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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Do Esl Students Progress An Entire Actfl Proficiency Sublevel In Both Speaking And Writing Each Semester?, Matthew Salvatore Millar Dec 2022

Do Esl Students Progress An Entire Actfl Proficiency Sublevel In Both Speaking And Writing Each Semester?, Matthew Salvatore Millar

Theses and Dissertations

Many intensive English language students take pretests and posttests at the beginning and end of each semester to determine proficiency gains. Nevertheless, it may not be clear what kinds of gains should be expected over the course of a single semester or how those gains might be influenced by factors such as the learner's first language (L1) or prior proficiency. This study used repeated measures ANOVA and nonparametric tests to examine the speaking and writing pretest and posttest scores of 2331 Novice Mid to Advanced Mid ESL learners over a 15-week semester. Results show that while students on average progressed …


Analyzing Patterns Of Complexity In Pre-University L2 English Writing, Zachary M. Lambert Dec 2022

Analyzing Patterns Of Complexity In Pre-University L2 English Writing, Zachary M. Lambert

Theses and Dissertations

The present study involves the creation and analysis of a corpus containing 7747 samples of timed, pre-matriculated L2 English writing from an IEP. The focus of the analysis is on three phrasal complexity measures with time and proficiency as fixed effects, examining their impact on each measure. Results of the analysis suggest that this is true for some phrasal measures, such as nominalizations and attributive adjectives, while others, such as noun-noun phrases, may indicate a lower level of proficiency or lesser allotted writing time. Nominalizations in particular demonstrated a strong relationship with both allotted time and proficiency, further suggesting that …


Rhetorical Conversations: Race, Class, And Gender In The Works Of Jacqueline Jones Royster And Shirley Wilson Logan, Tanya Robertson Dec 2022

Rhetorical Conversations: Race, Class, And Gender In The Works Of Jacqueline Jones Royster And Shirley Wilson Logan, Tanya Robertson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project is an examination of Jacqueline Jones Royster and Shirley Wilson Logan as knowledge-makers in the field of rhetoric and composition. There is a large gap in research on the contemporary African American women scholars who act as knowledge makers of rhetorical theory and rhetorical pedagogy. There is circularity in the notion that as Royster and Logan examine the history of the fieldâ??African American rhetorical practices, feministic rhetorical practices, English language studies and literacy, and classroom practicesâ??they are, themselves, having an impact on the field.


Mosaico De Fantasía: A Collection Of Microrrelatos And Short Stories, Jennifer Gutierrez Dec 2022

Mosaico De Fantasía: A Collection Of Microrrelatos And Short Stories, Jennifer Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

Art is subjective, as is the art of writing. Creating a piece of writing out of a fleeting thought is truly the most frightening yet fulfilling feeling there is for a writer. Entire universes with their own unique worlds, aesthetic verses littered with imagery to paint an intricate mental picture; each representing a brief scenario that my mind decided to fabricate out of nothingness. Though not everyone will love my work, my goal is to reach someone that might. Even if it’s just one person. I want them to read my work and think “This is pretty cool.” My …


Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention And Social Media For Digital Pedagogy, Jacob Richter Aug 2022

Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention And Social Media For Digital Pedagogy, Jacob Richter

All Dissertations

Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention and Social Media for Digital Pedagogy investigates how students learn through writing and invention in digital social networks. Pursuing a primary research question of How do student composers invent within networked social media environments?, the dissertation examines how social media and digital writing tools can help students to learn, connect, and share generatively. The core theoretical contribution that this dissertation offers is a theory of network composition, which is a mode of invention that composers engage in social media environments that is intensely social, that is structured by a digital interface, that …


The Development Of Discourse Markers In Narrations Written By Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Case For Explicit And Implicit Instruction, Mark Cisneros Jul 2022

The Development Of Discourse Markers In Narrations Written By Spanish Heritage Language Learners: A Case For Explicit And Implicit Instruction, Mark Cisneros

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

This Dissertation attempted to determine the types and number of discourse markers (DMs) used in narrations written by Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) learners and if they benefitted from the following pedagogical intervention (i.e., Explicit Instruction + Input Flood + Textual Enhancement) regarding the use of DMs. It also calculated the syntactic complexity, morphosyntactic accuracy, and fluency of their narrations. For this study, 39 SHL learners served as participants: 19 in an Experimental group and 20 in a Control group. All participants wrote two narrations of two short, silent films: a pre-test narration and an immediate post-test narration. Before completing the …


Affective Transfer In Writing: Utilizing Affect In Teaching For Transfer, Emily Morgan Jun 2022

Affective Transfer In Writing: Utilizing Affect In Teaching For Transfer, Emily Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

According to current scholarship in writing studies, students with a positive affect toward writing are more likely to transfer writing knowledge and skills. Yet my findings from an IRB-approved longitudinal study suggest that this is not always the case. This study was designed to see what students transfer from their first-year composition course, focusing especially on rhetoric, process, genre, and mindfulness. In annual semi-structured interviews that took place over the course of three years, two study participants described having positive writing affect but did not discuss transfer, even when prompted. These students express caring much more about a writing task …


Lessons From The Aisles: A Collection Of Short Stories, Drew Jones May 2022

Lessons From The Aisles: A Collection Of Short Stories, Drew Jones

Honors Theses

This thesis is a collection of short stories, each set in a separate aisle of Walmart. By exploring the relationships and conflicts of these characters, I hope to illustrate that life’s complexity can be shown in a place as simple and mundane as Walmart.


Potential For A Pedagogical Level-Up: Teaching First-Year Composition Through Rhetoric Of Gaming, Cayman Beeman May 2022

Potential For A Pedagogical Level-Up: Teaching First-Year Composition Through Rhetoric Of Gaming, Cayman Beeman

English (MA) Theses

Instructors of First-Year Composition courses are pursuing new ways to help integrate students into collegiate writing. One approach that has been gaining more widespread use is teaching composition through a popular medium. Inspired by these pedagogical movements, I designed a first-year composition course that approached writing through looking at different rhetorical elements of video games. During the course I encouraged students to enter into an I.R.B. approved study in which I recorded certain elements of their progression, discourse, and understanding regarding composition taught through gaming in an effort to document what was pedagogically successful, and what aspects of the course …


An Action Research Study On Lms Assessment Tools And Faculty Practice In English Composition Courses Of A Community College, Sophia Mitra Apr 2022

An Action Research Study On Lms Assessment Tools And Faculty Practice In English Composition Courses Of A Community College, Sophia Mitra

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods action research study aimed to understand the use of LMS assessment tools by faculty teaching English Composition (Eng 101) at a New Jersey Community College in order to increase that use for assessment of outcomes. In spite of administrative push for faculty to use the LMS for data based decision-making, there is still limited use of LMS tools. In writing-intensive fields like Eng 101 grading and feedback could be accelerated along with monitoring student performance on outcomes using LMS assessment tools. Forming a virtual faculty learning committee that collaborated in the study's data collection and analysis, volunteers …


Mitakuye Oyasin : Pedagogy And Design In Composition I, Jody Lee Rust Jan 2022

Mitakuye Oyasin : Pedagogy And Design In Composition I, Jody Lee Rust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mitakuye Oyasin, an Oceti Sakowin (Lakota/Nakota/Dakota) phrase that translates as “All My Relations,” is a philosophy that means all things created on earth and in the universe are related and inhabit a shared space. Because all things are related and share space, they all have a purpose and a responsibility to discover and serve that purpose to ensure all of our relatives thrive in our shared space. This relational thinking influences the way the Oceti Sakowin interact with the world, including the way they teach. In this thesis, I analyze the way composition theories shape the curriculum and pedagogy of …


Writing In Film Studies: Poetics And Pedagogy, Bryan Mead Jan 2022

Writing In Film Studies: Poetics And Pedagogy, Bryan Mead

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is writing instruction inside undergraduate film courses. While the existence of textbooks devoted to teaching students how to write about film highlights the need for such instruction, evidence suggests many courses underuse or neglect such texts. Instead, most instructors focus their efforts on content instruction, expecting students to translate an increased content knowledge into written argumentation. Yet, as is the case across the disciplines, students struggle to write successfully in these disciplinary courses. One of the main reasons for this disparity between instructor expectation and student success is the notion of disciplinarity, and how influential …