Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Recasting The Role Of Memory In The History Of Rhetoric: The Case Of Nineteenth And Twentieth Century Autobiographies By Rhetors Of Color, Hector Carbajal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The primary object of study in this dissertation is memory within autobiographical writing among writers of color. Specifically, this project uses autobiographies by Gloria E. Anzaldúa and Frederick Douglass as case studies for how minority writers of color remember within the act of writing. Memory is an important object of study because it is partially the medium by which knowledge is reproduced, reconstructed, and invented. Autobiographical writing is significant because it is a genre that has enabled individuals to write themselves as part of history. Being a part of history is important because it allows a subject to change the …

The Rhetoric Of The Regional Image Interpreting The Visual Products Of Regional Plannning, Alissa Barber Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Rhetoric of the Regional Image: Interpreting the Visual Products of Regional Planning investigates the manner in which visual conventions and visual contexts of regional visioning scenarios affect their interpretation by urban and regional planners, who use visual communication to meet the technical and rhetorical demands of their professional practice. The research assesses Central Florida‘s ―How Shall We Grow?‖ regional land use scenario using focus groups and interviews with planning professionals, a corresponding survey of community values, and rhetorical analysis to explore the ―How Shall We Grow?‖ scenario as persuasive communication. The Rhetoric of the Regional Image proposes specific recommendations …

Open: A Narrative Criticism, Suzanne Christine Matzenauer

Communication Studies

How did Andre Agassi overcome his battle with depression and struggles with the media and the pressure he put on himself? Andre eventually found ways to conquer his demons and eventually love himself and the support group around him. In this paper, I am going to explain the struggles Andre dealt with from childhood to the bad choices he made when he hit rock bottom. Then I am going to explain how he overcame these obstacles to become one of the greatest athletes to conquer his demons and eventually was able to educate thousands of young children and teach them …

Why The Duke Lacrosse Scandal Mattered — Three Perspectives [Reflections On The Duke Lacrosse Case -- Toward An Ethic Of Empathy], Heather Lee Branstetter

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

When a controversial event forces the contemporary American public to engage with important socio-political issues that intersect with constructions of race, gender, and class, the underlying social conditions too often remain unexamined. Our public discourse instead works to sensationalize and polarize discussion of such events; as an effect, participants in the discourse engage in rhetorical strategies that rely on the emotions of indignation, anger, and blame. This essay looks back to the discursive exchanges that arose in response to the Duke lacrosse scandal of 2006. I analyze three "representative" patterns of public response, while also interpreting the cultural conditions that …

Frank Donoghue On The Last Professors, Frank Donoghue

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

Video in four parts; part 1 embedded; original article with all parts/transcripts are listed below as additional files.

In 2008, Frank Donoghue, associate professor of English at The Ohio State University, published The Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities, a no-holds-barred examination of the history and future of humanistic education in the U.S. Donoghue eschews the commonly touted position that the humanities are in a crisis. Corporate influence, he argues, has had the humanities in a defensive position since at least the late 19th century, and we are now on the ropes. Since its …

Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis Of User-Generated Machinima, Sean Callot

All Theses

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term 'machinima' is a combination of 'machine' (from which the video content is derived) and 'cinema' (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction …

Visual Argument Reconsidered: 'Objective' Theory And A Classical Rhetorical Approach, Daniel Richards

All Theses

Visual argument is a relatively new discipline within the field of visual rhetorics. Consequently, visual rhetoricians have presented new theories of visual argumentation without fully considering the possibilities of existing textual methodologies as explanatory tools—especially classical rhetorical devices. This thesis presents a methodology for examining and creating visual arguments based on the concepts of topoi and figures of speech. I contend that these classical rhetorical devises embody an “objective” understanding of visual communication that shows one way of bridging the empiricism/rationalism debate in epistemology. By demonstrating that knowledge comes from the necessary interplay of perception and conception, I attempt to …

Toward Death And Violence – Rhetorical And Creative Potential; A Reader's Text, Giovana Driussi

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

I wrote this essay for readers, hoping to provoke, inspire, enrage and enjoy. Death and violence have been painful and productive forces in my life, and specifically in my writing. In this essay I share some of these experiences and relate them directly to writing, as well as public, political, rhetorical, and historical topics. My desire is to affect personal and public reflection, and to display rhetorical agency in both spheres, thus demonstrating that such divisions, and most if not all binaries, are social constructs that beg for challenge.

Comic Fans And Convergence Culture: Community Of Readers In The Master Of Kung Fu, David Edward Beard, Kate Vo Thi-Beard

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

As a member of several fan cultures, I have an interest in the processes that fan audiences use to construct and reconstruct the texts they consume. Additionally, I think of the way (written, oral, and musical) texts construct the individuals who constitute their audiences. Examining Master of Kung Fu provided the perfect combination of these two interests. -- David

My fascination with representations of Asians in the media began with The Destroyer book series that I read as a teen. While the character Remo at first resisted his fate, he quickly embraced his identity as the next Master of Sinanju. …

Speaking In Translation: Obama's Interview With Al Arabiya, John C Landreau

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This is a response to the Obama interview with Al Arabiya on January 26. I highlight the contrast between Obama's rhetoric now and the war talk that characterized the Bush years.

Patriots, Plumbers, And Our Better Angels: The Establishment Of Ethos In The Rhetoric Of The 2008 Presidential Campaigns Of Sens. John Mccain And Barack Obama, Ryan Matthew Hehner

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The focus of this thesis will be the rhetoric of the candidates for the two major parties—Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic President Barack Obama (who in this thesis will be referred to under the title he held during the campaign, Senator Obama). This thesis will examine the various ways in which the two candidates attempted to establish ethos during their respective campaigns.

Bonding, Bridging, And Social Change, Nancy L. Nester

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the efficacy of using Robert Putnam’s theory of social capital as the framework for forming long-term reciprocal relationship amongst Writing students, faculty, clients and staff of a community-based agency. In particular, I explore the ways the bonding and bridging relationships that Robert Putnam describes provide a conceptual framework for harnessing the gravitational push and pull we experience daily, as we cooperate and collaborate in various ways depending on circumstance and purpose. To illustrate my point, I provide an account of an on-going relationship between my students and the clients and staff of the James L. Maher Center, …

A Burkean Method For Analyzing Environmental Rhetoric, John Stewart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work of Kenneth Burke provides a method of rhetorical analysis that is useful in terms of bringing features of texts to the surface that are not readily apparent, such as how they produce identification in their audiences, and in revealing rhetorical factors related to but outside the text, for example the authors' motives. Burke's work is wide-ranging and open to many interpretations, so it can be difficult to apply. This study condenses some of his more important concepts into a simplified method which has several practical applications; it focuses on how Burke's theories can be applied to analyzing environmental …

Ritual Rhetoric In Ancient Near Eastern Texts, James W. Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

Many ancient Near Eastern texts reflect a concern for ritual accuracy. They depict ancient kings justifying their ritual practices on the basis of supposedly invariable tradition and, frequently, on the basis of old ritual texts. They also invoke ritual acts and omissions to explain the course of past history and to promise future punishments and rewards. In fact, very many texts assert that ritual performance is the most determinative factor in the success or failure of rulers and nations. The rhetoric of ritual therefore pervaded royal propaganda as well as temple texts. It also provided the principal rationale for criticizing …

Storytelling As Soul-Tuning: The Ancient Rhetoric Of Valmiki's Ramayana, Mari Lee Mifsud

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In this essay, I illuminate rhetorical dimensions of storytelling as soul-tuning in Valmiki's Ramayana. I explore how the story's historical, reflexive, and paratactic rhetoric invites experiencing it not just as Rama's story, but as the telling of Rama's story. The telling is the tuner of the soul, as it creates an indelible impression on human memory of divine revelation.

Hip Hop Rhetoric: Relandscaping The Rhetorical Tradition, Roberto Jose Tinajero Ii

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation is a rhetorical analysis of hip hop music and culture. Chapter 1 focuses on adding hip hop rhetoric to the discussion and terrain of rhetoric and writing studies and to the rhetorical tradition. Chapter 2 uses the rhetorical notion of kairos to discuss the ethos of hip hop culture and discourse. Chapter 3 uses hip hop rhetoric to discuss the tensuous-solidarity between Latinos and African Americans. Chapter 4 focuses on Latino/Borderland Hip Hop and discusses the multi-consciousness of Latino identity. Chapter 5 focuses on Christiian religious imagery in gangsta rap music. There is also a short conclusion.

Un/Commonplaces: Redirecting Research And Curricula In Rhetoric And Writing Studies, Brian J. Mcnely

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Un/Commonplaces is guided by a broad and fundamental question of inquiry regarding writing and disciplinary research: how can some of the predominant ways that our discipline has approached writing be retheorized to better approximate the complexity of contemporary rhetorical knowledge work? A corollary inquiry explores the resonances with English Studies that persist--and seeks to uncover how they persist--in our field. I argue that we can negotiate such issues by tracing and troubling some of our core disciplinary commonplaces, those commonsense notions and practices too frequently and easily adopted from English Studies and perpetuated within the often tumultuous and hegemonic relationship …

Rival Radical Feminists--Frances Willard And Ida B. Wells: The Rhetorical Slugfest Of Two Nineteenth-Century Queen Bees Over Lynching, Anita August

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rival Radical Feminists considers the role of gender and race as master status determining traits and examines them as influential social markers of identity and representation within a nineteenth-century feminist social movement (FSM)--the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Rival Radical Feminists examines how, within a FSM where gender issues understandably govern the political narrative that the philosophical core of the movement shifts into separate and competing spheres when gender issues intersect with racial prejudice? Specifically, Rival Radical Feminists argues that when both political actors are female, with one circumscribed politically by her gender, like Willard, and the other by both …

Invisible Hands: Recognizing Archivists’ Work To Make Records Accessible, Sammie L. Morris, Shirley K. Rose

Libraries Research Publications

Two faculty members, one an archivist and the other a rhetoric and composition scholar/professor collaborated in processing the papers of a rhetoric and composition scholar. This project allowed the archivist to gain a better understanding of archival researchers' needs, while allowing the researcher to better understand the thought process and activities inherent in archival processing-- the activities of organizing, describing, and preserving primary source materials in the archives. Through this article the authors seek to demystify and increase transparency of archival processing, while enhancing researchers' abilities to interpret the archival collections with which they work.

Playing Heads Or Tails With My Diaphragm: Drinking Lattes With Hélène Cixous, Rebecca Mccarthy

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

While sitting through endless political speeches and pundit commentary this election cycle, one would be hard pressed to miss the continuous expressions of careless racism and sexism that is an under-theme to this presidential election. Moreover, with the Republican nomination of Sarah Palin for McCain's VP, I find myself in awe over the assumption that the simple election of a woman to an office of power equates the breaking of the glass ceiling. As such, I felt compelled to revisit Hélène Cixoius' suggestion that we need a new feminine language to combat both institutionalized and careless sexism. But what would …

A Provocation: Queer Is Not A Substitute For Gay/Lesbian, Aneil Rallin

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

I mull over the increasing interchangeability of queer with lesbian/gay (which ends up domesticating queer's radical potential) and call for queer to be liberated from the mainstream forces and institutional structures that have appropriated it.

Photograph In Four Parts, Pablo Tanguay

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

If you listen to enough old poets, they will tell you that these ekphrastic poems that are about art and about painting need to be able to exist independently of the painting or visual art itself. I always sort of questioned that idea -- why? I think it's a physical limitation that journals don't have photographs -- that it's too expensive to put the photograph with the poem. But why you can't do that is beyond me.

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Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

An introduction to Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion.

Ritual Rhetoric In The Pentateuch: The Case Of Leviticus 1-16, James W. Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

The writers of the Pentateuch combined distinct ancient literary conventions of ritual rhetoric from diverse genres in order to place ritual concerns at the thematic and literary center of the Torah. The combination emphasizes the ritual texts as key components of the Pentateuch's persuasive strategy. Ritual rhetoric plays a vital role in unifying the Pentateuch's diverse contents into a persuasive argument for obedience to Torah and for cultic mediation by Aaronide priests. In the Second Temple period, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers presented a utopian religious ideal (worship in the Tent of Meeting surrounded by the idealized camp of the twelve …

From Textbooks To Safety Briefings: Helping Technical Writers Negotiate Complex Rhetorical Situations, Brian Blackburne

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I analyze the organizational and political constraints that technical writers encounter when dealing with complex rhetorical situations, particularly within risk-management discourse. I ground my research in case studies of safety briefings that airlines provide to their passengers because these important documents have long been regarded as ineffective, yet they ve gone largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Airlines are required to produce these safety briefings, which must satisfy multiple audiences, such as corporate executives, federal safety inspectors, flight attendants, and passengers. Because space and time are limited when presenting safety information to passengers, the technical writers …

Standardized Power: A Rhetoric Of Performance Evaluation In Education, Michael Hedges

All Theses

South Carolina's public education system administrators and teachers need to know more about how the language used in written performance evaluations impacts the effectiveness of evaluation feedback in order to help improve the state's system for Assisting, Developing, and Evaluating Professional Teaching (ADEPT). One key to understanding this knowledge is identifying the characteristics of the language used in evaluation feedback. This study examines the rhetorical situation of written performance evaluations from a theoretical standpoint and used a survey to assess several characteristics of the language used in evaluation feedback (word usage, content inclusion, and the structural order of sentences). Results, …

Tedious Work, Trivial Details? A Fresh Look At Bibliographic Citation, Gregory A. Smith

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The documentation styles developed by the Modern Language Association and the American Psychological Association reflect divergent assumptions regarding the apprehension and communication of knowledge. Each system expresses its rhetorical character through the aims it articulates, the sources it values, and the formats it prescribes for in-text citations and bibliographic references. Like other scholarly writing conventions, documentation styles are not arbitrary, but both shape and are shaped by the discourse communities that they serve. Emerging scholars need to be acculturated purposively to the conventions of their respective communities, while authors should consciously select bibliographic systems that support their rhetorical aims.

On Rhetoric As Gift/Giving, Mari Lee Mifsud

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In this essay, I explore the possibilities of rhetoric as gift. I begin with the Homeric gift economy and the rhetorical resources of this economy. My use of "economy" here is not reducible to a monetary exchange system, but rather a more general system of practices orchestrating cultural identity and relations. As Georges Bataille suggests, studying a general economy may hold the key to all the problems posed by every discipline (1991, 10). For Bataille everything from geophysics to political economy, by way of sociology, history and biology, to psychology, philosophy, art, literature, and poetry has an essential connection with …

The Torah As The Rhetoric Of Priesthood, James W. Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

In the Second Temple period, the Torah gained scriptural authority through its association with the priesthoods of the Jerusalem and Samaritan temples. The Torah, in tum, legitimized these priests' control over both the temples and, for much of the period, over the territory of Judah as well. An original function of the Pentateuch then was to legitimize the religious and, by extension, the political claims of priestly dynasties. This point has rarely been discussed and never been emphasized by biblical scholars, however, which makes the subject of the Torah's relationship to the Second Temple Aaronide priesthood as much about the …

Engendering Agency: Literacies, Social Action, And Wangari Maathai S Green Belt Movement, Cassandra Marie Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the life and work of Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai, one of the foremost African woman rhetors of our time. Wangari Maathai--founder of Kenya's Green Belt Movement (GBM), Member of Parliament, and activist for democracy, sustainable development, and human rights--has cultivated a multidimensional literacy that has allowed her to truly understand and address the problems that post-colonial Kenyans face. Her strong solution-oriented approach has allowed her to develop and refine operation of the GBM, which began simply planting trees, to produce a worldwide organization that works for sustainable development, human rights, and environmental conservation/restoration (among many others) …