Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Understanding Lists: Umberto Eco's Rhetoric Of Communication And Signification, Susan Mancino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project, Understanding Lists: Umberto Eco’s Rhetoric of Communication and Signification, begins and ends with an observation and warning suggested throughout Eco’s work: lists are the origin of culture and the Internet as the Mother of All Lists threatens to end culture. To understand this warning, I turn to Eco’s work on lists, contextualized within a 2009 exhibition at the Musée du Louvre and in an illustrated collection, The Infinity of Lists. This project offers an analysis of Eco’s understanding of lists concurrent to his commentary on the social and cultural implications of the algorithmic-obsessed Internet age. To understand …

An Analysis Of Public And Feminist Rhetoric For Menstrual Equity, Margaret Linscott

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

In August of 2017, James Madison University installed free tampon and pad dispensers in major restrooms across its campus. This development was the result of the campaign Free the Tampon which used the themes of menstrual equity, public writing, and feminist rhetoric to achieve its outcome. Using writing and rhetoric, the campaign successfully engaged with 2000 students in passing a petition and in reaching out to key JMU decision makers. This project designs the origin, implementation, and effects of Free the Tampon on JMU’s campus and the ways in which concepts of menstrual equity informed the campaign.

Opinions In Context: An Exploration Of The Rhetoric Used By Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia And Ruth Bader Ginsburg Regarding The Separation Of Church And State, Catherine Evans

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg represented opposite ends of the political spectrum on the Court, having been appointed by presidents from different parties. Their opinions on cases revolving around the interpretation of separation of church and state do/did not occur within a vacuum, and this paper examines both the context surrounding these opinions and rhetoric of the opinions themselves, closing with a discussion of the former’s effect on the latter. Specifically, four cases (two for each) from the beginning and end of the justices’ careers will be analyzed: Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board v. Pinette …

U.S. Presidential Leadership And Crisis Rhetoric, Robert Mccabe

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

My capstone project seeks to determine what are U.S. presidents attempting to accomplish in (or with) their speeches? This matters because presidential responses to crises can reflect how a president’s leadership abilities are perceived by the people he serves. This perception plays a large role in determining how much political strength the president has to accomplish his agenda. I address this research question by analyzing four different speeches: President Kennedy’s Address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy’s Address on the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Bush’s National Cathedral Speech after the September 11th …

Rendering Reliance: Consuming Coloniality In The Global North, Victoria L. Brown

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I offer a theoretical lens for understanding how the Global South is imagined by the Global North. The Global South has become a popular cause that for-profit companies use in order to engage in what Samantha King terms cause-marketing. While individuals in the South are certainly helped by these campaigns, they are harmed through Northern consumers being empowered by private companies encouraging them to adopt a colonizing gaze that subjugates those in the South with adhering to stereotypes. I develop three rhetorical devices that fulfill stereotypes long-held about those who are “other.”

First, I offer the endangered …

Spiritual Transformation At Austin Christian Church, David Hooper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project was designed to meet a need at the Austin Christian Church (ACC) for enhancing the spiritual formation of new converts to Christianity by providing clear direction for mentors seeking to disciple others into the image of Christ. The scope of this project is focused directly on taking the first steps toward a deliberate pathway for spiritual formation by establishing the foundational principles. The apostle Paul’s pastoral theology provides the theological rationale for the project. Theosis, the theologically rich description of the Christian transformative process, also informs the theological foundation for the project. Drawing on the work of Richard …

Pens, Print, And Pixels : Gendered Writing And The Epistolary Genre In Transitional Eras., Keri Elizabeth Mathis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation proposes a retheorization of rhetorical genres, media, and modes, with a particular emphasis on how this interrelationship reinstantiates and/or subverts deeply entrenched power dynamics over time. Current scholarship often depicts genres and media in a one-to-one relationship that obscures the intricate ways rhetorical genres and media rely on one another to enable (or hinder) writers’ participation in particular discourse communities. This project primarily focuses on gendered power and analyzes letters—a traditionally feminized genre—in three distinct time periods marked by media transition. Specifically, I explore ways women employ genre and media affordances together to assume positions of greater authority …

A Matter Of Value: Creative Writing Strategies And Their Transference To Composition, Brandy Dawn Clark

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Creative writing and composition seem to be taken, at least in the academic world, as separate and unequal entities. While there are many questions in the research and answers in the research as to why creativity is important, its practical application in the composition classroom is not readily discussed because there is not unanimous agreement as to if creative writing even belongs in the composition classroom. Practical application of creative writing in the composition classroom gives teachers the opportunity to see why it is important, to see why it is valuable, and to incorporate it into already meticulous class standards. …

Four Facets Of Diminishment In Cicero's Pro Caelio: Dilemma, Irony, Understatement, And Comedy, Donald Matthew Pasko

Graduate Theses and Capstone Projects (excluding DNP)

No abstract provided.

How To Be The Perfect Asian Wife!, Sophia Hill

Art and Art History Honors Projects

“How to be the Perfect Asian Wife” critiques exploitative power systems that assault female bodies of color in intersectional ways. This work explores strategies of healing and resistance through inserting one’s own narrative of flourishing rather than surviving, while reflecting violent realities. Three large drawings mimic pervasive advertisement language and presentation reflecting the oppressive strategies used to contain women of color. Created with charcoal, watercolor, and ink, these 'advertisements' contrast with an interactive rice bag filled with comics of my everyday experiences. These documentations compel viewers to reflect on their own participation in systems of power.

Understanding Trump's Improvisational Presidency, Richard Holtzman

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

Much has been made recently of Donald Trump’s improvisational presidency. Through tweets and public comments about border security and Syria, the president appears to be making policy on-the-fly. This behavior is nothing new for Trump. As USA TODAY (April 5) reported: “From transgender troops in the military to immigration and tax cuts, Trump has a habit of winging it: announcing (or tweeting) a policy pronouncement, and leaving it to aides to fill in the details (or somehow walk it back).”

Action, Experience, And Responsibility: Using I And We In High School Writing, Corinne Mccumber

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2018

In the field of composition studies, scholars often explore and debate how educators should train students to use the general forms of academic writing. Of particular interest, a trend has emerged in high schools where students are banned from using the words “I,” “me,” “we,” and “us” to avoid sounding subjective--even though composition studies scholars consistently employ these first-person pronouns for rhetorical effect. In this presentation, I closely examine how scholars use first-person pronouns in award-winning works. In particular, I show how scholars employ “I” and “we” to introduce personal examples, to call readers to action, and to reassert responsibility …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Desmond Tutu’S 1976 Letter To Prime Minister John Vorster, Nicholas Anguiano

SCOM Undergraduate Research Conference

In 1976, South African clergyman Desmond Tutu wrote an open letter to Prime Minister B.J. Vorster urging him to end the apartheid system of racial segregation. In the midst of growing frustration amongst the black population and fear of violence, the letter pleads for the Prime Minister to recognize their shared humanity, showing that they share the same interests for preserving peace and prosperity for all South Africans, warning of potential widespread violence in the near future. Tutu's appeals can be viewed through the lens of Kenneth Burke's theory of consubstantiality. As Burke's theory indicates concerning all rhetoric, Tutu's letter …

Becoming A Woman Of Isis, Zoe D. Fine

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine how terrorism is produced and consumed in communication. Using discourse analysis, I investigate how terrorism is constituted in the accounts of four women described in online news reports as having joined, or almost joined the so-called Islamic State (IS): “Alex,” constructed as having been lonely and flirted with IS; “Khadija,” presented as a schoolteacher turned member of IS’s all-women’s brigade; Laura, described as a woman whose partner abandoned her, who met a man online, and who brought her son with her to join IS; and Tareena, referred to as a health worker who brought her …

“Black Is Powerful ”: A Gramscian Rhetorical Analysis Of Post-Racialism At The University Of Missouri, Taylor Bauer

Theses and Dissertations

The election of Barack Obama brought an uptick in discourse surrounding the notion of a “post-racial” America. This thesis will investigate post-racialism and the backlash surrounding its assumptions about the United States in the context of an act of resistance that took place at the University of Missouri in 2015. Black football players on the Missouri football team joined students in the #ConcernedStudent1950 activist group in calling for the resignation of university president Tim Wolfe. Threatening to abstain from athletic activity, Wolfe stepped down, signaling a victory for the minority student body. By utilizing Gramscian rhetorical theories and concepts, the …

Diversity, Identification, And Rhetoric In Tech: On The Analysis Of Satirical Conference Talks, Bryan Knowles

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis, I examine the rhetorical strategies in Jenn Schiffer’s satirical conference talks in which she comments upon her own tech community. In part, I consider her arguments under the theoretical lenses of Burke, Epicurus, and Camus, theories placed alongside the reflective writing of Ullman as a queer woman in that selfsame community. I also discuss the pedagogical opportunities of such an analysis–of tech conference talks in general–to the modern student in our technologically-connected age. Finally, in the long term, I plan to connect the outcomes of this project to a larger project in partial fulfillment of a doctorate …

"Turn In Your Bible To...": Examining Rhetorical Agency In Sermonic Discourse, Marshall Thomas Covert

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Rhetorical agency is an ideologically contentious facet within communication and rhetorical research. While its importance in scholarship can be traced back to early works by Kenneth Burke and Pierre Bourdieu, debate continues regarding the source of agency, how it is enacted in rhetorical application and communication, and who/what can claim responsibility for the communication practices one may utilize in enacting their respective levels of agency. Thus, the ways in which the rhetoric of popular, influential individuals/antecedents affects the rhetorical agency and invention practices of those without significant levels of influence must be examined. American Christianity, in particular the culture created …

Are We All #Nastywomen? The Rhetoric Of Feminist Hashtags And Respectability Politics, Kimberly Lynette Goode

English Theses & Dissertations

In a time where misogynistic phrases from political figures such as Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are being reclaimed by feminists on Twitter, it is crucial for feminist rhetorical scholars to pay close attention to the rhetorical dynamics of such reclamation efforts. In particular, the reclamation of the phrase nasty woman via #NastyWoman, #NastyWomen, #IamANastyWomanBecause, #IamANastyWoman, etc. is a fruitful site for analysis. In this thesis, the reclamation efforts of Twitter feminists will be analyzed to gauge the underlying discourse at work in the hashtag. Based on the origins of the hashtag and the way the tweeters have come to …

The Ethos Of Dissent: Epideictic Rhetoric And The Democratic Function Of American Protest And Countercultural Literature, Jeffrey Lorino Jr

Dissertations (1934 -)

My dissertation, “The Ethos of Dissent: Epideictic Rhetoric and the Democratic Function of American Protest and Countercultural Literature, 1940-1962,” establishes a theoretical frame-work, the literary epideictic, for reading the African American social protest literature of Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, and the American countercultural literature of Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey. I argue that epideictic rhetoric affords insight into how these authors’ narratives embody a post-World War II “ethos of dissent,” a counterdiscourse that emerges out of a climate of dynamism deadlocked with controlling ideologies. Epideictic, the branch of rhetoric concerned with civic matters, commends or censures a particular individual, …

Turning “Bad Jews Into Worse Christians”: Hermann Adler And The London Society For Promoting Christianity Amongst The Jews, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This paper explores how sermons contributed to Jewish-Christian relations in Victorian England. I begin with a rhetorical analysis of sermons preached on behalf of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, the largest and best known missionary organization of its kind. I then examine a collection of sermons in which Hermann Adler, then rabbi of London’s Bayswater Synagogue and later Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, pushes back against their efforts, offering the “true explanations” of passages which, in his view, had been improperly employed by Christian preachers. Finally, I trace a kind of “feedback loop” in which …

Writings: Handwritten Rhetoric Notes, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Miscellaneous notes pertaining to Rhetoric of Aristotle.

Writings: Outline, Organize Speech, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

A handwritten outline on how to organize a speech and miscellaneous notes.

Perspectives On Science And Culture, Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, Ronald Soetaert

Purdue University Press Book Previews

Edited by Kris Rutten, Stefaan Blancke, and Ronald Soetaert, Perspectives on Science and Culture explores the intersection between scientific understanding and cultural representation from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributors to the volume analyze representations of science and scientific discourse from the perspectives of rhetorical criticism, comparative cultural studies, narratology, educational studies, discourse analysis, naturalized epistemology, and the cognitive sciences. The main objective of the volume is to explore how particular cognitive predispositions and cultural representations both shape and distort the public debate about scientific controversies, the teaching and learning of science, and the development of science itself. The theoretical background of …

"Betwixt The World Destroyed And World Restored": Subjectivity And Paradisal Recovery In John Milton's Late Poems, Chihping Ma

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on the discovery of subjectivity through the recovery of lost paradise in Milton’s late poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. This theme revolves around the tension between the affective and the empirical, which also configure the spheres of the sacred and the profane. I explore how the irresistibly emancipatory impulse of recovering lost paradise compels Miltonic subjects to seek ways to return to their originary state or the divine ensemble. During this process, the subject is engaged with his own incapacity or privation while reaching into the sphere of unknown potentiality. In …

The Sunday After The Tuesday: The 2016 Presidential Election In The Pulpit, Matthew Boedy

Sermon Studies

The 2016 presidential election divided Christians along racial, economic, and theological lines. The central question of my study was how did ministers frame the election, if at all? Through analysis of transcripts of 47 sermons from across the country (14 states plus Washington D.C.), from multiple denominations and various sized congregations given on November 13 or thereabouts, I claim that the paradox of the dual citizenship of Christians was the predominant theme in these sermons. Second, only one minister directly endorsed a candidate and only a handful indirectly endorsed. Many preached a form of unity.

Toward A Theology Of Transformation, Hannah Kathleen Griggs

Eddie Mabry Diversity Award

Black liberation theologians come to terms with white supremacy by collectively remembering the story of the Exodus and Jesus' crucifixion--affirming God's preference for freedom and in-the-world salvation. The particular history of white American Christianity requires a different story to provide the foundation for our social memory. As white American Christians, we have certain blind spots—blind spots created by historical and social privileges that have given white people unequal access to power and resources. The story of Zacchaeus has the potential to help reframe white Christianity’s conception of race relations in the United States, shifting from a reconciliation paradigm to a …

The Phenomenon Of Rome: On Roads, Refugees, And Teilhard De Chardin, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

Teilhard de Chardin’s understanding of creation as an evolutionary process is used as a lens for studying Roman roads and refugees. A shorter version of this essay was published in Seton Hall University 2018 Core Trip, pages 28-33. This draft has been submitted for potential publication in Writing Rome: A Spiritual Journey, Kelly Shea ed.

Ua37/42 Faculty Personal Papers Nina Hammer, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of Nina Hammer, Bowling Green Business University Registrar 1938-1963; WKU Registrar 1963-1969.

Credibility Strategies Of Popular Health Websites: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Parkinson's Information Pages, Abigail Bakke

English Department Publications

Though using e-health is a common patient practice, unregulated and inaccurate online medical content can pose real dangers. To effectively convey important and accurate health messages, online health organizations must make their information stand out as trustworthy. To identify credibility strategies, I conducted a rhetorical analysis of Parkinson’s disease content from the two most popular U.S. health websites: NIH.gov and WebMD. Based on the range of credibility strategies identified in these webpages, I recommend that medical writers and e-health designers convey both expertise and trustworthiness to build credibility in their content.

When Free Speech Disrupts Diversity Initiatives: What We Value And What We Do Not, Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt

Faculty Publications

In this essay, I argue that the debate on free speech as pushed by the conservative right is a strategic apparatus to undermine the various diversity initiatives on college and university campuses. While supporters of the right wing extremists around the globe have pushed for various modes of exclusions (social, racial, ethnic, cultural, religious and sexual), here in the United States, such exclusions are most evident in the collapse of academic freedom and the rise of civility codes as students and educators use the platform of free speech to promote various forms of injustices and exclusions. Our neoliberal college and …