Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Master Communicator, Jonathan M. Gunderson

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

A Speech Of Defense: Obama's Apologia For Himself And The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Trevor Adams Hogan

Communication Studies

During the 2008 Presidential Election, Democratic candidate Barack Obama faced political controversy surrounding his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Videos surfaced on ABC News of Wright making racist and anti-American statements during his sermons. Obama who had strong ties to Wright over many years was criticized for his relationship with Wright. Because of their connection, Obama's political success was tied to his association with Wright. In a speech titled "A More Perfect Union", Obama makes an Apologia or defense for himself, and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Addressing the Kategoria or attacks made against himself and Wright, Obama uses the speech …

Preaching Styles: Honey & Vinegar, Logan Tavelli

Communication Studies

A look into different preaching styles.

Levi's Go Forth Campaign: A Semiotic Analysis Of "America", Christina Nicole Baker

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Genre Of Abolition Rhetoric And Frederick Douglass' "What To The American Slave Is The Fourth Of July?", Kelsey Lauren Fisher

Communication Studies

In this paper, I identify the critical elements that characterize the genre of abolition rhetoric. Then, I offer Frederick Douglass' speech, "What to the American Slave is the Fourth of July?", as the ideal abolitionist speech.

Constructing A Dream: A Close Textual Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream", Kelly Anne Hanson

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Necessary Blend Of Narrative And Technology In Composition: Identity Crisis Embraced, Jessica A. Lewis

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Wendy Bishop’s work, “Suddenly Sexy: Creative Writing Rear-ends Composition,” is focused on the necessity of flexible relationships between first-year composition professors and creative nonfiction writers for the improvement of composition pedagogy. This emphasis on collaboration and merging is even more important now due to the personal relationships and self-awareness established in online writing environments. In addition to the exploration of confused definitions in expressivist theory and the negotiation that Bishop puts forth in her work, this thesis focuses on the new influences of online writing environments on writing culture. Through the process of research and narrative, Bishop’s ideals and goals …

Integrating Multimodal Composition Techniques In First-Year Writing Courses: Theory And Praxis, Bret Zawilski

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The body of this thesis seeks to explore the costs and benefits of instituting a multimodal composition pedagogy within first-year writing. Contested definitions of multimodality and multimedia provide a background for delving into the printed-word dominated discourse, where image, sound, and animation are all placed in a subordinate position relative to that of the written word. Within, many theories of multimodality and composition pedagogy are placed in contrast with one another in an attempt to discern connections in the body of already published theoretical material. The primary method of data collection for this document involved the investigation of secondary sources …

Rhetoric Of Plagiarism: Problems, Opportunities, And Interactions, Michael Patrick Morrison

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

This thesis explores the question of how James Madison University (JMU) communicates information concerning plagiarism policy and values to students, especially first-year composition students. The research covers some history of plagiarism issues, questions of why plagiarism is so difficult for scholars to define, why students plagiarize, and how attitudes in academia are changing as definitions continue to evolve. Overall, JMU communicates plagiarism poorly to students in their early stages of integrating into life at JMU, though the university still takes pains to inform students of the consequences of plagiarism through first-year composition instructors. The implications of this writing are an …

Discourse And Conflict: The President Barack H. Obama Birth Certificate Controversy And The New Media, Timothy Lee Adams

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

A creative exploration of the consequences of public speech in the era of freely accessible, social media, as the author, a former elections official, records and explores the consequences of public dissent in the case of President Barack Obama’s eligibility controversy. This non-fiction narrative culminates with the author’s analysis and observations on both his personal experiences and the state of public speech and political power in contemporary America.

Implementing A Discernment Phase For Those Nominated In The Shepherd Selection Process At The Cinco Ranch Church Of Christ, Aaron Walling

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project that implemented a discernment phase for those nominated in the shepherd selection process at the Cinco Ranch Church of Christ. Occurring in the fall of 2010, this project involved nominees in a series of six one-hour, thirty-minute sessions designed to establish the theological foundations for shepherding and to explore its practical expression at Cinco Ranch. For the theological component, this project primarily utilized Ephesians 4:11-16, and for the practical side, it incorporated group interactions with those serving as shepherds along with the review of guiding leadership documents. The project‟s …

The Rhetorics Of Constructing Hiv/Aids In The United States And China: A Comparative Analysis Of Two Online Discussion Forums, Jingwen Zhang

All Theses

This thesis focuses on the cross-cultural comparison of the public rhetorics that construct HIV/AIDS in two online discussion forums from the United States and China. Social constructions of HIV/AIDS have previously been explored in specific countries and cultures; however, comparative studies have rarely been conducted, especially by applying rhetorical cultural analysis focusing on online discourses. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two underexplored dimensions -- comparative rhetorical analysis and online discourse -- to show how online communications, metaphors, and topoi identified in discussion forum posts reveal and construct the idea of HIV/AIDS in the public sphere for …

Lovetoleave.Com: A Website About Niche Online Dating In Angeles City, Philippines, Marlei Martinez

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The global community is quickly growing due to the constant advancement of telecommunications across the land and sea. No longer do people have to settle for dating within their hometowns; now, they can simply sign up online, create a dating profile and search for their soul mate with just the click of a mouse.

Niche online dating is a very personalized form of internet romance. Men and women can now sit in front of their computers, type the words, “I want to date an Asian girl/guy” in the Google search bar, and dozens of ‘Asian’ dating websites will appear. This …

Early Modern Evil Genius: Hyperconformity And Objectivity In Sixteenth And Seventeenth-Century English Literature, Christine Hoffmann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies the response among early modern and postmodern audiences to the experience of information overload, and suggests that the most appealing response to living in a communications network that appears both systematic and random is to use a rhetoric of struggle that is ambiguous in the same way. >The reasons for this appeal are twofold: firstly, the rhetoric of struggle is a way to cope with the difficulty of situating oneself within a system of circulating information that operates according to its own arbitrary rules. Mimicking that arbitrariness is a way of finding aesthetic synchronicity between how one's …

"Struggling" Adolescent Writers Describe Their Writing Experience: A Descriptive Case Study, F. Jean Mcpherron

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Four adolescents identified as struggling writers in an English language arts classroom were interviewed about their perceptions of a writing task--how they judged their capability to succeed, how they ranked their passion, persistence, and confidence about writing, and how they responded to classroom activity. Student perceptions of self-efficacy and the related self-beliefs of motivation and interest as well as self-regulation were stated and implied as students described a planning worksheet, instructional scaffolding, peer interactions, and ownership of their writing. Wersch's view of mediated action and Engestrom's model of activity systems were the lens through which the students' descriptions were analyzed. …

Understanding The National Science Foundation Career Award Proposal Genre: A Rhetorical, Ethnographic, And System Perspective, David M. Christensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With tightening university budgets, never before has the activity level of research grant proposal writing been more intense. With increased proposal numbers, including for the National Science Foundation's (NSF) prestigious CAREER award, has also come increased competition and decreased funding rates. This dissertation has searched for successful and unsuccessful characteristics from funded and unfunded CAREER proposals.

The research focused on a study of two key subjects: 1) a corpus of 20 texts that included 12 funded proposals and 8 unfunded proposals from across NSF programs, and 2) an ethnographic analysis comprised from interviews with 14 NSF program officers (PO) from …

Comments And The Classroom Context: Investigating Students’ Rhetorical Relationships To Instructor Response, Jeremy C. Branstad

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Jane Mathison-Fife and Peggy O'Neill, along with Nancy Summers, have decried the lack of student voices in composition studies' literature on teacher response. Responding to these researchers' concerns, I present three exploratory case studies of student readers of commentary within their classroom contexts. Using reading theory's insight that the interpretive act is always both subjective and socially situated, these case studies demonstrate that a richer literature on written feedback is possible through a consideration for student perspectives and for the cultural, institutional, and instructional factors that influence their understandings. At the same time, these case studies also illuminate the complexity …

“The Skunk At The Garden Party Of The Language Arts”: Students Weigh In On What Grammar Means To Them, Sarah Caroline Olson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I work to add new voices to an old conversation. While instructors and scholars alike have argued about the efficacy of various methods of grammar instruction, about whether grammar instruction should even be included in the English composition classroom, and about how to define grammar for more than a century, student voices have rarely entered this discussion. For this reason, I conducted a survey of student grammar conceptions within the First Year Writing Program at Boise State University, as well as follow-up focus groups. From these findings, I work to construct a denotative and connotative definition of …

What Is Conservatism?, Heidi Peters

Graduate Research Symposium (2010 - 2017)

The re-branding of the right manifested itself in conservative movements and gatherings across the country in-between 2008 & 2010. One of those events included Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally on August 28, 2010. This research project is a case study that illustrates how the conservative political ideology is defined and rejuvenated after massive defeat.

Mothers And Teen Daughters: Make Room For The Internet, Jaqueline Mcleod Rogers

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

When the internet steals our daughters, mothers turn cyborg.

Things Dad: The Kansas Years, Sue Webb

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

When recipes help tell the story.

In Defense Of The Unmother: Rhetoric, Motherhood, And Social Networking, Rebecca Ingalls

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Wanted: kind, nurturing, compassionate females. Childless women need not apply. Link to video: Rhetoric, Christmas Cards, and Infertility: A Season of Silence

Worlds Collide! Facebook, Family & George Costanza, Amy L. Spears, Julie Driscoll

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

If facebook and social media have wrecked our ability to sustain lengthy treatises on topics, well then, by George, we'll make the blurb our convention and still tell you what we think.

Rhetoric, Christmas Cards, And Infertility: A Season Of Silence, Kristin L. Arola

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Revising notions of family. One card at a time.

When I first saw the call for the special issue on family rhetoric, I found myself feeling left out. While I am a daughter, a granddaughter, a sister, an aunt, a niece, a cousin, and a wife, in spite of many years and dollars spent trying to be a mother, I am unable to do so. I do not have my own family. As I contemplated my own rhetoric of “the family,” holiday cards began to pile up. Card after card, letter after letter, all about kids—kids I do not have. …

Harlot Runs In The Family, Paul Muhlhauser, Kelly Bradbury

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Much to our delight, our call for this special issue on family rhetoric attracted a record number of submissions. For some, the connection was deeply personal; for others, cultural representations of family and/or the role of various communities on family drew shrewd attention. Ultimately, the pieces in this issue were selected not only for their brilliant and creative insights about family rhetoric (how family members communicate with each other) and the rhetoric of family (how culture and society inform us about the meaning of family), but also because they represent an array of perspectives, experiences, and forms of expressing our …

Sexual Disorientation, Anne Balay

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

She used to wish for a lesbian daughter. Predictably, the joke's on her.

A Name On The Tree, Laura J. Davies

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

What's in a name? For some, family history, arguments, and identity.

Of Peerenting, Trophy Wives, And Effeminate Men: Modern Family's Surprisingly Conservative Remediation Of The Family Sitcom Genre, Christina M. Lavecchia

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Just because the family is modern doesn't mean the family is new.

There Are Two Parts To My Life, Danielle Hunt

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Often, there are tunnels and holes and shovels for fingers. This poem is about the digging process.

Defining And Addressing Expectations For L2 Writers Across Disciplines, Lindsey Ives, Tom Pierce, Michael Schwartz

Publications

A presentation divided into three sections: Student Perspectives given by Michael Schwartz, Teacher Perspectives given by Lindsey Ives, and Administrator Perspectives given by Tom Pierce.