Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Thou And It: Personhood Actualized Through Water Rights, Kierra M. Powell

Oglethorpe Journal of Undergraduate Research

While issues of racial and gendered discrimination are more visible and widely discussed, poverty and water based discrimination is often a silent fact of life for the many. As one of the most critical elemental resources required for the sustainability of human life, safe water has been designated a human right, but the current global distribution of water does not mirror this sentiment. The divide in quality water distribution provokes the question: whose life is intrinsically valued? This study seeks to determine the status of personhood as displayed by the movement of water in relation to the underprivileged. I first …

Enculturation Pedagogy, Robert Lane Rockett

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

As instructors, it is very clear to us that our students all come from different backgrounds, different places, and different social environments. Some students are returning to college as they change vocations, while others are entering a brand new environment quite different from those they may have encountered in previous scholastic endeavors, whether they come from another country or even a somewhat different part of the United States. Students, like travelers to foreign lands and cultures, enter the university facing new expectations and ideas for which many frequently find themselves ill-prepared. They might struggle as they learn to speak and …

Building A Case For Smaller English Class Sizes, Cara Lee Smith

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

According to the U.S. Department of Education, full-time college enrollment increased twenty-four percent between the years 2002 and 2012. With rapidly accelerating growth, higher education institutions must quickly find solutions to accommodate more students, which may result in larger class sizes. As institutions exercise the option of increasing course enrollment caps, faculty scholars are questioning the effects of class size on both student learning and faculty workload. At one state institution (Kennesaw State University), the English faculty formed a committee to investigate the relationship between English class sizes, student success, and faculty working conditions. This study examines the existing scholarship …

Make It Happen: How Libraries Can Start A Grassroots Campus-Wide Graduate Writing Initiative, Jen Salvo-Eaton

Transforming Libraries for Graduate Students

The University of Missouri-Kansas City's University Libraries played a major role in starting a campus-wide Graduate Writing Initiative at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The Graduate Writing Initiative is a campus-wide effort to improve the process, quality, and impact of graduate student writing. Despite the challenges of reaching a graduate student population of commuters, full-time workers, parents, and online learners, UMKC Libraries helped devise ways to extend the reach of the Graduate Writing Initiative to all. Currently, UMKC Libraries remains a core service of the Graduate Writing Initiative and librarians serve on the campus advisory committee. This presentation will describe …

Sexy Technical Communication, Tamara Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, Cassandra Race, Tiffani Reardon

2016 Faculty Bookshelf

Sexy technical writing…we’ve got to be kidding, right? But no, we aren’t. Good technical writing is powerful and clear and gets the job done. It brings people together and solves problems. Good technical writing purrs and hums like that BMW you plan to be driving someday.What’s not sexy about that? On the other hand, poor technical writing skills may lead to a lifetime of asking people if they want fries with that…or worse, selling vacuum cleaners door to door. There’s no need to ask what’s not sexy about that!

WE – your textbook authors – are a team of dedicated …

Identity-Based Assignments And Student Disinterest In Fyc, Benjamin F. Pearce

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This project attempts to investigate the position of identity-based assignments in FYC and identify the student response to these assignments. If individuals teaching and studying FYC can determine that identity-based assignments raise first-year student interest in academic writing then we should intensify the study and use of these assignments.

Editing In America, Don W. Fruman

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

A survey and discussion of modern copy editors that attempts to provide perspective on their role in the communications and publishing industry. This capstone compares past research perspectives on copy editors with new survey responses to create a modern context for professional copy editors, discussing their skills, work environment, outlook, and professional role. This research also discusses the influence of evolving technologies on the role of copy editors and their perspectives.

Student And Instructor Responses To E-Feedback, Julia Reidy

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This empirical study provides further insight into how instructors decide on the methods used to respond to student writing and whether these criteria match what students want from this feedback. What are instructors' considerations when they adopt e-feedback practices? Do these considerations align or conflict with student preferences for how they receive feedback? How does the rhetorical content of these technologies (visual presentation and choices offered to users) affect the ways both teachers and students use them? To address a research gap, this study focuses on e-feedback, which is in-document feedback from instructors distributed via the Web to students (also …

Critical Thinking And Argument In First-Year-Composition: A Two-Part Assignment, Jason Burge

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Course study and survey of a two-part assignment in Comp 1101.

The Use Of Rhetoric In Public Relations: Kenneth Burke's Theory Of Identification And Consubstantiality, Chonticia Y. Jackson

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

The purpose of this capstone portfolio is to demonstrate the importance and use of rhetoric in the field of public relations.

Mapw Capstone Project, Carol A. Levine

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Fiction and non-fiction work, short stories and one novel chapter.  Order of Content:

Reflective Essay
"No More Jesus"
"Puzzle Pieces"
"Little Shoes"
"Squeaky"
Nell
"Baby Blue"
"Stunning"
"Culinary Art"
"The Garden"
"A Snow White Van"
"My Hero"
"Small Deer"

Fresh, Frugal, And Fabulous: A Woman's Guide To Cooking With Life, Tricia Mahoney

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

A narrative cookbook, including tips and stories for managing a downturn in finances with style and fortitude.

Review: Southern Bedtime Stories, Shelley L. Smith

Georgia Library Quarterly

Review of the memoir "Southern Bedtime Stories," by Tim McWhorter.

Writing Center Outreach: What It Is And Why It Matters, Christine B. Ghattas

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Christine B. Ghattas argues that writing centers need to enact outreach programs that show faculty and students what goes on in writing centers and the ways writing centers benefit from the university community. She presents a description of the current situation of writing centers, an explanation of how outreach works, a case study of an outreach program in action, and ideas and recommendations for the future of writing center outreach.

Editing An Anthology: Editing, Publishing & Blogging, Jessica R. Allgaier

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

Editorial work for proposed anthology collection, "The Oxford American Book of Great Nonfiction Writing"

The Facebook Story, Brittany Rowland

Dissertations, Theses and Capstone Projects (Full IR Collection)

This capstone is an exploration of the Facebook phenomenon in today's world. It delves into Facebook's creation and evolution; the construction of an identity on online social-networking sites and the nature of Facebook relationships and interactions; and the News Feed controversy of 2006 and other issues of Facebook privacy and security.

Contemporary Memoir: A 21st-Century Genre Ideal For Teens, Dawn Latta Kirby, Dan Kirby

Faculty Articles

A brief narrative description of the journal article, document, or resource. For the past 20 years, the authors have been reading and teaching literary memoir to students of all ages. In the mid-1980s, they began looking for ways to incorporate more nonfiction into their literature classes, hoping to find a fresh genre unflattened by instruction. They wanted to explore with students a genre that literary critics had not already overanalyzed and for which they had not created formulaic heuristics for student analysis. More than anything else, the authors wanted to find literary works that connected directly with students' lived experiences. …

Professional Writing Studies Research Guide, Mary Wilson

Research Guides & Subject Bibliographies

Subject guide for researching issues in professional writing using the resources of the Sturgis Library.

Bias And The Teachable Moment: Revisiting A Teacher Narrative, Darren Crovitz

Faculty Articles

Such responsibility may be vital for English teachers, especially, as we strive to establish communities of writers and spaces for critical thinking and conversation. When I sat down to write about this experience, I saw it as an opportunity to discuss a taboo situation and its positive aftermath, with the aim of demonstrating how it might be possible to use such events as points of departure in creating engaging writing assignments.