Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

An Intercultural Analysis Of Sources Of Medical Information In Spanish-Speaking Diabetes Patients, Marta Antón, Ulla Connor, Kathryn Lauten, Stephanie Balunda

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Understanding and improving health literacy have become important goals in health communication. Research has shown that limited health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes and that it is more prevalent in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The goals of this study are to describe English-speaking (ES) and Spanish-speaking (SS) diabetic patients’ perceptions of sources of health information, to identify the actions patients report taking in seeking that information, and to test reading comprehension of medical information among SS patients.

Data for this study were based on semi-structured interviews, life-story narratives, and a reading comprehension test with diabetic patients (43 …

The New Scarlet Letter A: An Exploration Of The Power Of Online Informational Websites To Influence And Brand Those Impacted By Autism Spectrum Disorders, Barbi Smyser-Fauble

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Technical communication is often perceived by the public as containing objective information that is supported by scientific data. Audiences of such products are unaware of the rhetoric employed within its content that works to perpetuate social constructions of dominant ideologies, including digital texts such as informational websites. This article presents a comparison of the rhetoric employed on two national websites, Autism Speaks and Generation Rescue that convey similar information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), but present ASDs differently in terms of language, tone, and lens. Through the acknowledgement of these differences, I posit that web sites affiliated with the medical/scientific …

Fotonovelas And Anglo Designs In Health Communications For Spanish-Speaking Residents Along The U.S.-Mexico Border, Barry Thatcher

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This study compares the intercultural instructional designs, based on eight intercultural value sets, of two types of health communications for Spanish-speaking U.S.-Mexico border populations. The first design is the fotonovela, or photo drama pamphlet, an approach that is well developed in Latin America and modeled after the famous Latin American television soap opera genre of telenovelas. This design dramatizes health information in culturally appropriate ways. The second design is Anglo dominant, representing predominant rhetorical and cultural preferences of the United States. Grounded in a Texas Health Equity project, the research team created a fotonovela for septic maintenance for border colonias. …

Translating Health Care: Stories From Refugees, Providers, And Friends, Kevin Brooks, Miriam Mara

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Drawing on interviews and participatory observation, this article weaves stories of translating healthcare told from the perspectives of refugees, health care providers, and friends. The research finds that while literal translations of documents and information are important to the health care process for refugees of New Americans, cultural translations of concepts like health care and preventive care are perhaps even more important. That translation, however, is not simple or literal either; refugees and New Americans may resist, or remain suspicious of, these concepts even once understood. Friends of refugees can provide an important role in helping with cultural and institutional …

The Hispanic Social Media Revolution: Spanish-Language Healthcare Pages On Facebook Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Although many Hispanics living in the United States do not have a regular health care provider, they are getting healthcare information from the media. The internet is increasingly becoming the place where Hispanics get healthcare information. The number of Hispanics, both Spanish and English speaking, who go online is increasing every year. However, the Hispanic population as a whole is more likely to view videos online and to browse the internet from their mobile phones. The use of social media sites by Hispanics is also growing rapidly. Hispanics look for healthcare information on social media sites such as Facebook and …

Grassroots Emergency Health Risk Communication And Transmedia Public Participation: H1n1 Flu, Travelers From Epicenters, And Cyber Vigilantism, Huiling Ding

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Grassroots risk reduction tactics took new forms in the era of social media. Chinese netizens mobilized human flesh searches (HFS), or cyber vigilantism, to reduce the risks posed by international travelers who might import the H1N1 flu virus into China. My study suggests that at the beginning of the H1N1 flu epidemic, rigorous transmedia intervention efforts were made to discipline the early irresponsible overseas Chinese who traveled extensively after arriving in China, but much less attention was paid to risks posed by foreign travelers. The grassroots risk tactics employed emotional appeals, valuative judgment, and moral condemnation to criticize the irresponsible …

Editor's Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Busy physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators do not have the time to conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews with patients. Researchers in the communication fields, such as the authors whose work is featured in this edition of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, can help fill in these gaps of knowledge and provide insight into some of the best practices and issues that our healthcare professionals need to address to serve these populations more effectively.

Review Of The Craft Of Scientific Communication. Joseph E. Harmon And Alan G. Gross, Chicago: The University Of Chicago, 2010. 225pp., Matthew Mccool

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Science is a truly global endeavor, one that traffics in the world of abstract theory and practical implications. Bridging the chasm between theory and practice is one thing but communicating it from one mind to the next takes clarity and concision. Harmon and Gross’ latest book, The Craft of Scientific Communication (Chicago: The University of Chicago), helps scientists and laypersons alike do just that.

Review Of The Global M&A Tango: How To Reconcile Cultural Differences In Mergers, Acquisitions, And Strategic Partnerships. Fons Trompenaars And Maarten Nijhoff Asser. New York: Mcgraw Hill, 2011, Harrison Ownbey

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The cultural clashes and communication failures that often occur during international business mergers and acquisitions (M&As) revolve around rhetoric. However, many business experts facilitating M&As neglect rhetorical issues, which then exponentially compounds other problems. A large majority of mergers and acquisitions fail primarily because of cultural differences. Dutch authors Fons Trompenaars and Maarten Nijhoff Asser offer The Global M&A Tango as a baseline method for realizing new strengths and delivering business benefits by connecting different viewpoints. The book aims to enable M&A executives to create a dialogic foundation for new communication frameworks. It suggests several key processes to help frame …

Review Of Intercultural Rhetoric In The Writing Classroom. Ulla Connor. Ann Arbor, Mi: The University Of Michigan Press, 2011., Dobson Kate

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

For the better part of its life span, intercultural rhetoric research has been dominated by Ulla Connor. This book is a follow-up to her 1996 book Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second-Language Writing, in which she described the developing research methods for the field at the time. Upon the book’s release, some critics warned that the act of comparing the writing style of one person from a particular national culture to that of someone from another national culture may result in stereotypes. This book is the response to these criticisms by way of redefining the field.

How Change Management Is Influenced By Differences In Professional Discourses: A Conceptualizing Study On The Adoption Of An Ict Tool For Service Engineers In A Global Perspective, Jos Pieterse, Jan Ulijn, Thijs Homan

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This article describes the process of organizational change due to technological evolutions, suggesting that community-specific differences in discourse may have a considerable influence on its success. The questions for this study focus on: 1) how do we define a technically oriented employee who has to cope with organizational change? 2) Which factors determine the reaction to organizational change projects in which these technically oriented employees are involved? And 3) what are the consequences of these specific characters of technically oriented employees for implementing change programs in the most effective manner? First, while the present studies on professional communication do not …

Global Training, Multicultural Course Design, And Delivery: The Impact On Cultural Style Adjustments Of Faculty And Global Training Instructors, Christine R. Day, Crissie M. Frye

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Globalization is a reality for businesses and institutions of higher education. Furthermore, many U.S. based firms are expanding their businesses beyond domestic markets. These trends indicate that U.S. born individuals are likely to study or work in multicultural environments domestically and abroad. Research suggests that faculty and trainers adapt their teaching style and classroom policies to accommodate multicultural learners. Disconnections may arise, however, regarding the willingness to include these accommodations. The present exploratory study investigates the inclination and extent to which faculty and trainers adjust their teaching style, content, and policies to adapt to multicultural learners, namely, graduate and undergraduate …

Does Language Affect Trust In Global Professional Contexts? Perceptions Of International Business Professionals, Jane Kassis Henderson, Leena Louhiala-Salminen

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

A characteristic of trust is that it is more easily built in close-knit communities where common ground and a common language are already established. Building trust is, therefore, a challenge for business professionals who use English as a shared working language in the multilingual environment of multinational companies. In this exploratory article, concepts from trust research and principles from the field of interactional sociolinguistics are used to throw light on the interplay of language and trust. Based on an analysis of survey and interview data from business professionals in globally operating companies in several countries, findings indicate that language related …

State Of The Field: Human Sociality And Our Expanding Circle, Matthew Mccool

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The first part of this essay provides a brief summary of this journal’s first editorial, which examined eight needed developments and eight critical contexts for global inquiry. The second part addresses our expanding circle of ethics, which starts with kin but has gradually increased to include tribes, states, nations, and even the world. It is our expanding circle of ethics that has led to a heightened awareness of equality, the product of a noble goal with origins in recent social justice movements. The aim of this essay is to assert that the field has a promising future by including both …

Review Of Digital Literacy For Technical Communication: 21st Century Theory And Practice. Edited By Rachel Spilka. New York: Routledge. 2010. 272 Pages., Dave Jones

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This collection of essays, edited by Rachel Spilka, addresses changes within the field of Technical Communication, and asks what those changes mean for scholars and practitioners. As technical (or professional) communication expands its focus in the 21st century to include tools, skills, and technologies beyond its traditional scope, the collection gathers together well-known technical communication specialists to ask what "literacy" might mean in this new context. Though the introduction at one point says that the anthology wishes to address "any type of literacy affected by technology of all types " (p. 7), the primary focus is clear: digital literacy. The …

Review Of The World Is Flat: A Brief History Of The Twenty-First Century; 1st Rev. And Expanded Ed. New York: Farrar, Straus And Giroux, 2006., Kathryn Northcut

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

There may be no more obvious popular book to review for the first issue of a journal on rhetoric, professional communication, and globalization than Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Friedman, bestselling author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, attempts to demystify globalization and suggest ways that governments and corporations will need to quickly adjust in an increasingly competitive market environment. Consistently as ambitious as the title suggests, Friedman’s book describes much of interest to technical communicators, especially those of us who just can’t travel enough to see things first hand …

Review Of Network Power: The Social Dynamics Of Globalization. David Singh Grewal. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008., William Carney

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The debate over globalization is often portrayed in both the mainstream media and some segments of academia as one that features two extremes. On one side are the “neoliberals” with a positive yet almost deterministic view of globalization. For them, the growth of an interconnected web of business, nonprofit, and governmental relations will ultimately improve living standards all over the world and the reach of this web has become all but inevitable. On the other side are those who see a nefarious side to globalization. They fear the extinction of cultural differences and ways of life for people powerless to …

In Case You Missed It: Selected Scholarship From The Discipline, Gerald Savage, David Alan Sapp

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

We all tell our undergraduate and graduate students how important it is to keep current in the field. In our professional lives as writers and communicators, that means keeping track of trends in industry and technology; as academics, it means keeping up on our reading—the latest books, recent articles in journals, the proceedings of our major conferences—so that we can contribute to disciplinary conversations, teach our classes with integrity, and advance our own research agendas effectively. As part of this process, we show our appreciation to those who contribute to the knowledge of our field and participate in the process …

Intercultural Rhetoric In The Technical Communication Curriculum: A Review Of The Literature, Jennifer Bracken Scott

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Although many scholars in technical, professional, and business communication have argued for the inclusion of intercultural rhetoric and communication in technical communication curricula, several key tensions have emerged from this effort. These tensions center upon the competencies most necessary for graduates of our programs, as well as approaches for understanding and teaching intercultural communication. This literature review presents a discussion and critique of literature in the field based on articles collected from several major journals as well as book sections in the areas of technical, professional, and business communication; it also offers recommendations for further research and development in this …

Rethinking The Problem Of Linguistic Categorization For Global Search Engines, Matthew Mccool

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The fields of social psychology and neuroscience have known for several decades that culture affects the way people carve up the world. This perceptual difference is often, but not always, aligned with similar differences in linguistics categories. If correct, this problem of linguistic categorization may have considerable impact on search algorithms. This paper examines the relationship between culture and linguistic categorization for global search engines. A total of 43 American and Chinese participants completed two classification tests, one derived from social psychology and neuroscience and the other based on a common classification problem for full-text searching. These data suggest that …

A Meta-Analysis Of The Cultural Propositions About Conflict Management Styles In Face-Negotiation Theory, Peter Cardon, Ephraim Okoro

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Among the most influential intercultural communication theories is Ting-Toomey's face-negotiation theory. The theory has undergone a number of refinements over the past two decades and has emerged as one of the most cited theories in intercultural business communication research. The theory posits that face or “identity respect and other-identity consideration” is maintained and negotiated in communications and interactions of members of all cultures; however, it is perceived and enacted differently across cultures as a function of the cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism, power distance, and low-context/high-context orientation. Our study is a meta-analysis of all research during the past two decades about …

Editor's Introduction To The First Edition: Eight Needed Developments And Eight Critical Contexts For Global Inquiry, Barry Thatcher

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

In this introduction, I articulate critical gaps, needed developments, and opportunities for rhetoric and professional communication in global contexts. My tone is intentionally provocative and personal, laying out my positions and concerns based on almost 20 years of experience working in both rhetoric/professional communication and intercultural/global studies. In this introduction, I also demonstrate the power (and beauty) of intercultural and global inquiry to expose unexamined assumptions and problems in current theory, research, and practice in rhetoric and professional communication. The first section introduces eight needed developments for global theory, research, and practice, based on current approaches in rhetoric and professional …

Understanding The Importance Of Statues: Symbols Of Racism In Modern Society, Theresa Vanwormer

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

Whether it is a monument, statue, plaque, or mural, the values and ideologies that are memorialized on public land reflect what reality the people of a country are choosing to remember. The United States’ political and racial history has led to the creation of controversial memorials, including memorials that honor the Confederacy and its leaders, influencing moral concepts based in racism, violence, and oppression. The continued veneration of these symbols on public land sends the message to the Black community that their oppressors are honored as heroes and that the society they live in still allows for their abuse. Annette-Gordon …

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …

Intergroup Dialogue As Praxis For Engaging The Intercultural World, Jennifer E. Potter, Erin L. Berry-Mccrea

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a formalized program that centers dialogue among students in the classroom. The IGD program uses Martin Buber’s (1970) concept of dialogue, and this semester-long project situates dialogue as a useful addition to an Intercultural Communication course. Bringing components of a formal dialogue program into the classroom as a part of a course allows students to engage with difficult topics, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, class, and ability, among others, in a way that helps students process and better understand perspectives different from their own. This essay provides specific opportunities for meaningful dialogue and concludes an …

The Grid: A Long-Form Exercise In Forensic Peer Coaching, C. Austin Mcdonald Ii, Andrew Boge

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

As directors of forensics grapple with thoughts of burnout or exiting the activity (Carmack & Holm, 2013), peer coaching practices may offer ways of relieving the well-documented coaching burden (Gill, 1990; Keefe, 1991; McDonald, 2001; Rogers & Rennels, 2008). We offer a long-form individual events team exercise called “The Grid” which aims to foster a culture of peer coaching, to reduce the need for coaches, and to encourage students to take ownership of their forensic event development.




The authors give full credit of The Grid's core ideas to the Gustavus Adolphus College forensics teams under the direction of Cadi Kadlecek …

Art Intervention Amid A Pandemic: A Pentadic Analysis Of The Vermillion Street Piano, Bailey Quanbeck

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The Vermillion Street Piano was an art intervention introduced to the community of Vermillion, South Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying Burke’s (1945/1962) pentad to this artifact and analyzing the scene-act ratio, I argue that the materialistic (i.e., scenic) constraints surrounding the piano meaningfully shaped and motivated the community experiences facilitated by the instrument. As street art situated in an outdoor, unsupervised location, the piano invited creative engagement from the community while suffering damages. The scenic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic both augmented the therapeutic experiences offered through this art piece and presented risks for community members seeking interaction. …

Finding Common Ground: Analyzing Thomas A. Daschle’S Senate Leadership Speeches As A Model For Bipartisanship, Rebecca A. Kuehl, Olivia R. Knippling

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The 2016 U.S. presidential election highlighted the contentiousness of U.S. politics. As rhetorical scholars invested in establishing common ground in U.S. politics, we analyzed the leadership speeches of Senator Thomas A. Daschle. Daschle is worthy of study because he is the only person in U.S. history to have served as both Senate majority and minority leader. Our research question is: How did Senator Thomas A. Daschle use his leadership speeches to work across the political aisle? This study uses the method of close textual analysis to analyze 23 of Daschle’s leadership speeches. We suggest Daschle offers a model of bipartisanship. …

The Rhetoric Of Parody And Persona: The Rhetorical Construction Of Donald Trump Through Parody In The 2016 Election, James Lyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation is to explore the rhetorical nature of parody in the context of the American electoral process. This work draws on existing research in the field to show how humor is an important method for engaging the public sphere. This project develops the rhetorical nature of humor, works through existing research on conceptualizations of humor and its importance for societal dialogue, and then addresses the specific contributions to the study of parody offered by Mikhail Bakhtin and Kenneth Burke to demonstrate the potential for parody to act as a form of rhetorical illumination of existing rhetorical …

Feminine Discursive Authority Through Symbolism, Allegory And Exemplum: A Study Of Christine De Pizan, A Rhetor Of The Late Middle Ages, Kathleen Burk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rhetorical studies are deeply concerned with the way that human beings use language and symbols to interact and persuade others to follow a particular point of view, or plan of action. In the male dominant culture of 15^th century France, Christine de Pizan recognized the limitations of speaking as a woman in her own voice. Therefore, she directed her voice through a cadre of allegorical divine beings, most of whom were women. These allegorical mentors held the divine authority to profess the virtue of women, as Christine, the narrator, humbly listened. This was a time in history when few …