English Language and Literature Commons^™

Making Sandcastles With The Sands Of Time, Sophia Thimmes

Tutor's Column

Rushing through a tutoring session can seem alluringly efficient, but this theorized efficiency is a faulty conception. In a tutoring session, moving through content too quickly can lead to discussion based only on surface level observations. By being fully present and taking the time to explore ideas in depth, a tutor is able to supply a Writing Center visitor with much more helpful and in-depth insights.

Mind The Gap: Exploring Mindfulness As A Tool For Tutors, Students, And Everyone In Between, Ashley Thompson

Tutor's Column

Tutors, students, and anyone else involved in academics tend to shoulder oversized cognitive loads. Those who are under stress need tactics for dealing with emotional burdens in order to continue functioning and performing at the highest level. In writing labs and other peer-headed facilities for academic help, tutors can use mindfulness to increase their own emotional capacity while helping students regulate their own emotions as well. Simple strategies and mindfulness practices can be implemented by individuals at the front lines of tutoring centers to accomplish goals of stress relief and emotional health. By implementing simple practices to refocus on the …

Together We Know A Lot: Consensus Decision Making In The Classroom, Avery C. Edenfield

English Faculty Publications

Student group work is common practice in many courses whether they are focused on writing theory or application. The purpose of this review is to introduce one strategy for teaching cooperative teamwork. It is easy to say to a group of students, “decide as a group…” It is less common, and I am certainly guilty of this, to provide clear directions on how to decide as a group.

Consensus decision making (CDM, or sometimes known as CBDM, consensus-based decision making) is a common strategy for making decisions as a group in collective and community organizing. Used in the classroom, CDM …

Breathe: Helping Students With Mental Disabilities- And Helping Yourself, Miranda Cundick

Tutor's Column

1 in 5 people in the United States suffer from some sort of mental illness; it follows that at least 1 in 5 students that we tutor would as well. College can be stressful, and as tutors we can help alleviate some of this stress by being mindful of and informed about the many mental health problems USU students can face- and by learning how to help.

Queering Consent: Design And Sexual Consent Messaging, Avery C. Edenfield

English Faculty Publications

For decades, sexual violence prevention and sexual consent have been a recurrent topic on college campuses and in popular media, most recently because of the success of the #MeToo movement. As a result, institutions are deeply invested in communicating consent information. This article problematizes those institutional attempts to teach consent by comparing them to an alternative grounded in queer politics. This alternative information may provide a useful path to redesigning consent information by destabilizing categories of gender, sexuality, and even consent itself.

Voices Of Usu: An Anthology Of Student Writing, Vol. 12, Utah State University Department Of English

Voices of USU

This collection of student writing represents the voices of over 2,000 students who enroll each academic year in Utah State University’s second-year composition course, Intermediate Writing: Research Writing in a Persuasive Mode. Voices of USU celebrates excellence in writing by providing undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds and disciplines the opportunity to have their work published.

Sink Hollow Volume 6

Sink Hollow

There is no way around it. This issue, our 6th in the last three years, is painful. The underbelly of the human experience is laid bare and there is no hiding from it here.

But that is also what makes it so incredibly beautiful. It is a raw commentary on those things that, despite their pain, make us so uniquely human. It is our ability to trudge on, to continue to seek happiness even when it feels like there may never be joy again that makes us such wonderful, hopeful creatures.

As always, it is my privlege to present the …

The Curious Case Of Dr. Writer And Mr. Verbalizer, Libbey Hanson

Tutor's Column

The writer and verbalizer can cause major communication issues within a piece of writing. At the writing center, many students don’t mean what they write; they mean what they verbally say. The writer tries to sound smart while the verbalizer tries to make sense. Many times, students will say “But I know what I want to say!” However, they simply cannot write it down. Communication between the writer and the verbalizer fails because of the attempt to sound smart, and the fear of the written word and its permanence. Freshmen struggle in learning an essay format different than what they …

“Good Enough”: Teaching Confidence Through Revision, Mckayla Freeman

Tutor's Column

This paper explores the relationship between a student’s writing and their response to criticism. Many students respond negatively to revision suggestions when they have already finished their paper. However, revision is a vital part of all writings and must be included in the writing process. Criticizing a student’s essay can often cause the student to feel personally insulted. In order for them to revisit and edit something they’ve written, tutors must encourage them and remind them of the things they did well before pointing out mistakes. This will cause the student to remain self-affirmed, confident, and ready to change their …

Spiders, Satan, And Uncertainty: Turning Idle Tutoring Sessions Into Teaching Opportunities, Olivia Brock

Tutor's Column

Though brand new writing tutors are given an army of tools and resources to aid students in the writing process, it is inevitable that they will come across a session that they just do not know how to handle. Whether it be vague and confusing assignment descriptions, unenthusiastic students, or a discipline outside of the tutor’s knowledge-base, seemingly fruitless sessions will land in the room of almost every tutor. This essay aims to help tutors recognize when sessions may not be going anywhere, and offer them advice and specific ideas for handling these sessions in a way that has students …

The Creative, The Critic, & The Tutor: Tutoring The Creative Process, Nate Hardy

Tutor's Column

The creative writing session presents tutors with the unique opportunity to become an integrated part of the writer’s creative process, a system balanced between both the writer’s creative and critical voice. The former spontaneously invents material while the latter crafts it into a final product. While the creative session can be daunting for general tutors as it requires stepping away from the familiarity of the traditional academic setting, embracing the uncertainty of the session allows the tutor to play imperative roles as a student of the writer, audience to their work, and creative voice for their creative process.

Rigid, Joshua Salisbury

Tutor's Column

As tutors, we are asked to do the same task on a daily basis. Because of this monotony, we can fall into a rigid routine that may have us saying and doing the same things. This article examines the leading causes of these rigid sessions and some helpful solutions. More precisely, it focuses on the critical aspects of conversation and how this simple idea can promote better tutoring sessions. A basic outline of a productive conversation is provided as a reference.

Confidence Is Key: The Importance Of Building A Student’S Confidence In Writing, Tyler Monson

Tutor's Column

It’s Friday afternoon and there’s barely any wiggle room between tutoring sessions. Every English 2010 student has been rushing to the Writing Center to get their papers edited before they have to turn it in at midnight. Some papers are contemplative, well-structured and only need light tweaks, while others are “more of a thought piece at the moment.”

“Does That Make Sense?” The Importance Of Clear Assignment Instructions And Rubrics, Carly Schaelling

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Students often struggle to understand the expectations of their teachers when completing writing assignments. Teachers often feel frustrated when students seem to understand what they are asking, only to grade papers and see that the gap between their assignment tasks and students’ performance is larger than expected. As a Writing Center tutor and first year graduate instructor for English 1010, I have had experiences that have helped me appreciate the importance of having clear written assignment instructions as well as detailed rubrics. Having these two elements incorporated with assignments can help students focus more on their writing tasks and less …

Leading Questions: Prohibited In Court And Tutoring Sessions, Jared Gheen

Tutor's Column

Throughout the Writing Center, tutors often ask leading questions in order to foster a specific train of thought from their readers. Throughout this essay, I will discuss the harms of asking leading questions, using psychological experiments to illustrate my point. I will present several examples of questions that may surface in a tutoring session. I will explain ways to expand the original scope of the questions and prevent those questions from falling into the category of “leading questions.” Leading questions can severely alter a student’s interpretation or perspective on their writing, which limits learning, inhibits self-growth, and minimizes the effectiveness …

Perché Non Mi Aiuti? (​Why Won't You Help Me?​), Hailey Hibbard

Tutor's Column

Writing center tutors often have difficulties navigating tutoring sessions with EnglishLanguage Learner students and are not able to meet their unique needs. This paper reports the emotional and academic needs of these students, and how writing center tutors can best address and meet those needs.

Potential Of A Tutor's Personality, Matt Crabtree

Tutor's Column

In this paper I talk about the importance of each individual tutor’s personality to the value of the Writing Center. Without the various personalities, students could just search for answers on the internet. What the Writing Center provides is a dynamic tutoring experience where tutors can shift to meet students’ needs.

A Tutor As An Educator, Justyn Hardy

Tutor's Column

Tutoring as a verb implies the requirement to educate; however, the role of the tutor as an educator is often set aside in order to fix the immediate issues with a paper rather than the overarching issues with a student’s writing. Tutors provide answers, but it’s far better to provide long-term solutions through a moment of education. This paper seeks to identify the moments a tutor ought to become the educator and assuage the trepidations a tutor might have in using their voice in a moment of formal education with a student.

The Writer: An Endangered Species, Hayley Dykman

Tutor's Column

The ability to write is a necessity in every stage of education and the career field beyond; however, few people are willing to label themselves as “writers.” It is especially important that students adopt the mindset that they are “writers” because writing is something they are required to do frequently. Believing you are a “writer” makes writing seem easier and a more innate part of your abilities. However, students often have an incorrect idea of what it means to be a “writer,” thinking that to be a “writer” is to be a published author or someone who always enjoys the …

Fake News: Political Satire In The Age Of President Trump, D. Landon Graham

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This thesis examines Donald Trump's disruption of political satire. The history and format of the White House Correspondents' Dinner provides a framework for understanding the shifting relationship between the president's administration, the journalists who cover that administration, and political comedians. These three groups cross paths at the White House Correspondents' Association's annual dinner, which the president traditionally attends and where a headlining comedian entertains guests with a monologue. Trump's decision to skip the Correspondents' Dinner set the stage for a renegotiation of the traditional relationship between president, press, and performer. As President Trump continues to attack both journalists and late-night …

Shakespeare And The English Sonnet: A History, Heather Davidson, Elizabeth Peel, Mary Leishman, Keil Nicholas

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

The Breeding Sonnets, Jack Bylund, Sierra Copeland, Wade Evenson, Deidra Hall, Sarah Lueckler

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

The Eye Of The Beholder, Cassidy Cox, Jessica Hahn, Whitney Howard, Taylor Pearson, William Pitcher

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

Two Loves I Have..., Emma Hallock, Sarah Kohler, Thomas Lee, Hannah Liddiard, Becca Swan

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

Beauty, Vanity, And Perception In The Sonnets Of Shakespeare, Jessica Krebs, Westin Smith, Alesha Hurst, Christopher Nicholson

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

Immortality In Verse: An Analysis Of Sonnet 81, Savannah Lund, Brooke Tingey, Clay Reed, Tambi Clark, Sadie Leonhardt

ENGL 3315 – Early Modern British Literary History

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Devoting Attention To Students’ Introductory Paragraphs, Andrea Bresee

Tutor's Column

In Writing Center tutoring sessions, many tutors devote their time and attention to helping students with their papers’ body rather than the introductory paragraph. While the body of a paper is certainly important, the weight an introduction carries should not be overlooked. Studies show that the quality of an introduction can determine the overall quality of the paper. Furthermore, students who receive instruction and assistance with writing and improving their opening paragraphs perform better on their papers than students who do not. Tutors should dedicate a portion of their tutoring session to working with students on their introductory paragraphs to …

Self-Reliance, Social Welfare, And Sacred Landscapes: Mormon Agricultural Spaces And Their Paradoxical Sense Of Place, Anthony Ross Garner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

What is the sense of place of Mormon agricultural landscapes? That is to say, what makes an LDS Church-owned welfare farm or a Mormon family garden meaningful to those who interact with it? In formulating a partial answer to this question, this thesis demonstrates how religious ideals of self-reliance and social welfare explicitly define Mormon agricultural landscapes, providing a sacred sense of their purpose to those who work and benefit from them. However, these sacred landscapes are complicated by developments of industrial agricultural equipment, corporate institutions, and urban demographics, which tend to isolate people from each other and the land …

“[Taking] Responsibility For The Community”: Women Claiming Power And Legitimacy In Technical And Professional Communication In India, 1999-2016, Breeanne Matheson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Though the field of technical and professional communication has long been saturated with the narratives of Euro-Western males, technical and professional communication as a field has a responsibility to expand the lens of study to include the experiences of global and nontraditional practitioners. This study examines the experiences of Indian women working as practitioners, building power and legitimacy in a globalized economy. Drawing from interviews with 49 practitioners as well as an analysis of historical documents, this study examines the methods that Indian practitioners have used to build power and legitimacy by founding professional organizations, leveraging their educational opportunities, and …

Expanding To The Edges: Central Numic Dual Number, John Mclaughlin

English Faculty Publications

The Central Numic (Uto-Aztecan) dual number marking system on nouns and pronouns is of interest because even though most of the component morphemes involved in the system are reconstructible to Proto-Numic, the system itself is not. Indeed, while the reconstructible Proto-Numic system is rudimentary, the Central Numic system is robust and has expanded to the point that there are few environments where dual is not marked on equal footing with singular and plural. The Central Numic system is of further interest because it involves cycles of grammaticalization and not just a single diachronic event. This contrasts with the other two …