offers new insights into polarized communication. I discuss the philosophic debate on imaginative resistance to date, and piece out central puzzles and approaches. I show that imaginative resistance can be applied to broader types of communication than those currently being discussed by philosophers, and indicate that polarized debates are especially likely places to uncover imaginative resistance. I discuss, and respond to, a recent article by Susan M. Behuniak (2011) in which she analyzes a subsection of the contemporary …

Negotiated Interaction In The Learning Of Written Discourse Conventions, Brian A Guthrie

Open Access Dissertations

This study examines how two Japanese students learning to write in English negotiate the variations in written discourse conventions they encounter in an all-English program at a university in Japan. Textbooks, samples of the students' essays, and written feedback from instructors were analyzed, and interviews were conducted with the students in order to demonstrate the varieties of descriptions and interpretations of written academic introductions the students encountered in their first year of study at the university. Using an approach to learning that draws from ecological theories of composition, alternative approaches to second language acquisition, and actor-network theory, the students' academic …

Youth Narratives Of The Conflict In Northern Uganda, Ellen Eichelberger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Narratives are an essential method of communication that create windows into human experiences. Narratives are also responsible for generating the societies in which they are told, or are shaped indelibly by the societies generated by more powerful narratives. In a post-conflict environment where society has been destroyed by decades of violence, the power of narratives to influence society is heightened. Such a postconflict environment is that of northern Uganda, as it emerges from the violence of the war between the LRA and the UPDF. Due to the heightened powers of narratives, it is necessary to give attention to what those …

Identities And Interactions In A Transcultural Online Collaboration Project, Zsuzsanna Bacsa Palmer

English Theses & Dissertations

The traditional theoretical frameworks and assumptions about intercultural technical communication are no longer adequate to describe and teach intercultural communication now frequently happening through digital networks. My dissertation proposes to use the theory of cosmopolitanism as it has been recently applied in several social science fields as a framework for pedagogical project design in order to teach intercultural communication skills applicable in the global age.

The dissertation describes a transcultural online pedagogical project between Hungarian and U.S. students that I designed according to the principles of cosmopolitan theory. In this project, students were introduced to the basic tenets of cosmopolitanism …

The Semantics Of Repression: Understanding The Continued Brutality Towards Lgbtqa Individuals In The Russian Federation, Joseph C. Recupero

Student Publications

This work serves to examine the linguistic style and choices used by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin as it pertains to issues of the LGBTQA community in the country and the Anti-Propaganda Law. Using the methodology of Critical Discourse Analysis, the author compares the speeches of Vladimir Putin to those of Western leaders Barack Obama and Ban Ki-moon, drawing conclusions as to why brutality towards LGBTQA individuals in Russia has been allowed to continue relatively unopposed. The author suggests that it may be Vladimir Putin's careful choice in words and speaking styles that allows the issue to persist.

Peering Into The Jezebel Archetype In African American Culture And Emancipating Her From Hyper-Sexuality: Within And Beyond James Baldwin’S 'Go Tell It On The Mountain' And Alice Walker’S 'The Color Purple', Zakiya A. Brown

Student Publications

Literary authors and performing artists are redefining the image of the Jezebel archetype from a negative stereotype to an empowering persona. The reformation of the Jezebel’s identity and reputation, from a manipulating stereotype to an uplifting individual may not be a common occurrence, but the Jezebel archetype as a positive figure has earned a dignified position in literature and in reality. Jezebel archetypes wear their sexuality proudly. Her sultriness may be the first aspect of her identity that readers see, but readers must be cautious not to overlook her merit and moral standards as a character that has the potential …

Playing With Food: Practices Of Consumption Cuisine And Embodiment In Video Games, Zachary Graham Hill

English Theses & Dissertations

The implementation of food in video games is extremely common to the medium, yet its function and placement within the cultural paradigms of video games remain unexamined. The purpose of this thesis is to examine games where culinary practices and foodways are brought to the forefront, making them either a key element to gameplay, or the only element of gameplay. By critically examining the various usages of food in game-spaces, this thesis examines the embodied relationship in video game spaces between players and their avatars through their encounters with food in these spaces. The relationships between player, avatar, and food …

"A Short Burst Of Inconsequential Information": Networked Rhetorics, Avian Consciousness, And Bioegalitarianism, Damien S. Pfister

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay uses the concept of “avian consciousness” to reconsider assumptions about human communication and theorize networked rhetorics. By adopting an ornithomorphic frame, I critically read Don DeLillo’s The Body Artist as an exploration of overlaps between human and avian consciousness. I then argue that avian consciousness provides a richer metaphor for understanding networked rhetorics than autistic consciousness, which is an increasingly dominant trope for explaining interaction with digitally networked media. I explore how Twitter, explicitly modeled on avian communication, can be understood as circulating information in ways analogous to the contact and assembly calls of birds. The essay concludes …

Governing Bodies: Caster Semenya And The Rhetorical Management Of Sex And Gender Ambiguity In Professional Athletics, Samuel Robert Evans

English Theses & Dissertations

Sport has long been thought of as an "opiate for the masses," where a collective can forget about social, political, racial, or economic differences and unify to compete in the same space or root for a common team (Eitzen and Sage 202). Scholarship in sports communication, sports rhetoric, and sports sociology, however, has shown that this view of sport as an apolitical cultural institution separate from impactful political debate is oversimplified. Rather, sports are key sites in which beliefs about gender, race, class, and politics are made manifest.

This dissertation uses the case of Caster Semenya, a female South African …

“A Maturity Of Thought Very Rare In Young Girls”: Women’S Public Engagement In Nineteenth-Century High School Commencement Essays, Amy J. Lueck

English

Though largely debarred from public rhetorical performance as adult women, young women in the nineteenth-century US received rhetorical training and performed their original compositions before large public audiences as high school students. Their access to the academic platform stemmed in part from their politically contained position as students and “girls” in this context. But students used these opportunities to intervene in political debates and to comment on their experiences as women and students. These rhetorical interventions represent an important part of our rhetorical history, shedding light on a significant rhetorical opportunity for many young women across the US.

An Equivocal Truth: An Analysis Of Climate Change Communication In Respect To The Double Ethical Bind, Taylor Whitney Brown

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The purpose of my thesis will be to analyze how climate change translators address the double ethical bind, which includes how the communicators struggle and succeed in explaining environmental evidence while revealing the whole truth of the situation, which includes the doubts, caveats, and questions while still motivating the public to action (Russill, 2010, p. 63). To construct my thesis, I will first evaluate the key texts surrounding climate change communication in an integrated literature review that incorporates defining the role of climate change communicators, determining common restraints and problems communicators face, describing communication techniques, and illustrating the usefulness of …

Superheroes Unmasked, Jillian M. Malone

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

In this assignment, I was asked to analyze one rhetorical strategy in the graphic novel Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I was also asked to consider the Catholic Intellectual Tradition as a rhetorical context. As the class read the book, we had in-class writing assignments that helped us trace our strategy throughout the text and develop our analysis that would eventually become the backbone of our papers. I used these in-class assignments along with my notes on the book to create a comprehensive list of every flashback in the novel. I used this list to develop my thesis …

Rhetorical Analysis On "It's Not As Simple As It Seems", Nathan Machel

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I wrote this essay as an assignment for my English class, themed Remix Culture. Throughout the course, we examined the originality and even legality of numerous "remix" art forms from music mash ups to a classic novel. Delving further into the legality aspect, we examined the extent to which different works were plagiarized. Did Robin Thicke steal the beat for "Blurred Lines"? Did Harriet Beecher Stowe write Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Or did God write it, as she claimed? Is anything truly original? Or is everything a derivative of some pre-existing elements? In "It's Not as Simple as It Seems," …

Texts Tell Truths, Emma R. Venetis

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The assignment for this essay was to provide a close reading analysis of a writing or visual strategy in the novel Watchmen by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, while making connections to how this strategy relates (or doesn't) to the Catholic Intellectual Tradition (CIT). To get started on this essay, I looked through various in-class writings we had done regarding rhetorical strategies in this novel. I also reviewed information about the CIT and typed a two-page-long brainstorm of all the rhetorical strategies I found that interested me, and the connections I could find between those and CIT. After deciding on …