Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Everyone's A Critic: My Review Of The Reviewer, Jessie Rigsbee

Emerging Writers

This article is an analysis of movie critic Oliver Jones’s Avengers Endgame film review. Through the inspection of rhetorical devices, the effectiveness of the review is assessed. The evaluation determines the faults of Jones’s argument for Endgame’s place with history’s greatest film sagas.

Student-Perceived Inclusivity In The Fyc Classroom: Embracing Multilingualism, Melinda Grant

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

The purpose of this study was to compare student perspectives on inclusivity in the first-year English composition classroom viewed explicitly through two distinct lenses: 1. a pre-post survey design that measures students’ perceptions of classroom inclusivity and 2. instructor-perceived observations that reflect upon methods of pedagogical delivery within a multimodal framework. The results provide a further understanding of how curriculum is being received in a diverse academic environment utilizing blended instructional modalities. While all students did not embrace purposeful means of translanguaging via code-meshing in classroom formative and summative writing opportunities, 100% of students surveyed indicated experiencing inclusivity in the …

Understanding Community And Engagement In Synchronous Online Writing Instruction, Conner Sutton

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone consists of an autoethnography based on the author's experiences as a synchronous online writing instructor. Using the current literature on synchronous writing instruction—as well as interviews with fellow instructors—this project explores how we define and measure classroom community and engagement from behind a webcam.

Implementing A Deliberate Neologism About The Filipino-American Identity Crisis, Gabrielle Sarah Punzalan, Rochelle Harris Cox Dr., Angela Brill

Symposium of Student Scholars

Neologisms are words that have recently entered our language but are only just beginning to be accepted as part of daily usage. As the English language evolves, new neologisms are formed while the usage of certain words may fade into relative obscurity. New words are coined to reflect the changing moods and cultural needs of the time. When it comes to critical race theory, neologisms can be used as a method of spreading awareness and addressing a problem. The Filipino American community is a marginalized group that experiences identity disturbance from the duality of both their nationality and ethnicity. Furthermore, …

Video For All: An Argument Towards Standardization Of Video Production Practices And Research, Kelley Bostian

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Instructional videos, a subset of video pedagogy, are becoming valuable pedagogical tools for instructors within both higher education and professional writing environments. By researching contemporary academic literature and creating video artifacts that put theory into practice, this capstone project answers three important questions: 1) How could video pedagogy shift student attitudes or engagement with course content in digital learning environments? 2) What benefits and limitations of standardizing and researching video pedagogy are valuable for educators interested in creating video to understand, including educators with limited or no video production experience? 3) In what ways could certain production techniques in video …

Drawn To Peace: Comics As Multimodal Narratives In Peace And Conflict Education, Laurence Stacey

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Comics, a type of multimodal narrative, have historically been used as platforms for political discourse. Through a combination of visual, verbal, and spatial devices, comics often explore issues of peace, conflict, and justice “from below,” in ways that reveal the complexities of narrative and identity. In doing so, they have the potential to interrogate grand narratives that often go undisrupted. Humanities scholars have long recognized the value of literary and visual arts in preparing students to engage the salient themes of peace education. However, the medium of comics remains undertheorized in that field, despite the increasing popularity of comics as …

Kennesaw State University English Majors At Work: Careers In Unexpected Places Description Of The Problem, Pearl Harris

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This thesis examines the careers of three graduates of Kennesaw State University’s Bachelor of Arts in English program. Through a semi-structured interview process which relied on the memory of participants, information was gained about skills employers sought for specific positions, skills interview participants utilized in those positions, and skills participants learned in the Bachelor of Arts in English program at Kennesaw State University. The goal of the study was to learn and connect the skills and abilities of the English majors to their job titles and responsibilities.

Community Engagement In Writing Programs: Preparing Students For Success In Professional Settings, Courtney Bradford

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This practicum focused on looking into the history of the foster care system, its development, and its modern iteration and on working with a nonprofit that supports the foster care system. The internship with Advocates for Children in Cartersville, Georgia, provided primary research into (1) how work on community-based engagement projects prepared me to explore careers in the nonprofit sector, (2) what kinds of writing, research, and other deliverables are needed by nonprofits supporting the foster care system and how the MAPW program prepared me to produce those deliverables, and (3) how having a strong understanding of the history and …

Dual Lives Assimilation Literacy, Shiloh Garcia

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

In recent years, the field of literacy studies has not given enough attention to exploring the English literacy journeys of immigrants and in particular, Latin immigrants. Furthermore, there has been little dialogue that has encouraged plans to help fix this issue.

We, in the academy, have a unique opportunity to not only tell the stories of the world but also help create avenues for those stories in order to create change. For this reason, this study focuses on important topics such as the effects of the dominant language on Latin immigrants, if it is possible to have a grounded native …

The Divine Double Voice: How Female Christian Rhetors Found Rhetorical Agency Through The Voice Of God, Cara Ryfun

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This piece discusses the ways in which three specific Christian female rhetors--Teresa de Avila, Frances Willard, and Maria W. Stewart--utilized the voice of God through biblical scriptures and divine revelations in order to empower themselves. Through the voice of God, these women found agency for their own beliefs and messages, and utilized a variety of rhetorical maneuvers in order to share their messages and quietly subvert patriarchal constructs within the church. These women found agency for their feminist messages within their Christian patriarchal constructs, and they set precedents for Christian feminist rhetors to follow.

Reframing Writing Instruction In Physical Learning Environments: Making Connections Between Digital And Nondigital Technologies, André C. Buchenot, Tiffany Roman

Faculty Articles

Physical learning environments offer many affordances that one can choose from when designing instruction. For courses where student writing is central to course learning outcomes, a challenge exists in that innovative digital technologies may take precedence over nondigital tools, such as paper-based student writing. We argue that treating student writing as a technology can increase opportunities for active learning within physical learning environments. In this article, we describe an approach to writing instruction that builds intentional connections between paper-based texts and digital technologies to increase opportunities for active learning. We explain the rationale for the design decisions in an introductory …

Religion And Language: The Two Tactics Used By The British To Colonize Kenya, Hannah Farley

Emerging Writers

Second-place winner in the Academic Category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay examines how religion and language were used as colonial practices by the British empire broadly in Africa and specifically in Kenya.

Rhetorical Analysis, Colton Clanton

Emerging Writers

Third-place winner in the Short Essay category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. This essay is a rhetorical analysis of Barbara Kingsolver's essay "You Can't Run Away on Harvest Day."

Introduction And Acknowledgments

Emerging Writers

Introductions and acknowledgments for the 2019 Emerging Writers Journal.

Gender And Language: Half Of The Workforce Is Stereotyped, Bailey Shatney

Emerging Writers

Finalist in the Academic Category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay examines the use of gendered language in the workplace.

Big Brother, Erm Data Is Watching And We Don’T Seem To Care., Gary Hopkins

Emerging Writers

First-place winner in the Academic Category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay examines the problems of data collection and privacy.

Underdevelopment And Philanthrocapitalism: A Nepalese Context, Audrina Rucker

Emerging Writers

Third-place winner in the Academic Category for the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay examines the problems of Corporate Social Responsibility as philanthrocapitalism and how it effects Nepal.

Rhetorical Analysis: George Wallace, Andrew Wittmayer

Emerging Writers

First-place winner in the Short Essay category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. This essay is a rhetorical analysis of George Wallace's speech "Segregation Today, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever."

Can One Small Word Change It All?, Alexis Ronco

Emerging Writers

Finalist in the Short Essay category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. This essay analyzes Erica Strauss's essay "Zombies vs. the Joy of Canning: Motivation in the Productive Home."

Humanity In A World Of Machines, Bryanna Walker

Emerging Writers

Second-place winner in the Short Essay category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. This essay analyzes Tom Chatfield's article "What does it mean to be human in the age of technology?"

Exploring My Unique Literacy Experiences As A Ukrainian American Emerging Scholar Through Autoethnography, Diana Prokopiev

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone project depicts myself as the research subject as I explore why I make meaning the way that I do in my life. The autoethnography itself—full of reflection, epiphany, reflexive writing, and rich descriptions—provides a preview into my life as a Ukrainian American woman as I participate in three different discourse communities: the domestic community, the academic community, and the religious community. By sharing my literacy experiences, I hope this autoethnography has a transformative impact on all audience members, but especially those who were raised by parents who emigrated to the United States.

Thinking Outside The Toolbox: A Teaching Resource For Vocational Writing, Dustin Ledford

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This capstone project combines elements of contextualization, professional writing, and process pedagogy to create a course design for teaching writing in the technical college/vocational school setting. With this course design, students are asked to complete a variety of scenario-driven, workplace-related writing tasks that teach fundamentals of college composition including research, critical thinking, and process-based writing. With this sample curriculum, students write from realistic scenarios from the healthcare industry, especially tasks from the medical office environment. The goal of this course design is to model and promote new practices for teaching writing in vocational settings to better engage students in these …

Unraveling Identity Signifier Literacy: A Case Study Of First-Year Composition Students' Communication Practices, Bailey Mcalister

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Identity signifier literacy is defined as one’s ability to accurately read – via personal interactions or via visual, verbal, written, or digital communication – the signifiers others display in direct and indirect ways and interpret these signifiers to gain understanding of others’ identities. In this study, 22 first-year composition students were surveyed about their communication practices in order to see how their identity signifier literacies influence and are influenced by digital environments and composition. These results are meant to improve first-year composition pedagogy by making connections between students’ informal composition practices and their academic composition courses.

Introduction And Acknowledgments

Emerging Writers

An Introduction to the 2018 Emerging Writers Journal, with acknowledgements.

Judgement Kills: A Rhetorical Analysis Of An Anti-Racial Profiling Visual, Ty'a Oliver

Emerging Writers

Finalist for the Short Essay category of the 2018 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay is a rhetorical analysis of Moise Morancy’s photo series “It Doesn’t Matter.”

Millenials Are Killing This, This, And This -- Or Are They?, Samantha Butler

Emerging Writers

Finalist in the Short Essay category of the 2018 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay is a rhetorical analysis of Kate Taylor's article "Psychologically Scarred Millennials" and Phillip Clarke's article "Companies will only survive if they adapt quickly and stay in tune with their customers’ changing habits."

Managing Millenial Workers: A Multigenerational Approach, Katherine Beckner

Emerging Writers

First-place winner for the Short Essay category of the 2018 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay is a rhetorical analysis of “Here’s How To Deal With Millennials,” an article written by Susanne Goldstein, and “Managing Millennials: Embracing Generational Differences,” an academic journal article written by Jeannine S. Stewart, Elizabeth Goad Oliver, Karen S. Cravens, and Shigehiro Oishi.

Martin Luther King Jr. Rhetorical Analysis, Mandi Rocker

Emerging Writers

Third-place winner in the Short Essay category of the 2018 Emerging Writers Contest. The essay is a rhetorical analysis of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech "I Have a Dream."

Sustainability And The Stage: Could Censoring In Theatre Cause A Rift In Sociability?, Tyler Grace Hunt

Emerging Writers

Finalist in the Academic Category of the 2019 Emerging Writers Contest. This essay examines issues of censorship and free speech in the production of theatre plays at the high school level.

Rewriting The Sentence In First-Year Composition: Pedagogies And Perspectives, June G. Newton

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Many college students arrive in first-year composition classrooms lacking sufficient sentence-level proficiency. Although syntactically challenged writers are often evaluated harshly in academic, professional, and other writing contexts, sentence-based pedagogies that can help students write more clearly and effectively have been sidelined in composition studies amid grammar debates and theoretical divergences within the discipline. This capstone examines how writing instructors have recognized the rhetorical function of sentence-based pedagogies from the classical era to the present, including those extolled by Robert Connors in “The Erasure of the Sentence”: Francis Christensen’s generative rhetoric, classical imitation practices, and sentence-combining exercises. These methods, used widely …