Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Introduction: New Faces Of Authoritarianism, Asad Haider, Massimiliano Tomba

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

The Rhetoric Of Parody And Persona: The Rhetorical Construction Of Donald Trump Through Parody In The 2016 Election, James Lyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this dissertation is to explore the rhetorical nature of parody in the context of the American electoral process. This work draws on existing research in the field to show how humor is an important method for engaging the public sphere. This project develops the rhetorical nature of humor, works through existing research on conceptualizations of humor and its importance for societal dialogue, and then addresses the specific contributions to the study of parody offered by Mikhail Bakhtin and Kenneth Burke to demonstrate the potential for parody to act as a form of rhetorical illumination of existing rhetorical …

Feminine Discursive Authority Through Symbolism, Allegory And Exemplum: A Study Of Christine De Pizan, A Rhetor Of The Late Middle Ages, Kathleen Burk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rhetorical studies are deeply concerned with the way that human beings use language and symbols to interact and persuade others to follow a particular point of view, or plan of action. In the male dominant culture of 15^th century France, Christine de Pizan recognized the limitations of speaking as a woman in her own voice. Therefore, she directed her voice through a cadre of allegorical divine beings, most of whom were women. These allegorical mentors held the divine authority to profess the virtue of women, as Christine, the narrator, humbly listened. This was a time in history when few …

Civil Religion And The Second Amendment, Shivaun Corry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American approach to legal hermeneutics emerged from the covenant theology of the Puritans. American civil religion understands the Constitution to be based in natural laws: a secularized conception of God-given rights. To change the text would collapse the epistemological framework of the nation. When a nation sees its constitution as a sacred text, then the answer to contemporary problems cannot be to change that text; rather, it must be to return to the text with an even more fundamentalist hermeneutic. Both gun rights advocate Charlton Heston, and gun control advocate Barak Obama, argued their cases using a fundamentalist hermeneutic, …

Rhetoric And Philosophy Of Communication In Jorge Luis Borges' Metaphysical Obsession With Time, Aurora M. Pinto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project begins with the assumption that through storytelling we humans make sense of the world around us. Language and communication are powerful in defining who we are and allowing individuals to “become a self” (Taylor The Language 318). Drawing from Schrag, I argue that rhetoric is inextricably linked to discourse but is also situated beyond its classical persuasive function. Rhetoric evokes a response from the other, based on reflection and deliberation. Since that other might be a reader of texts of fiction, there is a rhetorical connection to interpretation that situates literature as an exemplar of communicative engagement.

This …

Presidential Rhetoric And Media's Contribution To The Subjective Nature Of Truth In American Democracy, Bianca Miccolis

English Honors Theses

This thesis examines the role of media on the subjectivity of truth in presidential rhetoric and its ethical implications. In my three case studies, I find that there is some form of deception by each president in their chosen form of media. I analyze Roosevelt’s use of the radio, which he uses to hide his disability and gain more executive power to combat the Great Depression. I examine Reagan’s use of television and how he fabricates an intimate relationship with the American people to enact tax reform. Finally, I investigate Trump’s use of Twitter to deflect negative publicity as he …

Communication As Change: Marshall Mcluhan And A Transformation Model Of Communication, Lane Grafton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work synthesizes Marshall McLuhan’s transformation model of communication with a trivium-based educational model and challenges the modern-day position of unreflective mediated communication. McLuhan’s transformation model demonstrates that communication is more than the transfer of content; rather, it is a transformation of perception. This work broadens the analysis and suggests that figure and ground relationships are integral to seeing the whole of media transformations. Through figure and ground relationships, communication unfolds as a study of perceptual change. The work explores perceptual change within the context of McLuhan’s conversion to the Catholic Church and underscores the importance of a unified mind …

The Rhetorical Significance Of Women Deminers And Female Participation In Post-Conflict Operations, Brenna N. Matlock

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Across the globe, all female or mix-gender demining teams are working to eradicate landmines and other explosive remnants of war that threaten their communities. However, more generally, women are often absent from the various elements of security and peacekeeping that exists in post-conflict environments. The purpose of this research is to examine the rhetorical significance of women deminers and to analyze wider implications for female participation in post-conflict operations. Using a phenomenological, feminist, and transformative framework, I collected qualitative data from a range of public texts (or “artifacts”) written about women deminers and from online surveys distributed to women demining …

'Why Do They Make Her Wear That?': A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ramy Youssef: Feelings, Rania Zaied

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Muslims have often been portrayed in the media, as violent, barbaric, terrorists, and powerless victims, along with many other misconceptions of negative and stereotypical images. Ramy Youssef: Feelings (2019), is an hour-long stand-up comedy special presented by comic Ramy Youssef, who is a Muslim millennial Egyptian-American man. By conducting a rhetorical analysis of the special, this research combines the method of Critical Rhetoric with two of Lowery and Renegar’s (2016) three frameworks, those being Bicultural Otherness and Self and Culture Deprecating Humor, to analyze Youssef’s comedy special Feelings (2019). This research delineates how the media influences the rhetoric of Muslim …

An Exploration Of Embodiment, Narrative Identity, And Healing In Dungeons And Dragons, Joshua D. Crigger

Masters Theses, 2020-current

An Exploration of Embodiment, Narrative Identity, and Healing in Dungeons and Dragons is composed of two sister articles: the first is titled Me, Myself, and My D&D Character: The Recursive Process of Embodiment and Narrative Identity in Dungeons and Dragons, and the second is titled Dungeons and Dragons as a Site of Healing: Towards Embodied Writing as Healing. Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D, is a fantasy role-playing game where a Dungeon Master, leader and rules referee, leads a group of players acting as fantasy characters, or avatars, through a story together where outcomes are determined by rolling dice. …

"I Just Wanted To Feel Heard": An Autoethnography Of Feminist Complaint And Institutional Response, Rachel L. Mangan

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This autoethnography is both about feminist complaint and is a feminist complaint. Through embodied, mindful narratives and approaching institutional documents and personal artifacts auto-archaeologically, I detail the experience of being a woman engaging in feminist complaint following an experience of gender-based fear and the subsequent institutional response. In the wake of speaking out about a moment of unsafety in public and being disregarded by the police and publicly humiliated by my university, these artifacts are sites of identity negotiation and assist in memory work. This inquiry demonstrates that negative responses from institutional representatives and official documents are patriarchal in nature, …

Ecofascist “Snakeoil” And The Imperative Of Racializing Environmental Justice For The 21st Century: A Burkean Rhetorical Criticism Of Contemporary Ecofascist Manifestos, Lantz Shifflett

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Ecofascism of the 21^st century is a revival of centuries-old white nationalist fascism integrated with a concern for environmental issues from the last few decades. Designated by their writers as “manifestos,” three ecofascists have widely disseminated their documents online just before committing acts of racially motivated terrorism in three different countries. Furthermore, these manifestos provide a lens into contemporary ecofascist conspiracies as well as their own concocted “snakeoils” that present their ecofascist agendas in the form of rhetorical “curatives” to environmental issues of pollution. These “cures” are grounded in a new “green nationalism” that attempts to disguise the white …

Murder She Rewrote: Redefining The Female Presence In Crime Fiction, Claire E. Snider

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Brainstorming was first and foremost. Several ideas and possibilities for my final research paper came to me over a course of about a month before I finally settled on my topic. The next step was a brief outline that helped me visualize the setup for my final product. Formulating a list of unusual and powerful vocabulary was something that I sought out to do for this paper, so I ended up including a list at the end of my outline. My next step was to develop a research proposal, and this ended up being a condensed version of what ended …

Tootsie Pop: Memorable Childhood Candy Commercial, Emily Newcomer

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Before I began writing the first draft I watched the Classic Tootsie Pop commercial multiple times and determined how the commercial effectively allured to the audience of both parents and their children. While I wrote my first draft, I continued to play the commercial and reminded myself of the lasting impact of this 1970s commercial as my classmates in elementary school conducted this licking experiment. After my first draft, I received feedback from a classmate and my professor. I took some of their advice, edited my paper, and turned it in.

Cheating In The Digital Age Of Art, Madeline Haara

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Editor's note: This paper was named Best Persuasive Essay, which included a $100 award.

I wrote this piece for my research assignment in English 198. The course topic was cheating, and my paper delves into the morality behind the reuse of artistic ideas. I use five scholarly articles to support my argument that artistic reproductions should be encouraged and the current legal systems require a change. My writing process included multiple drafts, peer review, and a review with my professor.

The Moment In Which Time Took Over, Amariá C. Jones

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Editor's note: This submission was named the issue's Best Multi-Genre Work, which came with a $100 award.

While writing this paper, I felt that it was important for me to “let loose!” I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to write about, but I knew that my abstract topic had to be time. There were so many stories that could’ve been shared, but I believe the appropriate ones made it into the final draft. The writing process concerning this assignment served to be challenging at times, but that was only due to the need of capturing time properly in order …

Reading: The Starting Line Of My Imagination, Daniel Sheldon

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

I asked my parents a few questions about how I learned to read. They started with my dad reading to me while my mom was still pregnant, so that is where I started. Between the questions my parents answered and my own memories, I was able to write about how reading was introduced into my life and what happened as a result.

Rotten In The State Of Aragon: Possible Intrigue Under James I, Timothy P. Roman

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Editor's note: This work received the Barbara Farrelly Award for Best Writing of the Issue; it came with a $200 award.

After analyzing a graphic novel tackling the Barcelona Disputation, I made an outline of the opposing arguments presented concerning the identity and legitimacy of the Abrahamic savior. I followed this with a rough draft, which I revised after a short conference with my professor.

Modernity's Empty Symbols And Sequential Snobbery, Grace Pierucci

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

We were assigned a paper in which we would reconstruct Orsi's argument of the presence and demonstrate its prevalence in one of three options we read earlier that semester. I read some of Orsi's work, focusing on breaking apart his arguments. I then made an outline for the paper, and Perpetua and Felicity's martyrdom fit the paper the best. I actually wrote the body first, adding an introduction and conclusion later in the process. I turned in one draft to Professor [William] Trollinger and met with the Core Write Place consultants twice before finishing the final draft.

The One, The Intellect, And The Soul … Oh My!, Dorian A. Miller

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

Outlining this essay required many steps between reconstruction and comparison among Plotinus’s Enneads, Plato’s Republic, and Genesis Chapters 1-3. First in the draft, I reconstructed Plotinus’s argument about the three hypostases and his cosmos. Next, I compared Plotinus’s theory of the Intellect to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and concluded with a comparison between Plotinus’s three hypostases and Genesis Chapters 1-3. I created my first full rough draft and attended a conference with Dr. [Elizabeth] Mackay; from there I used her provided revisions for a second rough draft. I then met with a Write Place consultant for a proofread and …

The Irony Of The “God Fearing Man”, Melina A. Durham

Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing

In this essay, my class was required to summarize Martin Luther's idea of justification by faith and then agree or disagree with his argument. I disagreed with Luther; then, I concluded my essay as to how his ideas still exist today in my hometown.

Video For All: An Argument Towards Standardization Of Video Production Practices And Research, Kelley Bostian

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Instructional videos, a subset of video pedagogy, are becoming valuable pedagogical tools for instructors within both higher education and professional writing environments. By researching contemporary academic literature and creating video artifacts that put theory into practice, this capstone project answers three important questions: 1) How could video pedagogy shift student attitudes or engagement with course content in digital learning environments? 2) What benefits and limitations of standardizing and researching video pedagogy are valuable for educators interested in creating video to understand, including educators with limited or no video production experience? 3) In what ways could certain production techniques in video …

On Narrative Approaches To Conspiracy Theory, John Hydrisko

Honors Theses

This thesis handles narrative approaches to conspiracy theory. It provides an overview of conspiracy theory and narrative before affirming a relationship between the two. It then introduces Fenster’s work on conspiracy narrative before engaging with the considerations therein. After discussing the tradition of visualizing narrative structure, it applies these practices to conspiracy narrative. This application allows for a discussion of recent innovations within conspiracy narrative. By using the QAnon as a case study, the paper investigates the emergence of protagonism and non-narrativism within the genre. Ultimately, this investigation suggests that contemporary conspiracy narrative is both better suited to the modern …

Feminist Rhetorics: Theory And Practice Of Strategic Silence, Paolena Comouche

English (MA) Theses

Building upon the concepts discussed by Cheryl Glenn in her book Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence, I conduct a thorough exploration of how silence can be used rhetorically as a unique and powerful form of communication. Because traditional rhetorical theory is rooted in patriarchal bias that “embodies ‘experiences and concerns of the white male as a standard,’” traditional rhetoric is exclusive of groups outside of those that have dominated the discipline (Glenn 155). As a result, it is important to explore rhetoric beyond traditional theory with consideration of feminist and multicultural perspectives, as the exclusion of these perspectives limits the …

The Tiered Workshop: The Effects Of Using A Paced Workshop In A Composition Classroom, Madison Shockley

English (MA) Theses

What are the effects of a paced workshop (defined as a slower writing approach rooted in a scaffolded three-day process working toward a completed rough draft) and how can teachers and students alike benefit from these effects within the scope and situations of a composition classroom and potentially those beyond it? This I.R.B approved study aims to discover how my version of a scaffolded workshop fits into the larger picture of rhetoric and composition and how a paced workshop design can not only offer potential to reframe how scholars structure writing within a composition classroom, but also if it can …

Ancestral Pursuits: A Multicultural Celebration Of Identity & Race, Charlotte Cates Castro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using critical historical rhetorical methods along with critical race and decolonial theory, this project situates ancestral pursuits as a communication-centered discursive formation by investigating the rhetorical strategies modern biotech and genealogy companies utilize to influence contemporary discourse around identity and belonging and narrate ethnicity and genealogy as acts of consumption. Through direct-to-consumer DNA testing and complimentary services, modern day biotech and genealogy companies like Ancestry and 23andMe market personalized insights into ancestry, genealogy, inherited traits, and health data that promise to connect users to their past, as well as to situate them in present-day society, through a deeper understanding of …

The Rhetorical Mediator: Understanding Agency In Indigenous Translation And Interpretation Through Indigenous Approaches To Ux, Nora Karina Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In 2018, I became involved in a collaborative community-based project to co-organize an event with the purpose of collecting resources to help in the professionalization efforts of Indigenous translators and interpreters. Drawing on Indigenous and decolonial theories, this interdisciplinary study examines the work done during this event through a user experience (UX) research lens that analyzes the various ways in which Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) and Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can better support Indigenous language practices. The colonization of the Americas brought a layer of issues that continue to affect the way in which Indigenous communities conduct their …

Women's Self Perceptions And Fashion Industry Rhetoric, Grace Cody

Senior Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

Nonprofit Social Media Internships: A Handbook, Allison Laroy

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

This thesis examines how nonprofits can best prepare their interns and how interns can best prepare themselves for a role in engaging audiences through social media. Through a literature review on nonprofit social media and internships, a series of qualitative interviews with interns and supervisors, and my own lived experiences as a social media intern, I develop a handbook for nonprofit social media internships. This guide is relevant to the specific experiences of nonprofit social media internships, includes advice on training, mentorship, and best practices, and finally, it incorporates further resources on nonprofit social media that interns and supervisors can …

Self-Deceive And Conquer: A Rhetoric Of Cunning, David Manuel Cajias

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the role that self-deception plays in helping demagogues deceive or manipulate their audiences while remaining unaccountable. I will examine the ways in which self-deception aids demagogues and other unethical rhetoricians compellingly present their deceptive belief systems. This is done in a way that their beliefs are only unconsciously known to be false, inaccurate, or incomplete. As this knowledge is subconsciously stored and concealed from the demagogue’s conscience, I will argue that self-deception is the missing piece in the puzzle that is demagoguery.

Demagogic rhetoric has recently experienced a revival due to the …