Digital Commons Network^™

Master’S And Doctoral Theses On Second Language Writing: A Survey Of The Emerging Voices In China, Yue Chen

Masters Theses

Graduate students in China have addressed concerns about second language writing (SLW) in their theses and dissertations since 2000, but their voices are not represented in the current SLW literature. The present study aimed to investigate resident Chinese graduate students’ research in the field of SLW. The author reviewed the abstracts of all master’s theses and PhD dissertations on SLW completed in Chinese Universities between the year 2003 and 2012. The abstracts were collected from China Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database and China Master’s Theses Full-text Database. Each abstract was coded for major topic, research type, and target population. The coded …

Executive Functions And Social Interactions: Developing Social Scenarios, Mackenzie Waite

Masters Theses

The aim of this study was to develop a series of vignettes to form the basis for an assessment of executive functions (EFs) for 9 – 12 year old children. Although EFs are necessary for effective social communication and positive social interactions, currently, most EF assessments focus on impersonal activities. Little research exists that incorporates real-time processing using ecologically valid social scenarios. The current study aims to develop realistic scenarios that children could encounter in daily life. Ethnographic interviews were conducted with six participants, who worked in a school with 9-12 year old children, to gain their perspective on social …

Traversing Bourgeois Spaces: How A First-Generation College Student Makes Sense Of The Academy, Tabatha L. Roberts

Masters Theses

This thesis presents an autoethnographic interrogation of the intersections of identity for a first-generation college student (FGC) in the process of becoming an FGC PhD graduate/student. It explores the intersections of social class and power and how both concepts are embedded in educational practices, specifically through interpersonal relationships of teacher/student, and within institutions of higher education. Through the theoretical lenses of co-cultural theory and critical communication pedagogy, and the methodologies of autoethnography and the sensemaking paradigmatic framework it is possible to see how I interrogate my positionality as a working-class first-generation college graduate/student in the context of higher education institutions, …

Spice Sisters: Religion, Freedom And Escape Of Women In African American And Indian Literatures, Lovely Koshy

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on women in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and Rabindranath Tagore's three short stories. Hansberry writes during a period in America when racism, segregation, and black migration to the North weighed heavy upon the psyche of black women. Tagore writes during a time when British control, sati system, caste system, and dharma leave Indian women voiceless. Both express their disagreement with entrenched norms and institutions that have been in place for hundreds of years, a task that initially may seem to be an impossible undertaking, and unlikely to bring about expected change. This work reveals …

Active Religion: James Ireland, The Separate Baptists, And The Great Awakening In Virginia, 1760-1775, Cooper Pasque

Masters Theses

In the mid-eighteenth century, the religious fervor of the Great Awakening entered Virginia. Evangelical Baptists soon threatened to undermine the authority of the Anglican Church and its planter patrons. Despite their efforts to quiet the Baptists, evangelical religion took root in Virginia by the end of the American Revolution. Historical works on these events offer valid but incomplete explanations. Puzzling dynamics in the Virginian context require a more complex interpretation. The life of James Ireland provides a unique window into possible answers. His autobiography provides evidence for what appears to be the most fundamental reason for evangelicalism's successes in Virginia. …

Conforming To Conventions In Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, Pride And Prejudice, And Emma, Veronica Olson

Masters Theses

A major part of Jane Austen's novels consists of a critique of the societal conventions that were prevalent in Regency England. Through a study of Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma, it can be seen that Austen marginalizes those characters who chose conformity to social conventions. Contrariwise, the characters who exhibit a greater degree of autonomy within their patriarchal culture become the focus of the narrative. In looking at societal conventions concerning money, gender roles, and class status in conjunction with Austen's portrayal of various characters in the three novels, Austen's own views about conformity to societal conventions are …

No Greater Love: Recognition, Transformation, And Friendship In The Harry Potter Series, Stephen Parish

Masters Theses

Nobody today doubts the momentous influence the Harry Potter series has had on a generation of readers. Many scholars and critics assume Harry's place amongst other great works of children's literature, and indeed the series has brought about a revival in children's literature scholarship. Despite this popularity, many critics question the series' aesthetics, its attention to moral demeanor. Therefore, what element exists in Harry Potter that could enforce its aesthetic quality? Based on a rhetorical reading of the texts, my thesis upholds the aesthetic nature of the books through an analysis of the trio's friendship and and its impact on …

Life Inside The Spectacle: David Foster Wallace, George Saunders, And Storytelling In The Age Of Entertainment, John Hawkins

Masters Theses

This project explores George Saunders's In Persuasion Nation and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest as interventionary literature. The thesis asserts that the two works confront the problems of isolation and dehumanization created by entertainment-based consumerism; they do so by depicting satirically exaggerated consumer societies and placing well-developed, sympathetic characters in those settings. The thesis includes a consideration of Jameson and deBord's theories of spectacle and Wallace's stated concerns with postmodern irony as an ineffective form of critique.

Putting Down Roots: A Tolkienian Conception Of Place, Kayla Snow

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the way in which J.R.R. Tolkien's develops and expresses his nuanced sense of place through his major literary works--namely, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tolkien's sense of place, as expressed through his fiction, encompasses both metaphysical and geographical relational structures that are operative at both the local and global levels. As Tolkien develops his sense of place in his fiction, he draws from the Distributist principles--largely informed by Catholic social policy of the late nineteenth century and popularized by G.K. Chesterton--to build the economy in Middle-earth. The resulting economy resists industrialization …

For Want Of Sloops, Water Casks, And Rum: The Difficulties Of Logistics In The Canadian Theater Of The Seven Years War, Daniel Bazan

Masters Theses

The thesis examines the various difficulties with logistics the British needed to overcome in Canada during the Seven Years War and those who helped . Without the necessary supplies and provisions for frontier campaigning, Britain would have lost the war. The thesis provides primary accounts of the geography during the war, various logistical factors, and the men that helped provide the necessary materials for the successful outcome of the British offensive in Canada.

Disease, War, And Famine In The Sudan And Haiti: A Crisis Noticed And A Crisis Ignored, Melissa Whalen

Masters Theses

The media acts as a gatekeeper and decides what material to cover and what not to cover. In order to better understand why one disaster receives media coverage and another crisis is virtually unnoticed by the media, the motives behind covering one story over another is analyzed in this study. Three major American newspaper articles concerning the Haitian earthquake and the crisis in Darfur are examined in order to discover the media's motives for covering Haiti over Darfur.

The Tweet's The Thing: Exploring The Intersection Of Social Media And Broadway, Hilary Sutton

Masters Theses

In 2009 the little known Broadway musical Next to Normal rose to fame through the aid of an unprecedented Twitter campaign conducted by Situation Interactive, a digital marketing agency. The Next to Normal Twitter account gathered over one million followers throughout a six-week campaign in which the Situation Interactive team joined forces with the book writer and lyricist of Next to Normal to recreate the plot in one hundred and forty-character snippets. By analyzing the data collected the researcher cultivates a collection of best practices for running a successful Twitter marketing campaign for a live experience.

The Story Of Your Life On A Single Page: Assessing The Narrative Coherence Of Life Storytelling Through Facebook's Timeline Profile Design, Joseph Marcus

Masters Theses

Facebook's transition to the Timeline profile design brought with it a new focus: Life storytelling. Walther Fisher posited the narrative paradigm as a way of understanding all communication in the form of stories. The paradigmatic component of coherence assesses the structural integrity of a narrative, the characters, and the encompassing themes found within. This study applies narrative coherence to the Timeline profile design to assess the coherence of life narratives told through individuals' Facebook Timelines. The researcher observed the Timeline profiles of 15 participants on the basis of three research questions. The researcher's observation yielded data suggesting that life narratives …

"And Do You Take This Stranger To Be Your Lawfully Wedded Wife?": The Usefulness Of Social Penetration Theory Within Premarital Counseling, Katherine Beich-Forkner

Masters Theses

With fifty percent of today's marriages ending in divorce, one begins to wonder if engaged couples should be more prepared when entering into a marriage commitment. This mixed-methods study investigates the function of social penetration theory within premarital counseling programs. The research was designed to address three questions: (1) Do engaged couples believe they know the depth and breadth of their partner adequately enough to be prepared for marriage after receiving premarital counseling? (2) Do counselors indirectly support the basic premise of social penetration theory by actively using strategies to help engaged partners reveal important aspects of the breadth and …

The Phenomenon Behind The Bite: Altercasting As It Applies To Apple Technology, Elizabeth Baldwin

Masters Theses

This paper investigates how the brand Apple markets their product so that consumers feel obligated to buy their product. By looking at five main categories of brand loyalty, environmentally friendly practices, being up-to-date with technology, pricing with value and customer service, this paper will rhetorically analyze how successful of a job it does. To get an inside look at what the public thought on the the way that Apple fulfilled their altercasting this paper analyzed what people said about Apple verses competing technology brands. By drawing overall conclusions, recording trends and making observations about the way that people had been …

A Response To Clark Pinnock's Hope For The Unevangelized As Seen In A Wideness In God's Mercy, Joshua Covert

Masters Theses

This paper will offer a response to Clark H. Pinnock's hope for the unevangelized as seen in A Wideness in God's Mercy. Pinnock argues that God saves individuals based upon their faith not primarily their knowledge. Pinnock develops a concept called the faith principle which he uses to support his claims. Pinnock provides five examples of unevangelized persons who are saved through faith without knowledge of Christ. Through Pinnock's faith principle and these five examples he argues that the unevangelized do not need special revelation - knowledge of Christ. It will be argued that the five examples provided by Pinnock …

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations: The Failed Redeemers And The Fate Of The Orphan, Rebekah Overbey

Masters Theses

The figure of the orphan is scattered throughout the pages of Victorian novels, though few novelists created orphans that were quite as memorable as Charles Dickens. Lonely orphans and abused children appear in nearly all of Dickens' fictional works; in the novels in which the orphan is the main character, this innocent, helpless orphan is often adopted by a wealthy and benevolent benefactor, and the orphan is thus redeemed by a dramatic rescue. In Great Expectations, however, Dickens inverts this redemption by rescue that was so characteristic of his earlier novels. Instead of an innocent, helpless child, Great Expectations has …

Weaver Of Allegory: John Bunyan's Use Of The Medieval Theme Of Vice And Virtue As Devotional Writer And Social Critic In The Holy War, David Madsen

Masters Theses

The literary artistry of Bunyan's The Holy War is overshadowed by the longstanding popularity of his greatest-known work The Pilgrim's Progress. However, The Holy War displays an impressive intricately-woven story with several complex strands of allegorical meaning. One such strand is its emphasis on the theme of virtue and vice in literature of the Middle Ages. In The Holy War, Bunyan applies this thematic thread from the Medieval Psychomachia and morality plays to his allegory in seventeenth-century Restoration England. The present research begins with an exploration of allegory as story with emphasis on Bunyan's role as storyteller in general and …

The African American/Black Male Experience At Grand Valley State University: Implications For The Future, Reba Loret Oguntokun

Masters Theses

Researchers note that African American male students are disadvantaged by several social, psychosocial, and institutional factors. These factors affect their enrollment, retention, and graduation rates. This study, guided by Critical Race Theory in education, explores the lived experiences of African American male students at Grand Valley State University through in-depth interviews and the utilization of qualitative data analysis. Findings reveal that social, psychosocial, and institutional factors had the ability to positively or negatively affect the academic success of the participants. The issues most frequently mentioned by participants were public school education, minority status stressors (MSS), stereotype threat, environmental incongruency, differential …

Future Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Competence, Andrew Baalerud

Masters Theses

There is a lack of research regarding the implications for foreign language study and intercultural competence. Scholars suggest that foreign language proficiency plays a role in cultivating intercultural competence, but agree that there is a lack of empirical evidence supporting this notion. Research also shows that foreign language teachers are ethnocentric. Many educators and foreign language programs use a framework developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) to promote language learning. This framework also possesses key elements in promoting intercultural competence. This study addressed whether a pre-service, ACTFL-guided teaching component of the curriculum had an …

Perceptions Of Creativity Among Faculty In Higher Education, Ellie Melissa Potter

Masters Theses

Higher education instructors do not sufficiently incorporate creativity in the teaching and learning environments within which they operate. While there is a great deal of research available regarding creativity and primary or secondary education, there is little research available regarding creativity and higher education. This study contributes to that gap of knowledge by surveying faculty members in one institution of higher education in order to understand their perspectives regarding creativity, both as it relates to being a creative individual and to teaching others to be creative themselves. There were 358 faculty members who participated in the online survey designed specifically …

Managing Tribal Lands And Resources In Michigan: Tribal, State, And Federal Influence, Elise M. Crafts

Masters Theses

Michigan Indigenous Tribes, along with the State and Federal government, are key players in current environmental management programs and policy. The current relationship between these three entities is not clearly defined. Using qualitative data collected through collaborative interviews with employees and members of multiple Michigan Tribes, this study narrates the present dynamic of the Tribal-State-Federal environmental relationship. The Federal government's legal obligation to Michigan Tribes may mitigate potential tension between Tribal and Federal environmental departments, as Tribal-Federal communication is historically established by treaty. Across the country, Federal, State and Tribal departments face similar environmental concerns but the extent to which …

Comic Book Fandom And Stigma Consciousness, Dennis R. Gagliardo

Masters Theses

This research project explores the concept of stigma consciousness as applied to the subculture of comic book fandom. Integrating the disciplines of social psychology and cultural studies, this study examines the dynamic and socially constructed nature of the stigma process as applied to the specific cultural form of the American comic book, while identifying and measuring several variables of potential influence on perceptions of the hierarchy of American cultural values. The purpose is to address an existing gap in the academic literature of fan studies in regards to the marginalization and stigmatization of fan cultures as experienced by the members …

Inquiry Based Curriculum In A Public School Art Room: Aesthetic Education And Lincoln Center Institute, Jacqueline Denaway

Masters Theses

This thesis takes an in-depth look at the history of the Lincoln Center Institute (LCI), specifically its aesthetic education philosophy and practices. Included is analysis of the origin of aesthetic education and important philosophical views related to it. Emphasis is placed on the ideas of Maxine Greene, whose philosophy is the core of Lincoln Center Institute, as well as the key skills that are acquired when learning through aesthetic means. Lincoln Center Institute has been a leader in arts education and aesthetic education for several decades. This paper will explore how LCI's philosophy of aesthetic education differs from other philosophies …

The Internet And Mass Society: Civic Engagement In The Digital Age, Simon J. Purdy

Masters Theses

In this study, the relationship between Internet use and civic engagement is examined. Building off of the work of previous researchers, which has found no clear relationship between Internet use and civic engagement, this analysis attempts to find differences between those who are civically engaged at different levels, in terms of Internet use, types of civic engagement and feelings of being able to affect change through civic engagement. Several hypotheses about this relationship are tested using data collected from undergraduate students at a medium sized Midwestern university with an online survey method. The statistical analysis entails building a series of …

Investigation Of The Closing Forces Involved In Re-Approximation Of The Renal Remnant Following Partial Nephrectomy, Donald M. Endres Ii

Masters Theses

Partial nephrectomy has become the preferred method of treatment in certain renal diseases, including small, peripheral tumors. However, re-establishment of hemostasis in the remaining tissue remains a challenging procedure. To better understand the forces involved in re-approximation of the renal remnant, this study measures the suture tensions reached in sliding clip renorrhaphy, as well as the ability of the tissue to support those tensions, and reviews how long suture material might be expected to survive those forces.

Three separate groups of experiments were conducted on fresh, porcine kidney tissue. Treatment groups were compared using commercially available software to compute appropriate …

Content Analysis Of British Petroleum And Tokyo Electric Power Company's Crisis Communication Messages. Comparative Analysis Of Crisis Communication Strategies, Viktoryia Abramenka

Masters Theses

This research analyzes the crisis communication messages of the two organizations British Petroleum (BP) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). The study looks at organizations' press-releases, Facebook updates and tweets. The research looks at detecting four main themes in the companies' crisis communication messages: trust, collaboration, commitment, and interactivity. This study then goes on to look at the crisis communication strategies.

BP's 60 press releases and 70 Facebook updates along with TEPCO's 60 press releases and 65 tweets were analyzed. The findings of the research showed that BP mainly addressed the company's commitment to resolve the crisis. Additionally, the organization …

Egyptian Diasporas, Social Media, And The 2011 Egyptian Revolution: How Egyptians Living In Saudi Arabia Used Social Media During The Revolution, Maisoon O. Al-Sebaei

Masters Theses

In the last few years, the Arab world has been shifting to new technology, particularly social media, to create new connections and spaces for public engagement. This technology has opened new prospects in freedom of expression, especially in political reforms. Through the recent Arab Spring events, social media platforms have been helping cyberactivists for social changes. The 2011 Egyptian revolution is a prime example to show how social media platforms were used to ignite strikers and overthrow the autocratic regime. At the same time, the number and size of diasporas in the Middle East are increasing. Yet scholars have not …

Preschoolers With Speech And Language Impairment: Case Studies From A Teacher-Delivered Phonological Awareness Program, Katherine J. Wickham

Masters Theses

Past and present research demonstrates early reading success related to phonological awareness (PA) instruction conducted individually or in small groups outside of the preschool classroom. This study investigated the effects of an explicit, intensive and teacher-delivered PA instruction for children with speech sound disorder and language impairment as part of the preschool curriculum. The investigator examined the performance of individual cases in both groups, those who received instruction and the control. Two participants in each of the experimental (E1 and E2) and control (C1 and C2) groups had standardized scores indicating deficits in speech and/or language. These children who received …

Refresh. Create. Inspire. The Mission, Vision And Values Behind The Coca-Cola Company And The Digital Marketing Strategies Of The "Open Happiness" Campaign, Sara Svendsen

Masters Theses

Due to the influence of Coca-Cola on advertising, digital marketing, and marketing strategies, the present rhetorical analysis seeks to show the many aspects of digital media in the Company's present "Open Happiness" campaign. The study of the campaign seeks to show that the Company mission statement, Company values and the vision of The Coca-Cola Company are implemented into all of the different facets of the Open Happiness campaign, and in the context of Mood Management Theory, exude the overall theme of the campaign, happiness. The parts of the campaign that were analyzed were focused on the YouTube channels of The …