Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Legal Discourse, Conceptual Metaphors, And Basic Writing Programming: A Study Of Ayers V. Fordice, Joyce Olewski Inman

Dissertations

In what ways does legal discourse influence our perceptions of students labeled as basic writers and these students’ perceptions of themselves? How does standards-based discourse affect student writers’ abilities to define themselves in academe? This dissertation involves an examination of legal and public discourse surrounding Ayers v. Fordice, one of the most prominent desegregation cases in higher education, in an attempt to answer these questions. Its intent is to explore how conceptual metaphors prevalent in these discourses affect our understandings of basic writing programming in the state of Mississippi but also in the field of composition more globally.

My …

Predicting Student Success In Passing The Exit Exam For Writing Proficiency, Cheryl Ann Latko

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the Exit Exam of Writing Proficiency (EEWP) and the variables that may impact the probability of a student passing the EEWP. The EEWP is one of the graduation requirements for all undergraduate students at a mid-sized four-year university in the mid-Atlantic region. The purpose of the EEWP is to ensure that undergraduates demonstrate clear, concise, and professional writing skills.

The literature discusses general issues with student writing skills specific to the field of human services, as they relate to teacher educators, developmental education, and the field of human services. Student demographics, such …

Houses Of Hospitality: The Material Rhetoric Of Dorothy Day And The Catholic Worker, Sean Michael Barnette

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents an analysis of the material practice of hospitality in the Catholic Worker movement during the 1930s. Dorothy Day (1897-1980), a radical Catholic social activist, co-founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1932, and one of the movement’s goals was to provide hospitality to poor and unemployed people. Day’s understanding of hospitality, and consequently the practice of hospitality at Catholic Worker houses, was shaped by Day’s experiences as a radical during the 1910s and 1920s, her conversion to Roman Catholicism, and her notions of gender; each of these factors led Day to understand hospitality as consisting primarily in materially …

Constructive Engagement: Second Life In The Composition Classroom, Richard Nathan Samuelson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The recent development of digital tools has spurred educators to think differently about how they teach and how they can use computers in their classrooms. The use of virtual worlds, in particular Second Life, in higher education has been the focus of quite a few studies, although few if any researchers have evaluated the value of Second Life in a hybrid implementation of a first year composition course. This thesis is based on such an experiment—in the fall of 2010, I taught 23 students in a hybrid English 101 course that included Second Life in the first three assignments. The …

Multiple Literacies, Fragmented Identities: Arab Students At American Universities, Gamil Mohammed Al-Amrani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a combination of ethnography and case study which describes the Social and cultural context of literacy acquisition among Arab students at the University of Arkansas. I examine the power relations that define this minority group in the larger Social context and describe how these relations shape, transform, and sometimes threaten their cultural identities in the classroom. The dissertation investigates the different Social and cultural factors that facilitate or obstruct their learning process, factors such as age, gender, religion, and marital status. It explains how the students' acquisition of literacy exists within a larger dynamic process of Social …

A Rhetorical Approach To Cultural Literacies Across Media, Randy Nichols

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
A Rhetorical Approach to Cultural Literacies Across Media finds exigency in the challenges presented to students and teachers by the growing emphasis on globalization, and by the increasing demands for literacy in new media. My research develops a theoretical model for a rhetorical reading of cultural ―texts‖ in the context of cross-cultural learning experiences. This model is built on the metaphor of ―stolons,‖ those botanical strands that serve to propagate plants across wide areas into a single woven organism, i.e., a lawn. Approaching ―culture‖ as a complex organic system of a multiplicity of sources, this model of literacies evaluates …

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Master Communicator, Jonathan M. Gunderson

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

A Speech Of Defense: Obama's Apologia For Himself And The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Trevor Adams Hogan

Communication Studies

During the 2008 Presidential Election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama faced political controversy surrounding his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Videos surfaced on ABC News of Wright making racist and anti-American statements during his sermons. Obama who had strong ties to Wright over many years was criticized for his relationship with Wright. Because of their connection, Obama's political success was tied to his association with Wright. In a speech titled "A More Perfect Union", Obama makes an Apologia or defense for himself, and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Addressing the Kategoria or attacks made against himself and Wright, Obama uses the speech …

Constructing A Dream: A Close Textual Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream", Kelly Anne Hanson

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

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.

Preaching Styles: Honey & Vinegar, Logan Tavelli

Communication Studies

A look into different preaching styles.

Levi's Go Forth Campaign: A Semiotic Analysis Of "America", Christina Nicole Baker

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Rhetoric Of Plagiarism: Problems, Opportunities, And Interactions, Michael Patrick Morrison

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis explores the question of how James Madison University (JMU) communicates information concerning plagiarism policy and values to students, especially first-year composition students. The research covers some history of plagiarism issues, questions of why plagiarism is so difficult for scholars to define, why students plagiarize, and how attitudes in academia are changing as definitions continue to evolve. Overall, JMU communicates plagiarism poorly to students in their early stages of integrating into life at JMU, though the university still takes pains to inform students of the consequences of plagiarism through first-year composition instructors. The implications of this writing are an …

The Necessary Blend Of Narrative And Technology In Composition: Identity Crisis Embraced, Jessica A. Lewis

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Wendy Bishop’s work, “Suddenly Sexy: Creative Writing Rear-ends Composition,” is focused on the necessity of flexible relationships between first-year composition professors and creative nonfiction writers for the improvement of composition pedagogy. This emphasis on collaboration and merging is even more important now due to the personal relationships and self-awareness established in online writing environments. In addition to the exploration of confused definitions in expressivist theory and the negotiation that Bishop puts forth in her work, this thesis focuses on the new influences of online writing environments on writing culture. Through the process of research and narrative, Bishop’s ideals and goals …

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 …

Definitions Of Labor: A Study Of Working-Class Graduate Student Writing Instructors, Casie Janelle Fedukovich

Doctoral Dissertations

“Definitions of Labor: A Study of Working-Class Graduate Student Writing Instructors” presents six narratives of self-identified working-class graduate student writing instructors. Broadly, it explores their individual definitions of class and the pedagogical import of these definitions. Chapter One introduces the topic through radical reflexivity, as the researcher queries her own positioning in relationship to the working-class identity, before moving to detail methods and methodologies. Chapter Two provides a literature review beginning with early scholarship on Impostership Studies and moving through single-authored and collected working-class academic autobiographies. Chapters Three through Eight present the individual narratives of the participants. These interpretive chapters …

"Struggling" Adolescent Writers Describe Their Writing Experience: A Descriptive Case Study, F. Jean Mcpherron

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Four adolescents identified as struggling writers in an English language arts classroom were interviewed about their perceptions of a writing task--how they judged their capability to succeed, how they ranked their passion, persistence, and confidence about writing, and how they responded to classroom activity. Student perceptions of self-efficacy and the related self-beliefs of motivation and interest as well as self-regulation were stated and implied as students described a planning worksheet, instructional scaffolding, peer interactions, and ownership of their writing. Wersch's view of mediated action and Engestrom's model of activity systems were the lens through which the students' descriptions were analyzed. …

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 …

Writing Curriculum And The Adolescent: Addressing Skill Variance In The Classroom, Zakieh A. Mohammed

Ed.D. Dissertations

This study addressed a means of responding to the varying writing skill levels found in the standard high school classroom. A structured writing curriculum was examined through a state, national and marketed rubric, focusing upon a high-risk high school population in Chicago, IL. The research centered around cognitive learning theory, specifically, Vygotsky‘s zone of proximal development. Additionally, to account for the variance in skill level, a new measurement tool was created to quantify rigor in relation to increasingly difficult writing assessments. The longitudinal study determined that, with extended exposure, the proposed structured writing curriculum did enable students to meet state, …

Comments And The Classroom Context: Investigating Students’ Rhetorical Relationships To Instructor Response, Jeremy C. Branstad

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Jane Mathison-Fife and Peggy O'Neill, along with Nancy Summers, have decried the lack of student voices in composition studies' literature on teacher response. Responding to these researchers' concerns, I present three exploratory case studies of student readers of commentary within their classroom contexts. Using reading theory's insight that the interpretive act is always both subjective and socially situated, these case studies demonstrate that a richer literature on written feedback is possible through a consideration for student perspectives and for the cultural, institutional, and instructional factors that influence their understandings. At the same time, these case studies also illuminate the complexity …

“The Skunk At The Garden Party Of The Language Arts”: Students Weigh In On What Grammar Means To Them, Sarah Caroline Olson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I work to add new voices to an old conversation. While instructors and scholars alike have argued about the efficacy of various methods of grammar instruction, about whether grammar instruction should even be included in the English composition classroom, and about how to define grammar for more than a century, student voices have rarely entered this discussion. For this reason, I conducted a survey of student grammar conceptions within the First Year Writing Program at Boise State University, as well as follow-up focus groups. From these findings, I work to construct a denotative and connotative definition of …

The Rhetorics Of Constructing Hiv/Aids In The United States And China: A Comparative Analysis Of Two Online Discussion Forums, Jingwen Zhang

All Theses

This thesis focuses on the cross-cultural comparison of the public rhetorics that construct HIV/AIDS in two online discussion forums from the United States and China. Social constructions of HIV/AIDS have previously been explored in specific countries and cultures; however, comparative studies have rarely been conducted, especially by applying rhetorical cultural analysis focusing on online discourses. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two underexplored dimensions -- comparative rhetorical analysis and online discourse -- to show how online communications, metaphors, and topoi identified in discussion forum posts reveal and construct the idea of HIV/AIDS in the public sphere for …

Early Modern Evil Genius: Hyperconformity And Objectivity In Sixteenth And Seventeenth-Century English Literature, Christine Hoffmann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the response among early modern and postmodern audiences to the experience of information overload, and suggests that the most appealing response to living in a communications network that appears both systematic and random is to use a rhetoric of struggle that is ambiguous in the same way. >The reasons for this appeal are twofold: firstly, the rhetoric of struggle is a way to cope with the difficulty of situating oneself within a system of circulating information that operates according to its own arbitrary rules. Mimicking that arbitrariness is a way of finding aesthetic synchronicity between how one's …

Implementing A Discernment Phase For Those Nominated In The Shepherd Selection Process At The Cinco Ranch Church Of Christ, Aaron Walling

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project that implemented a discernment phase for those nominated in the shepherd selection process at the Cinco Ranch Church of Christ. Occurring in the fall of 2010, this project involved nominees in a series of six one-hour, thirty-minute sessions designed to establish the theological foundations for shepherding and to explore its practical expression at Cinco Ranch. For the theological component, this project primarily utilized Ephesians 4:11-16, and for the practical side, it incorporated group interactions with those serving as shepherds along with the review of guiding leadership documents. The project‟s …

Lovetoleave.Com: A Website About Niche Online Dating In Angeles City, Philippines, Marlei Martinez

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The global community is quickly growing due to the constant advancement of telecommunications across the land and sea. No longer do people have to settle for dating within their hometowns; now, they can simply sign up online, create a dating profile and search for their soul mate with just the click of a mouse.

Niche online dating is a very personalized form of internet romance. Men and women can now sit in front of their computers, type the words, “I want to date an Asian girl/guy” in the Google search bar, and dozens of ‘Asian’ dating websites will appear. This …

Discerning A Vocational Theology Of Marriage For The Smyrna Church Of Christ, Daniel F. Camp

Doctor of Ministry Theses

The goal of this project was to discern a vocational theology of marriage for the Smyrna Church of Christ in Smyrna, Tennessee. Through a group discernment process, the participants studied Genesis 1-3 and 2 Corinthians 5 as a basis for understanding God’s design for marriage at creation, the effects of sin on the vocational aspect of the marriage relationship, and the call of Christ for husbands and wives to participate in the resurrection life through the ministry of reconciliation. At the end of the discernment process, the participants articulated a theology statement for the church that examined our current context …

Crafting A Congregational Narrative For The College Church Of Christ In Fresno, California, Jason W. Locke

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis describes a ministry project in the College Church of Christ in Fresno, California. In this project I led the congregation through a narrative crafting process in order to clarify the church’s identity and increase its capacity for mission. In recent decades, the College Church moved away from some of its founding characteristics yet failed to clarify a new sense of identity. It subsequently had difficulty acting with a unified sense of purpose and instead moved increasingly toward fragmentation.

Data for crafting the new narrative came from three weeks of group interviews. My research team conducted these interviews in …

Memory, Identity, And The Rhetoric Of Quilts, J. Jane Amelon

English Theses & Dissertations

Quilts have been documented as artifacts of past experiences and social circumstances, but the rhetorical aspects have been largely unexplored. In this study, I establish quilting as a form of knowledge about memory, one of the canons of rhetoric. This task requires a rhetorical framework of memory to accomplish its end.

In order to create a rhetorical framework for the study of memory, I examine preservative and generative memory as represented in women's quilts. Previous quilt studies have not addressed these two facets of memory, and previous memory studies have paid little or no attention to quilts. Additionally, this study …

Writing Program Design For Esl Writers, Kacie M. Kiser

English Theses & Dissertations

Research and scholarship in the field of second-language writing have suggested that English as second language students (ESLs) require different modes of instruction than their native English speaking peers within the composition classroom (Matsuda, 1996; Silva, 1994). Yet ESL students are commonly marginalized in institutions' writing programs due to several commonplace beliefs shared by administrators that ESL students can be taught according to the same standards as mainstream students. Therefore, writing program administrators and instructors often do not have specific knowledge of ESL writing issues and, thus, do not know how to pedagogically accommodate these students or design a program …

Effect Of A Mindfulness Intervention On Community College Students' Writing Apprehension And Writing Performance, Megan E. Britt

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

This experimental study used a quantitative data collection strategy to examine whether a mindfulness intervention, a three-minute breathing exercise marked by focused attention on the sensations of breath, would affect writing anxiety and writing performance measures. The researcher compared Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension surveys and narrative writing samples from 277 students enrolled in a freshman composition course at a southeastern community college, half of whom practiced the mindful-breathing technique at class onset.

Quantitative results revealed students in the mindful-breathing group experienced a statistically significant decrease in writing apprehension and mechanical error scores from pre- to post-measures when compared to controls. No …