Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Wid Course Enhancements In Stem: The Impact Of Adding ‘Writing Circles’ And Writing Process Pedagogy, Tereza Joy Kramer, Joseph Zeccardi, Rebecca Concepcion, Chi-An Emhoff, Steve Miller, Krista Varela Posell

Interdisciplinary Works

This study reports on a quantitative assessment of enhancements to a Writing in the Disciplines course in Kinesiology. The assessment coded student writing produced in semesters before and after a Kinesiology course was enhanced with both iterated peer review groups and writing-process scaffolding. These enhancements were developed through a sustained partnership between WAC and disciplinary faculty. Analysis of the results revealed significantly higher scores in five Learning Outcomes developed to align with the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (2011). These findings offer quantitative evidence that adding writing-process pedagogy and iterated peer review improves student outcomes in both writing and …

Decolonizing American Democracy And The Problem Of Gerrymandering: Implications Of Border Designs From A Communication Ethics Perspective, Mark Gardner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project attempts to understand the powerful force of political borders from a historical and communicative perspective. Of particular importance to this research is the role that political borders play in shaping individuals’ relationship to structures and practices of democracy. Following insights of decolonial and communication ethics scholars, this work understands the importance of ethically framing deliberations surrounding physical, metaphorical, and categorical political borders. Five chapters make up this work in the culmination of analyzing political gerrymandering as a form of democratic competition grounded in the rhetoric of colonialism. Tracing the colonial history of borders throughout American democracy provides this …

Bureaucratic Modernity And The Erosion Of Practical Reason: A Rhetorical Education As An Antidote, David Impellizzeri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To what extent and in what ways does modernity reveal itself through the bureaucratic? This project aims at an interpretive understanding of bureaucratic modernity. The rationalization of society and action in the (late) modern world requires that an increasing number of human activities and domains be explained in allegedly neutral, ‘rational’ terms and without reference to morally substantive ends. Ultimately, this entails a form of epistemic reductionism that elevates instrumental rationality to the exclusion of practical reason and probabilistic ways of knowing. Bureaucratic modernity signifies a decrease in choices that can be legitimized in public on some basis other …

An Exploration Of Communication Ethics Scholarship And Economic Spheres, Andrew Tinker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines communication ethics scholarship to understand how economics is understood within the field and to establish coordinates for scholars to discuss economic spheres as phenomena that affect communication ethics. Scholars draw from the tradition of virtue ethics to mark communication ethics inquiry as that which explores the practices that protect and promote the “good.” Philosophers of communication and communication ethicists have developed paradigmatic metaphors for the field that allow us to understand the formation of ethical guidelines within communities both familial, corporate, and national, that promote and protect various goods. These metaphors include “hierarchy” and “sameness” from Charles …

In Broken Places, Judith Katherine Spradling

Theses and Dissertations

Constructed from a series of oral histories, the story of Andrea and Grant Jacks allows the audience a unique insight into the struggle of fulfilling the desire to parent. Often painful, this project looks at the diagnosis from both male and female perspectives following a couple’s journey through diagnosis, surgery, and treatment along with the emotional turmoil of dealing with devastating news and loss. This project does not seek to create sympathy for infertile couples but to educate, bring awareness, and offer understanding. The intent of thesis seeks to provide insight and understanding as a basis of support for family, …

The Unexpected Rhetoric Of Professional & Technical Writing, Catherine Boone

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

Professional Writing & Rhetoric: A compilation of work on research about website usability, ethics, and an editing portfolio and new teacher manual

Finding Student Voice: Teaching As Rhetorical Act, Kari Mann

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio represents my work in the field of composition and rhetoric. Though the writing in this portfolio spans many subjects, it is firmly grounded in my teaching practice.

Haole Like Me: Identity Construction And Politics In Hawaii, Savanah Janssen

English (MA) Theses

Haole is a contested, multi-faceted word in Hawaii. It generally means “foreigner,” or “white person.” It is used to refer to both tourists, and haoles like me, or those who are born and raised in Hawaii. In either case, it is always negative, referring to something “other” and really, colonial. Paraphrasing rhetorician Kenneth Burke, this thesis analyzes how this word “works in the world,” and from there, explores how identity, culture, and belonging are constructed through language. The essential questions become: are culture and identity constructed and performed, through language, tradition, and cultural engagement? Or is some blood content or …

Establishing A Presumption Of Competence In The Ela Classroom: One Teacher’S Story Of Creating Space For Autistic Culture, Christopher Bass

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Much has been written about the exclusive nature of inclusive teaching (Allan 2015; Owen & Gabriel, 2010; Smith 2010; Ware, 2004). Many general educators approach neurodiversity with a deficit approach (Smagorinsky, Tobin and Lee, 2019; Myers, 2019) As an active ELA teacher, I argue that teachers must first establish a presumption of competence (Biklen, 2005), then model and promote asset-based rhetoric around ability. Once students engage with asset-based rhetoric, the classroom may become more inclusive of autistic culture. This article shares the story of my attempt to establish a presumption of competence through student tattoos.

Redefining “Normal:” Textual And Visual Rhetoric Of Women With Disabilities, Hannah Sincavage

Honors College Theses

The field of disability studies holds that disability is a political and cultural identity, not just a medical condition. The rhetoric attached to disabled bodies makes them seem negative, while the rhetoric attached to abled bodies is positive. This negative rhetoric applies to visual rhetoric as well, resulting in disabilities being largely ignored in the fields of advertisement. As they are now finally being incorporated, this brings up certain questions about the issues regarding the exploitation and representation of people with disabilities. The representation of bodies in advertising affects and alters how society considers and perceives the actual bodies that …

Teachers Of Writing Who Write: Finding Voice And Embracing Vulnerability, Jeanne Muraco Hurney

Graduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to advance the premise that teachers of writing must write in order to establish their own voice and embrace the risk taking that the process entails. Only then can instructors of writing truly impart that knowledge to help students elevate their writing and motivate them to find their own voice. I will argue that eighth grade teachers who know the craft in this personal way are in a remarkable position to have an effect on students’ writing to prepare them with skills and power of writing they will need in high school, where the …

Baby Girl Z : A Novel, Kathryn Bradley

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The novel Baby Girl Z examines the worlds of fertility treatment, neonatal intensive care, and early motherhood. The critical introduction highlights the connections between Baby Girl Z and contemporary fiction, autofiction, and memoirs about motherhood while exploring how the traditional tools of literary analysis and creative writing, when paired with feminist rhetorical analysis, promote a new reading of these texts as the literature of lived, traumatic experience. The theoretical underpinnings of the novel can be found in works that explore the intersections of the fields of creative writing, feminist rhetorics and maternal theory, such as Leigh Gilmore’s Autobiographics. The novel’s …

Ideological Misalignment In The Discourse(S) Of Higher Education: Comparing University Mission Statements With Texts From Commercial Learning Analytics Providers, Leif A. Nelson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes, interprets, and compares texts from different educational discourses. Using the Critical Discourse Analysis method, I reveal how texts from university mission statements and from commercial learning analytics providers communicate and construct different ideologies. To support this analysis, I explore literature strands related to public higher education in America and the emerging field of study and practice called learning analytics. Learning analytics is the administrative, research, and instructional use of large sets of digital data that are associated with and generated by students. The data in question may be generated by incidental online activity, and it may be …

Do Lgbtq-Identified, Postsecondary Writing Instructors Come Out In Their Classrooms?, Michael Baumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation investigates how and why LGBTQ-identified, postsecondary writing instructors perform intersectional identities in their classrooms. Scholars in the field of rhetoric and composition have examined these critical questions as early as 1974 and several times since. However, oppressive, regressive sexual politics; a maelstrom of contemporary public confessions made possible and prolific through new media; and an increasingly intersectional landscape of queer people all provide exigency to update our coming out conversation. This dissertation is the analytical writeup of a national study that I conducted in 2018. I surveyed approximately 100 LGBTQ-identified postsecondary writing instructors in the United States and …

Brokering Words And Work: Complexities Of Literacy Sponsorship In The Oilfields Of South Texas., Jennifer L. Marciniak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is an investigation of workforce recruitment language as the “leading edge” of literacy sponsorship as it pertains to blue-collar rig and service workers in the South Texas oilfields. Using Deborah Brandt’s Literacy in American Lives as a framework for this study, I conducted interviews with 10 rig and service workers and labor market intermediary administrators about the perceptions and expectations of literacy use in oilfield work. My inquiry begins by first learning about workers’ experiences with recruitment into the industry. Then, to understand more about how the industry communicates literacy expectations to these workers, I look at recruitment …

Using Orality To Improve Student Writing, B. Webster Freeman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The connections between orality and writing date to the ancient rhetoricians and continue to influence the way we write and are written every day; however, overtly connecting the two in the composition classroom is often overlooked and often underutilized by modern composition teachers. What the ancient rhetoricians did, though, was directly opposed to what we do. They used writing to improve orality whereas I advocate the use of orality to improve writing. We need to help students understand that the writer and reader collaborate to make the performance. A typical session with me as tutor involves my reading aloud or …

A Correlational Study Of The Relationship Between Help-Seeking Behavior And Writing Self-Efficacy, Brian Douglas Aunkst

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A writing center performs the academic support function of developing independent writers as revealed by students’ writing self-efficacy—their perceptions of themselves as writers. Despite the apparent link between students’ desire to seek assistance from the writing center and their writing self-efficacy, no quantitative study to date has examined this association for online graduate students. This quantitative, correlational study investigated that potential relationship. Participants were online graduate students at a large, regionally accredited, faith-based, non-profit, private university in the southeastern United States with a substantial online student population who received assistance from the online writing center (OWC) multiple times. Writing self-efficacy …

Conspiracy Theories And The Quest For Truth, Rachel Runnels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conspiracy theories are deeply embedded in American culture, especially in current American society. The popularity of conspiracy theories in general reveals that society is becoming increasingly skeptical of authoritative organizations. Because of “fake news” and the availability of information and connection on the internet, people feel as though they must question everything, even sources they previously viewed as unquestionable authorities.

My analysis looks at how online conspiracy organizations create and defend their arguments in an attempt to understand why conspiracy theories are so persuasive. I analyze the rhetoric of three online conspiracy theory organizations: the Flat Earth Society, the Mutual …

A Power Man’S Theology: Marvel’S Luke Cage And Black Liberation Theology, Diarron B. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Netflix released Marvel’s Luke Cage in 2016 to critical acclaim. Born from a 1970s comic book, the series features Luke Cage, an African-American superhero. Cage is a big, bald, bulletproof black man. Instead of tights and a cape, Cage wears a hoodie calling the audience to remember Trayvon Martin and other victims of white racism. Theologian James Cone created Black Liberation Theology in the 1970s. As a result of Cone’s work, Black Liberation Theology addresses the issue of white racism from a theological standpoint. In this thesis I present a close reading of Marvel’s Luke Cage using Black Liberation Theology …

Away With The Apprentice: Graduate Worker Advocacy Groups And Rhetorical Representation, Zachary B. Marburger

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (2017-2022 archives)

While graduate workers have a long history of organizing and advocating on their own behalf, concerns specific to their unique identity as both laborers and students have not yet permeated the discourse surrounding worker rights in higher education. Using Edward Schiappa’s work on how definitions are created and circulated, I position that the work and labor of the graduate student is under-discoursed because of the mundane definition of the graduate worker as an apprentice first and foremost. Drawing on the public literature of the Committee on Rights and Compensation (CRC), a current effort to unionize graduate workers underway at the …

Snapshots Of #Wpalife: Invisible Labor And Writing Program Administration, Megan Mcintyre

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (2017-2022 archives)

Writing program administration work is a significant reality for many within the field of rhetoric and composition, and though such work has long been part of our disciplinary fabric, it often remains invisible to departments and institutions. In this article, I offer two brief snapshots of how writing program administration work is often obscured by seemingly brief documents or interactions, which elide the complex communicative and political work at the heart of program administration. I then offer a hashtag-based Twitter community, #WPALife, as one potential way of making this work more visible and of building the capacity to create more …

(Mis)Alignments Between Institutional Mission Statements And Service Learning Handbooks, Charisse S. Iglesias

Academic Labor: Research and Artistry (2017-2022 archives)

Institutions self-identifying as social justice advocates are expected to perform social justice roles through their disciplines, policies, and actions (Feldman, 2008). Applying Tania Mitchell’s critical service learning framework (2008), this study examines (mis)alignments between service learning handbooks and their respective institutional mission statements. The first phase was a critical discourse analysis of the service learning handbooks to measure expressions of reciprocity. The second phase was a content analysis of the corresponding institutional mission statements to analyze conceptions of community engagement, social justice, etc. Findings reveal how institutions frame handbooks, considers how that framing undermines reciprocity, and analyzes how universities practice …

Civilian And Veteran Perceptions Of Communicated Stigma About Veterans With Ptsd, Rikki Roscoe, Jenn Anderson

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Mental health problems are considered some of the most common and disabling medical conditions that affect military service members. Veterans with PTSD need mental health services but are often reluctant to seek them due to perceived stigma. In this study, we used Smith’s (2007) stigma communication framework to analyze veterans’ and civilians’ perceptions of combat-related PTSD. Findings from our study indicate that, although participants were exposed to stigma communication about veterans with PTSD, most stigmatizing labels were considered inaccurate. Further, participants perceived that discourse about veterans infrequently implied that veterans were personally responsible for developing and overcoming PTSD. These findings …

The Divine Double Voice: How Female Christian Rhetors Found Rhetorical Agency Through The Voice Of God, Cara Ryfun

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

This piece discusses the ways in which three specific Christian female rhetors--Teresa de Avila, Frances Willard, and Maria W. Stewart--utilized the voice of God through biblical scriptures and divine revelations in order to empower themselves. Through the voice of God, these women found agency for their own beliefs and messages, and utilized a variety of rhetorical maneuvers in order to share their messages and quietly subvert patriarchal constructs within the church. These women found agency for their feminist messages within their Christian patriarchal constructs, and they set precedents for Christian feminist rhetors to follow.

Buying A Better World: Students As Conscious Consumers, Sean Murray

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Conscious consumer movements have given people opportunities to “vote with their dollars” – that is, buy from companies with values matching their own, and forgo products from businesses with questionable policies and practices. After providing brief context about consumerism and conscious consumption, I focus on a Conscious Consumer Project that I teach in my First Year Writing courses at St. John’s University. Excerpts of student writing emphasizing labor issues, as well as student reflections on the project, are shared as I discuss possibilities for revising and improving the assignment. The possibilities discussed include increasing opportunities for students to do academic …

You Keep Using That Meme; I Don’T Think It Means What You Think It Means: Using Memes To Teach Rhetorical Analysis, Kathleen Turner Ledgerwood

Title III Professional Development Reports

Since memes surround us every day and play an increasingly important role in rhetorical strategies used to influence people, this is a great entry point to help students think analytically and critically about the memes that bombard them on social media every day. As a means of entering into visual and verbal analysis, memes can be a really great way to introduce analysis and rhetorical analysis to students. This is a lesson plan to teach rhetorical analysis using the visual and verbal images in memes. The plan also provides extensions and a list of possible resources for use in the …

Taking An “Ecological Turn” In The Evaluation Of Rhetorical Interventions, Peter Cannon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to develop a new method for the evaluation and assessment of therapeutic libraries in a health ecology. To do so, I employ a modified version of Lloyd Bitzer’s rhetorical situation as a methodological tool for the investigation of health ecologies by applying an ecological analysis to an alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment center in Tampa, Florida. By modifying Bitzer’s rhetorical situation schema and expanding the concept of health ecologies, I develop several innovations useful for tracing the impact of actants and rhetorical events specific to health and medicine. A major focus of this dissertation is a …

Learners’ Perspectives On The Use And Support Of Student Created Video Assignments At James Madison University, Annette Bruff Liskey

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

This research is an exploratory analysis of the use of student created video assignments at JMU, a pedagogical strategy that is increasingly common but not widely researched. The study collected quantitative data via an online survey of JMU students with the objective of examining the use, design, and outcomes of student created video assignments at James Madison University. Survey topics included the requirements of the assignment, the course that included the assignment, resources available and/or used to complete the assignment, students’ perceptions of the learning outcomes, as well as non-identifying information about each respondent’s demographics and academic experience at JMU. …

Yellow Pads And The Return Of The Writer, Gregory Shafer

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Inquiry And Problem Solving In English Composition: Belonging, Exile And Migration [Composition], Phyllis E. Vanslyck

Open Educational Resources

In the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Meanings of War and its Aftermaths Seminar, offered to LaGuardia Faculty in the 2018-19 academic year, we examined numerous critical essays and literary texts, as well as photographs and documentaries, to gain a more nuanced understanding of the ways war continues to inhabit peoples’ lives. When I began participating in this Seminar, I had already planned a first-semester English Composition course based on the theme, Belonging, Exile, and Migration. Thinking about connections between our readings for the NEH Seminar and my course, I was particularly interested in the ways stories of displacement …