Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

"'Jackin’ For Beats'": Djing For Citation Critique, Todd Craig

Publications and Research

A challenge in teaching English composition is helping students envision plagiarism as “borrowing” – showing love to author(s) and/or text(s) that further their argument(s), versus “stealing” – biting someone’s style and words. Alastair Pennycook (1996) and Sarah Wakefield (2006) have contributed pieces to the elaborate plagiarism/citation puzzle, while Houston Baker situated the hip-hop DJ in seminal text Black Studies, Rap and the Academy (1993). Merging these moments introduces critical questions: Did Diddy invent “the remix” or become the illest beat-biter ever? How did DJ/Producers Pete Rock and Large Professor pay homage to previous musical genres to further hip-hop remix production …

Argumentation Analysis Presentation: Evaluating Rhetoric-In-Action, Evelyn Plummer

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Via a small group project format, students conduct a close analysis of a persuasive message (a speech, an editorial, a position statement, etc.) Referring to models of argumentation (e.g. Toulmin [1958], Eemeren & Grootendorst [2004] , Rieke, Sillars, & Peterson [2012]), the team members work cooperatively to examine the communicator’s rhetorical choices in structuring claims, selecting data, and establishing warrants. After assessing the effectiveness of the message, each team presents its findings to the class.

This activity accomplishes several additional learning objectives, including: collaborative learning, critical analysis, applied communication, reinforcement of classic rhetorical canons and/or Aristotelian forms of artistic proof, …

Dispatches From Summer Camp: Literacies Of Suds And Scam, Cori Brewster

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Rhetorical analysis of a collection of kowtowing letters written by summer camp counselors and campers, arguing that they provide a useful window into youth literacy development and conditions that foster socially-engaged, critically literate practice.

10 And Counting..., Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

No abstract provided.

#Definerhetoric 2013, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

No abstract provided.

Call For Submissions: The Digital Activism Issue, Ben Mccorkle, Jason Palmeri

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

No abstract provided.

The Image-World: A Found Comic Poem, Franny Howes

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

The text of this comic is excerpted entirely from Susan Sontag's essay, "The Image World," from her 1977 book On Photography. I was assigned to read and respond to this piece when I attended the Adventure School for Ladies Comics Intensive, an alternative graduate program focused on gender, labor, and the comics industry.Sontag's essay critiques the way contemporary western culture uses photography for "imprisoning reality" and "depersonalizing our relation to the world." Photography creates another reality by the physical impression of light on film: what she calls the "image world." The idea of a separate and additive reality created through …

The 5-Sided Lego, Hanna Barker, Shawn Beaumont

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

The study of rhetoric usually concerns itself with analysis of discourse more clearly identifiable as a text, but often overlooked is how apparently non-textual elements may shape our own personal narratives. However, rhetorical theory can indeed be applied to something like LEGO, that beyond marketing and branding, most people do not immediately consider textual. Ultimately by using the Burkeian pentad as a terministic screen, this project aims to determine how the act of playing with LEGO, and even the LEGO brick itself, serve to construct realities, and how those realities impact our own.

Sisyphus Rolls On: Reframing Women's Ways Of “Making It” In Rhetoric And Composition, Kristin Bivens, Martha Mckay Canter, Kirsti Cole, Violet Dutcher, Morgan Gresham, Luisa Rodriguez-Connal, Eileen Schell

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This is a multi-vocal, multi-institutional piece that examines ways women "make it" in rhetoric and composition. It is in the spirit of being more inclusive that we present our ideas about women's ways of making it in rhetoric and composition. This inclusiveness includes a written transcript of our audio narratives. Humbly, we present our work in this piece after four years of writing and revising in the work spaces we all know so well and offer several glimpses of the work women do as writing teachers. We honor all of the women who teach writing -- those who have made …

Inexorable Burden: Rhetoric And Togetherness, Ethan Sproat Mckay

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation employs philology and cultural analysis to reassess longstanding notions in rhetorical theory and moral philosophy (via classical rhetoric and technical communication). In particular, I use diachronic analyses of the terms telos, symbouleutikon, and sympheron (from Aristotle to present) as a theoretical springboard to reassess more contemporary issues in rhetoric and technical communication. The technical communication topics this dissertation covers include criticisms of expediency as a motive in technical communication; the changing landscape of instruction manual composition; the role of purpose-completion and stakeholder awareness in visual rhetoric; and the futility of advancing ideology-free technical writing pedagogies. More theoretical topics …

Critical Thinking And Argument In First-Year-Composition: A Two-Part Assignment, Jason Burge

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Course study and survey of a two-part assignment in Comp 1101.

Tutor Education As Professionalization For Technical And Professional Communicators, Daniel P. Kenzie

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

This talk from the Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication 2013 conference describes an approach to writing center tutor education that has students not only prepare to tutor technical and professional writing, but also connect content to their majors and careers. I draw connections between research on former writing tutors, transfer of learning, and symbolic analytic work to position tutor education as professional preparation for technical and professional writers. I also invite participants to consider how writing centers and professional writing programs can collaborate work toward this dual outcome.

Analyzing Students' Perceptions Of Their Examination Of Writing Competency (Ewc) Readiness In Online First-Year Composition Courses, Harry Pendleton Styles Ii

English Theses & Dissertations

Due to its flexibility and convenience, online instruction is increasingly becoming an attractive, viable option for many students. In 2008, Norfolk State University began promoting online course and program development as a means of "growing the university." Thus, academic departments have increased the number of available online courses and online degree programs. All degree-seeking students are required to pass the Examination of Writing Competency (EWC) which they are eligible to take after completing two semesters of first-year composition. This study, utilizing a survey and site (course) "observation," analyzes the perceptions of students who have completed or nearly completed two semesters …

Call For Submissions

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

Embracing A Productive Rhetorical Pragmatism: Teaching Writing As Democratic Deliberation, Jennifer Clifton

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Our current points of stasis in American politics make clear: we are facing a deep crisis of imagination in public life. Our (in)ability to imagine the interests and experiences of others limits not only how we understand domestic and global citizenship but also how we enact that citizenship with others. In talk and in practice, the inability to take seriously the interests and experiences of others leads Americans – in English Language Arts classrooms and in public life – to cast those who disagree as deeply flawed in character – unpatriotic, ungodly, lazy, irresponsible, or criminal.

In this article, I …

Making The Most Of Existing Resources: An Online Rubric Database In University-Wide Writing Program Assessment, Jennifer M. Good, Kevin Osborne

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

When creating an assessment plan to measure writing outcomes for a university-wide writing across the curriculum (WAC) program, administrators considered multi-layered evaluation methods for benchmarking and measuring internal growth of students. Although assessment plans must address these needs, the actual assessment practices must be flexible, accessible to faculty, and feasible--based on existing technological structures and data systems at an institution. The writing assessment that is provided addresses all of these elements and is offered as a model for other programs.

For this particular study, the internal aspect of the assessment plan that tracks growth of students over time is the …

“Listening Across The Curriculum: What Disciplinary Tas Can Teach Us About Ta Professional Development In The Teaching Of Writing”, Tanya K. Rodrigue

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Over the past couple of decades, a small number of compositionists have argued that disciplinary TAs are in fact teachers of writing and should be involved in writing across the curriculum (WAC) efforts and conversations. Compositionists have easily translated disciplinary teaching assistants’ (TAs’) responsibilities as those of a writing instructor and have confidently assigned TAs with the pedagogical identity of a writing teacher. Yet do TAs in the disciplines perceive themselves in the same manner? There is no existing scholarship that provides insight into how disciplinary TAs perceive and define their pedagogical responsibilities and identities, and the factors involved in …

Exploring Identity-Based Challenges To English Teachers’ Professional Growth, Heather C. Camp

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study explores identity-based challenges that can hinder secondary English teachers enrolled in Master’s degree programs from experiencing professional growth. It illustrates how identity conflicts can prevent teachers from integrating a disciplinary identity into their professional sense-of-self, thereby limiting the benefits they might gain from graduate coursework. In particular, the study suggests that dissonance between discourse norms and values, concerns about community allegiances, and assumptions about language, difficulty, and power can impede teachers from appropriating disciplinary discourse and hinder them from combining it with more familiar discourses that circulate in schools and shape teachers’ identities.

The Knowing/Doing Gap: Challenges Of Effective Writing Instruction In High School, Sylvia Read, Melanie M. Landon-Hays

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study explores the challenges of effective writing instruction in high school, specifically examining the perceptions of five new high school English teachers regarding their own experiences learning to write as students, their preparation to become teachers of writing, and how they teach and assess writing in their classrooms. In order to more fully understand their view of writing instruction, we interviewed and observed them. The findings are organized into two strands: teacher beliefs about their own formative opportunities with writing, both as students and in preparation to become teachers, and teacher reflections on best practices in writing instruction and …

Table Of Contents/Opening Editorial, Jonathan E. Bush

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.