Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Undergraduate Voices, Volume 1 (2018): Addendum, Amir Kalan

Undergraduate Voices

Additional articles approved for publication in December 2018 in Volume 1.

Uncovered Truths Of The Inequalities Encountered By Female Educators, Rachel Katoll

Undergraduate Voices

This paper was conducted to illustrate the paradox of a female dominated field praising male educators over their female counterparts. This is proven to be the case through workplace mistreatment, professional growth opportunities, and struggles encountered through recruitment. Through this paper, I evaluate the tear down of female educators as men become the prioritized employee. The information drawn together throughout this paper came from a collection of online sources, personal interviews, and articles.

The Bumpy Highway To Freedom: U.S. Reconstruction And The Freedmen's Bureau, Jennifer Ann Sobnosky

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

After studying the Civil War and the Reconstruction era in depth, I was required to choose one aspect of the Reconstruction era and write a historiography based on it. I researched how historians studied and interpreted the role of the Freedmen's Bureau, which was an agency established immediately after the end of the Civil War. I studied how these interpretations of the success of the Freedmen's Bureau's changed over time. I began by producing an annotated bibliography of the eight scholarly sources. I wrote three drafts and conferenced with my professor as well as the Write Place consultants. I revised …

A Literary Journey Back In Time, Hannah K. Heil

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Before I began writing, I reflected on the effect literature has had on my life. I brainstormed different experiences in which I found literature to be very influential. I talked with various people including my parents and past teachers to ensure the accuracy of the various childhood stories I decided to write about. When it came time to put the final draft together, I focused on my various experiences with literature and the grand effect it has had on my life. I also incorporated why I value being a literate person today as a university student.

Editor's note: For this …

Rhetorical Analysis: Never Give Up, John Milliken

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

For this English 100 assignment, we were asked to write a rhetorical analysis of a speech of our choice. I knew I wanted to pick one that would be interesting to me. Prior to writing this paper, I had heard about the speech once before when watching a sports documentary. I knew the speech had a strong message at its core, but I did not know why it was so respected and liked by its audience. While writing this paper I had three drafts;, the first two drafts were peer edited. The second and third were also edited and graded …

Claiming Your Life And Education, Kelly E. Corkery

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

My essay is a rhetorical analysis of Adrienne Rich’s speech, “Claiming an Education." I chose Rich’s speech because a friend of mine told me that her introduction to college seminar at Penn State discussed the speech, and I found the speech to be very interesting. After choosing the speech, I completed two drafts, which were both edited in both a peer review and by my instructor, Professor Strain. After my first draft, I also had a writing conference with Professor Strain to refine my work more. After my second draft, I met with Professor Strain again to discuss submitting this …

Reconstruction In The Big Easy: The Changing Interpretations Of The Role Of Race During Reconstruction In New Orleans, Claire Sullivan

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This historiography essay was the final assignment of my ASI 120 (Core Program) course at the University of Dayton. In preparation for the paper, I read A Short History of Reconstruction, 1863-1877 by Eric Foner. After reading and reflecting on Foner’s book, I decided I wanted to focus my topic on Reconstruction in New Orleans, with specific emphasis on racial issues and the New Orleans Riot. I chose this topic because it allowed me to further research a topic relating to social justice with respect to race relations, something I am very passionate about. I spent a great deal of …

The Ku Klux Klan's Reign Of Terror During Reconstruction: Effects, Motives, And Composition, Jack O'Donnell

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The final project in the course ASI 120 was a historiography on American Reconstruction. The purpose of a historiography is to evaluate the ways in which historians' views of a certain topic have changed over time. I chose to evaluate and analyze historians' views of the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror during American Reconstruction, focusing specifically on interpretations of the Ku Klux Klan's effects, motives, and composition. To complete this assignment, I analyzed eight different sources written by historians throughout the twentieth century. After writing a summary of each source, I was tasked with choosing which source provided the …

Learning To Read Was Great, Alyssa T. Mims

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This project was written with the intentions of telling the story of how I learned to read and the effects of my reading skills flourishing.

A Tale As Old As Time: Changing Interpretations Of Democratic And Republican Polarization During Reconstruction, Dawson J. Vandervort

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This paper started in the beginning of the 2018 spring semester with the reading of Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction. This book started with a historiography, which students modeled their own off of, and continued with an extremely detailed documentation of Reconstruction. After this my instructor had the class propose a topic and choose 15 relevant sources. Then the class chose 8 sources to create an annotated bibliography with. In March I began the writing process slowly and tediously, but competition with a friend created a positive and fun environment. As we worked, we read our papers to …

The Colfax Massacre: A Culmination Of Political And Racial Disparity, Lian F. Mitzian

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I wrote this paper for the interdisciplinary humanities course The Development of Western Culture in a Global Context. My writing process consisted of first examining various primary and secondary sources on Southern Reconstruction and the Colfax Massacre. This gave me an understanding of how historians have come to understand the event throughout time. In my research, I found two categories of interpretations, which I then used to organize my ideas and develop my own understanding of the implications of the event.

"Declaration Of Conscience": A Rhetorical Analysis, Ashley M. Nihem

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

First, I did thorough research on Margaret Chase Smith and her involvement and position in politics. I also researched the Cold War and McCarthyism so that I could accurately and clearly give a background on Chase's speech. I then decided what parts of rhetoric were most and least prominent in Chase's speech and based the format of paper on that. I looked into these parts of rhetorical at different parts of the speech and analyzed how she used the rhetoric in accordance with language choices, and the effect that it had (or was meant to have) on her audience.

Educating Our Future: White Women Teachers And What They Contributed To The Reconstruction, Franchesca R. Hackworth

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

The overall goal of this piece was to compose an essay conveying how different historiographers have varied in their views of a single moment within the Reconstruction period. Discovering the similarities and differences was intriguing and provided much to analyze. I specifically chose to review how historiographers have viewed the white women teachers — mostly Northerners — who traveled to the South during the Reconstruction period for the education of freedmen.

As this extensive process took hold, I knew the topic I chose was perfectly fit for me. I have a deep appreciation for education and all that it does …

Positive Effects Of Sustainability In Buisness, Matt Westman

Undergraduate Voices

This study aims to look at various businesses and address how they view and deal with the idea of making their practice more environmentally friendly and sustainable. More specifically, it will focus on how businesses spend money to make sure they are “green.” It will show whether or not businesses are more focused on earning money and making profit or about making the transition to being more environmentally concerned even if that includes spending more money to do so. This study also explores the benefits for businesses that choose to “go green” to see if the investment of being more …

Editor's Page, Volume 1, Amir Kalan

Undergraduate Voices

First-year undergraduate composition is often dominated by pedagogical practices that focus on persuasive writing and the rhetoric of assertion. Rooted in Anglo-American essayist literacy, college writing is traditionally treated as reporting facts in order to argue cases. In my writing seminars, my students and I decided to resist this dominant approach by employing writing to make sense of ourselves and the world around us. I invited the students to use writing as an epistemological medium in which students could think about their intended majors to comprehend the complexities involved in the disciplines and professions that they were about to enter. …

Formal And Informal Undergraduate Ethics Education In Engineering, Grace Ports

Undergraduate Voices

This literature review attempts to answer the question of whether formal education or informal education of ethics within civil engineering is more beneficial. If there is a lack of structured education of ethics in civil engineering, then another area of interest is to discover where engineers are being informally educated. Another area of inquiry is whether it is more beneficial to teach engineers ethics prior to the time when they are required to study the code of ethics for their certification exam, or should engineers wait until moments before the exam to study the code. This article examines the potential …

Sustainability In Chemical Engineering, Alec T. Raber

Undergraduate Voices

For much of the past century, the world has seen industrial and technological progress that has helped make life better for humans but hurt the environment while doing so. Once people realized the damage that was being done, it was observed that this kind of development was not sustainable, meaning it did not “meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland, 1987, p. 3). While different experts may define the term “sustainability” (or “sustainable development”), differently, they will all share the substance of Brundtland’s definition. Ever since the light …

Discrimination Against Women In The Field Of Engineering, Julia Weber

Undergraduate Voices

This article focuses on the position of women in the field of engineering, specifically why the field is male-dominated and why this condition should change. When I state the field is male-dominated, I am addressing both the proportion of men in the field in comparison to women and discrimination towards women in the workplace.

Throughout this article, I will be focusing on women in the field of engineering. I will look into why the field is so male-dominated (Chu, 2005; Hunt, 2016; Ramirez & Wotipka, 2001) and how this has begun to change over time (Hill, Corbett, & St Rose, …

Ethics Education In Engineering: Practices On And Off The Campus, Katherine Theis

Undergraduate Voices

This paper will focus on two major methods for educating engineers in ethics. It is important to realize that two sets of standards exist within the field of engineering, both from the professional standards set within industries and from the personal moral standards held by engineers themselves. This article first examines the education of ethics within the workplace as some engineers have no previous training in ethics. Second, it discusses how ethics is introduced to engineers through university undergraduate and graduate courses. It will also evaluate whether ethics courses are more effective than the real-world application found through the professional …

Engineering's Effects On Communities Through An Ethical Framework, Bailey A. Reid

Undergraduate Voices

Engineering is at the forefront of innovation and progression in our society, but often has various impacts on the communities in which projects take place. This article focuses on several ethical guidelines established through education and engineering’s effects on surrounding communities. Ethics inside of community actions and approach will also be explored.

Undergraduate Voices, Volume 1 (2018), Amir Kalan

Undergraduate Voices

In this volume, Grace Ports explores ethics education in engineering. She explains why engineering students need to engage with ethics and examines possibilities offered by formal and experiential learning of ethics for engineering students. Julia Weber asks why the field of engineering is male-dominated and why this condition should change. She discusses the proportion of men in the field in comparison with women and focuses on discrimination against women in the workplace. Alec Raber presents his thoughts about sustainability in chemical engineering by highlighting concepts such as industrial ecology and green engineering. Seth Adams advocates for more experiential learning in …

Advocating For More Experiential Learning Strategies In Medical School, Seth D. Adams

Undergraduate Voices

When it comes to learning and teaching, there are many ways for teachers and students to maximize the amount of learning that happens in the schooling environment. The focus of this paper is the effects of experiential learning in medical education. This pedagogy is very common in many teaching strategies and is widely used, debated, and studied throughout academia. This paper will introduce experiential learning as it is seen broadly throughout all fields of study and practice, but will then specifically focus on experiential learning and its effects on medical education. Using two different types of experiential learning, community-based learning …

The People And Purpose Of Business: The Philosophical View Of The Workings Of A Corporation From A First-Year Business Student, Jared Beach

Undergraduate Voices

A person with a goal needs careful and thoughtful planning and execution if he or she is to attain success. There exist multiple layers of decision making, management, and maintenance to provide continuity, growth, and prosperity (McCormack, 1990). While in theory everything should run smoothly, the real may not function to the sights we envision. In the instance of running businesses, the process of turning thoughts on paper into profit will never be as easy as inhaling and exhaling. It takes a large investment of time and resources to guide a company towards achieving what one sets out to accomplish. …

A Failure Of Femininity Within 'G.I. Jane', Maggie Weaver

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This essay was wrote and edited throughout my ENG 200H course which featured the theme of women in the military. In preparation for the essay the class watched the film G.I. Jane directed by Ridley Scott. The assignment was to address and analyze one prominent theme within the film and after research and consideration I decided to examine how the film portrayed femininity. After identifying which aspects of the film I wanted to address in my paper I wrote my first draft. This original draft then underwent several edits both from my professor and the University of Dayton Write Place …

Critique Of Kathleen Parker’S 'Women Don't Belong In Military Combat', Megan M. Rice

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

For this project, I chose an opinion article about whether or not women should be allowed in combat positions. The author believes women should not be in the infantry, while I believe women should be given the chance if they so desire to be in a combat role. The main idea in the original article was that women are not capable of succeeding in the infantry. I countered this idea throughout my response essay by agreeing that not every woman is cut out for a combat job, but the women out there who would thrive in the infantry should be …

Love As An Active Choice, Madison M. Millhouse

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

For this assignment, my professor asked us to find an image and to analyze it for its accurate (or inaccurate) depiction of love based on the works we read from Eric Fromm and bell hooks. I found this three-framed image of a moving statue by Tamara Kvesitadze and thought it was a great representation of Fromm's paradox that in love "'two beings become one yet remain two" (19). From there, I began to examine the other ways the image aligned with Fromm and hooks' concepts of love and discussed with my professor the best way to organize my ideas.

Research Project: Regarding Genetic Theft, Danielle Lancia

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

With two months left in the semester, my class was given the project proposal: write a 5-page research paper about any form of cheating. I chose cheating in the medical field as my broad topic and then finally narrowed it down to genetic theft, which is the acquisition of someone's genes without his or her knowledge. We had until the final day of class to turn in our final draft but I wanted to get started right away because the topic really grabbed my interest. I starting researching by using online resources, and I found more information than expected. After …

Evolution, Place, And Identity: Facing Global Crisis With A New Identity As Earthly Residents, Yu Zhao

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This assignment is the first assignment for my Eng 200 class and we are asked to write about "place and identity." As a psychology major, I love thinking interdisciplinarily. Therefore, I decided to talk about evolution, place, and identity.

Holmes, The Weed Keeper?, Justin Smith

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I woke up out of a dream with the idea to hold a conversation with Sherlock Holmes (the theme of our class). It is easy enough to hold a fictional conversation with a fictional character discussing facts about why marijuana is a better alternative than cocaine. To make the project a little more academically focused, I also discussed how 19th- century Europeans did not understand addiction. As a process, it came only through research and free writing sessions.

The Complicated Mind Of Sherlock Holmes, Madeleine Ryan

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

By taking a Sherlock Holmes themed Writing Seminar II class, I was familiar with the theory of Sherlock Holmes having a mental disorder. For my final research paper, I decided to write about this theory and diagnose Holmes. I began by researching mental disorders and their symptoms. Once I had taken notes, I looked at the symptoms and compared them to Sherlock Holmes. I removed the disorders that did not relate to Holmes and narrowed the list down to Asperger’s Syndrome, Bipolar Disorder, and Savant Syndrome. Next, I found specific examples from Sherlock Holmes pieces that exhibited Holmes demonstrating the …