Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Multilingual Writers In The Mexican Sociocultural Context: Towards Improved Pedagogical Practices In The U.S., Virginia Locastro

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Currently, the education of Latina/o students in the United States for higher education and future careers comprises multiple moving parts. As the U.S. educational system, in particular the Pre-K-12 years of schooling, struggles despite efforts to address the needs of all students, both native English speakers as well as English language learners (ELLs), to better prepare them to enter institutions of tertiary education and succeed in careers, various organizations and consortiums articulate more rigorous educational standards (WIDA and the Common Core Standards as two examples). These recent proposals focus on academic literacy skills, in particular on reading and writing skills …

La Variedad Local En La EnseñAnza Del EspañOl En Eeuu: Una Propuesta PedagóGica, Rebeca Acevedo

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

La realidad sociolingüística del idioma español del siglo XXI es la de una lengua global y pluri-normativa. Se estima que el español es una lengua empleada por alrededor de 495 millones de hablantes (Instituto Cervantes, versión electrónica). Con ello el español, tras el chino mandarín, ocupa el segundo lugar dentro de las lenguas más habladas en el mundo; y se ubica en la cuarta posición en cuanto a lengua materna. Con esta concepción del español como lengua global se ha superado la posición purista que consideraba la variedad europea como la única norma estándar. Bajo este pluricentralismo del idioma español …

Metadiscourse In Book Reviews In English And Brazilian Portuguese: A Corpus-Based Analysis, Luciana Junqueiria, Viviana Cortes

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Book reviews play different roles in academia. They are used in the selection of what books to read and purchase (Carvalho, 2001) and as a vehicle for publication and visibility, especially for graduate students and novice scholars (Hyland, 2000; Motta-Roth, 2001). Scholars and graduate students must do a great amount of reading in order to stay up to date in any given field, as scientific knowledge has become more and more widespread. This task is undeniably challenging given the amount of time and resources needed for such updating (Carvalho, 2002; Suárez & Moreno, 2008). Academics need to be selective about …

Writing And Rhetoric Along The U.S.-Mexico Border, Barry Thatcher, Kelly Medina-López, Omar Montoya

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Recently, our field has seen a strong surge in the interest in writing across borders, multilingual and ESL writing, and globalization and rhetoric (see, for example, the 2010 Penn State Conference on Border Rhetorics; 2014 Border Rhetorics, Rhetoric Society of America). This surge parallels, in many ways, the growing enrollment of international student populations and second-language writers in U.S. writing programs, which is widely documented (Roberge, Siegal, & Harlau, 2009; Matsuda, 2009). Given this development, it would seem appropriate or even natural that writing programs would be developing curriculum to meet the needs of these multilingual students. In fact, that …

Writing The Literature Review: Challenges Of Two Mexican Novice Writers, Hilda Hidalgo, Rosa María Funderburk Razo

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Writing a thesis or dissertation is not an easy task (Bitchener, 2009; O’Connell & Jin, 2001; Meloy, 2002); this kind of writing may also represent a particularly more difficult endeavor when it comes to novice writers who also happen to be non-native speakers of English (NNS) who can struggle not only with the linguistic demands but also with the characteristics of its discourse of this genre\sub-genre.

Non-Convergent Literacy Practices And Dominican Students In The U.S., Andrea Parmegiani, Sharon Utakis

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This paper presents a literature review to articulate a pedagogical rationale for integrating English writing instruction with writing instruction in Spanish as a strategy for improving success rates among Spanish speaking ESL students (SS-ESL) at Hispanic serving institutions such as Bronx Community College (BCC), where we both teach ESL. This rationale underpinned the creation of a new learning community cluster that was piloted at BCC in Fall 2013. The cluster included an advanced ESL class, a Spanish composition class, and a Freshmen Year Seminar (FYS). Success indicators for the students enrolled in this cluster were very promising.

The Discourse Of First-Year Writers At Border Sites: Discerning The Transcultural, Bilinguistic Strategies Of English Language Learners In College, Beatrice Méndez-Newman

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, 9.8% of students enrolled in American elementary and secondary public schools are officially classified as English Language Learners (ELL) (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). In border states and states with high numbers of immigrant populations, such as Texas, Florida, New York, California, New Mexico, and Arizona, the ELL percentage is much higher. In Texas, for example, 17% of public school students are classified as ELL (Texas Education Agency, 2012). According to U.S. Department of Education statistics, 0% of college students in public higher education institutions are English Language Learners. In truth, this is …

Review Of Information Overload: An International Challenge For Professional Engineers And Technical Communicators. Judith B. Strother, Jan M. Ulijn, And Zohra Fazal Hoboken, Nj: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2012. 279 Pp., Shawanda Stewart

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Information Overload: An International Challenge for Professional Engineers and Technical Communicators is the first text to be introduced as part of the Professional Engineering Communication book series and is committed to examining, sharing, and advancing global communication practices in technical, scientific, and engineering fields. This book, effectively organized for multiple and interdisciplinary audiences—students, industry professionals, and researchers alike—provides a consistent format for relaying multifaceted content that ties together three main concepts: forms of information overload, technology, and communication. Information Overload is organized in two sections: Section I: Causes and Costs of Information Overload and Section II: Control and Reduction of …

Comparison As A Mode Of Inquiry: Rearticulating The Contexts Of Intercultural Communication, Lance Cummings

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Comparative inquiry has a long history in the scientific, sociological, and linguistic traditions that embody much of the work being done in English studies, including technical, professional, and intercultural communication. Generally speaking, comparative methods are often used to explain variation in human behavior, often with the assumption that there is a common source from which this variation springs, whether it be historical change, cognitive structures like universal grammar, social entities, or just “human nature.” As we move into what Wendy Hesford (2006) called the “global turn” in English studies, the phenomena of globalization and shifting classroom, cultural, and communicative ecologies …

Towards A Cultural Rhetorics Methodology: Making Research Matter With Multi-Generational Women From The Little Traverse Bay Band, Andrea M. Riley Mukavetz

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Almost five years ago, I started working on two oral history projects with a group of multi-generational, urban Odawa women from Lansing, Michigan. I met these women while working with one of the community elders on developing her life history into a book for publication. About four weeks into the project, the elder, Geri, suggested that we do another oral history with more Odawa women from the area. Together, we developed and organized three talking circles where the women shared stories about their lived experiences and their roles and responsibilities at work, in the community, and while pursuing a formal …

Methodological Journey: Lessons Learned From A Student-Led Intercultural Pilot Study, Ryan James Price, Rebecca Walton, Matthew Petersen

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

New technical communication scholars face the challenge of developing cultural competence in order to effectively and appropriately carry out intercultural research. With interculturally competent technical communicators in increasingly high demand, instructors wrestle with the challenge of preparing students for cross-cultural work environments (Melton, 2011; Smith & Mikelonis, 2011; St.Amant, 2011). The field has adopted a wide variety of globalization-driven, culture-conscious educational practices over the past few decades, but a knowledge gap still persists regarding how to equip new scholars with training and tools that are necessary for building cultural competence, particularly as it relates to designing and conducting research. In …

Digital Ethnography For Intercultural Professional Communication: Some Best Practice Principles, Michael Madson

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

With global compressions of time and space, intercultural contact is heightening. Digital networks are converging. Perhaps more than ever before, professional communicators require cultural and technical savvy, allowing them to navigate, in a principled manner, digitally-mediated contexts (Spilka, 2010). Since no mediation is value neutral, digital technologies can spark intercultural friction (Thatcher, 2004; Warshauer, 2003, p. 6), blur ethical codes (Capurro, 2008; Himma, 2008), and perpetuate colonial relations (Ess & Sudweeks, 2012, p. xvi). How to operate in such complex, power-laden environments is a central concern in intercultural professional communication (IPC) and merits additional inquiry.

Designing For Engagement: Intercultural Communication And/As Participatory Design, Guiseppe Getto

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Within rhetoric and professional communication, intercultural research has most often focused on such elements of communication situations as languages, issues regarding translation, and adaptation to culturally situated value systems of interlocutors (Maylath, 1997; St.Amant, 1999; Thatcher, 2010; Wang, 2010). Technological infrastructure for intercultural situations, however, is largely conceived of as a material base upon which communication runs. If we consider an infrastructure as a dynamic meeting of communicators, modes of communication, and technologies, however, it is unclear how we might apply existing intercultural research methods and findings to the design of such communication systems. As a heuristic for moving toward …

Methods And Meanings: Reflections On Reflexivity And Flexibility In An Intercultural Ethnographic Study Of An Activist Organization, Natasha M. Jones

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

In this article I argue that organizations are cultures and, as such, when we study organizations, we should employ integrative intercultural ethnographic research methods that are reflexive and flexible. More specifically, through an intermingling of narratives, my personal reflections, and secondary scholarly research, this article briefly details my ethnographic study and explores the importance of viewing organizations through an intercultural lens. I also argue for including the study of organizations in considerations of intercultural communication. In addition, I examine two concepts that are important for intercultural communication studies, the concepts of reflexivity and flexibility in ethnographic research, and I thereby …

Editor’S Introduction To The Special Edition On Methodology, Rebecca Walton

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Intercultural professional communication (IPC) is a burgeoning research area. New venues have been created to publish work in IPC, including this journal, Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, in 2010 and connexions international professional communication journal in 2013. More broadly scoped venues in technical and professional communication also recognize the importance of intercultural work. See, for example, Ding and Savage’s special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly on new directions in intercultural professional communication (2013) and the topics of interest for the ATTW Book Series in Technical and Professional Communication, topics which include the globalization of technical and professional communication, intercultural communication, …

Review Of The Megarhetorics Of Global Development. Eds. Rebecca Dingo And J. Blake Scott. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2012, 266 Pp., Massimo Verzella

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

“Development” is an insidious word in that it often provides moral justification for aggressive neoliberal policies. When imposed from above and orchestrated by financial and corporate elites with no understanding of the real needs of ‘undeveloped’ communities, development sanctions a covert form of imperialism that relies on the world accepting the credo of free trade in primis, but also American forms of democracy, law, and governance. With the aim of questioning neoliberal orthodoxies and challenging colonial arguments (accepted as commonsense) about saving the “natives” from their backwardness, a group of scholars have joined forces in the anthology reviewed here to …

Writing In Crisis: Rhetorical Considerations In Child Advocate Reports, Melody Bowdon, Melissa Pompos, Anna C. Turner

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

One aspect of human rights often overlooked in and beyond professional communication involves the rights of minor children whose parents or guardians are accused of abusing, abandoning, or neglecting them. Children in the United States who enter the dependency court system, where such matters are adjudicated, have few legal protections because of their status as minors, and parents or legal guardians under investigation are seldom appropriate advocates for such children due to real, potential, or perceived conflicts of interest (Litzelfelner & Petr, 1997; Minow, 1995; Reynaert, Bouverne-de-Bie, & Vandevelde, 2009). Many state and county governments have established programs designed to …

Rhetorically Navigating Rwandan Research Review: A Fantasy Theme Analysis, Rebecca Walton, Ryan Price, Maggie Zraly

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Research ethics review is foundational to protecting the rights of research participants, particularly vulnerable populations (e.g., members of socially/economically marginalized groups, people who do not speak the dominant language, illiterate/semi-literate people, pregnant women, prisoners). Internationally, the review of human subjects research is influenced by shared ethical codes such as the Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki, but national and institutional contexts also frame research ethics review. Rwanda’s in-country human subjects review processes are situated within a context that includes factors such as the historical impacts of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi1 ; rapid urbanization; youth population growth; and …

Singapore’S Quarantine Rhetoric And Human Rights In Emergency Health Risks, Huiling Ding, Elizabeth A. Pitts

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

When Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) began spreading in Asia in March 2003, many affected countries and areas scrambled to mobilize public health resources and rushed to find effective ways to contain the virus within their territories. In late March and April of the same year, the World Health Organization (WHO) added numerous East and Southeast Asian countries and regions to its list of areas affected by SARS: mainland China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, and Taiwan. Singapore was among the first countries to eradicate SARS and was taken off the WHO list on May 30, 2003.

Minga Perú’S Strategy For Social Change In The Perúvian Amazon: A Rhetorical Model For Participatory, Intercultural Practice To Advance Human Rights, Lucia Durá, Arvind Singhal, Eliana Elías

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, when Minga Perú’s radio production team receives a letter about spousal abuse, or any other burning topic, the letter is catalogued based on subject, audience relevance, and urgency. Listeners’ letters serve as the basis for creating the program scripts of Bienvenida Salud (Welcome Health), Minga’s long-running socio drama broadcast three times per week by ten jungle-reaching radio stations. In the program, Emira, Doñita, Peta, and Pasionaria bring social issues to life in a seriously playful and culturally-relevant manner, spurring conversation among listeners and subsequent decisions and actions. Minga has created a listener-as-producer feedback loop whereby …

Global Intellectual Property Law, Human Rights, And Technical Communication, Tyanna Herrington

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

International trade in intellectual products has increased in recent years, leading to a dramatic rise in the U.S. International Trade Commission's (USITC) caseload (USITC 2012, pp. 20-25). As individuals interact globally through travel and internet access, they also more frequently use and create intellectual products that are accessible on a global scale; thus, nation states' treaty negotiations on intellectual products have an important impact on their own citizenries as well as those of others. When technical communicators author intellectual products they may enter into a process of communicative interaction that leads to self-actualization , the state of having achieved personal …

After The International Bill Of Human Rights (Ibhr): Introduction To Special Issue On Human Rights And Professional Communication, David Sapp, Gerald Savage, Kyle Mattson

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

If published work is at all a reliable indicator, the issue of human rights has not yet emerged as a consistent thread in professional communication scholarship: but over the past decade the literature has addressed themes related to the larger issue of human rights. Such themes include, among others, social justice and globalization; critical responses to development and globalization; critical race theory and whiteness studies; and discourses of diverse publics and indigenous knowledges (Agboka, 2013a, 2013b; Bowdon, 2004; Broadfoot & Munshi, 2007; Haas, 2012; Johnson, Pimentel, & Pimentel, 2008; Lipus, 2006; Mattson, 2013; Nugent, 2013; Savage & Mattson, 2011; Savage …

Incorporating Digital Health Literacy Into Adult Esl Education On The Us-Mexico Border, Erika Mein, Brenda Fuentes, Francisco Soto Más, Andrés Muro

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

The increasing digitization of information and communication has undoubtedly impacted the ways in which people in the United States access and interpret health information. Although the traditional emphasis of health literacy research has been the comprehension of health-related texts such as patient information forms, prescriptions, and medicine labels, the increased use of electronic means to locate health information requires more critical engagement with texts beyond basic comprehension. In accessing electronic health information, patients need to be able to navigate the vast amount of online health information and to interpret and synthesize health information across multiple sources (i.e. websites) while also …

An Intercultural Analysis Of Sources Of Medical Information In Spanish-Speaking Diabetes Patients, Marta Antón, Ulla Connor, Kathryn Lauten, Stephanie Balunda

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Understanding and improving health literacy have become important goals in health communication. Research has shown that limited health literacy is associated with poor health outcomes and that it is more prevalent in culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The goals of this study are to describe English-speaking (ES) and Spanish-speaking (SS) diabetic patients’ perceptions of sources of health information, to identify the actions patients report taking in seeking that information, and to test reading comprehension of medical information among SS patients.

Data for this study were based on semi-structured interviews, life-story narratives, and a reading comprehension test with diabetic patients (43 …

The New Scarlet Letter A: An Exploration Of The Power Of Online Informational Websites To Influence And Brand Those Impacted By Autism Spectrum Disorders, Barbi Smyser-Fauble

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Technical communication is often perceived by the public as containing objective information that is supported by scientific data. Audiences of such products are unaware of the rhetoric employed within its content that works to perpetuate social constructions of dominant ideologies, including digital texts such as informational websites. This article presents a comparison of the rhetoric employed on two national websites, Autism Speaks and Generation Rescue that convey similar information on Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), but present ASDs differently in terms of language, tone, and lens. Through the acknowledgement of these differences, I posit that web sites affiliated with the medical/scientific …

Fotonovelas And Anglo Designs In Health Communications For Spanish-Speaking Residents Along The U.S.-Mexico Border, Barry Thatcher

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

This study compares the intercultural instructional designs, based on eight intercultural value sets, of two types of health communications for Spanish-speaking U.S.-Mexico border populations. The first design is the fotonovela, or photo drama pamphlet, an approach that is well developed in Latin America and modeled after the famous Latin American television soap opera genre of telenovelas. This design dramatizes health information in culturally appropriate ways. The second design is Anglo dominant, representing predominant rhetorical and cultural preferences of the United States. Grounded in a Texas Health Equity project, the research team created a fotonovela for septic maintenance for border colonias. …

Translating Health Care: Stories From Refugees, Providers, And Friends, Kevin Brooks, Miriam Mara

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Drawing on interviews and participatory observation, this article weaves stories of translating healthcare told from the perspectives of refugees, health care providers, and friends. The research finds that while literal translations of documents and information are important to the health care process for refugees of New Americans, cultural translations of concepts like health care and preventive care are perhaps even more important. That translation, however, is not simple or literal either; refugees and New Americans may resist, or remain suspicious of, these concepts even once understood. Friends of refugees can provide an important role in helping with cultural and institutional …

The Hispanic Social Media Revolution: Spanish-Language Healthcare Pages On Facebook Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Although many Hispanics living in the United States do not have a regular health care provider, they are getting healthcare information from the media. The internet is increasingly becoming the place where Hispanics get healthcare information. The number of Hispanics, both Spanish and English speaking, who go online is increasing every year. However, the Hispanic population as a whole is more likely to view videos online and to browse the internet from their mobile phones. The use of social media sites by Hispanics is also growing rapidly. Hispanics look for healthcare information on social media sites such as Facebook and …

Grassroots Emergency Health Risk Communication And Transmedia Public Participation: H1n1 Flu, Travelers From Epicenters, And Cyber Vigilantism, Huiling Ding

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Grassroots risk reduction tactics took new forms in the era of social media. Chinese netizens mobilized human flesh searches (HFS), or cyber vigilantism, to reduce the risks posed by international travelers who might import the H1N1 flu virus into China. My study suggests that at the beginning of the H1N1 flu epidemic, rigorous transmedia intervention efforts were made to discipline the early irresponsible overseas Chinese who traveled extensively after arriving in China, but much less attention was paid to risks posed by foreign travelers. The grassroots risk tactics employed emotional appeals, valuative judgment, and moral condemnation to criticize the irresponsible …

Editor's Introduction, Nicole St. Germaine

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Busy physicians, nurses, and hospital administrators do not have the time to conduct focus groups or in-depth interviews with patients. Researchers in the communication fields, such as the authors whose work is featured in this edition of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization, can help fill in these gaps of knowledge and provide insight into some of the best practices and issues that our healthcare professionals need to address to serve these populations more effectively.