English Language and Literature Commons^™

Why Write The Ride? Exploring Writing In The Bikepacking Community, Zackary Gregory

Student Research Symposium

While bicycle touring generally denotes multi-day trips ridden on paved routes, bikepacking emphasizes riding unpaved roads and narrow single track to out-of-the-way destinations. Bikepackers will often spend all day scrambling up and down rocky mountain trails and desert roads. Many Bikepackers recount their trips on social media, in personal journals and in publications like The Bikepacking Journal. This study investigates the relationship between writing and bikepacking, and considers what bikepackers gain by putting their experiences into words.

A Tale Of Two Textbooks: 1960s And 2020s, Taylor Wyatt

Student Research Symposium

Composition and Writing studies courses have changed significantly in the wake of the Dartmouth Seminar in 1966. The Dartmouth Seminar was a meeting of English and American scholars, shifting from a product orientation to teaching writing to one based on process. Textbooks are an often-forgotten aspect of composition/writing studies classrooms. This research is a mixed method approach that considers the pedagogical and wider discipline implications of two distinct textbooks used in different times: one from before the Dartmouth Seminar, Communication Skills: The Basic Course, and the second a contemporary example, Focus on Writing: What College Students Want to Know.

In Service To The Narrative: The Buried Giant Through A Folklore Lens, Vinn Mcbride

Student Research Symposium

Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2016 novel The Buried Giant has a history of causing contention over how it should be read. Literature, fiction, fantasy, historical fantasy, and other forms have all be the jumping off point for many analysts, but this paper argues that perhaps the best way to read this work is as an analysis of Western literary canon and violence through the lens of oral folklore. Using Axel Olrik’s Epic Laws of Folk Narrative or sagenwelt offers insights into how the novel functions as an examination of characters bound up in predestined narratives due to the nature of their original …

Say Gay, Miranda Wiener

Student Research Symposium

The HB-1557 bill, deemed the 'Don't Say Gay' Bill by critics, has officially passed in the Florida Senate and will be enacted into law. The law targets discussion in the classroom towards LGBTQ issues and dynamics, eliminating these discussions all together. This bill will eliminate a potential safe space for LGBTQ students and will reinforce the idea that LGBTQ issues are a 'taboo' subject. By only eliminating LGBTQ discussions, the mental and physical health of youth apart of the LGBTQ community will decrease and students who are not apart of the LGBTQ community will lose the opportunity to create an …

Diversity Within Literature, Amrutha Obulasetty

Student Research Symposium

While our secondary classrooms grow more and more racially/ethnically diverse, common sense would tell us that our literature needs to reflect that, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of books that include diverse racial and ethnic representation. The issue is not the lack of literature but rather the lack of exposure to students in secondary schools in the US. Through my research, I question the dichotomy between the racially and ethnically diverse literature that exists and the racially and ethnically diverse literature that is in the hands of our students. After placing published scholarship in conversation with one another, …

Social Students, Social Scholars: How Usu English Graduate Students Use Social Media, Taylor Franson

Student Research Symposium

This research study focused on social media usage of USU English graduate students within the Utah State University English Department. The case study and interview results showed that few English graduate students have received advice on how to use social media, despite believing social media could be used to advance their careers. Many believe networking could be crucial to being published, creating contacts within the English world, and furthering their academic career, but few know how to go about this. This study suggests that there is room within the English department to create opportunities for English graduate students to learn …

Women Can Step Out Of The Shadows Of Time And Take Their Rightful Place Next To The Men Who Blazed A Trail Through The Wilderness., Bonnie Swenson

Research on Capitol Hill

Bonnie, attending USU’s statewide campus from her home in Orangeville, decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree after retirement and is studying English. In her coursework, Bonnie came across accounts of the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneer expedition in San Juan County in the late 1800s. Most research on this arduous trek has focused on the men of the expedition and the engineering innovations required to build a road into the side of a cliff. Bonnie’s work is unearthing previously disregarded accounts in library archives and amplifying the stories of the 100 women and girls who accompanied the expedition and contributed to its success. …

Voices Of Usu: An Anthology Of Student Writing, Vol. 15, 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.

The Language Of Classroom Design: How Aesthetic Impacts Learning, Josie Rivera

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Secondary classrooms are the settings where crucial learning experiences occur, yet much of the existing research on classroom design pertains to elementary schools. The general lack of importance placed on the physical layout of secondary classrooms insinuates that while younger students benefit from an attractive, visually pleasing classroom, teenage students do not. Despite this, educators seek to make their classrooms places of refuge and learning. For example, Utah’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, Lauren Merkley, decorates her room with thrifted lamps which emit a warm glow in her classroom. Martin Reeder of Sky View High School curated a ‘book nook’ …

Insights On The Effectiveness Of The Hamburger Method, K. Kerrin Mountcastle

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

This empirical research study examined the use and effectiveness of the Hamburger Method, a writing strategy to teach organization and development similar to the famous, or perhaps infamous, Five-Paragraph Theme. This method of writing teaches students to write an introduction that includes their thesis (the top bun); three body paragraphs containing evidence (the meat and condiments); and then a conclusion that reverses the introduction and ends the essay (the bottom bun). Notably, the approach is generally introduced during elementary school as it has obvious appeal to children. The research reveals, though, in more advanced settings, secondary school English classrooms and …

Book Worms? A Profile Of The Reading Lives Of English Majors, Ryan Collins, Claire Atwood, Virginia Beikmann, Josephine Rivera, Mya Bethers, Kerrin Mountcastle, Sam Richens, Cayla Cappel

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

What are the reading lives of a group of upper-division English majors in terms of their autobiographies, their processes of reading, and their preferred texts? How do they manage required reading and reading for pleasure? Although university students who major in English Studies read consistently, often reading behaviors are taken for granted, particularly the long-term reading lives of these students. How did they develop as readers? What strategies have they developed to be successful? What are preferred tools and technology? How has their various cultures influenced their reading? By using an autoethnographic approach that describes and interrogates their processes and …

Known And Unknown: Women's Voices Of The Hole-In-The-Rock Expedition, Bonnie Swenson

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

In 2020, Utah focused on a significant benchmark in voting rights: the celebration of 150 years of Utah women voting, the first in the modern nation to do so. Over the course of the celebration stories about women were uncovered, recovered, and publicized. Too often, women’s stories in history have been overlooked. This project seeks to recover some of those women’s voices. The Hole-in-the-Rock expedition was an arduous trek in 1879-80 across an uncharted, barren landscape in southeastern Utah by novice pioneers. History has focused primarily on the extraordinary feat building of the 290-mile road. The clever engineering allowed wagons …

A Hot Wheeler's Heaven Or Hell? A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Hot Wheels Red Line Club Online Forums And How They Compare To Other Online Mediums, Samuel Richens

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

This research project aims to shed light on the unique phenomenon of the Hot Wheels Red Line Club online forums and how the rhetorical interactions that take place there compare to other mainstream forums. To the uninitiated, Hot Wheels by Mattel, introduced in 1968, is the best-selling toy, even outperforming Barbie, who debuted a decade earlier. To begin, a rhetorical analysis of conversations on the online discussion forum was conducted. In addition, a survey was distributed to students asking about their online forum experiences, and an interview was conducted with an expert on online forums to gain their knowledge and …

Working With Your Brain: A Case Study Of The Writing Processes Of Women Writers With Adhd, Claire Atwood

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Adult women with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are diagnosed at a significantly lower rate than adult men and children. As children, ADHD presents itself in classroom behaviors, like a difficulty in concentrating, staying on task, and interrupting the lesson. For girls and especially adult women, these symptoms are not as obvious as they are in men, which results in a significant lack of research about women with ADHD. In Women with ADHD, Roberta Sanders notes that “there is a tendency for girls to be diagnosed with [the ADHD Inattentive type] more than boys and it prevails in older children …

Dramaturgy For Miss Bennet: Christmas At Pemberley, Samantha Stringham

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

The aim of this dramaturgical research was to explore and understand Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon within the context of Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice, the sociohistorical and contextual norms of Regency England, and within the world of the play itself. The goal was for this research to be utilized by the cast and production team of Utah State University’s production of Miss Bennet (directed by Tarah Flanagan) as a resource to inform production, performance, and design. This was achieved through strictly textual, and performance-focused analysis of the play. The research was compiled …

The Power Of Booktok: An Analysis Of The Influence Of Tiktok On College Students' Leisurely Reading, Mya Bethers

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Social media is an ever-growing and present tool in the lives of college students. One of the most popular social media apps among young adults is TikTok. Its short video gratification keeps viewers scrolling well beyond their expected app use, and in consequence, exposes them to a variety of brands, commercials, and products (purposefully marketed or not). Over the pandemic, thousands of TikTok users have shared their book recommendations on the app, which created the side of TikTok known as BookTok. This study analyzes the power and influence BookTok has had on college students’ leisurely reading choices. The methods used …

Results Of Lexile Level Reading Practices On Rural Middle School Students, Tiffany Sanderson

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Many students have experienced, and remember, reading comprehension exams from their time in grade school. These tests examined student ability to comprehend different levels of reading so that educators could ensure a student was reading within grade level targets. ATOS and A-Z along with the Fountas and Pinnell reading programs are all previous methods used in ELA classrooms across the nation. Some of these are still used widely today. ATOS is a program which closely resembles Lexile as it also determines book and student scores with a method that correlates back to grade level. For example, sixth-grade would be 6.0. …

These Are The Droids You're Looking For: Tagging And Content In Fanfiction, Virginia Beikmann

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

What do fanfiction readers look for when given the ability to specifically seek certain content through tagging? Fanfiction is often broadly defined by a variety of definitions, but the easiest way to understand it is simply by the name: It is fiction of existing works/media of any sort, expounded upon by fans of the content to create something original, while still using characters, plots, themes and so on of the original work. For instance, a fanfiction may take characters and write them out in new scenarios but having the original content having still happened in that character’s background, or fanfiction …

Beloved: Born Of Sethe's Slavery And Trauma, Sariah Dutkiewicz

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

Toni Morrison’s Beloved introduces many characters who exhibit clear signs of trauma due to their past as African American slaves, however, one character in particular stands out: Sethe. Sethe’s life as a slave led her to experience and do horrendous things. The worst being the difficult and violent decision to murder her own child, Beloved, in an effort to prevent her child from being forced into slavery. Though Sethe survived her life as a slave, she was unable to focus on her future because of her past that consistently haunts her. Her trauma is portrayed in many different forms throughout …

Not All Lawyers Read John Grisham: An Exploration Of The Reading Habits Of Pre-Law Students And Attorneys, Ryan Collins

Fall Student Research Symposium 2021

This project aims to explore the reading habits of a small group of pre-law students at Utah State University and three attorneys. The first goal of this project was to understand how USU students required academic reading has influenced the way they read for pleasure. The second goal of this project was to explore the reading lives of three attorneys, including a self-evaluation of their past academic reading, their current professional reading, and how their professional reading has influenced the way they read for pleasure today. A mixed methodology consisting of online surveys and interviews was used to approach these …

A Teacher's Guide In Creating Linguistic Diverse Classroom: Code-Meshing And Translingual Practice In First-Year Composition, Yvonne Liu

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

This thesis and portfolio are inspired by the recent code-meshing pedagogy movement to promote linguistic justice in the composition classroom along with the author’s personal journey in English learning. The traditional, monolingual practice in the composition classroom often isolates international students who have multilingual abilities above the rest of the students. The idea that there is only one correct use of English—standard English—assumes that one type of English is better than others. However, most native speakers cannot explain the rules and mechanism of standard English, which leaves international students often feeling frustrated and lowers their confidence in English writing and …

From Governess To Wife: How Women On The Fringe Of Society Upset And Restore Victorian Homes, Elsa C. Torgersen

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

In middle-class Victorian homes, wives were responsible for the care of the home, the raising of children, and the maintenance and upward mobility of her family’s social standing. She was the heart of the home and her purity and commitment to the home would not only affect her family, but also society. Yet the women who were qualified according to societal standards were a small group, carefully chosen to maintain the standards of society. In the novels Bleak House and Jane Eyre, the authors push back against strict societal expectations. They ask the audience to consider if women should …

Effective In The Affective: Cultivating An Emotionally Intelligent Writing Center, Camille Bassett

Tutor's Column

Academic contexts emphasize the cognitive component of writing. However, for tutors to effectively meet students’ needs they must also give attention to the affective, or emotional, component. At times, anxieties about session productivity or a perceived inability to meet students’ needs cause tutors to fall into a defensive mindset in which they attempt to address students’ emotional states as quickly as possible. Rather than allowing this mindset to dominate the session, tutors should practice the empathetic mindset, giving students the space and support to express their emotional needs. Emphatic listening facilitates the empathetic mindset, positioning tutors to act as a …

Tutoring Ell Students In The Digital Age Of Zoom: An Abundance Of Resources, Hannah Lee

Tutor's Column

Tutoring during Covid has been a challenging adjustment, but it has brought a flood of new resources for ELL tutoring. These resources are what ELL students need to succeed and break previous patterns of ELL struggles. Nontraditional students are now able to attend the writing center more easily than before. Asynchronous tutoring is a powerful resource for language learners who struggle with grammatical concepts and errors.

Changing The Narrative: Proofreading At The Writing Center, Claire Atwood

Tutor's Column

Writing Centers have a golden rule against proofreading. It gives student’s the impression that they can send their paper in to a tutor and they’ll correct all the grammar and semantics errors for them. This does not facilitate learning on the part of the student, and diminishes a tutor’s purpose, to tutor on writing. There needs to be a switch in how we approach a proofreading request, so we don’t refuse services to any students. Tutors can find grammatical errors and use them to teach basic principles.

The Sea Calls: A Selkie's Liminal Existence, Frances Avery

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

Traditionally, the selkies (or seal people) of Scottish-Irish lore exist between spaces: the land and the sea, human and animal, childbearing and childless. Their existence at sea is voluntary but their existence on land is forced. Once the selkie has left behind its sealskin and both the literal and metaphorical sealskin has been stolen, the selkie becomes subject to human will. The lenses of body, reclamation, violation, and abuse prove that the reason why selkies have faded from popularity is because the lessons are too mature for a young audience. A feminist and queer reading and interpretation of this traditional …

Collaborative Classrooms: Incorporating Pragmatics And Technology In Language Learning With A Focus On Generation 1.5, Brandee Burk

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

This portfolio is a compilation of work that the author accomplished during the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University (USU). It reflects the culmination of the author’s learning and teaching experiences during her coursework and as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) in the Intensive English Language Institute (IELI).

The portfolio contains three main sections: teaching perspectives, research perspectives, and an annotated bibliography. In the first section the author explains her desired professional environment, her philosophy of teaching, as well as insights from language classroom observations she will incorporate into her teaching. The research perspectives section consists …

Every Student Is A Writer: Building Confidence Through Tutoring Sessions, Sandra Edwards

Tutor's Column

Students often feel inadequate as a writer when entering a tutoring session. Tutors can instill confidence in the student by praising what they are doing well. They can also let the student express their ideas in the session, then the tutor and student can build off of those ideas together. Overall, the tutor can help the student see themselves as a writer rather than someone who writes, which will give the student conviction beyond the sphere of the classroom.

Covering The Basics: The Importance Of A Good Layout And Strong Thesis, Adam Robinson

Tutor's Column

Thesis writing is key to tutoring. A strong thesis performs numerous functions: covering smaller concerns, teaching writers how to structure their paper, and giving a strong layout. Using a focus on thesis teaching makes the tutoring session easier and more efficient for both the tutor and client too.

Make Listening Visible, Carson Brown

Tutor's Column

Online tutoring can make it hard to feel like tutors are engaging with students and actually helping them. Writing consultants can avoid feeling this way by showing the student they are actively listening. This paper will highlight some of the ways one can demonstrate active listening through backchanneling, gaze, and rephrasing student’s words. Improving active listening skills is a great way to foster engagement from the student and have more fulfilling sessions.