Digital Commons Network^™

Communicating To Persuade: The Effects Of Language Power And Nonverbal Immediacy On The Efficacy Of Persuasion, Natavan M. Gadzhiyeva

Communication

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of powerful speech and nonverbal immediacy on the efficacy of persuasion in a hypothetical sales presentation. Language power and nonverbal immediacy were hypothesized to affect persuasiveness through the potentially powerful nature of both, and to have an interaction effect on persuasiveness. A sample of 211 undergraduate students at a Northwestern University voluntarily completed an online survey, which contained a video clip of a sales presentation. Each participant randomly viewed one of four video clips, which differed in terms of language power (high vs low) and nonverbal immediacy (high vs low). …

Building Non-Profit Communities Online: A Case Study Of A Hospital Facebook Page, Mary Parker

All Theses

Businesses and organizations are increasingly using online communities to extend brand loyalty from the real world to the virtual world of consumers and other key stakeholders. However, the return on investment for launching an online community can only be realized when appropriate audiences are attracted and interact. This two-phase research study explores a recently launched online community representing a rural hospital in South Carolina. This thesis includes a literature review, in-depth description of the methodology I used, results of a survey and textual analysis of a Facebook page, and a discussion of best practices and future suggestions. I hope that …

August 28, 1963: Building Community Through Collective Discourse, Jennifer Nestelberger

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The August 28, 1963 March on Washington is often remembered primarily for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, which serves as the pinnacle of civil rights movement oratory. This thesis, in contrast, examines speeches of the leaders of the "Big Six" organizations that preceded King's well-known words in order to shed light on the complexities of the movement and the outcomes that can result from meaningful dissent. Occurring at a time of division, the March emerged as a symbol of hope for change in the nation. The addresses of the day reflected this hope and helped build …

From A Rodent To A Rhetorician: An Ideological Analysis Of George Alexander Kennedy's Comparative Rhetoric, James Begley

Masters Theses

George Alexander Kennedy, a professor of classics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has given birth to a new understanding of rhetorical studies: he argues for the evolution of rhetoric from animals to humans. Using Sonja Foss's methodology of "ideological criticism," this thesis examined Kennedy's case as presented in his book, Comparative Rhetoric: an Historical and Cross-Cultural Introduction. This study discovered that the book was heavily influenced by a secular, pro-evolutionary ideology which dually contributed to its selective use of scientific evidences and production of inconsistent arguments. Evaluated on the basis of Biblical principles, this thesis concluded …

Digital Rhetoric: Doing Things With Words Online, Lisa M. Russell

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

It is through rhetorical principles applied to digital writing that online writers can be heard above the din confronting weary online browsers. The synergy between classical rhetoric and new media practices leads to persuasive and memorable digital writing. Despite the hurried clip and the complex nature of technology, grounding writing in firm rhetorical concepts can produce compelling online content. The purpose of this capstone project is to teach specific audiences how to do things with words online through a series of three modules whose unifying themes include the broad topics of targeting niche audiences, persuasive writing, and using the digital …

Hoodie Today, Gown Tomorrow: An Ideological Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender-Neutral Clothing, Meridith Irene Styer

Masters Theses

The fields of psychology and sociology have long understood the importance of clothing in self-formation, this study extrapolates this social-science understanding into the realm of rhetorical analysis. This study looks at gender-neutral clothing and its role in meaning making and self identification for women. With a rhetorical basis from Richards and Ogden, this research uses the feminist works of Brummett and Butler to uncover both the positive and negatives effects of gender-neutral clothing on a woman's self-identification and perceptions. Through the presentation of a diffuse narrative and evaluation of the same, gender-neutral clothing is read and decoded for meaning. This …

Burke, Rhetoric And The Doctor: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Doctor Who, Kemp Nishan Muñiz

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This paper performs a rhetorical analysis of the science-fiction program, Doctor Who, using theories from Kenneth Burke. Series Five of the show is analyzed using Burke’s theory of identification, the representative anecdote and the dramatistic pentad. The analysis with identification theory exemplifies the show’s ability to create identification with the audience that, in turn, drives the audience to watch. While the identification connects the audience to the show, the pentad explains how the characters of the show are driven by a pursuit of idealistic humanism rooted in individuality. The final analysis demonstrates that the program embraces more of a representative …

Narrative And Drama In The American Trial, Robert P. Burns

Faculty Working Papers

This short essay summarizes an understanding of the trial as a medium in which law is realized or actualized, rather than imposed or enforced. It suggests that we should pay close attention to the actual practices that prevail at trial, its "consciously structured hybrid" of languages and practices, if we want to understand the nature of law.

Connecting Burke And Levinas: A Counter To The Rhetoric And Ethics Of Expediency, Gerry Joseph Morrow

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis exlores the current rhetoric of expediency in the United States and the expedient ethical perspective it fosters. It argues that the competitive rhetoric of corporate America has not only invaded every sector of society, but that it has caused untold human suffering by promoting what has become a mind-set, an expedient ideology.

King Of Kings: Human Rights Rhetoric And Regional Security In The Shah's Iran, 1968-1978, Bennett Gabriel Sherry

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the spring of 1968, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi’s personal rule and Iran’s domestic stability were at an all-time high. For five years, Iran had enjoyed the boons of the Shah’s White Revolution. This program of economic and social reform had placed Iran on the path to becoming one of the most populous, prosperous, and powerful nations in the Middle East. In January 1968 the United Kingdom announced it would withdraw its military from the Persian Gulf. The Shah seized upon this opportunity and that provided by the promulgation of the Nixon Doctrine in 1969 to put Iran on the …

Prose And Polarization: Environmental Literature And The Challenges To Constructive Discourse, Paige E. Costello

CMC Senior Theses

This work explores how authors employ literary modes to persuade readers towards one side or another of the environmental debate and whether the works promote constructive discourse on environmental issues. It uses two seminal works from each side of the environmental discourse, Silent Spring and The Population Bomb and The Ultimate Resource and The Skeptical Environmentalist, to analyze stylistic differences and similarities, to compare public reception, and to explain the increasing polarization of environmental discourse.

A Shift To Narrativity, Derek H. Kiernan-Johnson

Publications

Slipshod, inconsistent use of core Applied Legal Storytelling terminology muddles its discourse and hampers its growth. Refining the field’s vocabulary is essential, but insufficient, as exclusive focus on the field’s objects of inquiry, such as story and narrative, and the means of creating or conveying them, such as storytelling and narrating, risks losing the “A” in ALS. We need a new focus, one unburdened by the ambiguities and negative associations of existing options that more accurately reflects Applied Legal Storytelling scholars’ unique contributions. A shift to narrativity. Narrativity, as imagined here, is a top-level quality of a legal text or …

Writing Across Institutions: Studying The Curricular And Extracurricular Journeys Of Latina/O Students Transitioning From High School To College, Todd Ruecker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is based on a year and a half multi-institutional study of seven Mexican American students transitioning from high school to a community college or a university. It explores the differences between high school, community college, and university literacy environments, focusing on the following: the impact of standardized testing at the high school level, the role of rhetoric and composition disciplinary expertise in shaping first-year composition (FYC) curricula, writing in the disciplines, and the digital divide between institutions. Seven case studies examine students' literacy experiences across institutions as well as both challenges and sources of support in and beyond …

The Historical Context During The 1964-1984 Period Of The National Writing Project: Its Importance To The Fields Of Rhetoric, Composition, And Teacher Education, Kay Lester Mooy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Historical Context of the National Writing Project (NWP) is a broad inquiry into the core values and importance of theory-driven pedagogical "best practices." This dissertation situates the teaching of writing within societal changes as well as changes in the disciplines. The researcher interviewed six primary sources (all participants in the first summer institute of the NWP) in a total of nine interviews. The research also reviews secondary sources and examines the personal documents of Gray twice, once before they were archived and once after archival procedures were begun. Results indicate that in the early days of the NWP theory …

"You Are Safe": Black Maternal Politics Of Resistance And The Question Of Community Consensus In African American Women's Literature, Daniela Marinova Koleva

Theses and Dissertations

The study focuses on a number of African American women's literary texts that employ the figure of the black mother and the motif of infanticide to engage in critical statements about system arrangements, repressive practices, and theory designs with direct effect upon black people's choices for organizing their lives and existence. Such critical statements are inevitably political and their construction is offered in a most provocative and startling way given the choice of maternal infanticide to make the claims.

Angelina Weld Grimke's "The Closing Door" (1919), Georgia Douglas Johnson's Safe (c.1929), Shirley Graham's It's Morning (c. 1938-1940), and Toni Morrison's …

In The Name Of Citizenship: The Writing Classroom And The Promise Of Citizenship, Amy J. Wan

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Composing @Play, Jonathan Lashley

All Theses

Modern college students traverse the boundaries of traditional literacy daily. Maturing alongside Web 2.0 and multimodal social networking, these young people tweet, blog, email, film, photograph, illustrate, hyperlink, and compose their lives regardless of formal instruction. Therefore rhetorically analyzing a student's recreational play with image, video, audio, and oral mediums often proves helpful for writing instructors who wish to better mentor and engage the communicative capacities of those born in the late 20th century and after. Yet few educators have actively pursued this line of inquiry over the last couple of decades. Many continue to favor traditional pairing of academic …

Framing Health Care Across The Pond: A Comparative Content Analysis Of Elite Newspapers In The Us And Uk During The 2009 American Health Policy Debate, Jackson Bales Foote

Theses

This study analyzes content from eight leading newspapers in the United States and United Kingdom during ten months of the 2009 American health care policy debate, identifying emergent issue-specific health care frames that manifest themselves in key framing devices, like metaphors, exemplars, catchphrases, and depictions. This exploratory, quantitive frame analysis is conducted in a cross-cultural context to facilitate generalizable comparisons about how the news media in different countries frame social welfare policy through symbolic and rhetorical elements. A principal component analysis is used to reduce the health care-specific variables into four frames: access, choice, rising costs, and market competition. The …

The Genre Of Abolition Rhetoric And Frederick Douglass' "What To The American Slave Is The Fourth Of July?", Kelsey Lauren Fisher

Communication Studies

In this paper, I identify the critical elements that characterize the genre of abolition rhetoric. Then, I offer Frederick Douglass' speech, "What to the American Slave is the Fourth of July?", as the ideal abolitionist speech.

Integrating Multimodal Composition Techniques In First-Year Writing Courses: Theory And Praxis, Bret Zawilski

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The body of this thesis seeks to explore the costs and benefits of instituting a multimodal composition pedagogy within first-year writing. Contested definitions of multimodality and multimedia provide a background for delving into the printed-word dominated discourse, where image, sound, and animation are all placed in a subordinate position relative to that of the written word. Within, many theories of multimodality and composition pedagogy are placed in contrast with one another in an attempt to discern connections in the body of already published theoretical material. The primary method of data collection for this document involved the investigation of secondary sources …

Law And Economics As A Rhetorical Perspective In Law, Michael D. Murray

Law Faculty Publications

Law and Economics as a Rhetorical Perspective in Law

Michael D. Murray

Abstract

This article introduces twenty-first century law and economics as a school of contemporary legal rhetoric to test and improve general legal discourse in areas beyond the economic analysis of law. My article is the first to examine the prescriptive implications of the rhetoric of law and economics for general legal discourse as opposed to examining the benefits and limitations of the economic analysis of law itself. This article advances the conversation in two areas: the study and understanding of the persuasiveness of law and economics and the …

Understanding The National Science Foundation Career Award Proposal Genre: A Rhetorical, Ethnographic, And System Perspective, David M. Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With tightening university budgets, never before has the activity level of research grant proposal writing been more intense. With increased proposal numbers, including for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) prestigious CAREER award, has also come increased competition and decreased funding rates. This dissertation has searched for successful and unsuccessful characteristics from funded and unfunded CAREER proposals.

The research focused on a study of two key subjects: 1) a corpus of 20 texts that included 12 funded proposals and 8 unfunded proposals from across NSF programs, and 2) an ethnographic analysis comprised from interviews with 14 NSF program officers (PO) from …

Rethinking Success: A Person-Based Approach To Service Learning, Ryan Cales

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the nature of service learning projects that are structured to make interventions in rhetorical spheres and seek to achieve social change on a smaller scale rather striving for grander, or even systemic, change. In structuring community projects that include inherently limited interventions and equally limited goals, I argue that such projects should be open to immediate adjustments within themselves –to abandon any particular form or goal—to satisfy the immediate needs of the individuals served. I draw upon my work with a reintegration program for ex-offenders in Richmond, Virginia called Working with Conviction to help demonstrate that service …

Philosophy, Science, And Belles-Lettres In Syriac And Christian Arabic Literature: A Gentle Introduction And Survey, Adam C. Mccollum

HMML Lectures

It might be assumed that the genres of Syriac and Christian Arabic literature are made up exclusively (or almost so) of sacred topics (Bible, commentary, liturgy, asceticism, hagiography, theology, etc.), the writers, scribes, and readers in these communities often being monks, presbyters, deacons, and bishops. A broad look at the surviving evidence of this literature, however, shows an immense interest in subjects not directly connected to the church, monastery, or Christian life at all, among them philosophy, science, and belles-lettres. This paper offers a basic overview of these subjects as Syriac and Christian Arabic authors dealt with them, especially from …

Defining And Addressing Expectations For L2 Writers Across Disciplines, Lindsey Ives, Tom Pierce, Michael Schwartz

Publications

A presentation divided into three sections: Student Perspectives given by Michael Schwartz, Teacher Perspectives given by Lindsey Ives, and Administrator Perspectives given by Tom Pierce.

Sticky Metaphors And The Persistence Of The Traditional Voluntary Manslaughter Doctrine, Elise J. Percy, Joseph L. Hoffman, Steven J. Sherman

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article begins with a curious puzzle: Why has the traditional voluntary manslaughter doctrine in criminal law-the so-called "heat of passion" defense to a charge of murder-proven so resistant to change, even in the face of more than a half-century of seemingly compelling empirical and normative arguments in favor of doctrinal reform? What could possibly account for the traditional doctrine's surprising resilience? In this Article, we propose a solution to this puzzle. The Article introduces a new conceptual theory about metaphor-the "sticky metaphor" theory-that highlights an important aspect of metaphorical language and metaphorical thought that has been almost completely overlooked …

Transmission Overhaul: Negotiating The Shift In Information And Knowledge Construction Among Generation M, Thomas Timothy Hite

Theses Digitization Project

This research draws upon recent research in the area of digital semiotics and offers a framework of remediation in the attempt to encourage the acceptance of digital composition as a valid space of rhetorical production.

Taking A Deep Breadth: The Rhetorical Construction Of Solidarity In The American Labor Movement, William O'Shannon Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the rhetorical fragments in three case studies of the American Labor Movement constituting movement members in solidarity. Using Kenneth Burke's discussion of rhetorical substance, this project explores the possibilities for developing deep and broad forms of solidarity within the American Labor Movement. Rhetorical fragments of the Industrial Workers of the World, the United Farm Workers, and contingent faculty unionization efforts are explored.

I argue Burke's ideas of substance and identification provide a powerful lens through which we can examine the solidary practices of social movements. Through the examination of the case studies mentioned, I demonstrate that solidarity …

Healing The Cartesian Split: Understanding And Renewing Pathos In Academic Writing, Travis Washburn

Library Research Grants

No abstract provided.

Liminal Practice In A Maturing Writing Department, Louise Wetherbee Phelps

English Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph]

In Spring 2011 I was awarded a Fulbright Specialist Grant to "consult, collaborate, and inform" on the future of the Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications at the University of Winnipeg, located in the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada. The Department of Rhetoric, Writing, and Communications department (hereafter, RWC) was a pioneer in writing instruction in Canada, where it became the first unit to establish itself independently as a department with a full-‐time faculty committed to both teaching and scholarship in writing and rhetoric. It remains a rare phenomenon on the Canadian higher education scene, where studies …