Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

American Novels Amidst The Rise Of New Media: Emergent Publics And Forms, Sarah Ruth Jacobs

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines long-term shifts in the quantities and demographics (namely the race and educational attainment) of twentieth-century American literary readers alongside the rise and popular consumption of new media (namely television and the internet). The twentieth and twenty-first centuries are testament to a great expansion in the numbers and demographics of literary readers, and in turn an increase in the variety and intended audiences of literary publications. Examples include the rise of “middlebrow” readers and books in the 1940s and the rise of African-American, feminist, and countercultural small presses in the 1960s and 1970s. However, even as the variety …

Cultivating Convergence Through Creative Nonfiction: Identity, Development, And The Metaphor Of Transfer, Wendy Ryden, Danielle Sposato

Journal of Creative Writing Studies

The authors explore the role of the creative nonfiction course in the development of a writerly self and propose a paradigm of developmental convergence to supplement composition studies’ metaphor of traditional transfer tied to outcomes-based education and assessment culture. The paper further considers the idea of CNF as method rather than genre and its ties to expressivism in composition studies and pedagogy.

Voice And New Literacies: Student Perceptions Of Writing Instruction In A Secondary English Classroom, Jenny M. Martin

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Voice is an integral part of writing instruction, and over half of state writing assessments include voice on scoring rubrics; yet, there is a dearth of research on voice and writing instruction with adolescents. Increasingly new literacies and digital tools are being used in the high school English classroom but with relatively little known about how these tools can teach voice during writing instruction. This qualitative single-case study examined how a public school, ninth-grade English teacher used new literacies to develop voice in students’ writing and participants’ perception of these instructional choices. The sample included the teacher and 14 students, …

2020 Mlk Keynote Address: Michelle Alexander Presentation, Center For Social Equity & Inclusion, Michelle Alexander, Rosanne Somerson, Matthew Shenoda

Martin Luther King, Jr. Series

2020 MLK Series Keynote Michelle Alexander brings audiences profoundly necessary and meaningful insights on the practice of mass incarceration that plagues the US justice system, as well as eye-opening conversation on how we can end racial caste in America. Lecture Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 5:30pm, RISD Auditorium, 17 Canal Walk, Providence, RI.

In her acclaimed bestseller The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Alexander peels back the curtain on systemic racism in the US prison system in a work that the New York Review of Books describes as "striking in the intelligence of her …

Noise Over Signal: Phonography Culture As Participatory, Patrick Williams, Jason Luther

Librarian Publications

While participatory culture has been of special interest to scholars for nearly three decades, much of the focus has centered on digitally networked contexts. The digital age has indeed transformed our approaches to listening to music and how we operate as fans of music; these approaches can weave together the new and the old, and are enacted among a variety of spaces, objects, and relationships. We explore how the re-emergence of one such object in the digital age — the LP — has produced social arrangements that perhaps excavate older listening practices but do so in ways that have been …

Rhetoric And Race - Background And Assignment - Shu Mlk Symposium 2020, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

Provides an overview of Rhetoric and describes the historical development of Race as a rhetorical construct. Offers two associated assignment options: a digital audio interview plus video debrief on contemporary racism, and/or an essay on 21st century abolitionist rhetoric. - Jon Radwan and Angela Kariotis

Infighting On The Path To Equality: Women’S Suffrage And The Black Rights Movement, Jessica Jenick

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This historiography paper was written for ASI 120. I began preparing for this project by reading Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction. While reading, I became interested in the relationship between the women's suffrage movement and the black rights movement during Reconstruction. As I researched the topic further, I found that historians' opinions of the relationship between the two movements, especially concerning how the movements diverged, have changed dramatically over time. The division between the black suffrage movement and the women's rights movements has a continuing influence on the relationship between the movements today, giving the topics' continued relevance. …

Monkey Houses Or Revolutionary Legislatures? Moderating The Binary Of Black Politicians In South Carolina, Anna L. Biesecker-Mast

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Writing this paper was an extensive process. It began early in the Spring semester—in ASI 120. From the beginning of the semester the ASI 120 students knew we would be writing a historiography in the realm of Reconstruction. To hone down a more specific topic, we were assigned Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction. By reading his account of Reconstruction, I was able to select a topic: black politicians in South Carolina. Next, a research librarian visited my seminar and introduced us to the research process. From there, I was able to gather sources and begin my annotated …

Essential Or Evil? Historians’ Take On Lynching During Reconstruction, Emily Schmitz

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

For this assignment, my class was instructed to choose an aspect of the Reconstruction era in American history to study more thoroughly. I chose to write about the lynching of African Americans. First, I wrote a topic proposal to explain my intended area to study and what I hoped to find in my research. Next, I found eight scholarly sources on the topic of lynching that were published after the year 1900, and I summarized them in an annotated bibliography. Lastly, I used those sources to create a historiography that showcases the changes in the views historians have had on …

Reconstructing Religion In The Post-Civil War Era, Jordan Mccormick

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

After learning about the Civil War and Reconstruction in ASI 120, we were assigned with the task of choosing a topic within this time period to research and identify connections or variance in sources and interpretations. After receiving approval for the topic of the Black Church in Reconstruction, I began creating an annotated bibliography with suggested sources from various time periods to ensure differing views and opinions among authors. I provided a summary for each source and separated them into two groups depending on each view or interpretation. This was continued in the final historiography portion in which I elaborated …

The Changing Tides Of The Republican Party During Reconstruction, Nicholas Panson

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I wrote the following essay throughout the semester in my ASI 120 course in multiple stages. My reading of Eric Foner’s A Short History of Reconstruction helped me generate my topic of interest and contextualize my historiographical argument. My instructor assigned the class reading responses to Foner’s historiography, which exercised my skills in writing explanatory summaries and academic responses. I next drafted my formal topic proposal to serve as the basis of my descriptive argument, the first paragraph of my introduction. I gathered a collection of eight historiographical sources and summarized each of them, while drawing upon the skills I …

The Repercussions Of Presidential Perceptions: U.S. Reconstruction And President Andrew Johnson, Claudia N. Dominique

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

My writing process for this assignment was quite extensive as a Historiography is not a simple task. I started this assignment by gathering my sources. I looked for at least two books and articles from four different time periods: before 1950, between 1950-1970, between 1970-1990, and then 1990 to current day. After collecting my sources, I created a bibliography in Chicago style format which I submitted to y instructor for evaluation. After and having the final list compiled by my instructor, then came the tedious task of reading my sources. I read an evaluated each source as it pertained to …

Remembering Coach Blackburn: A Tribute To Ud's Greatest Men's Basketball Coach, Maddison Hosfeld-Henry

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This project focused on using the University Archives to find and research a topic that we found fascinating. For this piece, my writing process consisted of a lot of exploring and searching through old Flyer News and sports pamphlets from the Archives. Once I had gathered sufficient research, my writing process consisted of a lot of planning, writing, and revising.

Radical Republicans: How Radical Were They?, Grazia Dipierro

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

During the Spring of 2019, I completed this paper as part of my coursework for ASI 120. To begin this project, I had to read Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction in order to gain a better understanding of the history and politics surrounding Reconstruction. After reading this book and discussing it extensively in class, I picked a topic to research related to Reconstruction. I decided to focus on how historians' views of the Radical Republicans have changed over time. I had to write a proposal stating what I was going to research and what I hoped to achieve. …

The Legacy Of American Terrorism: Lynching In America During The Reconstruction Period, Grace E. Gibson

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

This historiography was a semester long project beginning in Spring of 2019. Because the Reconstruction Era of the United States was briefly skimmed over in my previous history classes in high school, much of my knowledge of the subject was brand new from the very beginning of my research. For background on the Reconstruction Period, I read Eric Foner's A Short History of Reconstruction. After completing online modules provided by my instructor, I learned how to properly find scholarly sources through the University of Dayton library and JSTOR. It was through these means that I was able to find …

Watch Me Make Her Dance: Stepping Out Of The Round Of Abuse, Sheila Speer

Theses and Dissertations

Memoir writers are usually survivors of some sort of ordeal, and they may have struggled to overcome race, class, or economic issues just to mention a few issues that may have prompted a memoir. The struggle they faced in the past and the success they have garnered keep them hovering above their pasts. In other words, memoir writers do not want to fully return to their pasts even though they are writing about the past. Instead, memoir writers want to show how far they have come from the past by writing in their grown-up, or educated, voices. The aim in …

What Can Future Social Worker Do Differently Than Recent Social Workers, Hannah Stavros-Mccauley

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

When college students first go into the social work field, they must take Intro to Social Work which introduces the NASW Code of Ethics. The NASW Code of Ethics introduces six core values and these purposes explain what social workers are shooting for when working with clients. The six core values are services, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. When it comes to service the social workers, the main goal is to help their clients in need. The main goal that social workers focus on social justice is poverty, unemployment, discrimination, …

Online Learning's Impact On Mental Health, Alexandria Palmieri

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Due to the global pandemic education has evolved and started online learning. While online learning is helping it brings its own set of problems and impacts. This paper will talk about 3 aspects of online learning, social interaction, motivation, and participation and how students’ mental health is being impacted. The paper includes a research study done by giving a number of college aged students a survey. The survey asked questions about the 3 aspects of online learning and how each of them impact students’ mental health as well as ways to relieve the stress and lessen the impact of online …

Teaching Tolerance Through English Language Arts, Samantha Casarella

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio examines the ways in which tolerance can be taught and reinforced through English Language Arts. Substantive research is presented justifying the urgency of teaching tolerance at the high school level and the role that English Language Arts teachers play in the process. Methods of practical application are presented through three separate unit plans, each focused on elevating students’ social consciousness.

The Wickedness Of Obesity, Justin C. Epps

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

“The Wickedness of Obesity” is written by myself, Justin Epps. This study evaluates the problems and causes of obesity. It has taken the lives of all different types of people. Being overweight can also affect what a person can do on a daily basis, as their weight can prevent them from participating in activities. Lab results show typical percentages of obesity among men and women along with other factors. This analysis shows that obesity is a major concern throughout the population within different groups. I conclude that obesity is a large issue in the world today.

Eliberative Democracy In The Writing Classroom And Beyond Author(S): Michael Reich, Michael Reich

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I explore the consequences of adopting a deliberative pedagogy, based on the study of one or two sample courses taught in 2018 at St. John’s University. The project as a whole argues that the university should be an idea place for students to develop a sense of personal and political agency, and First Year Writing courses organized around deliberation allow students to learn to listen and reason with each other as individuals and as citizens. My first chapter defends the methodology of a humanistic idea of deliberation (a pedagogy not based in classroom drills or Standard English) …

The Effects Of Misrepresentation (2020-2021), Miranda R. Cobo

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

This example of a research inquiry investigates issues of representation in the comic, Black Panther. Cobo writes: “In the 1960s, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced T’Challa, famously known as the Black Panther. He was the first black superhero to be introduced in the Marvel Universe and into popular American comics. The world that Black Panther lived in is very advanced and breaks the stereotype of the view that many Americans have on Africa. However, that is only one stereotype that it has worked against. There have been many other stereotypes that writers use in T’Challa’s storyline that can be …

Child Protection Services: The Developmental Consequences Of Arbitrary Removal (2020-2021), John Jackson

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

This research inquiry example details the developmental consequences for children removed from their biological homes by Children’s Services. Jackson uses sources to discuss physical, mental, and emotional implications for removing children from their homes or parents in their future development as both children and adults. Not only does Jackson present an alternative perspective thinking about negative consequences and how the process of removal puts parents at odds with regaining custody, but he also proposes an alternative solution in the conclusion.

The Medical Ethics Of Hela Cells (2020-2021), Elizabeth Pratt

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

Pratt’s research inquiry essay focuses on the medical ethics issues involved in the case of Henrietta Lacks and her cancer cells (known as HeLa,) which have been used and reused in medical research without hers or her family’s consent. Throughout this essay, Pratt moves between several areas for concern including medical agency and patients’ rights to their own bodies, financial implications, legal definitions, and issues for privacy. Pratt concludes with a call for future regulations and focus on medical ethics.

The Doppelganger Effect (2020-2021), Jessica Jean-Baptiste

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this example of a research inquiry, Jean-Baptiste focuses on the use of cameras and mirrors to create doubles, or “doppelgangers” for the character of Nina in the film, Black Swan. In thinking about the “doppelganger effect,” Jean-Baptiste moves through an argument for how doubling fulfills not only one purpose or message within the film, but three. Her claim in synthesizing multiple sources of film analysis is that the doppelganger allows Aronofsky to comment on mental disorders, sexism within the community of ballet, and the overall mood for the film as a thriller as opposed to only a drama.

Illegitimate Control: An Acknowledgement Of False White Supremacy (2020-2021), Whitman Ives

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

This research inquiry introduces a timely conversation on racism, cultural appropriation, and white supremacy. Ives’ argument is that the root cause of cultural appropriation and racism can be traced to a negative and false history of white supremacy. In other words, white culture has been founded and perpetuated based on power-seeking behavior, of which racism is more a symptom. Ives asserts that it is important to acknowledge that white culture is based on false assumptions of supremacy and to address that more systematically rather than addressing only individual events or instances of racism.

Stand By Me As My Words Write The Way (2020-2021), Gianna Wheeler

CPN 101: Remix

In this example of a remix assignment, Wheeler uses poetry as a means to translate her research inquiry project into a new form for a new audience and purpose. She remixes aspects of her film analysis of Stand By Me with a reimagined focus on her research process. Wheeler considers aspects such as source selection, revision, and incorporating feedback into the final research inquiry paper. Throughout the poem, “Stand By Me” is both the title of the film on which Wheeler is conducting research and also a repeated phrase marking the progress that she makes through various stages in …

My Quest For Confidence (2020 - 2021), Tai Tran

Critical Evaluation

In this critical evaluation Tran discusses the need for confidence in writing and not simply relying on summarizing or explaining sources, but connecting back to one’s main argument and extending, commenting on, or even critiquing those sources. Along with the narrative essay that Tran provides, there is also a list of “author notes” or a cover letter that accompanies the main essay. This first list of eight points helps to frame the reader’s understanding of the critical evaluation essay.

Ray Family Photo Album, Department Of Library Special Collections

Ray Family Papers

No abstract provided.

The Ray Family Backstory, Department Of Library Special Collections

Ray Family Papers

No abstract provided.