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Patterns Of Computer-Mediated Interaction In Small Writing Groups Using Wikis, Mimi Li, Wei zHU 2013 Marshall University

Patterns Of Computer-Mediated Interaction In Small Writing Groups Using Wikis, Mimi Li, Wei Zhu

English Faculty Research

Informed by sociocultural theory and guided especially by “collective scaffolding”, this study investigated the nature of computer-mediated interaction of three groups of English as a Foreign Language students when they performed collaborative writing tasks using wikis. Nine college students from a Chinese university participated in the wiki-mediated collaborative writing project. Analyses of data from the wiki “Discussion”, “Page”, and “History” modules on each group tab revealed that the three small groups displayed three distinct patterns of online interaction: collectively contributing/mutually supportive, authoritative/responsive, and dominant/withdrawn. These patterns were substantiated by the roles group members assumed and members’ task approaches in terms …


Bureauspeak: Discovering How Elected Officials Perceive Municipal Employees' Dis/Respectful Rhetorical Practices, Teresa Quezada 2013 University of Texas at El Paso

Bureauspeak: Discovering How Elected Officials Perceive Municipal Employees' Dis/Respectful Rhetorical Practices, Teresa Quezada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bureauspeak analyzes bureaucrats' rhetorical practices within municipal governments. This project asserts that respectful rhetorical practices have always been implicit in traditional notions of rhetoric, but have not been explicitly addressed. This project describes the political epistemic field (PEF), formed by discourse, audience, reality and rhetor, that is created within a municipal environment where policy deliberations occur. The PEF allows for interactions among the four elements and results in changes to all the elements as the interactions occur. The policy-making audience in the PEF expects their bureaucrat-rhetor to enact respectful rhetorical practices, but in many instances those expectations are also implicit …


Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Al Qaeda's Online Influence Operations By Means Of Propaganda Theory, David K. Lyons 2013 University of Texas at El Paso

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Al Qaeda's Online Influence Operations By Means Of Propaganda Theory, David K. Lyons

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis sought to explore the use of propaganda by al Qaeda through the lenses of established propaganda theorists and theories. Through analyzing former al Qaeda releases and case studies in the context of propaganda theory this thesis established a clearer understanding of the effectiveness of al Qaeda's propaganda. After analyzing the propaganda and case studies it was discovered that the rate of those engaging in attacks based on al Qaeda's online influence operations is insignificant. The concerns that al Qaeda is recruiting numerous individuals to engage in attacks based on its online propaganda operations might be overstated and while …


Rewriting Revision: A Case Study Of First Year Composition Students, Myshie M. Pagel 2013 University of Texas at El Paso

Rewriting Revision: A Case Study Of First Year Composition Students, Myshie M. Pagel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study focuses on the revision practices of seven first year composition students at a U.S./Mexico border community college. The analysis of revision practices is framed by the negotiation of dissonance between gist and intention. Three types of data were collected: screen captured writing sessions, instructor comments, and participant interviews. The data was analyzed through a grid based on Faigley and Witte's taxonomy grid of revision changes. This included three major categories: surface level, meaning preserving, and text base level changes. As in past studies on revision, the participants in this case study followed a similar trend. A majority …


(Re)Mapping The Rhetorical Situation: Toward A Transactional Networked Ecology, Ramesh Kumar Pokharel 2013 University of Texas at El Paso

(Re)Mapping The Rhetorical Situation: Toward A Transactional Networked Ecology, Ramesh Kumar Pokharel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The existing theories of the rhetorical situation that focus on and around Bitzer's theory define the rhetorical situation as something "real," "genuine," "objective" based on historic reality. I believe that this modernist containment to perceive the rhetorical situation as fixed entities limit our understanding about it in a broader sense, because it cannot capture the changed meaning that naturally exists with the impact of new media and technology. With the advent of new media and technology, the notion of rhetorical situation also has changed and thus there is an exigence of a new theory of the rhetorical situations that better …


The Service-Learning Writing Classroom: A Safe Haven For Articulating Difficult Stories About Whiteness And Race, Adam Webb 2013 University of Texas at El Paso

The Service-Learning Writing Classroom: A Safe Haven For Articulating Difficult Stories About Whiteness And Race, Adam Webb

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Service-learning is an educational method that is usually examined for its practical applications and outcomes, and can help instructors and students to realize the connective aspect of classroom discussions, assignments, activities and discourses that occur within the community. In this respect, "connective" refers to more than just bridging the distance between the classroom and community using service-learning. Instead, it acts like the "connective human tissue" that unites individuals together. Individuals as biological beings themselves are the connective tissue that unites them linguistically, physically and emotionally. In essence, the connective human tissue that unites individuals together creates an intertwined community through …


Embodied Kairos In The Writing Gymnasium, Christopher Dorn 2013 Purdue University

Embodied Kairos In The Writing Gymnasium, Christopher Dorn

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

This 2013 East Central Writing Centers Association (ECWCA) Conference presentation draws a comparison between the notions of fungible and epochal time (cf. Geller, “Tick-Tock, Next”) and the classical rhetorical terms, chronos and kairos. While kairos is typically considered in terms of time, its roots suggest a fundamental physical sense, making it a rich concept for imagining both the temporality and the materiality of writing centers. In addition to tracing the meaning of the Greek word and considering some of the kairotic aspects of writing center work, this presentation advocates adopting a kairotic attitude among writing center practitioners, one that …


An Owl Abroad: A Descriptive Study Of Owl Use In The Efl Context, Joshua Paiz 2013 Purdue University

An Owl Abroad: A Descriptive Study Of Owl Use In The Efl Context, Joshua Paiz

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

The project reported on in this presentation at the 2013 East Central Writing Centers Association conference will provide some preliminary findings from a research survey carried out by Purdue OWL staff regarding attitudes towards OWLs in the EFL context. It will conclude with tentative recommendations, as well as by discussing the next steps required for to complete data analysis.


The Purdue Online Writing Lab: Engaging With Local And Global Communities Of Writers, Joshua Paiz, Caitlan Spronk 2013 Purdue University

The Purdue Online Writing Lab: Engaging With Local And Global Communities Of Writers, Joshua Paiz, Caitlan Spronk

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

In 1995, then writing center director Muriel Harris and her staff developed and launched the precursor to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). Originally, this was an in-house writing resource for Purdue University faculty and staff. Since then, however, the Purdue OWL has become a prime location for community engagement both locally and globally, with over 200,000,000 hits annually. This poster at the Purdue University Academic Community Engagement Poster Presentations demonstrates the impact of the Purdue OWL both locally and globally. It will also highlight how that engagement has changed overtime, through the growth the Purdue OWL’s static resources, to …


Owls Across Borders: An Exploratory Study On The Place Of Online Writing Labs In The Efl Context, Joshua Paiz 2013 Purdue University

Owls Across Borders: An Exploratory Study On The Place Of Online Writing Labs In The Efl Context, Joshua Paiz

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

The study reported on in this presentation at the 2013 Symposium on Second Language Writing (SSLW) examined the content creation best practices of four content development teams working on the Purdue OWL. Utilizing focus group methods the study sought to examine what strategies developers utilized to overcome the challenges faced while developing L2 instructional content for a global audience. By examining the various drafts of resources before they finally went live on the Purdue OWL, this study investigated the linguistic and rhetorical choices that developers made in an attempt to create content that would be of maximal user to L2 …


Without Content: Rhetoric, American Anarchism, And The End(S) Of Radical Politics, Michael John Ristich 2013 Wayne State University

Without Content: Rhetoric, American Anarchism, And The End(S) Of Radical Politics, Michael John Ristich

Wayne State University Dissertations

My study suggests there is a homology between the Platonic critique of rhetoric and the critique of anarchism made by both Marxism and liberalism. I investigate this problematic by taking up a genealogical examination of anarchism in America that begins with America's founding and concludes with a discussion of the resurgence of populist/anti-Statist rhetoric(s) in the early twenty-first century. In doing so, I argue that anarchism is a politics "without content;" it is a rhetorical politics that challenges the (re)turns to metaphysics and Marxism in the wake of poststructuralist and postmodern thought. Specifically, in light of the contemporary Tea Party …


The Nicest Kids In Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'N' Roll, And The Struggle For Civil Rights In 1950'S Philadelphia (Book Review), Nicole Maurantonio 2013 University of Richmond

The Nicest Kids In Town: American Bandstand, Rock 'N' Roll, And The Struggle For Civil Rights In 1950'S Philadelphia (Book Review), Nicole Maurantonio

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

More than fifty years have elapsed since the popular television program American Bandstand first appeared in homes across the United States, and still mere mention of the show continues to conjure images of teenagers, black and white, boppin’ to the sounds of emerging musical talents from Jackie Wilson to Dusty Springfield. This very image, and the potent memory of a racially integrated youth demographic dancing together in harmony, Matthew F. D elmont argues in The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia, is precisely the problem. …


W.02 The Political Turn: Writing Democracy For The 21st Century, Brian Hendrickson 2013 Roger Williams University

W.02 The Political Turn: Writing Democracy For The 21st Century, Brian Hendrickson

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

The morning of the CCCC preconvention workshops feels a lot like the beginning of a marathon. The atmosphere is full of both excitement and apprehension as attendees slowly fill the seats around each table—a few seasoned veterans casual in their conversation and demeanor, as if the morning were just like any other, whereas others appear to be only half present, staring far off into space as if trying to focus on imagining what it will feel like to finally cross the finish line and not what it will take to get there. I arrived at this year’s “The Political Turn: …


Critical Thinking: Primary Concepts, James DiGiovanna 2013 CUNY John Jay College

Critical Thinking: Primary Concepts, James Digiovanna

Open Educational Resources

I’ve been teaching critical thinking for many years, and I’ve developed a short, free, Creative Commons-licensed text that’s useful for a brief (maybe 3 week?) critical thinking section in any intro philosophy or composition course (or really, just about any course; it’s been used at my college by professors from a number of departments.)


The Undergraduate 2013, Saint Mary's College of California 2013 Saint Mary's College of California

The Undergraduate 2013, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.


Diplomatic Communication In Response To Religious Conflict, Kim Alba 2013 Gonzaga University

Diplomatic Communication In Response To Religious Conflict, Kim Alba

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a strategy for diplomatic dialogue in response to religious conflict. Kenneth Burke’s theory of dramatism provides a means of rhetorical evaluation on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s response to the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that were widely seen as caused in some way by an anti-Islam video published online on YouTube. The study discusses how Clinton’s use of identification and division is used in diplomatic dialogue in order to resolve the differences caused by religious conflict, specifically in a speech at the U.S.-Morocco Strategic Dialogue on September 13, …


Crisis Communication- What Is Your Emergency?, Kaelyn Johnson 2013 Gonzaga University

Crisis Communication- What Is Your Emergency?, Kaelyn Johnson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study is a rhetorical analysis of 911 active shooter calls. Working from frame theory it examines the types of communication that occur during crisis situations. This study reviews the actual audio tapes of the Columbine Colorado School shooting, the Trolley Square Salt Lake City UT shooting and the Arizona shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford. This study provides a method for investigating the communication between caller to 911 and the telecommunicators that answer 911calls. It provides a baseline of the communication activities that are occurring and this method of communication is rapidly changing with pending text-mediated communication scheduled to take …


Immigration Reform Opponents Framing Propaganda As Fact To Influence Public Opinion, Christopher Barr 2013 Gonzaga University

Immigration Reform Opponents Framing Propaganda As Fact To Influence Public Opinion, Christopher Barr

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist (Jowett & O’Donnell, 2005). This study is to see how propaganda is used by a anti-immigrant special interest organization to frame the debate and assist the televised press to set the agenda on the topic. Specifically, the attention of the study was on the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation. The research explored in this thesis was founded on Shaw’s and McComb’s (1972) agenda-setting theory and Entman’s (1993) process of framing. The study applied …


Muted Women In American Political Discourse: Quieting The Loud Silence, Constance Michelle Skingel 2013 Gonzaga University

Muted Women In American Political Discourse: Quieting The Loud Silence, Constance Michelle Skingel

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the way women are denied an equal voice in American politics through disparities in our language structure and overt sexism. This thesis begins with a review of the literature which discusses the need for an equitable and just society and how the underlying structure of our language system is flawed in such a way that it subjugates women and inhibits the development of such a society. This is followed by a brief summary of why it is necessary for us to examine this societal disparity from the perspective of women themselves. This thesis uses a pentadic analysis …


Spectrum 2013, Saint Mary's College of California 2013 Saint Mary's College of California

Spectrum 2013, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.


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