Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

“Finding A Balance”: User, Reader, And Learner Functions In First-Year Composition Textbook Engagement, Travis Vincent Holt

English Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative, multiple participant case study investigates the phenomenon of student textbook engagement in a First-Year Composition course at a private, evangelical four-year university. Shifting away from a dominant history where textbooks served as the primary object of study (Besser et al., 1999; Carr, Carr, & Schultz, 2005; Colby, 2013; Connors, 1987; Edwards, 1984; Faigley, 1992; Gale & Gale, 1999; Hawhee, 1999; Issitt, 2004; Miles, 2000; Ohmann, 1979; Rendleman, 2009, 2011; Welch, 1987), I answered calls (Colby, 2013; Harris, 2012; Rendleman, 2009, 2011) to examine engagement with textbooks in context. Additionally, scholars have dominated discussions of textbooks; thus, the student …

Addressing Public Perceptions About Cell-Based Meat And Cellular Agriculture Through Metaphors, Yvette Emma Hubbard

English Theses & Dissertations

Today’s food movement places organic, holistic, and natural foods as priority. The idea aims for better human health, a farm-to-table community, and environmental sustainability. Soon a new meat alternative will become part of the ongoing food movement. What is it? Cell-based protein. It is a protein alternative to livestock protein. It is real protein from a real breathing animal. Cell-based beef for example is grown in a lab with cells from a living cow that does not have to die or be slaughtered. It is destined to become the new protein architecture on the horizon. Parts of this paper are …

The Limits Of Critical Rhetoric: Towards A Postcritical Orientation, James Bezotte

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 1989, Raymie McKerrow’s essay “Critical Rhetoric: Theory and Praxis” served as a culmination for a new mode of rhetorical analysis that would reshape the field in the decades following. His essay combined the works of Michel Foucault and other rhetoric scholars such as Michael McGee, Maurice Charland, and Philip Wander to create the method of discourse critique called “critical rhetoric.” Essential to this practice are McKerrow’s equally important and interrelated “critique of domination,” “critique of freedom,” and “permanent criticism.” These components respectively help critics identify where social change should occur within discourses of power, motivate realignments of power for …

From Fast Fashion To Sustainable Slow Fashion, Isabel Agatha Millward-Pena

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to express a need for sustainability within the fast fashion industry, in the form of cultural movement that acts as alternative to the current means of production, consumption, and philosophies. Sustainability within current popular discourses is often human-centered and lacking authenticity, thus I aim to highlight an alternative that is opposite of that. In doing such, I bring to light the negative effects of the industry through a case study on the fast fashion company SHEIN, who claim to be making sustainable efforts. I analyzed SHEIN’s 2021 Sustainability and Social Impact Report (SSIR), focusing …

Lesson Plan For Hyflex Introduction To College Writing Course, Maureen Haggerty

Open Educational Resources

This is a lesson plan specifically created for a HyFlex class: in-person, synchronous and asynchronous. It is geared for an introductory English composition course but can be modified for another as long as the licensing agreement for the included TED Talks are adhered to. This lesson plan uses two TED Talks as a springboard for students to discuss the topic of technology: technology and human connection. Rather than use text, students will unpack the videos through discussion and use the videos for exercises in summary and paraphrase. This was designed for a four-hour class but can be tailored according to …

An Action Research Study On Lms Assessment Tools And Faculty Practice In English Composition Courses Of A Community College, Sophia Mitra

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods action research study aimed to understand the use of LMS assessment tools by faculty teaching English Composition (Eng 101) at a New Jersey Community College in order to increase that use for assessment of outcomes. In spite of administrative push for faculty to use the LMS for data based decision-making, there is still limited use of LMS tools. In writing-intensive fields like Eng 101 grading and feedback could be accelerated along with monitoring student performance on outcomes using LMS assessment tools. Forming a virtual faculty learning committee that collaborated in the study's data collection and analysis, volunteers …

Twine 7: Immaculate, Ryenne Carroll

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Need to Know

When writing the concept for the game, I wrote this with some form of an understanding of the Persona 5 universe, but I do hope that within the limited storytelling with the minimalistic format, I wrote the lore for this twine game in a way that needs minimal understanding of any other games.

Game Inspirations

The game was inspired by Persona 5, where I drew the inspiration of having a reflective world that ran on purifying hearts. I also drew inspiration from NieR: Automata, which lightly discussed the idea of what beauty actually means, and the lengths …

Twine 6: Deathly Afraid, Jahliem Brown

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Deathly Afraid's key concept is to scare the player and make them question their choices. I thought of different ideas and scenarios on how my game will present itself to the players. A constant theme in horror games is to make players choose a path of light or dark. The light side is when the player decides to be a hero, risks their life to save others and becomes the one to solve the mysterious evil that hunts the town or kills everybody. The dark side allows the player to explore the evil side by being the main villain and …

Twine 5: 2099: Project Icarus, Nick Devitz

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

For my Choose Your Own Adventure project, I created a cyberpunk, action-oriented story called 2099: Project Icarus. In this story you play as an unnamed, ungendered character who I imagined players giving any identity to them that they wished. The protagonist is a quick-thinking problem solver, able to adapt to any situation they are facing. The story, is that you were fired from your job at a company called Xerxes Technologies, after digging into an incident you believe they were trying to cover up. The main objective of the story is to bring down Xerxes, with hard evidence of their …

Twine 4: The Cost, Nicole Williams

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

The Cost is an interactive fiction told through second person, following the character (“you”) as they wake up to discover themselves in a world they hardly remember. Outside there is an apocalypse, and a doctor has fixed the character to help rectify the world. While there are choices to make at the end, all of them are focused on “immortality” and what the cost of that is.

I came into the process of this game with the world already in my mind, knowing that I wanted it to be an apocalypse type of story. But besides that, I didn’t know …

Twine 3: We Must Be Killers, Oliver Mckeone

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

I’ve always been a fan of murder mysteries, that much is true, but “We Must Be Killers” is a murder mystery based on “Who Killed Markiplier?”, a video based murder mystery made by YouTuber Mark “Markiplier” Fischbach. After watching Mark make a murder mystery where all his friends played roles as various characters, I figured it’d be fun to make “We Must Be Killers” along a similar vein. Each character is based on one of my friends, with input from them about what they wanted their characters to be like. I’ve had this idea bouncing around in my head for …

Twine 2: A Western, Matthew Bandy

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

My game has changed a lot since I originally came up with the concept. Obviously, I took inspiration from western media such as deadwood, Clint Eastwood films, and Red Dead Redemption. The game ended up much more in-depth than I originally planned, but I don’t believe that to be a bad thing in of itself. I believe the biggest flaw of this game was my inexperience with coding. I had so many ideas to add – inventory lists, a map, special text effects – but I didn’t have the knowledge or time to implement these. I think, though, I still …

Twine 1: Shepherding, Alexander Rainer

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

Shepherding will technically be the second creation in a greater project of mine I’ve been calling Project Bleak. The first creation is unfinished and still a WIP, but is meant to be an anomalous NES-style game called Bleak. The story behind it is that evidence of an obscure game development team from the late era of NES games has resurfaced, and a community of lost media gurus, classic game experts, and similar people (plus anyone else who wants to help) has formed to hopefully unravel the mystery of who they were.

Bleak is really just meant to be an odd …

Conference Program 2022, Sandra M. Leonard

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

Misticismo Y Arcadismo En El Villancico Novohispano. Manuel De Sumaya Y Sus Contemporáneos, Luciana Kube Tamayo

Vernacular: New Connections in Language, Literature, & Culture

El siglo XVIII trajo consigo una evolución estilística vertiginosa en todas las artes. La plástica, la literatura y la música confluyen y sirven de soporte a un arte nuevo, el Rococó. La floración churrigueresca está intensamente presente, además de en lienzos y biombos, en el vocabulario de la lírica de la Nueva España; a la vez que se afianzan los modelos religiosos, por un lado, se asientan los modelos pastoriles por otro. En cuanto a la espiritualidad, los modelos se encuentran encajados en la miniatura poética y el ingenio dieciochesco, desbordante de naturaleza y fantasía. En el presente trabajo me …

The Pedagogical Pitfalls Of Literature In College Composition And Teacher Education: A Foundational Analysis, Rinn Norman

Symposium of Student Scholars

Many of today’s college students struggle with college-level writing in Standard English, and during the last few decades, educators, parents, and experts in countless professional fields have begun to express a collective frustration over the quality of college graduates’ written English. However, this lack of quality in students’ and graduates’ writing is not due to laziness or generational differences, but rather a foundational shortcoming in the use of literary texts as the basis for instructional material in lower-level composition classes. This paper examines the traditional use of literature-based instruction in first-year composition (FYC) classes as well as undergraduate and graduate …

Whose Body Is Deserving: Discourse, Power, And Ideologies Concerning Non-Normative Bodies On Instagram, Misty Thomas

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation uses FCDA to investigate the construction and control of the boundaries of normativity as they relate to the body. Data in the form of comments was collected from three different Instagram accounts run by individuals with non-normative bodies. From the data, I argue that not only are non-normative bodies controlled through the coded language of health, but through racialized dehumanization. Even alleged demonstrations of support are problematized through what is being supported. The Instagram comments left on the accounts of non-normative bodies demonstrates that these bodies are suppressed as a way to maintain normative ideologies.

English Is Not Dead! Long Live English: Teaching The Evolution Of English And Inclusive Communication Via Online, Face To Face Or Hybrid Instruction, Teresa Marie Kelly, Stephanie Thompson, Sheryl Bone

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

When popular media and many individuals discuss changes in English, some erroneously contend that the language has always been the same and changes amount to little more than “politically correct woke liberalism” desired by only certain people. The English language continually evolves as a natural process that nothing can force nor prevent. Field-specific language also changes with increased understanding and knowledge. The variety of English taught to most students also shifts as Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)/Writing Across Disciplines (WAD) initiatives increasingly focus on Global English rather than the standard of any one country or group. Even informal interactions with …

Writing Center Resources, Samantha Hince

Honors Projects

This project facilitated the composition of a series of resources for the Bridgewater College Writing Center website, part of the MyBC online portal. The result was thirty resources on writing-related topics such as the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, and revising; citation styles and avoiding plagiarism; and grammar, mechanics, and style. These resources are available to Bridgewater College students, faculty, and staff. The primary purpose of these resources is to assist Writing Center tutors during tutoring sessions with students and to provide supplemental writing assistance for students. Project development was based on research into college writing centers and best practices …

How Social Media’S Rhetoric Shapes The Social Identity Of Online Groups: Forming, Confirming And Reinforcing And The Algorithmic Role, Crystal Rose

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The world has become integrated with technology at a rapid rate. The rhetoric of online platforms, due to technology integration, allows people to connect, converse, and meet others who have common character traits. Eyman (2015) defines rhetoric as an action that intends to persuade and form meaning. These platforms are referred to as "social media," which are online networks made by people who use rhetoric to form, confirm, and reinforce the connections of platform users with common character traits: Hobbies, thoughts, race, gender, or religion. These common character traits make up one's social identity. This study details the findings of …