English Language and Literature Commons^™

An Analysis Of Murals Painted By Students At Intermountain Indian School In Brigham City, Utah, Carlos Junior Guadarrama

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

My plan B thesis argues that Intermountain School in Brigham City, Utah was a progressive development, especially when placed within the context of other Native American boarding schools. I argue my point by conducting a close examination and analysis of several murals painted by prominent indigenous artist Allan Houser and students at the school as well as several other forms of art from Intermountain. In the first chapter of my thesis, I present evidence that demonstrates how damaging Native Boarding schools were for generations of students. I then present evidence which showcases how certain changes paved the way for Intermountain …

Much Ado About Acting, Claire Louise Harlan

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

To be an actor, one must have an understanding not only of theatrical craft, but also of the world that surrounds and informs theatre. During my undergraduate training, I have pursued a variety of diverse academic skills and extracurricular talents, all of which I have been able to relate back to my primary field--the performing arts. I am particularly interested in the intersection between studies in Theatre Arts and studies in English, as those are my two majors. Literary analysis, research, and reflective writing can unlock an actor's interpretation of a role. The actor who combines these two fields is …

On The Mantelpiece For You: Letters In The Novels Of Thomas Hardy, Morgan Sanford

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Even as modern technology continues to introduce new modes of communication, people still write letters. Letters are a primary vehicle for written communication and have played a key role in forming, maintaining, and preserving relationships for centuries. Particularly in Victorian England, letters facilitated communication over a range of space and time, capturing the momentary and immortalizing the impermanent. At the height of the letter’s popularity, Thomas Hardy included letters in his novels to further plot, develop characters, and think critically about the function of written communication in society. Hardy’s exploration of this medium changed over the course of his career. …

Modernizing Composition With An Online Photography-Themed Course, Sharolyn Richards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this thesis, I argue that it is important for students in a Freshman English Composition class to learn to compose with images and text. This builds on what other research and professors have done in having students turn in multimedia compositions. Since there is opportunity for students to compose with images and text in print as well as online, it is important for them to know how images and text work together. This thesis includes the research I did and lesson modules for an example semester.

They Have No Ears To Hear My Pleas: Short Stories Of The Post-Apocalypse, Keoki W. Kemp

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This is a creative thesis consisting of two short stories in the post-apocalyptic genre. A genre that highlights suffering, societal trauma, and the effects of trauma and loss on the human psyche. This genre asks the reader to be sympathetic to these extreme plights. Post-apocalyptic narratives also feature classic heroes who come out on top, despite the genre’s harrowing settings. The two stories featured in this creative thesis are an answer to my inquiry into the genre and seeks not only to show what makes post-apocalyptic literature entertaining but also worthy of literary merit.

The two short stories that constitute …

Using Multilingual Literature To Enhance Multilingual Students’ Experiences In Second Language Writing Classes: An Innovative Classroom Practice, Ekaterina Arshavskaya

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Research on second language writing instruction consistently shows low levels of student engagement (Lee, 2012) in writing classes. In order to address this challenge, researchers have argued for the need to introduce various forms of expressive writing (Bilton & Sivasubramaniam, 2009), including student interpretive practice with texts (Kramsch, 1997).

Another common problem associated with second language writing instruction is lack of connection between writing and reading activities. Prominent language educators have long recognized the benefits of connecting reading and writing activities with English learners (Krashen, 1992). According to Krashen (1992), we learn to write through reading. To resolve these multiple …

The Burden Of Ambiguity: Writing At A Cooperative, Avery C. Edenfield

English Faculty Publications

Purpose: While many organizations use ambiguity to strategically build a "unified diversity" around an organization's mission, democratically managed organizations need to tread a narrow path between necessary ambiguity (which allows flexibility) and dysfunctional ambiguity (which causes disarray). To illustrate, I report a subset of findings regarding occasions when ambiguous documents had a significant impact on a democratically managed organization.

Methods: I conducted a three-phase study of a democratic cooperative. Using a mixed-methods approach, I sought to uncover the ways technical and professional communication (TPC) concerns like ambiguity and clarity function in a democratic business. In my analysis, I looked for …

Voices Of Usu: An Anthology Of Student Writing, Vol. 11, 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 5

Sink Hollow

During my time with Sink Hollow Literary Magazine, I’ve watched five issues go through the creation process. From the initial submission picks to final design edits, I’ve had the immense pleasure of seeing every volume bloom from nothing into powerful pieces of thought- provoking art. This volume, our fifth one as a team, is no different. The authors and artists we’ve chosen to give a home to, have come together to create a publication that fosters a unique personal awareness. The goal of any good art or writing should be geared toward cultivating a change in the reader or observer. …

Are Davis County School District Students Represented In Their Schools' Literary Choices?, Erin Searle

Research on Capitol Hill

Feeling represented in high school can have an effect on academic performance. Does the literature taught in high schools represent the students who are reading them? By analyzing the supplemental book list (DCABL) approved by Davis County High School and coding the literary works into categories based on ethnicity and gender, these questions were answered:

• Does literature taught in high schools represent the students who are reading it in terms of ethnicity and gender?
• Does literature include selections written by authors from countries other than the USA or selections with a variety of racially diverse protagonists?
• Does the ratio of …

Disposition For Change: A Teacher's Quest For Student And Self-Liberation, Morgan Sanford, Elise Maddox

Research on Capitol Hill

The tensions that dominate the lives of Mexican-American adolescents complicate their academic achievement. Many Anglo-American teachers see Mexican-American students as lacking parental and administrative support and capability or intelligence, stereotypes that poison progress and inhibit their learning.

Our research considers the influence of visionary, dedicated teachers in the lives of underprivileged students. The biographical film narratives included in our study detail the experiences of Caucasian and Latino teachers and their Mexican-American students. They point to the power of individual teachers to open doors for positive change and progress in the lives of their students.

Growing Pains: The Transformative Journey From A Nascent To A Formal Not-For-Profit Venture, Avery C. Edenfield, Fredrik O. Andersson

English Faculty Publications

This article examines how a social venture transitions from nascent to formal status and argues that the transformation of the organization set in motion by establishing formal boundaries is a deeply profound one. Drawing from the nonprofit and social entrepreneurship literature on what prompts and energizes individuals to initiate new not-for-profit ventures, and linking it to a notion of revolutionary crisis as organizations emerge and develop, we seek to illuminate and explore the tension, and its consequences, between nonprofit entrepreneurs and the organization they create as the new venture transitions from nascent to formal. We do this by presenting the …

Turning Apathy To Ambition: Strategies For Countering Student Disinterest, Jared Bryan

Tutor's Column

Apathetic students – those who do not care enough about writing to engage in a session - are some of the hardest to tutor. Their reluctance to engage with the tutor is often the result of a perceived lack of connection between their personal interests and the topic they are writing about, or even writing in general. The connection between writing and STEM fields, for example, is not often readily apparent; the necessity of written communication in one form or another is often lost in the theory and technical skills that dominate the major. This reduces the problem of inspiring …

Black And White And Gray All Over, Harper Forsgren

Tutor's Column

This essay examines the division between keeping professional regulations as a Writing Tutor while working with a paper that goes against the tutor’s personal moral code. It suggests two approaches to handling these situations, from leaving the paper exactly as it is to respect personal authorship to following the tutor’s own moral obligation to inform the student of the incendiary ideals written in the essay. It then concludes that the true answer may lie somewhere in between these two proposed solutions. The narrative follows the author’s experience as a peer tutor, explaining the first time she encountered an essay that …

Grammatically Speaking: A Look Into Writer Development, Bayli Luebke

Tutor's Column

This Tutors’ Column explores the ways in which focusing on grammar and mechanics in tutoring sessions at the writing center both helps and hinders students. This paper begins with a first-person explication of a new peer tutor’s past writing and editing experiences from high school to the time that she began working at the writing center. The author describes her previous view of the importance of grammar and acknowledges how this view has changed and developed during her time as a peer tutor. Using research from four different writing center and education journals ranging in years from 1984 to 2016, …

Stop, Think, And Question, Andrea Carlquist

Tutor's Column

The purpose of this paper is to encourage peer tutors to attempt utilizing different questioning methods during tutoring sessions. Instead of asking closed off questions with definite answers, tutors should ask open-ended questions that challenge the student. This method of questioning will also help the tutor as it will alleviate pressure from them and make the student and tutor equally accountable for the session. The Socratic method of questioning is also suggested as it allows sessions to develop more organically based on topics that are useful and interesting to both the student and the tutor.

Let’S Talk: Training Anxiety Out Of New Tutors, Nichelle Pomeroy

Tutor's Column

This paper focuses on the author’s experience becoming a new tutor at Utah State University’s Writing Center. The author gives suggestions on what can be done to ease anxiety in new tutors during their first few sessions. Additional training is suggested with collaborative efforts between new and experienced tutors along with familiarization with logistical aspects.

Praiseworthy And Developable—How Psychology Takes Shape In Tutoring, Chloe Harvell

Tutor's Column

In a standard tutoring session, positive reinforcement in commonly used to bolster a student’s confidence, as well as point out good aspects of the writing. This paper explores the use of Behavioral Skills Training (BST) in tutoring, an Applied Behavioral Analysis procedure in which instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback are used to teach proficiency in a skill. This paper examines the benefits of using BST in difficult sessions where standard protocol would be of little value to the student’s writing ability. Behavioral skills training is an intuitive and simple procedure, but proves to be an effective way to structure a …

Wearing The Collaborator Hat, Jessica Hahn

Tutor's Column

Writing tutors take on several roles when working with students, which range from coaches to counselors. However, one of the most important roles of writing tutors is the collaborator. Collaboration encourages both the tutor and the student to draw on each of their strengths, rather than only relying on the knowledge of the tutor alone. Some roles that restrict tutors as collaborators are roles such as editors and experts. Tutors avoid being editors of papers because they are only able to address surface level issues in writing rather than global issues. Being an expert is too much of a burden …

Tutors—Writing Myth Busters, Stephanie Pointer

Tutor's Column

The purpose of this essay is to help tutors understand that myths about the writing process are hurting students and their writing. Peer tutors are in a unique position to teach students the truth about the writing process. Many students feel incapable of writing well because they struggle with the writing process. Helping students recognize false beliefs about writing and understand the truth will do more to improve student writing and confidence than teaching writing mechanics. When students have a deeper understanding of the importance of having a focused audience, writing bad drafts, and allowing for their limited time frame, …

Tutors: “Theses” The Problem: Students And Thesis Statements, Jackson Bylund

Tutor's Column

Although it is a common element of academic writing, the thesis statement is woefully misunderstood and misused by many new college students. The Writing Center staff spends too much time reexplaining this principle and helping visiting students construct a solid thesis; time that could be better spent on other key aspects of their essays, like content and organization. This essay strives to explain what a thesis statement is, how it is crafted, how and why students have such a poor understanding of the concept, and what can be done to fix this obnoxious issue.

Don’T Talk -Listen: The Power Of Silence In A Tutoring Session, Megan Ririe

Tutor's Column

Why is silence so scary? This paper explores the reasons behind why silence is so hard for us as tutors to utilize in our tutoring sessions, as well as the benefits of using silence and wait time. These benefits include an effective learning environment, a stronger understanding of the student and their assignment, and a respect for the student's ideas and authorship of their paper.

Warm Smiles, Soft Chairs: A Testament To The Power Of Ambience, Cari Phillips

Tutor's Column

In this paper I discuss the effects of positive ambience within a writing center environment. Effective writing centers encourage student relaxation through positive tutor affect, soothing nature-based decor, and organization that promotes low power-distance. The use of open, friendly attitudes, warm colors, and breathing room allow writing center attendees to relax. As a result, attendees of this kind of writing center are more effective, engaged, and motivated to dig deep while pursuing the writing process. Combining research with personal experience, I relate an effective writing center to a positive classroom learning environment, comparing the effects of various methods of classroom/center …

A Minute Too Late, Camille Rasband

Tutor's Column

Time management is a tool that everyone should learn to use. Tutors must manage time in the tutoring center for a successful session as well as in their everyday life. When tutoring sessions are rushed because time isn’t watched, there are many consequences. Relationships built between students and tutors are damaged, anxiety begins to build up, and an overall feeling of complete exhaustion begins to rule our bodies. It begins affecting individual lifestyles in and out of the workplace. It creates extreme stress levels which can impair abilities to control our emotions. There are several tactics we can turn to …

The Business Of Writing, Mikayla Doyle

Tutor's Column

One of the greatest aspects of university study is the ability to learn from a wide variety of sources. Often, we assume that most of our knowledge about writing comes from our English classes. However, as a business student, I have learned many things that have helped me to become a better writer. In this essay I will address the importance of writing a purposeful thesis, creating a logical argument, using concision in writing, and making writing understandable.

So What?: Writing And Tutoring Intentionally, Cassidy Gummersall

Tutor's Column

In my first semester of tutoring, I have seen papers about forestry services, Rihanna as an emblem of dominance, the nutritional chemistry of an English muffin, NASA funding, and the endangered Peruvian vicugna. I have worked with students writing genres like persuasive research essays, personal narratives, lab reports, and even philosophy short-answer midterm responses. When confronted with papers that have requirements or subjects where I am far from an expert, I have learned to ask, “Why did you select this topic?” and “How would you want your audience to be changed by reading your paper?” These questions function to alleviate …

Allowing The Untellable To Visit: Investigating Digital Folklore, Ptsd And Stigma, Geneva Harline

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the introduction of 2012 issue of The Journal of Folklore Research, Diane Goldstein and Amy Shuman issue a “call to arms for folklorists … to concentrate on the vernacular experience of the stigmatized.” (Goldstein and Shuman, 2012:116). Drawing on this call to arms, this thesis investigates how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is portrayed in social media through memes and captioned images. I argue that the genres of memes and captioned images in digital folklore work to help mitigate the stigma of PTSD because the veneer of anonymity in the digital world allows people with PTSD to be willing …

Social Justice Across The Curriculum: Research-Based Course Design, Rebecca Walton, Jared Sterling Colton, Rikki Kae Wheatley-Boxx, Krista Gurko

English Faculty Publications

This Programmatic Showcase describes why and how Utah State University redesigned our Technical Communication and Rhetoric program to incorporate considerations of social justice across the curriculum. After describing our programmatic vision, we describe in detail the design of a pedagogical study informing our curricular redesign and then share strategies for course design and university-community partnerships. The course-design strategies include 1) explicitly framing courses around broad issues of social justice, 2) incorporating hands-on practice to connect conceptions of social justice to professional practices, and 3) facilitating opportunities for both students and clients to reflect upon these connections. The strategies for facilitating …

Lost In Translation: The Immigration To Academia And Implementing Critical Thought, Stacie Denetsosie

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Denetsosie compares her entry-level English students to immigrants. New to the requirements of academia, these students need practice acclimating to academic culture. Denetsosie recommends writing centers and composition classes as low-stakes environments where students can practice their new voice. Tutors and teachers can make this transition easier by asking open-ended questions, encouraging students to use their own words, and teaching students to think critically.

Analyzing Wants Versus Needs In The Writing Center, Jessica Griffeth

Writing Center Analysis Papers

Last year, as I was sitting in my living room doing my homework, my sister, Abby, started telling me about her experience in the Writing Center. She was encouraged from her visit because of the praise she had received, and she was excited to implement the advice she was given. However, when Abby got her grade for the paper, she was devastated. The grade she received was unacceptable, and she was confused. She went to the Writing Center, and shouldn’t applying the few suggestions she was given help her get an A? The tutor gave Abby some suggestions laced with …