Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Globalizing The Local In The Silkair Mi 185 Crash Investigation, Kyle Mattson

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

While effective definitions of culture and broader theories of intercultural complexity can help frame the work of professional communicators on worksites and projects of international importance, these definitions and theories may not fully prepare practitioners for complex motives at play in the development of some transnationally momentous documents. Moreover, even though professional communicators may benefit from working definitions of national and communal cultures, such knowledge and articulations are not enough when transnationally disparate jurisdictions intersect decision-making. These administrative assemblages (see A. Ong, 2005, 2006, 2008) function as hierarchies that complicate intercultural work in ways professional communicators have not fully considered. …

Cultural Polysemy: Exploring Cultural Codes Through Digital And Non-Digital Practices, Anirban Ray

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Culture is a coherent entity we use for describing our cooperative interests with others in political, social, and historical contexts. Culture is functional in that it is defined through individual and collective articulations in time and space. Its representations occur through macro categories of nations, race, habits, practices, and values as embodied in the following models: contexting (Hall, 1976); value orientation (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961); cultural dimension (Hofstede, 1996); Seven-Dimensions of culture (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 1997); Seven Value Types (Schwartz, 1999). Culture also gets defined in terms of its situatedness based on specificity of contexts and practices: social constructionist approach …

Operationalizing Culture With Design Cards In Cross-Cultural Design: Translating Critical Knowledge Into Provocative Insights, Huatong Sun

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Operationalizing culture is “one of the most fundamental issues cross-cultural researchers face” (Matsumoto & Jones, 2009, p. 324), as stated in The Handbook of Social Research Ethics. Inconsiderate research design could “ignore the large degree of individual differences that exist in human behavior” (p. 325) and eventually “vindicate” cultural stereotypes the researchers mean to avoid.

In the field of cross-cultural design, a big challenge is how to inform and guide the design process with a sophisticated understanding of culture. This design challenge is a contextualized problem of operationalizing culture in practice. Insensitive design recommendations could end up strengthening the cultural …

Towards A Contingent Intercultural Methodology: The 2012 QuéBec Student Strikes And The Rhetorics Of Universality, Nathan Franklin

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

In the following article, I argue that speculative realism offers intercultural researchers heuristics to observe intercultural spaces without having to pay exclusive attention to the relationships present within those spaces. In other words, intercultural spaces can be considered independent of the researcher’s mind, because they are co-created by intercultural researchers (Cummings, 2014, p. 129). Following Gabriel (2014), perspectives on intercultural spaces are just as real as the spaces themselves. It is intellectually unproductive, however, to compile a list of all possible perspectives on an intercultural space to know what it truly is, which is what the local only approach to …

Intercultural Connectivism: Introducing Personal Learning Networks, Ann Hill Duin, Joseph Moses

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Global connectivity makes intercultural communication an increasingly common experience. Providing students with insight and practice in intercultural communication is increasingly imperative. As Thatcher (2010) stated in the inaugural issue of this journal:

"We have a large task ahead of us: to develop and operationalize models of intercultural rhetoric and professional communication in the context of globalization (p. 14)... We need to especially pay attention to how new communication and information technologies require different etic frames for common human thresholds of interaction… How do we assess communicative purpose and media selection in global contexts? How do we plan for audience-author relations, …

Translocal Pragmatics: Operationalizing Postnational Heuristics To Locate Salient Cultural Overlap, Massimo Verzella, Andrew Mara

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The importance of creating projects that allow students enrolled in American universities to collaborate with students enrolled in foreign institutions cannot be overemphasized. However, for these projects to be effective in terms of learning outcomes, it is important that instructors identify the factors that either prevent or prompt fruitful collaboration across cultural boundaries. The power of cultural boundaries demands that research on intercultural communication conceptualize and measure cultural difference. Additionally, research on intercultural communication has been irrevocably altered by the pace of communication technology change that allows for rapid and rich cross-cultural communication across great distances. An understanding of culture …

Editor's Introduction, Guiseppe Getto

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Researchers and practitioners of technical and professional communication deal with culture on a daily basis. We are members of an increasingly complex communication infrastructure that is global in scope and that is fueled by the proliferation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) within all aspects of our lives. We are citizens of nations around the world that contain their own laws, rules, and customs. We are members of professional fields and academic disciplines that carry with them particular conceptions of knowledge-making, power, and competency. We are also members of organizations, institutions, and communities that we must navigate on a daily …

Multilingual Writers In The Mexican Sociocultural Context: Towards Improved Pedagogical Practices In The U.S., Virginia Locastro

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Currently, the education of Latina/o students in the United States for higher education and future careers comprises multiple moving parts. As the U.S. educational system, in particular the Pre-K-12 years of schooling, struggles despite efforts to address the needs of all students, both native English speakers as well as English language learners (ELLs), to better prepare them to enter institutions of tertiary education and succeed in careers, various organizations and consortiums articulate more rigorous educational standards (WIDA and the Common Core Standards as two examples). These recent proposals focus on academic literacy skills, in particular on reading and writing skills …

La Variedad Local En La EnseñAnza Del EspañOl En Eeuu: Una Propuesta PedagóGica, Rebeca Acevedo

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

La realidad sociolingüística del idioma español del siglo XXI es la de una lengua global y pluri-normativa. Se estima que el español es una lengua empleada por alrededor de 495 millones de hablantes (Instituto Cervantes, versión electrónica). Con ello el español, tras el chino mandarín, ocupa el segundo lugar dentro de las lenguas más habladas en el mundo; y se ubica en la cuarta posición en cuanto a lengua materna. Con esta concepción del español como lengua global se ha superado la posición purista que consideraba la variedad europea como la única norma estándar. Bajo este pluricentralismo del idioma español …

Metadiscourse In Book Reviews In English And Brazilian Portuguese: A Corpus-Based Analysis, Luciana Junqueiria, Viviana Cortes

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Book reviews play different roles in academia. They are used in the selection of what books to read and purchase (Carvalho, 2001) and as a vehicle for publication and visibility, especially for graduate students and novice scholars (Hyland, 2000; Motta-Roth, 2001). Scholars and graduate students must do a great amount of reading in order to stay up to date in any given field, as scientific knowledge has become more and more widespread. This task is undeniably challenging given the amount of time and resources needed for such updating (Carvalho, 2002; Suárez & Moreno, 2008). Academics need to be selective about …

Writing And Rhetoric Along The U.S.-Mexico Border, Barry Thatcher, Kelly Medina-López, Omar Montoya

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Recently, our field has seen a strong surge in the interest in writing across borders, multilingual and ESL writing, and globalization and rhetoric (see, for example, the 2010 Penn State Conference on Border Rhetorics; 2014 Border Rhetorics, Rhetoric Society of America). This surge parallels, in many ways, the growing enrollment of international student populations and second-language writers in U.S. writing programs, which is widely documented (Roberge, Siegal, & Harlau, 2009; Matsuda, 2009). Given this development, it would seem appropriate or even natural that writing programs would be developing curriculum to meet the needs of these multilingual students. In fact, that …

Writing The Literature Review: Challenges Of Two Mexican Novice Writers, Hilda Hidalgo, Rosa María Funderburk Razo

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Writing a thesis or dissertation is not an easy task (Bitchener, 2009; O’Connell & Jin, 2001; Meloy, 2002); this kind of writing may also represent a particularly more difficult endeavor when it comes to novice writers who also happen to be non-native speakers of English (NNS) who can struggle not only with the linguistic demands but also with the characteristics of its discourse of this genre\sub-genre.

Non-Convergent Literacy Practices And Dominican Students In The U.S., Andrea Parmegiani, Sharon Utakis

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This paper presents a literature review to articulate a pedagogical rationale for integrating English writing instruction with writing instruction in Spanish as a strategy for improving success rates among Spanish speaking ESL students (SS-ESL) at Hispanic serving institutions such as Bronx Community College (BCC), where we both teach ESL. This rationale underpinned the creation of a new learning community cluster that was piloted at BCC in Fall 2013. The cluster included an advanced ESL class, a Spanish composition class, and a Freshmen Year Seminar (FYS). Success indicators for the students enrolled in this cluster were very promising.

The Discourse Of First-Year Writers At Border Sites: Discerning The Transcultural, Bilinguistic Strategies Of English Language Learners In College, Beatrice Méndez-Newman

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, 9.8% of students enrolled in American elementary and secondary public schools are officially classified as English Language Learners (ELL) (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). In border states and states with high numbers of immigrant populations, such as Texas, Florida, New York, California, New Mexico, and Arizona, the ELL percentage is much higher. In Texas, for example, 17% of public school students are classified as ELL (Texas Education Agency, 2012). According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, 0% of college students in public higher education institutions are English Language Learners. In truth, this is …

Review Of Information Overload: An International Challenge For Professional Engineers And Technical Communicators. Judith B. Strother, Jan M. Ulijn, And Zohra Fazal Hoboken, Nj: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. 279 Pp., Shawanda Stewart

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Information Overload: An International Challenge for Professional Engineers and Technical Communicators is the first text to be introduced as part of the Professional Engineering Communication book series and is committed to examining, sharing, and advancing global communication practices in technical, scientific, and engineering fields. This book, effectively organized for multiple and interdisciplinary audiences—students, industry professionals, and researchers alike—provides a consistent format for relaying multifaceted content that ties together three main concepts: forms of information overload, technology, and communication. Information Overload is organized in two sections: Section I: Causes and Costs of Information Overload and Section II: Control and Reduction of …

Comparison As A Mode Of Inquiry: Rearticulating The Contexts Of Intercultural Communication, Lance Cummings

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Comparative inquiry has a long history in the scientific, sociological, and linguistic traditions that embody much of the work being done in English studies, including technical, professional, and intercultural communication. Generally speaking, comparative methods are often used to explain variation in human behavior, often with the assumption that there is a common source from which this variation springs, whether it be historical change, cognitive structures like universal grammar, social entities, or just “human nature.” As we move into what Wendy Hesford (2006) called the “global turn” in English studies, the phenomena of globalization and shifting classroom, cultural, and communicative ecologies …

Towards A Cultural Rhetorics Methodology: Making Research Matter With Multi-Generational Women From The Little Traverse Bay Band, Andrea M. Riley Mukavetz

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Almost five years ago, I started working on two oral history projects with a group of multi-generational, urban Odawa women from Lansing, Michigan. I met these women while working with one of the community elders on developing her life history into a book for publication. About four weeks into the project, the elder, Geri, suggested that we do another oral history with more Odawa women from the area. Together, we developed and organized three talking circles where the women shared stories about their lived experiences and their roles and responsibilities at work, in the community, and while pursuing a formal …

Methodological Journey: Lessons Learned From A Student-Led Intercultural Pilot Study, Ryan James Price, Rebecca Walton, Matthew Petersen

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

New technical communication scholars face the challenge of developing cultural competence in order to effectively and appropriately carry out intercultural research. With interculturally competent technical communicators in increasingly high demand, instructors wrestle with the challenge of preparing students for cross-cultural work environments (Melton, 2011; Smith & Mikelonis, 2011; St.Amant, 2011). The field has adopted a wide variety of globalization-driven, culture-conscious educational practices over the past few decades, but a knowledge gap still persists regarding how to equip new scholars with training and tools that are necessary for building cultural competence, particularly as it relates to designing and conducting research. In …

Digital Ethnography For Intercultural Professional Communication: Some Best Practice Principles, Michael Madson

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

With global compressions of time and space, intercultural contact is heightening. Digital networks are converging. Perhaps more than ever before, professional communicators require cultural and technical savvy, allowing them to navigate, in a principled manner, digitally-mediated contexts (Spilka, 2010). Since no mediation is value neutral, digital technologies can spark intercultural friction (Thatcher, 2004; Warshauer, 2003, p. 6), blur ethical codes (Capurro, 2008; Himma, 2008), and perpetuate colonial relations (Ess & Sudweeks, 2012, p. xvi). How to operate in such complex, power-laden environments is a central concern in intercultural professional communication (IPC) and merits additional inquiry.

Designing For Engagement: Intercultural Communication And/As Participatory Design, Guiseppe Getto

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Within rhetoric and professional communication, intercultural research has most often focused on such elements of communication situations as languages, issues regarding translation, and adaptation to culturally situated value systems of interlocutors (Maylath, 1997; St.Amant, 1999; Thatcher, 2010; Wang, 2010). Technological infrastructure for intercultural situations, however, is largely conceived of as a material base upon which communication runs. If we consider an infrastructure as a dynamic meeting of communicators, modes of communication, and technologies, however, it is unclear how we might apply existing intercultural research methods and findings to the design of such communication systems. As a heuristic for moving toward …