English Language and Literature Commons^™

Reader Self-Perception And Mobile Technology, T. Jace Brown, Dr. Dawan Coombs

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The rate of technological advancement can seem dizzying, particularly for teachers who feel tasked with helping students learn about this technology. As technologies like the personal computer, the Internet and, now, smart phones and tablets, have become more powerful and more affordable, teachers have felt increasing pressure to incorporate these devices into classrooms as a way of preparing students for the future workplace.

Likewise Folio: A New Journal Of Contemporary American Poetry, Kylan Rice, Conner Bassett, Dr. Susan Howe

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In a socially mediated age marked by competing identity politics, fractured and proliferating interests, and streamlined global connectivity, networking and community-building have become invaluable components of any venture /career goal. This is as true for lawyers or politicians as it is for poets and artists. The old adage, “it’s who you know,” is continuously validated and proven in job markets, in graduate schools, and in other sectors of the career-oriented world. To this end, Conner Bassett and I have used the funding provided us by an ORCA grant not only to expand the reach of our small online poetry journal, …

2010-2011 Orca Grant Final Report, Barret Daniel Lybbert, Dr. Brian Roberts

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This past summer I was able to travel to New York City from 5 July to 12 July. My initial plan was to stay a few days in a hotel and a few in a student hostel. However, I saved money by networking with a few of my father’s contacts and found an LDS family (BYU alumni) to host me while I was staying in the city. It was very helpful to have a New Yorker to guide me through my first few days in the city. I spent the first day navigating the library and acquiring and completing the …

Exploring The Everyday Phenomena Of Post-Genocide Rwanda Through Ethnographic Creative Nonfiction Writing, Danielle Leavitt, Dr. Leonard Tourney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Despite often being esteemed for its remarkable recovery after the complete devastation that occurred in the 1994 genocide, Rwanda is still portrayed as a dangerously plundered society and remains recognized in the West as an un-safe, chaotic area. These incorrect perceptions are rife with contradictory assertions and images and a discrepancy between image and reality.1 Post-genocide Rwanda—only seventeen years after its historically brutal genocide—is listed as one of the safest and most orderly countries in Africa. Additionally, sexually, physically, and emotionally abused and neglected Rwandan women, who made up 70% of Rwanda’s living population following the catastrophe in 1994, have …

The Accessions Of Jane, Mary, And Elizabeth: Redefining Royal, Religious, And Sexual Power In History And Literature, Averyl Dietering, Dr. Brandie Siegfried

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The object of my ORCA grant project was to show the changing views toward royalty/power, religion, and gender which occurred in English culture and literature as direct results of the reigns of Lady Jane Grey, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. I focused specifically on the accessions of these three women, since a monarch’s accession (the time after the previous monarch’s death and the new monarch’s coronation) is a critical period for establishing the monarch’s style and methods of rule. To understand the effect which these monarchs had on English literature, I researched and analyzed three seventeenth-century English plays, each of …

The Turn To Dystopia In Young Adult Literature, Justin Scholes, Dr. Jon Ostenson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the last several years, there has been tremendous growth in the amount of literature written for and read by young adults. With this spike, the discussion has grown concerning the subject matter of these novels, and a general curiosity as to what teens find appealing in these works. One major recent trend in YA literature is the dystopian novel.

Technology In Exile: Tibetan Digital Literacy, Kristen Nicole Cardon, Dr. Gideon Burton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My field study in India last summer was successful on many levels. I was interested to find that, contrary to my expectations, the effect of digital media on the Tibetans‟ efforts to preserve their culture was not wholly negative. Certainly, digitalization brings with it much Western and specifically American culture, but the nearly universal response to my interviews and surveys was that digital tools have had a positive effect on Tibetan cultural preservation. One administrator explained to me that the school structure itself was created to reinforce Tibetan values. Essentially, he said, the pedagogy itself is the natural preservation of …

The May Queen: A Historical Novel, Kimber Albrechtsen, Dr. Leonard Tourney

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The objectives of my project were to identify and implement theoretical aspects of writing historical fiction, and to write the first four chapters of a historical novel. My creative text examined themes of the emergence of communism, the development of modern terrorism, and the complexity of family relationships.

Chasing Rabbits: A Collection Of Personal Essays, Max Ogles, Dr. Patrick Madden

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The intent of my project was to write a collection of nonfiction personal essays in the classical essayist tradition. The personal essay tradition began in the 1500s with Michel de Montaigne. Montaigne is known as the “Father of the Essay” because he invented the form and wrote the very first collection of essays, which covered a variety of topics ranging from “thumbs” to “prayer” to “solitude.” Other essayists followed his example, including notable writers Francis Bacon (1600s), Samuel Johnson (1700s), William Hazlitt and Charles Lamb (1800s), and George Orwell and E.B. White (1900s). The essay tradition continues today and is …

On Man, On Nature, And On Human Life: William Knight's Life Of William Wordsworth And The Invention Of "Home At Grasmere", Patria Isabel Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Victorian scholar William Knight remains one of the most prolific Wordsworth scholars of the nineteenth century. His many publications helped establish Wordsworth's positive Victorian reputation that twentieth and twenty-first century scholars inherited. My particular focus is how Knight's 1889 inclusion of "Home at Grasmere" in his Life of William Wordsworth, rather than in his chronological sequencing of the poems, establishes a way to read the poem as a biographical artifact for his late-Victorian audience. Knight's detailed account of the poet's life, often told through letters and journal accounts, provides more contexts-including Dorothy's journal entries and correspondence of the early 1800s-to …

Wordsworth’S Guide To The Lakes, Dr. Nicholas Mason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As I worked with Shannon Stimpson on her 2010 honors thesis on William Wordsworth’s Guide to the Lakes, she and I regularly lamented that no one had produced a widely accessible, modern scholarly edition of this major work. With this in mind, after Shannon’s thesis defense I proposed that she, my colleague Paul Westover, and I collaboratively produce a new edition of the Guide. In the months that followed, we received a MEG grant from the university, recruited two undergraduate students (Rachel Wise and Emily Young) to help with the project, and used most of the grant money to travel …

Emotional Response To Late Medieval Plague, John D. Young, Larry Bolick

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Black Death and subsequent outbreaks of bubonic and pneumonic plague in late medieval Europe violently jarred the European mind-set. Particularly damaging were the intense emotions fostered in the hearts and minds of common Europeans during this pivotal period. By studying the emotional responses to these plague episodes, we may gain a deeper understanding of the medieval European weltanschauung, for the emotionally-charged documents of the plague period reveal much about the values and conventions of medieval society. From these documents we may reconstruct, to an extent, the collective and individual mind-set of plague-stricken Europe.

Lds Vernacular: English-Samoan Glossary, E. Paia Su'a Palmer, Dr. Eric Eliason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My lexicographic project involving the production of a Samoan-English glossary for LDS vernacular had a strategy flaw which was not evident until I was into the project. Accordingly, I have made necessary design modification. The first two of the four phases which I originally proposed consisted of distilling from available translated Church literature and scriptural texts a reasonably comprehensive English list with Samoan translations. I augmented the literature research with ethnographic observation and survey of the LDS Samoan speech community in Utah, specifically members of the Heritage, Sauniatu, Mapusaga, and Vaiola Wards in Salt Lake City. The aim for a …

Transcribing And Editing Oral Histories Of Teton Valley, Idaho Residents, Tyler Mckellar, Don Norton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Teton Valley is located in Eastern Idaho, bordering Wyoming. Dominating the valley landscape is the Grand Teton mountain range. Blackfeet, Shoshone, and other Indian tribes frequented the area in their search for food. Fur trappers and mountain men followed, using the Teton basin as the location of their annual rendezvous. Mormon settlers began arriving in the 1880’s.

Text And Context: Creating And Developing Resources For Students’ Stud Of Literature And Culture, Jarom L. Mcdonald, Dr. Ed Cutler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the most beneficial tools for the study of literature is a working knowledge of the culture that influenced the authors of that literature and helped give rise to the social attitudes, feelings, and movements which that literature is trying to reflect. Having first-hand recognized the difficulty of trying to study literature in a “vacuum,” so to speak, my goal was to collect research and develop resources to help future students understand certain aspects of specific cultures and their relation to the literature that they are studying.

Irrigating Deserts With Just Sentiments: C.S. Lewis On Education, Jennifer L. King, Dr. O. Glade Hunsaker

Journal of Undergraduate Research

“We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst” (C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man, p. 37).

In his The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis lays out the foundations of his philosophy on education. While many of Lewis’s writings on Christianity are well read and accepted by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his writings on education are not as often explored both in and out of the Church, probably because they are generally less accessible to the …

Assessing Of The Need For An English Grammar Resource For Non-Native Speakers, Steven M. Sandberg, Dr. Penny Bird

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to assess the need for an established service at Brigham Young University (BYU) to assist non-native speakers of English with revisions of their papers. The study relied on the assumption that effective, writing-process learning only occurs at the point of need—the draft stages—and not after a final grade has been given. The excellent grammar resources of other language departments and the non-credit English Language Center (ELC), and the frequently overcrowded grammar resources at the Reading/Writing Center (R/WC), prompted the idea of creating an English Grammar Lab at the R/WC.

Using Instructional Design Theory To Create A Student Editing Handbook, Andrea M. Reese, Dr. Beverly B. Zimmerman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The curriculum for the Insight student journal workshop class consisted of an eclectic mix of handouts distributed at the editor’s whim. Some were created by previous editors, some photocopied without attribution to the teachers who wrote them, and others adapted from undocumented print sources. Not only did this raise ethical problems, but the number and variety of handouts made overlap of content inevitable. I realized the head editors could use class time more effectively if lessons were distinct and parallel.

Research And Creative Work Report, Shaunalei Boyer Andersen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

From January to May 1995, for my honors thesis project, I studied the text of Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey. My intent was to unravel the mystery behind her at times conflicting allusions to nov· els and literature in the work-to try to decipher the connection between her concurrent criticism and praise of certain literary genres and practices.

Belonging: The Nature And Nurture Of Community, Liesl Marie Buskirk, Dr. John S. Bennion

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The process of composing an essay collection is one that comprises far more mental energy than merely sitting in front of a computer screen and typing away until you reach the desired number of pages. It begins with a collection of ideas­ gleaned from personal experience and the writing and thought of other thinkers. As these ideas interact, they form linkages that slowly evolve into a complex network of interrelated themes—the threads from which the fabric of an essay is woven. One of the most difficult phases of the work is sorting and dividing the tangled threads to feed into …

Field Trips Into Life: Things I Learned By Going To School With Second Graders, Mark Carter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

0ne day I decided I needed some more excitement and challenge in my life. So, I went to a local elementary school and volunteered as a teacher assistant to a bilingual education instructor. Together, she and I took on a rambunctious class of second graders, with hopes of educating them. But it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was the children who were educating me.

Psalms Of A City: Poems On The Inner-City Life Of Los Angeles, Kael Moffat

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I proposed to fly down to Los Angeles for two weeks and compile notes, take photographs, and conduct interviews with people for the purpose of writing a chapter in a book of poetry about the L.A. area. My intent was to write about the conditions and life-style of inner-city communities.

The New Language Policy In South Africa: A Sociolinguistic Analysis And Implication For The Bantu Languages, Richard Cameron Blake

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In April, 1994, the first all-race presidential and parliamentary elections were held In South Africa after several years of multi-party constitutional negotiations. J’ielson Mandela, a political-prisoner-turned-president, was given the charge to uphold the new constitution, one In which all South Africans are regarded equally, regardless of race. Part of that constitution is a new language policy designed to reflect the wide diversity of languages In the country. Under the new language policy, 11 languages (nine of them spoken by different African tribal groups) are now recognized as official languages instead of only English and Afrikaans (a Dutch-based language spoken by …

Venezuelan Portraits, Trenton Hickman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Several months ago, the Office of Research and Creative Work accepted my proposal to prove poet Richard Hugo’s concept of the poetic “triggering town” by spending two weeks in Venezuela and then letting the sensory data I gathered “trigger” a substantial body of poetry. The research grant would enable me to 1) make the information-gathering trip to Venezuela, 2) write a body of Venezuela poems (I estimated 40), and 3) revise the poems for Fall 1994 submission to literary magazines around the country.

Great With Child: Pregnancy Narratives By Mormon Women, Angela Ashurst-Mcgee

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I completed an honors thesis entitled “Great with Child: Pregnancy Narratives by Mormon Women.” Richard Duerden of the English Department advised the thesis. Neal Kramer, William Wilson, and Doris Dant also gave feedback and assistance. I interviewed eight women and transcribed and edited seven interviews, which totaled more than 100 pages. As an introduction to the narratives, I wrote a 25-page theoretical study entitled, “Mormonism, Feminism, and Pregnancy.”

Un Conjunto De Únicos(1): An Essay Exploring Relationships Between Individuality And Community In The Context Of Language, Todd Leishman, Dr. Brandie Siegried

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In literature and science, in art and religion, two ideas emerge that shape the people and the peoples that we are. Education in all these things brings with it a blossoming awareness of our uniqueness as individuals. No two are the same, genetically or psychologically, in personality, spirit, or experience. Revelation teaches us we are each of infinite worth as individuals.

The Course Of Memory: Li-Young Lee And The American Tradition, Karl Thomas Rees, Dr. Keith Lawrence

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research, which I successfully defended as an Honors Thesis for August 2001 graduation, explored the poetry of contemporary Asian American poet, Li-Young Lee. Specifically, I was interested in how his poetry interacts with the American literary tradition. This project was an extension of a twelve-page essay I originally wrote in 1999 for an Asian American Literature course taught by Professor Keith Lawrence. The essay was subsequently published with further improvements in Insight, BYU’s Honors academic journal. The final product was sixty-five pages long, including a works cited list and an appendix. It will soon be available in the …

Internet Radio, Basketball, And High School Life, Scott Raab, Dr. Sirpa Grierson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The high school years will always be magical because they never happen again. The new freedoms that many middle class American youth either inherit or seize have made the brief collection of academic years a type of Brigadoon. Although they live in a very different world, high school students of the 21st century will do exactly as their predecessors: what ever they want. When a high school student decides that he or she wants to create an internet based radio station for his school with minimal effort and maximal possibilities, it is entirely possible.

Messianic History: Reading The Lectures On Faith, Adam Scott Miller, Dr. Ed Cutler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Writing history is about producing meaningful constellations of past and present events. The task of the historian is to survey the past in search of neglected texts and images that align with and illuminate the needs of the present era. For Mormonism, the Lectures on Faith are capable of producing such a constellation. The Lectures remind us of inherent tensions and possibilities that the familiar movement of time easily conceals. Their now marginal status provides them with a certain kind of intimate distance from which to view both our past and present.

Apollo’S Ghost: Joseph Conrad’S Father As Kurtz Prototype, Peter M. Jasinski, Dr. John S. Tanner

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Though he became one of England’s greatest writers, Joseph Conrad was a native of Poland. His father, Apollo Korzeniowski, was a writer, Polish patriot, and martyr for his country. For this grant, I proposed to research the plausibility of Apollo as a prototype for one of Conrad’s most complex characters: Kurtz of Heart of Darkness. Prior to receiving the ORCA grant, I had written a paper with this thesis and submitted it to Conradiana, a leading peer-reviewed Conrad journal. In response, I received a letter from the editor and comments from a reviewer, both confirming that my argument …