Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

The Flight Attendants Of Academia: Liminality, Emotional Labor, And Feminization In Graduate Student Writing Program Administrators, Laura Vidal Chiesa

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Writing Program Administration (WPA) is an interdisciplinary field that addresses the management and development of writing programs in educational institutions. WPA entails writing instruction pedagogy, curriculum design, assessment, and faculty development pertaining to the teaching of writing. Graduate students in Humanities and English-based programs typically fill this position which can offer a career trajectory. However, the position is often experienced as demanding, unrewarding and does not deliver on the career-enhancing experience it seems to promise. Historically, this is unsurprising given that the position has been a subordinated role occupied by women in composition. And yet, the troubles besetting contemporary graduate …

Right Turn At Reality: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Right Wing Negotiations On Race And Masculinity In Online Spaces, Andrew R.J. Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of right wing politically charged violence are more visible now than at any other point in recent American history. The Internet, and social media more specifically, has become a crucial nexus point in the dissemination of decentralized Alt-Right propaganda. The visual nature of social media has increased the importance of images a means of communication. Through this thesis, I analyze artifacts coming out of these spaces representing a conversation between creators and audiences, and how they work dialogically to introduce and reify symbols of white masculine supremacy within this subgroup. Through this process, I find multiple recurring patterns …

La Descortesía En Los Comentarios Digitales De La Prensa Deportiva. El Tenis, Mucho Más Que Un Juego, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

Comments on sports news published on the digital platforms of newspapers have turned these spaces into forums for debate in which homogeneous social communities are established. The aim of this research is to find out how the participants of these platforms interact in the sports press and what impoliteness strategies they use when evaluating the text of the news and the comments of other users. For this purpose, a qualitative textual analysis of a corpus of 1,000 digital comments produced on the Australian Open 2022 final in four of the most widely distributed Spanish newspapers with the highest national circulation, …

From Prison Zooms To Hospital Rooms: Unmasking The Positives Of Remote Education, Molly Chao Yeselson

Scripps Senior Theses

From Prison Zooms to Hospital Rooms: Unmasking the Positives of Remote Education is the culmination of a seven-year battle for my life and my education. Remote and hybrid education are perpetually identified as the cause of pandemic-era learning deficits. My project seeks to challenge such rhetoric by detailing the positive educational experience I, a student with a disability, along with my incarcerated peers, have had thanks to distance learning. I argue that as the world shifts from a pandemic to an endemic approach to COVID-19, higher education must keep its virtual doors open to nontraditional students.

“My Purpose Is To Assist”: How Chatgpt Can Push Liberal Arts Institutions To Think Critically About Themselves, Clare B. Martin

Scripps Senior Theses

Since its release, ChatGPT, a chatbot specialized in writing content and answering questions in response to user prompts, has posed an unclear threat to liberal arts institutions. Can it serve as an effective tool for cheating? Can its responses replace work done in the liberal arts? This thesis argues that ChatGPT’s limitations—particularly its inability to think critically—prevent it from replacing real liberal arts work, which involves questioning, critique, and re-examination. If anything, this thesis suggests, ChatGPT can push liberal arts institutions to better promote critical thinking by serving as a litmus test for liberal arts-level work.

Robert Watson’S Lectures At St. Andrews: Logic, Rhetoric And Metaphysics, Rosaleen Greene-Smith Keefe

Studies in Scottish Literature

Examines the contributions to rhetoric of Robert Watson (1730?-1781), Professor of Logic, Rhetoric, and Metaphysics at the University of St. Andrews from
1756-1778, and Principal from 1778-1781, based on surviving manuscript sources at St Andrews, and demonstrates the philosophic diversity in rhetorical theory at this time, showing differences among the Scottish literati on the epistemology of language and the origin of grammar, identifying some contrasts and connections between Watson and his near contemporaries Adam Smith, Hugh Blair, and George Campbell, and suggesting his distinctive place in the development of 18th century rhetoric and the history of English studies.

Rhetoric And Affect In Undergraduate Research: A Diary Study, Kristine Johnson, J. Michael Rifenburg

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In this article, we examine undergraduate research as a site of rhetorical development by listening to undergraduate researchers narrate and reflect upon their work as it unfolds. We draw from diary entries and follow-up interviews with eighteen undergraduate researchers at two different institutions, analyzing the rhetorical and affective elements of undergraduate research. Connecting undergraduate research with the concept of meaningful writing, we conclude by offering recommendations for teachers, mentors, and administrators.

Situating Heirloom Presence Within The Family Narrative: That Is/Was Then, This Is/Was Now, Rachel Savorelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intramundane objects often become “intergenerational transfers of contaminated objects,” commonly known as heirlooms (Belk 151; Heisley and Cours 425; Holmes). Rather than priceless possessions, heirlooms are mostly ordinary objects, such as photographs and gardening tools. Regardless of rarity or monetary value, as familial artifacts, heirlooms compel an ethic of responsibility. For this project, the term “heirlooming” is a performance of communicative practices of story-telling, ritualizing, and kin-keeping that contribute to heirloom preservation and continuation. A narrative ethics background structures family communication to both make meaning and make sense of ongoing and changing practices across generations. Heirlooms situated within family narratives …

Spatial Metaphors In Introductory Statements Of Humanities And Stem Disciplines: A Study Of English And Mechanical Engineering Departments, Olalekan T. Adepoju

Publications and Research

Advances in higher education, specifically in science and technology, have engendered a significant shift of interest from a mainly liberal arts curriculum to STEM-related fields of study, creating a rift in the value systems undergirding the two academic domains. One of the ways the disciplinary disparity is institutionally expressed is through the language used in describing the core values of these disciplines, specifically in the introductory statements of departments. Using the lens of spatial metaphor to consider how the language expresses distinct realities that align with the public perceptions of the disciplines, this paper examines the metaphorical framings in the …

Future Climate Rhetorics Of Belize: A Counter-Apocalyptic Inquiry Into Belize’S Possible, Probable, And Preferable Futures, André Habet

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates future climate rhetorics of Belize through a variety of methods in order to mediate the various conceptions of the future professed in climate policy, experiential phenomenology, and acoustic ecologies of agroecology. Chapter one considers the values embedded in climate change policy documents, specifically the Nation Communications documents composed by Belize’s various ministries since the country signed to the Paris Agreement in 2016. Using the People’s Agreement of Cochamba as an alternative lens, the chapter explores how people-centered, as opposed to market-centered, attunements informing climate policy can potentially lead to a more just, equitable future that does not …

Developing A Corequisite Writing Textbook: How Two Novices Handled The Complex Nature Of Open Textbook Production, Dawn Atkinson, Stacey Corbitt

Writing

Despite the growing body of scholarship focused on Open Educational Resources (OERs), studies tracking open textbook production are exceedingly rare. To gain insight into the complexities associated with open textbook development, this article’s authors used concurrent verbalisation and pre- and post-concurrent verbalisation interviews to document writing episodes while composing their first coursebook, an open-source text designed for corequisite course pairings of writing fundamentals and introduction to technical writing. Corequisite classes combine content-area instruction with explicit skill-building opportunities, and although commercial publishing houses do produce corequisite textbooks for traditional general education courses, the authors were impelled by the need to create …

Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

“I’ve done my research.” Misinformation has become a prevalent topic in communication courses, particularly those focused on argumentation, public speaking, or even interpersonal and family communication. Students thus benefit from adapting public speaking-focused assignments to illuminate how to understand - and thus combat- disinformation in their own lives. This assignment works toward this goal in two stages, allowing students to argue not just against misinformation and conspiracies, but also to argue for them as an act of empathy and understanding. The applied nature of this exercise also empowers instructors with a way to concretely address this issue in the classroom. …

“People Don’T Always Show Up The Way You Want Them To”: Utilizing The Hunger Games To Differentiate Between Persuasion, Coercion, Propaganda, And Manipulation, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The ability to define and conceptualize persuasion and its nuances without engaging in coercion, propaganda, and/or manipulation can be difficult for students at first. This activity centralizes the fine points among these persuasive concepts. Students also recognize the role of their audience in the persuasive messages that they create. Rather than only having a conversation about the common characteristics of these terms and how they differ, students can observe them within the fictional movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Lawrence, 2014). After discussing these ideas with their classmates, students then apply what they have learned by creating persuasive messages …

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Daca On Education & Employment And The Need For A Permanent Solution, Autumn Roemer

Honors Theses

On June 15, 2012 the Department of Homeland Security announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an executive order from the President Barack Obama Administration, providing relief for undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. when they were children. The move followed decades of litigation and failed actions in Congress, such as the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, attempting to address the group, known as DREAMers. DACA itself has also faced numerous challenges concerning its legality and application, the most recent of which have declared the program illegal, resulting in a halt on new applications and …

John O'Malley As A Guide For Eloquentia Perfecta, Community-Engaged Work, And Graduate Education, Allen Brizee, Stephanie Hurter Brizee, Colten Biro, Meha Gupta

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

John O’Malley, S.J., was primarily a Jesuit and Catholic historian. But to scholars in writing studies, his work is illuminative due to his rhetorical analysis of church documents and his discussion of eloquentia perfecta when examining Jesuit education. More recently, in works like “’Not for Ourselves Alone,” he stresses the importance of Jesuit education focusing on the betterment of others inside and outside of the academy. During an interview conducted four months before his death, O’Malley restated the necessity of Jesuit education including writing and vita activa, that is, active civic life. In this article, we pay tribute to …

Toward A More Humane Public Policy: How The Humanities Can, And Should, Inform The Creation And Analysis Of Public Policy, Eric Celler

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone investigates how the methodologies of the humanities can inform the creation and analysis of public policy. Since the mid-twentieth century, public policy has increasingly turned away from humanistic questions and toward technical questions. The result has been a public policy regime that focuses too much on manipulable variables and not on the humans that the policies are impacting. By applying humanistic methodologies to public policy, we are more likely to appreciate the inarticulable elements of human social organization and therefore devise public policy that is less harmful and more humble.

Feedback Conversations: An Activity To Initiate Instructor-Student Dialogues About Writing Development, Sarah M. Lacy

Journal of Response to Writing

In this essay I discuss the pedagogical implications of a classroom activity in which students work reflectively with instructor feedback provided to their writing. Using the comments feature in Google Docs, these “Feedback Conversations” create a dialogue between student and instructor using feedback as the exigence for collaboration in developing a student’s writing process. This activity addresses the work of Anthony Edgington (2020) and Pamela Gay (1998), by offering an exercise which allows instructors to remain reflective on their feedback practices, while also instigating a “conversation” between student and instructor. By offering a virtual space to house this conversational exercise, …

Feedback Practices In Hybrid Writing Courses: Instructor Choices About Modality And Timing, Ariel M. Goldenthal, Jessica Matthews, Courtney Adams Wooten, Brian Fitzpatrick, Lourdes Fernandez

Journal of Response to Writing

Despite a wealth of research on feedback practices in synchronous and asynchronous courses, little has been done to investigate such practices in hybrid writing pedagogy. How do instructors make choices about providing feedback when both instructional modes are operating in a course?

A qualitative study conducted with fourteen instructors who teach hybrid writing courses at a large state university reveals how they navigate a series of choices about providing feedback on student writing. This study shows that instructional modality, use of the LMS, and labor conditions influence the decisions instructors make about how and when to provide feedback, especially on …

Framing Contexts And Immersion: The Functionality Of Trpg Frames In Dimension 20’S Fantasy High Series, Lyndsey Clark

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper uses a form of rhetorical criticism known as frame analysis to analyze the perspective frames within the context of tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs). The three frames of interest in this study include the person frame, the player frame, and the character frame. These frames are used to contextualize certain person, player, and character interactions and immersion contexts within the first season of Dimension 20’s actual play podcast, Fantasy High. Through these three frames, we can see the breakdown of the person, player, and character mindset, as well as the overlap of thought, emotions, and ideas between …