Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

A Joint Rolled In Toilet Paper: Funkadelic’S Funky Soul, Joseph T. Thomas Jr.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Through an examination of Parliament-Funkadelic’s lyrics and music, this paper explores shit, dirt, and the funk, investigating their relationship to George Clinton and his band’s desire to darken the Humanistic project of Enlightenment, their desire to soil language, and thereby question conventional, bourgeois values. The author argues that Funkadelic participate in what Mikhail Bakhtin calls the “peculiar logic” of the carnivalesque, detourning status quo notions of culture and society, creating complex contortions through the blurring of the good and the bad, the cerebral and the carnal, the sublime and the mundane. In essence, Funkadelic are a musical carnival that exists …

If Your God Has Really Spoken To You… Then All The World Must Hear It: The Discourses Of Revelation And Satire In Salman Rushdie’S The Satanic Verses, Conrad William

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In his essay, “Is Nothing Sacred?”, Salman Rushdie lays out a place for literature as an arena in which various perspectives may interact. He thereby provides a context for the controversy regarding his books, most particularly The Satanic Verses. Despite his claims, however, literature, as Rushdie conceives it, operates not simply as an arena for discourse but similarly as a rule-maker, controlling the discourse which operates within its bounds. The Satanic Verses, in particular, suggests that revelation as it passes through unstable and hybrid human language loses its authority and power to speak purely or dogmatically. In so …

Derrida’S Deconstruction Of Logocentrism: Implications For Trauma Studies, Julie Elaine Goodspeed-Chadwick

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This article examines Derrida’s conception of logocentrism as it is discussed throughout the entirety of his seminal work Of Grammatology, as well as in his collected interviews, Points...: 1974-1994. Systematically refuting logocentrism, Derrida’s deconstruction enables exposure of the mechanisms, such as binary constructions, that exert a dominant—and domineering—influence over marginalized people, places, and concepts. Specifically, presence and the (falsehood of the) totality of the sign define logocentrism, and these terms cannot productively contribute to trauma studies because it is precisely in texts and textuality that embodied states can be studied. Texts are themselves material embodiments that display …

Understanding Powerpoint Through Rhetoric, Andrea K. Murphy

English Theses & Dissertations

PowerPoint has been described by critics and proponents alike as ubiquitous. This tool, created primarily for the business world, is now found everywhere from elementary school classes to the highest levels of government. Critics of PowerPoint, like Edward Tufte, charge the software with such crimes as the corruption of data and changing the way that people think. Meanwhile, PowerPoint proponents such as Cliff Atkinson and Richard E. Mayer assert PowerPoint's value as an excellent tool that, if designed properly, can take advantage of the promise of research into multimedia theory.

Even as we reconcile these diverse views within a larger …

On Mccomiskey And Ryan's City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices, Matthew Ortoleva

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

City Comp: Identities, Spaces, Practices is a collection of essays that address the intersections of composition studies and place studies. But don't look for any sublime vistas or sweeping landscapes in this volume. Rather, City Comp is an engagement with urban spaces and the citizens, teachers and students who write, work and live in these spaces. The (auto)ethnographic, narrative style of the collection is common to composition studies, but this volume resists the kind of self-therapeutic tendencies that are often found with such an approach. Rather, City Comp makes a critical exploration of the historical, political, cultural and …

Nurturing Sense Of Place Through The Literature Of The Bioregion, Patrick Howard

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper explores the possibility that a participatory engagement with the literature of the bioregion, in this case the North Atlantic coast, may work against the life alienating tendencies of our modern culture, to reaffirm and renew our children’s consciousness of and sensitivity for their place in a larger Earth community. We are in need of another way of knowing our place, a way to activate and reactivate the complex articulations and relations of things. Through the literature of the bioregion and a bodily, imaginative and participatory engagement with the other-than-human, children can return to the conditions of human embeddedness …

A Comparison Of Anonymous E-Peer Review Versus Identifiable E-Peer Review On College Student Writing Performance And Learning Satisfaction, Ruiling Lu

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of anonymous e-peer review with identifiable e-peer review on student writing performance and learning satisfaction. It also investigated whether anonymous e-peer review facilitated a greater amount of critical peer feedback.

Quasi-experimental design was used to test group differences on the dependent variables. Participants were 48 freshmen enrolled in two English Composition classes at Old Dominion University in the fall semester of 2003. The two intact classes taught by the same instructor were randomly assigned to the anonymous e-peer review group and the identifiable e-peer review group.

The results showed that …

But Who Is Any Longer Interested In The Possible?: Kathy Acker In Hell Failing Fuck You, Jake Kennedy

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

In 'But who is any longer interested in the possible?': Kathy Acker in Hell Failing Fuck You I explore and celebrate Acker's use of a tropics of failure (plagiarism, pain, terror, gender-play, bad jokes, dumbness) as an inimitable strategy for achieving counter-cultural art and community. The prose style and scholarly apparatus of my article reflect not only my position as a poet/academic but also attempt to model an ethical, non-authoritative, Acker-informed critical language.

The Graveyard Of Genre: David Markson's Postmodern Epitaphs, Camelia Elias

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

David Markson is a writer who in a series of novels entitled Wittgenstein's Mistress (1988), Reader's Block (1996), and This is not a Novel (2001) explores some of our basic conceptions of genre. Can we call a book of fragments a novel? Is a novel still a novel when the characters are given names such as Author, Protagonist, Reader? What are we left with, when critics resort to labels such as novel of intellectual reference and allusion . . . minus the novel, or seminonfictional semifiction to categorise his texts? Through an apparently endless list of anecdotes and facts regarding …

An Examination Of Relationships Of Reading And Writing Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Standardized Placement Test Scores, And Diverse Community College Students' Perceptions Of Those Relationships, Ann Woolford-Singh

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Social cognitive theory explains the role that one's level of confidence plays in the accomplishment of a specific task. According to Bandura (1982, 1995), self-efficacy beliefs should align with performance. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing standardized placement test scores of diverse community college freshmen. Additionally, this study sought to understand the sources of these students' reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs through the descriptions of experiences they feel have influenced those beliefs.

There were three major research questions: (1) What is the strength of the relationships among reading/writing self-efficacy beliefs and reading/writing …

Discourse Of Evil: Speaking Terrorism To Silence, Galip Isen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

That the impact of terrorism is equal to the reaction it elicits may be a truism, but one that deserves further probing as demonstrated by the way that reaction is put to use politically. Whichever of 150-strong definitions [1] is accepted, the consequential aspect of terrorism is ideational: the assault targets the concept and experience of normal in the lives and minds of ordinary people. Several writers argue that terrorism is generally inefficacious, strategically counterproductive and mostly unsuccessful as a method of attaining socio-political objectives [2]. However, overall public response to 11 September 2001 has been so profound …

Review Of Burger With The Works, Please! A Webjournal For Students Of The Humanities, Alexandra Ganser

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Rogerian Rhetoric As Negotiation: Does Its Dependence On Game Theory Pose Ethical Problems?, Stacy Fussell Thorne

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In the war game Diplomacy, players win by gaining control of Europe. In order to win, however, players must successfully negotiate with other players, make alliances with them, and sometimes gain the support of their ally's military resources, their armies or fleets. In the rules of the game, Diplomacy is described as

a game of negotiations, alliances, promises kept, and promises broken. In order to survive, a player needs help from others. In order to win the game, a player must eventually stand alone. Knowing whom to trust, when to trust them, what to promise, and when …

What We Write And Why, Michael Benton, Alan Clinton, Davin Heckman, Subhash Jaireth, Marc Ouellette, Matthew Wolf-Meyer

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

To ask why we write is also to ask why we read. The pragmatic answer is to find proof -- to find proof of like-minded thinkers, to find support for our own arguments, to discover that we are not alone in our thinking, our assumptions and problems. The transcendental answer is to educate -- to inspire our own thinking, to see new realities, to uplift ourselves through another writer's use of language. And the middle road: Because there is a need.

Conspiracy Rhetoric In Cyberspace: Jim Condit And The 9/11 Attacks On America, An Analysis Of The Voice And Appeals Used In Condit's Rhetoric, Kreg Allan Kinney

English Theses & Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the voices and appeals used in conspiracy rhetoric which is distributed via the internet. The voices, one measure of the argument's authority, are analyzed and described in depth, with eleven voices identified. These voices and their significance to Condit's text as a whole are discussed. Following the voice analysis, an Aristotelian analysis of the text's appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos is performed to examine the persuasive force of Condit's argument. Finally, the correlation between the voices and the appeals is examined to determine the strength of the correlation between the two constructs and to determine whether …

Institutional Invention: (How) Is It Possible?, Louise Wetherbee Phelps

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) In this chapter I want to explore several broad questions with respect to higher education: Is institutional invention possible? What are the conditions that enable it, and how can they be created and sustained? What are the obstacles to institutional invention? How can academic leadership foster institutional invention?

Human Research Participant Protections: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Two Key Documents, Lisa R. Ballance

English Theses & Dissertations

This case study explores the historical progress of written policy in the field of human research participant protections, leading up to the recent case of several influential suspensions of clinical research at several prestigious academic medical institutions. The IRB process is discussed, including the importance of documentation in the process of managing the board, and the case of suspension at Virginia Commonwealth University is reviewed with attention paid to the drafting of two key documents written for the purpose of reinstating the human subject research charter; (I) the Corrective Action Plan and (2) the Written Policies and Procedures. Each document …

Seeing The One-To-One Writing Conference Through Owl Eyes: Reimagining The Voice Of Tutor, Madeline Yonker

English Theses & Dissertations

The one-to-one, face-to-face writing conference has long been hailed a godsend for struggling writers. The traditional IRL ("in real life") tutorial takes many shapes: (professor and student in office, tutor and student in library, tutor and student in writing center, etc.). When this writing conference moves into the MOO (Multi-User Domain, Object-Oriented), how does the environment affect student-tutor interaction? More specifically, what sorts of adjustments from the "normal" writing conference must be made in order for an effective conversation to occur in the synchronous OWL?

This project brings the one-to-one writing tutorial to distance learning students at Old Dominion University …

Meta-Ethnographic Development Of A Dialogue Methodology Applied To Organization Discourse, Shelley P. Gallup

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

A gap exists between theoretical stances that acknowledge the importance of dialogue as a dynamic within socially constructed structures, and "steersmanship" of those constructs--e.g., directing, intervening or transforming organizations. A "mechanism" which links theory with practice is missing, leaving practitioners with an acknowledgment of dialogue's central position, but without tools to enact this centrality in practice or research. This research constructs a conceptual model of dialogue, derived from the literature. Using this model as a base, the research seeks to generate a dialogue methodology bridging theory and practice with respect to organizational dialogue. The model, methodology, and research results are …

Collapsing The Philosophy/Rhetoric Disjunct: Nietzsche, Plato And The Perspectival Turn, Ned Vankevich

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Often overlooked within the standard views of academe lie hidden a number of tacit assumptions. Until the time of Nietzsche, the status of rhetoric as a discourse formation in Western intellectual history was often colored by the unflattering view generated by Plato in a number of his dialogues. In this thesis I present a case that revisits Plato and Nietzsche with an eye toward understanding the reasons why these two highly influential figures in contemporary philosophy adopt the views they advocate. In doing so, I attempt to illumine the reason Plato forms a fundamental split between philosophy and rhetoric and …

Classical Montessori: A Study Of The Classical Rhetorical Canons In Early Montessori Writing Instruction, Deborah E. O'Neil

English Theses & Dissertations

This thesis begins by proposing that all five classical canons are an ideal theory for guiding any writing pedagogy. The majority of the thesis, then, details how Montessori writing instruction synergistically exploits these canons to create a powerful pedagogy. Devised by Maria Montessori in the late 1800s, her instruction displays standard and nonstandard applications of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Because Montessori writing instruction begins in preschool, this thesis concludes with an exploration of the potential benefits of introducing a classical curriculum before college.

Computer Networks And The Teaching Of English As A Second Language: How Networks Affect Second Language Acquisition, Kirstin J. Reed-Perez

English Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Applications Of Classical Ethos, Sheri L. Helsley

English Theses & Dissertations

Ethos is a term from classical Greek rhetoric which, in its contemporary uses and translations, has a wide variety of meanings. Given the multitude and diversity of interpretations and contexts of ethos and other concepts from classical Greek rhetoric, contemporary scholars give serious attention to the relevance of ethos in a wide range of academic areas.

This thesis first explores a portion of the many interpretations of ethos offered by scholars from classical Greece to the present. These definitions are then applied to three areas of contemporary importance in scholarly and pedagogical work: ethos and its relevance to writers, ethos …

Gender, Reason, And Argument In Composition, Lee Ellen Knight

English Theses & Dissertations

Given that virtually all college and university students are required to complete courses in college composition, courses designed to prepare them to think and write in approved academic language, the field is a fertile one for feminist inquiry. Recent work on feminist epistemology and writing theory, combined with Richard Fulkerson's proposed four-part construct of any composition theory, can be used to examine the conventions of argumentative writing. Such writing typically uses adversarial metaphors, often privileges abstract conceptions of knowledge and, furthermore, may be based on metaphors for reason which denigrate emotion and exclude women. New techniques for writing about conflict, …

Teaching Rhetorical Delivery In Freshman Composition, Clayann Gilliam Panetta

English Theses & Dissertations

In recent decades the discipline of English has undergone a complete reexamination from a number of angles. Important pedagogical issues have been raised because of the growth of composition programs, and English departments have even witnessed the birth of several subspecialities within composition studies. Two of these subspeciality areas, rhetorical theory and computer-assisted writing, have received special attention. In this paper, I suggest. that, these two can powerfully coexist and can help students gain insights about writing.

From Aristotle To Ibm: Classical Rhetoric And The Teaching Of Technical Writing, Kathleen S. Scharf

English Theses & Dissertations

Over the past two decades, industry has placed increasing demands on higher education to produce students who can quickly adapt to a variety of writing situations. However, due to the relatively recent birth of technical writing as an academic discipline, technical-writing teachers tend to lack solid foundations on which to build their curricula. In their search for theoretical guidance, many teachers are turning to the classical rhetorical theories of Plato and Aristotle. Typically, teachers are applying Aristotle's notions of invention, arrangement, and style to the teaching of technical writing. Unfortunately, their approach tends to truncate Aristotle's five-canon system by deleting …