Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

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 …

Metaphors Of Memory: Complexity And The Fourth Canon, Amber Lee

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines four main sites of memory scholarship (bodily memory, historical and historiographical memory, material memory, and digital memory), arguing that at each site, memory is treated in ways which are inconsistent with most current scholarly understandings of how it operates. Each chapter focuses on one of the major sites of memory scholarship, demonstrating how particular uses of keywords at that site undercut its own attempt to address memory’s complexity. In the process, I lay the groundwork for alternative conceptions of memory in that site that offer new avenues for memory research.

Dewey In The Digital Age: Experiential Composition And Reflection As Transformation, Danielle Shumaker Page

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the act of composing as a transformational, ongoing event and offers digital reflection as a tool for first-year writing students to evaluate their own writing practices. I analyze student vlogs produced in response to an assignment that asked students to produce digital reflections on their work as writers across the process of completing a final course project. My findings suggest that adapting experiential learning principles, digital and non-digital, into composition classroom design creates and facilitates writing experiences that are immersive and transformational. Crucial to designing learning occasions is the process of active reflection upon what the writer …

Composing In The Discomfort Of Institutional Violence, Cruz Medina

English

This short piece reflects on the 50th anniversary of the journal Composition Studies, discussing the need for more scholarship on Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the journal. This piece holds up an article by Aja Martinez on CRT in Composition Studies as an example of the work that the journal and field need to continue to engage with, especially in light of the events of 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Social Construction Of Language: Identity, Reality, And Trauma In American Composition Courses, Joselyne Campos

All NMU Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the ways in which instructors have the potential to reinforce or disrupt systems of oppression and power in the composition classroom through language, writing, and rhetoric. I draw upon pedagogical and rhetorical theorists, to analyze how language closely interacts with identity and how it impacts an individual's understanding and perception of reality. I consider how texts utilize language to communicate normative citizenship and challenge students' conceptions of the world around them, and how to teach from an anti-racist perspective that incorporates critical pedagogy and does not focus solely on minoritized communities’ trauma …

Creating Discursive Spaces To Promote Productive Discourse And Dissuading Sectarianism In Online Political Enclaves On Tiktok, Kenneth Root

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last ten years social media has emerged as a major space for political discussion and the dissemination of information. On open platforms such Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, algorithms personalize each user’s experience and tailor the posts they see to their specific interests and tastes. What this eventually leads to are echo chambers or discursive enclaves centered around anything from history to mental illness to extreme political ideologies. Within these enclaves, users almost exclusively see and interact with content that aligns with their group’s interest, and in the case of political enclaves this can and does lead to further …

The Gay Agenda: Being Accepted In Children’S Media, Tiffany Wells

Honors College Theses

For many LGBTQ+ children, there is a lack of representation of their identities in the television shows they see growing up. We turn to objects, like television characters, to help “find our way,” which becomes limited for individuals who are part of the minority (Ahmed 1). When television shows reflect a variety of lived experiences, they can increase cultural competence in their viewers. While LGBTQ+ representation in children’s media has increased, it is still difficult to implement such representation. This thesis we will discuss three shows, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and The Owl House, that have struggled with the implementation …

Participatory Archives And Archives Of Participation, Jason W. Luther

College of Communication & Creative Arts Departmental Research

No abstract provided.

Dismantling Structural Systems Of Oppression Through A Revolutionized Pedagogy, Ambar A. Quintanilla

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No abstract provided.

“My Woman’S Voice, My Sexual Voice, My Poet’S Voice”: Poetics Of Sensuality As Reclamation Of Memory And Self In Yesika Salgado’S Tesoro, Jessie C. Bullard

Toyon: Multilingual Literary Magazine

No previous publications.

The Fence, Lashaundra S. Tyler

Theses and Dissertations

Historically, Standard American English (SAE) has been seen as superior to African American Vernacular English (AAVE), but both languages can be used interchangeably through the linguistic practice of code-switching. Code-switching pedagogies have been used to more effectively teach elementary students SAE while building on their knowledge of AAVE. Additionally, games have been inserted into the classroom to extend traditional English-language learning, which allows students to embody the language-learning experience in a setting with lower stakes and reduced judgment. Combining code-switching pedagogy with game-based learning, my game The Fence can be used in the classroom and at home to teach children …

Writing Supports For Honors Thesis Students: An Applied Program Evaluation Study, Krysta Banke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This pragmatic study identifies the writing supports embedded in documentation and coursework for students working on honors theses in the USF Judy Genshaft Honors College, thereby addressing the most challenging and stressful regular honors experience. This mixed-methods study draws on writing process and post-process theories and Self-Determination Theory (SDT), as well as the task analysis component of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), to answer these four research questions:

• What honors thesis program components and practices are writing supports-- resources and/or actions that appear to support student writing--at the programmatic, curricular, assignment, and pedagogical levels?
• Do the writing supports align with …

The Dreams And Consequences Of Literary Geography: Or, Does Literature End At The Interstate?, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Looking at the idea of how writers are connected to space, place, and land, especially within the context of cities or states, this essay explores the notion of how boundaries are determined in describing writers and how useful this is.

Test File, Sandra M. Leonard

KUCC -- Kutztown University Composition Conference

No abstract provided.

Γλύκοπικρος & Bittersweet: An Autoethnographic Approach To Studying Abroad In Greece, Margaret Rieckman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The purpose of this study is to answer the question: How can reflection via an autoethnographic approach promote sought-after outcomes of a semester studying abroad? Through an anthropological lens, I completed field work, kept field notes, and wrote a reflexive blog to navigate the social processes of learning to belong in another place within the context of a multicultural environment of study abroad program with Erasmus students. Through autoethnography as a methodology and a text, I utilized linguistic analysis to identify key themes that represent my transformative experience. The personal, emotional, and intellectual growth I experienced was made transformative by …

Pad Beyond The Classroom: Integrating Pad In The Scrum Workplace, Jade S. Weiss

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The “story” format used in Scrum ticket writing is confusing to developers and leadsto insufficient ticket content, which lends to miscommunication between team members and administrators, and disrupts workflow from the bottom up. A burgeoning methodology in Technical Writing, Purpose, Audience, Design (PAD) is an alternative ticket format that is easier to teach developers and improves the aforementioned conditions than the existing “story” format. The goal of this paper is to lay out why and how PAD can benefit developers on smaller Scrum teams who are tasked with writing their own tickets. This paper does not offer solutions for …

Ethical-Reparative Reconfigurations Of The Literary Today, André Cechinel

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This essay aims to debate the evidence of an ethical-reparative function for literature and literary studies today. Therefore, it is divided into two fundamental moments, two argumentative channels that, without a totalizing intention, point out the general perspective of the current, changing, stuation. On the one hand, the literature of the 20th century is presented through the image of a supposed negativity or radical intransitivity, capable of “undoing the work” in its “aesthetics of suppression.” On the other hand, from an introductory debate around some of the places of transitivity envisioned for literature at the beginning of the 21th century, …

“It Is Not All That Bad”—Hitler And Identity-Building In Er Ist Wieder Da (Look Who’S Back), Yuan Xue

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In Germany, multiculturalism and “leading culture” (Leitkultur) are a pair of closely connected but opposite concepts. Multiculturalism has been accused of being the main reason why culture loses its core cohesion. Despite the persistence of calls for a leading culture in Germany in recent years, many scholars argue that the concept is also problematic. A monopolistic leading culture may be hard to realize in an already pluralistic Europe. I argue that the choice between the two reflects the dilemma of the establishment of German cultural identity. Focusing on the German bestseller Er ist wieder da (Look Who’s Back, 2012), this …

On A Small Glossary Of Academic Anti-Intellectualism, William Díaz Villarreal

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

This article presents the Small Glossary of Anti-intellectualism, where the most common rhetorical strategies and themes of contemporary academic anti-intellectualism are commented on. Anti-intellectualism is as old as intellectual life itself. However, its contemporary version is historically and sociologically rooted in the very structure of modern culture industry. It is a manifestation of a now universal pseudo-culture (Halbbildung) which, according to Adorno, has become the “dominant form of contemporary consciousness.” Arthur Schlesinger said that anti-intellectualism has long been the anti-Semitism of the businessman; today, anti-intellectualism is certainly the antisemitism of several social and political groups, including academia …