Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Camp In The Rocky Horror Picture Show (2023-2024), Anthony Cawley

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this research inquiry, Cawley examines the film, Rocky Horror Picture Show, as an example of a “perfect camp film.” He arrives at this conclusion based on his interpretation of the film itself as the main source and by synthesizing other sources on film theory, film analysis, and theories of camp, such as Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp.

Examining Conspiracy Theories: Reevaluating The Assumption That Their Supporters Are Paranoid (2023-2024), Soren C. Jung

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this research inquiry, Jung examines the definition and history of conspiracy theories in order to explore new reasons why they may remain so popular, while so commonly being denounced. In his essay, Jung reviews past histories of corporations acting only in favor of maximizing profits, such as the notorious Big Tobacco companies’ “Operation Berkshire.” Jung then juxtaposes knowledge of that history with various contemporary conspiracy theories related to the dangers, risk, or surveillance-related intent of Covid-19 vaccines. Jung concludes his piece with a reminder about the very real consequences of immediate infection and long-term health consequences of Covid-19, and …

A Country That Hates The Skin You Wear (2023-2024), Gianna Mcgowan

CPN 101: Remix

This remix example uses poetry to convey information on civil rights activist, Fred Korematsu, who challenged the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans in internment camps in WWII. Alongside the poem is a brief summary statement on Korematsu’s history to contextualize the poem and offer the reader an additional way to engage with the remix.

How Much Longer Will African Americans Be Disenfranchised? (2023-2024), Pierce Burm

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this research inquiry, Burm synthesizes many legal and legislative sources to demonstrate the disenfranchisement and systemic racism against African Americans attempting to exercise their right to vote. In particular, Burm presents specific examples from Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. However, Burm concludes the essay with the reminder that unless we are vigilant and strict bills are passed to counteract voter suppression, this is an issue that will continue and become even more prevalent. The outcome is that African American voters will have the impact of their votes even further diminished.

Rocky Iv As A Groundbreaking Film (2023-2024), Matthew Croote

CPN 101: Researched Inquiry

In this research inquiry example, Croote analyzes a later film in the Rocky franchise in order to argue for its understanding as a groundbreaking film. His argument takes up three major points—that Rocky IV is an effective reflection of Cold War events of the time, that Rocky IV deftly uses sport as a vehicle for its narrative, and that Rocky IV maintains its main message and cohesion within the franchise by entertaining audiences. Within the research and sources cited in this piece, Croote unpacks visual representations of characters, stereotypes and possible propaganda, and the metaphors of training to explore Cold …

Study Of My Writing (2023-2024), Samantha Stofko

Critical Evaluation

In this study, the author begins by citing previous research by Donald Murray on the “logic of revision” in the writing process. Next, she selects three different pieces of writing as a sample and decides to collect data from each piece in order to compare the number of comments in feedback received by the instructor, number of paragraphs in each piece, and number of places where she revised. She focuses on each piece individually, creating a series of comparative graphs and interpretation to capture her revision process. Finally, the discussion section of this study identifies what the author would do …

The Crossroad Of Hamsters, Robots & Electropop, Olivia Crimivaroli

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Kia Corporation is an automobile manufacturer based in South Korea, who produces and sells vehicles with one of the most well known of their models being the Kia Soul. There are a number of factors that contribute to the Soul being a well known car but one of the biggest reasons is because of the infamous and out-of-the-box commercials that have been crafted in order to promote this style of car. This critique will encompass the contents of one commercial released in 2012 in an attempt to stimulate sales for this specific model of the Kia Soul. This advertisement is …

La Descortesía En Los Comentarios Digitales De La Prensa Deportiva. El Tenis, Mucho Más Que Un Juego, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

Comments on sports news published on the digital platforms of newspapers have turned these spaces into forums for debate in which homogeneous social communities are established. The aim of this research is to find out how the participants of these platforms interact in the sports press and what impoliteness strategies they use when evaluating the text of the news and the comments of other users. For this purpose, a qualitative textual analysis of a corpus of 1,000 digital comments produced on the Australian Open 2022 final in four of the most widely distributed Spanish newspapers with the highest national circulation, …

Elements Of Scholarly Writing Identified By Writing Center Tutors In The Health Sciences, Hideki Nakazono

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Postsession narrative notes written by professional tutors in a health sciences university writing center had never been analyzed to identify the most common elements noted as subpar in graduate students’ scholarly writing. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine these notes to identify the most common elements noted as subpar in graduate students’ scholarly writing. The conceptual framework was Bloom’s original taxonomy. Hand coding of archival data was used to analyze 300 postsession narrative notes submitted by professional writing tutors during the fall trimester of 2022. Descriptive first-cycle coding was followed by pattern coding. The five most …

Program Profile 8: Chapman University: Bridging The Gap With Action Research, Ian Barnard, Matthew Goldman, Sarah K. Robblee, Natalie Salagean, Daniel Strasberger, Candice Yacono

English Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"In the English Department at Chapman, all graduate students are eligible to apply for positions as GTAs after they have completed a graduate seminar in teaching composition. Those who are offered and accept GTA positions take a second graduate seminar, composition pedagogy and research practicum, simultaneously with their first semester of teaching. In order to encourage GTAs to develop identities as teacher-scholars, GTAs develop IRB-approved action research projects (Buyserie; Hawkes; Hudson et al.; Souleles) as their major work in this second seminar. These action research projects allow GTAs to research a question they have about the teaching of composition, using …

What Counts As Literacy In The Polytechnic Hispanic Serving Institution? Culturally Sustaining Frameworks For Writing Assignments, Assessment, And Language Use, Lisa Tremain, Jill Anderson, Beth Eschenbach, Nicolette Amann, Kerry Marsden

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This article theorizes and describes classroom pedagogies that support the development of students’ disciplinary literacies through culturally sustaining, socially just approaches. Drawing primarily from the framework of culturally sustaining pedagogies (CSP) (Paris, 2012; Alim, Paris & Wong, 2020), the authors suggest strategies for writing assignment and assessment designs that support students’ multilingual and multiliterate ways of knowing. These strategies intentionally invite and integrate students’ multiple ways of knowing and being in and outside of the polytechnic HSI. They also ask instructors to decenter the ways that whiteness operates in their curricula and programs. The authors conclude the article by arguing …

“Why You Always So Political?”: A Counterstory About Educational-Environmental Racism At A Predominantly White University, Martín Alberto Gonzalez

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using critical race counterstorytelling, I tell a story about the experiences of Mexican/Mexican American/Xicanx (MMAX) undergraduate students at private, historically and predominantly white university in the Northeast. Drawing on in-depth interviews, participant observations, pláticas, document analyses, and literature on race and space and racism in higher education, I argue that the racially hostile campus environment experienced by MMAX students at their respective university manifests itself as a form of educational-environmental racism. Through narrated dialogue, Aurora (a composite character) and I delve into a critical conversation about how educational-environmental racism is experienced by MMAX students through a racialized landscape in the …

Linguistically Diverse Writers And The Shaping Of A Scholarly Ethos: Rhetorical Listening As A Strategy In Composition Pedagogy, Ashlynn T. Rader

West Chester University Master’s Theses

This thesis project advocates for a more inclusive approach to writing instruction, challenging traditional pedagogical practices that have historically excluded marginalized groups from fully participating in academic discourse. This project highlights the ways that Aristotelian interpretations of ethos continue to inform and shape contemporary writing pedagogy, despite their potential outdatedness in the context of the 21st-century composition classroom. By examining the Conference of College Composition and Communication's policy resolution entitled Students' Right to Their Own Language, this project recognizes the presence of linguistically diverse writers and their historical, ongoing struggle for academic legitimacy. Furthermore, this project proposes rhetorical listening …

Cultural Movement(S) And Counternarratives: The Rhetorics Of Native Womxn Runners, Kim Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

This analysis demonstrates the complex ways that Native womxn runners mobilize the rhetoric they create around and through their running activity to challenge settler colonial, heteropatriarchal ideologies in favor of Indigenous lifeways; build upon cultural practices that include running and a wider spectrum of gender roles to enact more inclusive, modern Native identities; and lead intersectional advocacy efforts that center Native communities. Utilizing a Cultural Rhetorics, Indigenous Feminist, and Decolonial framework that recognizes Native womxn as experts in their own lived experiences, I have gathered Native womxn runners' counternarratives from virtual spaces/social media to learn from their cultural, rhetorical (oral, …

An Investigation On The Procedural Rhetoric Of Curated Difficulty, Ismael Benjelloun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The discussion of difficulty exists as a prominent topic within the realm of play. In terms of accessibility, the difficulty associated with any form of play becomes rather crucial. In video games, difficulty can both enhance the immersion and interactions between a player and the game; however, difficulty can also act as a barrier to entrance and "gatekeep" experiences from individuals with disabilities. Developers utilize difficulty as a tool to deliver different forms of narratives and rhetoric to their audience. The field of Ludic Rhetoric observes and studies how rhetoric can be implemented and facilitated within contexts of play and …

“My Purpose Is To Assist”: How Chatgpt Can Push Liberal Arts Institutions To Think Critically About Themselves, Clare B. Martin

Scripps Senior Theses

Since its release, ChatGPT, a chatbot specialized in writing content and answering questions in response to user prompts, has posed an unclear threat to liberal arts institutions. Can it serve as an effective tool for cheating? Can its responses replace work done in the liberal arts? This thesis argues that ChatGPT’s limitations—particularly its inability to think critically—prevent it from replacing real liberal arts work, which involves questioning, critique, and re-examination. If anything, this thesis suggests, ChatGPT can push liberal arts institutions to better promote critical thinking by serving as a litmus test for liberal arts-level work.

Twitter As Limited Digital Rhetorical Forum – The Reproductive Rights Discourse Online, Jacob L. Longini

Comparative Woman

Rhetorical discourse has long been characterized by patriarchal systems, and this reality has persisted in online spaces. How might today’s scholar dissect and better understand the nature of online communities, specifically those that engage in women’s rights discourses? I argue that using Thomas Farrell’s notion of “rhetorical forum”, James P. Zappen’s outline for digital rhetorical theory, and Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin’s feminist understanding of rhetorical practice, one can account for the current state of such discourses on Twitter. The patriarchal flaws that Foss and Griffin identify in traditional rhetoric can shed light on the negative aspects of …

Rooted: Metaphors And Judicial Philosophy In Artis V. District Of Columbia, Richard L. Heppner Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

This article examines how the metaphors in judicial opinions reveal judicial theories of lawmaking and judicial philosophies, through a close reading of Justice Ginsburg’s majority opinion and Justice Gorsuch’s dissenting opinion in the Artis v. District of Columbia, 138 S. Ct. 594 (2018).

Artis was about what the phrase “shall be tolled” means in the federal supplemental jurisdiction statute, 28 U.S.C. §1367. Does a state-law claim’s statute of limitations pause or continue to run while the claim is in federal court? In holding that Congress used “stop the clock” tolling, an “off-the-shelf” legal device that pauses statute of limitations, …

Acknowledgements

Emerging Writers

This document is the acknowledgements page for Volume 6 of the Emerging Writers Journal.

Remote Working And Online Education Among Neurodiverse Individuals, Kendall Smith

Emerging Writers

Many jobs and schools closed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and a vast majority of students and employees found it difficult to resume their education and careers online; however, those on the neurodiverse spectrum found it much harder. Upon first glance, it was easy to see how frustrating and stressful online schooling was for special needs students. Many had difficulty concentrating during virtual lectures or lacked motivation to stay on task. Likewise, many neurodiverse employees found that at-home distractions were far worse than in-office ones, and the loneliness from staying home all day was jarring. But after pulling research …

From Prison Zooms To Hospital Rooms: Unmasking The Positives Of Remote Education, Molly Chao Yeselson

Scripps Senior Theses

From Prison Zooms to Hospital Rooms: Unmasking the Positives of Remote Education is the culmination of a seven-year battle for my life and my education. Remote and hybrid education are perpetually identified as the cause of pandemic-era learning deficits. My project seeks to challenge such rhetoric by detailing the positive educational experience I, a student with a disability, along with my incarcerated peers, have had thanks to distance learning. I argue that as the world shifts from a pandemic to an endemic approach to COVID-19, higher education must keep its virtual doors open to nontraditional students.

The Bridge, Volume 20, 2023, Bridgewater State University

the bridge

Designers:

Marie Foscaldo

Carly C

Jack Hatfield

Nate Stephen

Alexandria Joyce

Editors-In-Chief:

Bethany Clemons

Joe Thorpe

Editors:

Brandon Gebhart

Abigail Murphy

Faculty Advisor:

Jessica Melendy

Design Advisor:

Professor Alain Blunt

A Dangerous Neutrality: Howard Campbell In Mother Night, Kathryn Alderman

Outstanding Gateway Papers

In this review of Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night, the author determines whether the book should be required reading for English 101 classes. Students, in a generation of apolitical views and the common belonging in middle ground, are often assigned books that do not seem to grasp their attention needed to take anything away from the reading experience. Mother Night has many ways of grabbing and holding this attention while displaying the dangers of running away from history. The author concludes that Mother Night should be required for all English 101 classes.

The Manga Attack On Titan As A Literary Medium, Joseph Song

Outstanding Gateway Papers

Attack on Titan is a globally celebrated Japanese manga written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. The manga has sold over 110 million copies worldwide, garnering several awards which have cemented its enormous success. The narrative is set in the early nineteenth century, when a small portion of humanity has been forced to live behind gigantic walls that protect them from enormous, human-like titans who feast on human flesh. It is through the events that take place in Attack on Titan that the reader can reflect critically on topics relevant today, such as racism, genocide, and revenge through the formal ways …

Overzealous: The Harm Caused By Parental And Administrative Censorship Of Books In An Intellectually Free Education, Tyler Engel

Outstanding Gateway Papers

Books and their ideas are such a fundamental part of our learning culture. Despite this fact, many books, some of our best books, have been banned in schools and communities across the world for the controversial, uncomfortable, necessary ideas they contain. Parents, school administration, and state legislatures often go to great lengths to police these ideas within the classroom, limiting what teachers can actually teach within their classrooms and the ideas that students come into contact with. This practice is harmful, and we as a country need to normalize the reading of banned books so that students can engage diverse …

“Fight Him With His Own Weapon”: The Fluctuating Role Of The Holmesian Detective, Abraham Bishop

Outstanding Gateway Papers

Adored the world over for his incredible abilities, Sherlock Holmes is a character who redefined what it means to be a detective. This paper examines the fluctuation of this role by looking at a Holmes story as well as a work inspired by the great detective in the context of Colonial and Post-Colonial India.

Stick With Me: Essays, Clay Shields

Theses and Dissertations--English

A small-town Appalachian deviant confronts the frequent, recurrent grief of the opioid crisis and its mortal, psychological, and communal consequences. This collection endeavors to explore substance use, addiction, geopolitical exploitation of Kentucky, central Appalachia, and surrounding areas, while also celebrating the lives of individual loved ones lost to deaths by suicide, drug overdose, and alcoholism. Here, the common narrative of depravity surrounding addiction is challenged through the rendering of full characters capable of love, trust, friendship, humor, mental health management, and personal growth. Time and place factor fundamentally into the stories told here—whether based in central Kentucky or central Appalachia, …

An Education In Democracy: Understanding And Subverting Censorship In The English Classroom, Hannah R. Woolsey

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The politicization of education has presented a challenge to offering students diverse English Language Arts instruction. Across the county, lawmakers have proposed legislation that limits discussion about race and sex or allows parents to restrict their child’s exposure to materials that violate their moral or religious beliefs. In this tug-of-war, teachers will be forced to decide between avoiding controversial topics or risking dismissal. Increasing censorship, now codified by law in many states, is rooted in our polarized political landscape, divided along cultural and geographic lines. The challenge facing educators, then, is how to create space for inclusive, social justice-oriented instruction …

Right Turn At Reality: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Right Wing Negotiations On Race And Masculinity In Online Spaces, Andrew R.J. Hart

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of right wing politically charged violence are more visible now than at any other point in recent American history. The Internet, and social media more specifically, has become a crucial nexus point in the dissemination of decentralized Alt-Right propaganda. The visual nature of social media has increased the importance of images a means of communication. Through this thesis, I analyze artifacts coming out of these spaces representing a conversation between creators and audiences, and how they work dialogically to introduce and reify symbols of white masculine supremacy within this subgroup. Through this process, I find multiple recurring patterns …

The Rhetorical Use Of The Other: An Analysis Of Symbolic Disability In Contemporary Horror Films, Seth Hadley

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this research, I examine the concept of the Other in horror films. I use Kenneth Burke’s identification, Jean-Francois Lyotard’s metanarrative concept, and Lennard Davis’s bell curve of normalcy to describe the Other and how otherness relates to disability. First, I discuss how horror films have portrayed the Other historically in a negative context and slowly transition to the virtuous Other, the final girl. Next, I discuss the trend of portraying disability or otherness as an asset or tool in contemporary films like A Quiet Place, Birdbox, and Don’t Breathe. Then, I examine how current horror films explore the implications …