Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Chicken Paprika And Tug Of War: The Romantic "Dream Song 4" By John Berryman, Patrick Connell

The Criterion

Helen Vendler argues that John Berryman’s The Dream Songs synthesizes the Freudian Id and the Christian Conscience as personified by Henry and Mr. Bones respectively. Through a close reading, this essay seeks to analyze Vendler’s claim specifically within “Dream Song 4”, in which, the poet utilizes a trope from American minstrelsy to depict the lustful thoughts of a man, presumably Berryman himself, dining at an upscale restaurant. The two speakers of the poem personify and divide his mind and in keeping with the vaudeville performances Berryman draws from, Henry behaves with erratic irrationality, curbed only by the reason of his …

Drowning In Desire, Meghan Gavis

The Criterion

Despite being called a “love song,” T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” is characterized by seemingly chaotic form that contrasts with a typical romance. Intentional irregularities in form express Prufrock’s overwhelming desire for companionship and his troubled self-consciousness. Through close readings of Eliot’s odd use of pronouns, rhyme scheme, and ellipses, Prufrock’s unsatiated desire and resulting inner instability are manifested. The undefined “you” and “I” demonstrate the tension between Prufrock’s public and private masks, which he creates to entice women. This romantic endeavor results in unharmonized versions of himself that wrestle with playfulness and agitation at his …

Father Figures In The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall: Bronte's Perspective On Victorian Era Masculinity, Mary Grace King

The Criterion

Anne Bronte presents two different depictions of fatherhood in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall that correspond to different expressions of masculinity. Anne Bronte comments on masculinity in the Victorian Era by presenting these different examples in the characters of Mr. Markham and Mr. Huntingdon as they interact with Arthur, Helen’s son. Both men display masculine traits as viewed by Victorian Era thought, but these traits vary between manly virtue (dignity and honesty) and manly vice (drinking and swearing). Furthermore, Bronte depicts patterns of abusive masculinity in the character Mr. Huntingdon in his interactions with Arthur as his biological father while …

Music As An Expression Of Traumatic Pasts And Conflicting Futures, Nina Masin-Moyer

The Criterion

Chad Abushanab’s “On the Dred Ranch Road Just off 283” and Emily Dickinson’s “Better—Than Music!” use their poetic forms to express the idea of music as being representative of each of their speakers’ spectrum of experiences and troubles. Despite the two poems being separated by hundreds of years and completely different life experiences, both speakers use the premise of music to establish their troubled pasts. The two poems begin to diverge when they also use music as a means of conveying their expectations for the future. Abushanab’s speaker laments his father’s alcoholism and the speaker has convinced himself the he …

Power Of The Weaker: Feminism In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Cidre Z. Zhou

The Criterion

Due to its contribution towards the abolition of slavery, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin was undoubtedly a huge hit in the nineteenth century and continues to influence our society today. This essay, however, focuses on the essentialist feminism of the book and examines whether it becomes male-chauvinist sexist in doing so. When men of the era failed to step out to defend the damned race, a group of women, though seemingly timid and frail, act boldly out of their kind, soft hearts and take chances to preserve the humanity left in this society. To illustrate this point, this essay …

The Rhetoric Of Low Carbon Energy Technology Scientists And Engineers, Nicolas Cesar Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Scholars in the burgeoning field of Energy Communication have successfully contributed to communication studies and environmental communication practice. However, energy communication scholars have largely focused on energy of media coverage, corporate communication and decision making in the context crisis. While rich and informative, this tendency has left quotidian aspects of energy communication rather understudied. As such, this Thesis contributes to the understanding of the internal, non-untechnical rhetoric of low carbon energy technology (LCET) scientists and engineers (herein LCET professionals). Textual analysis was used to examine LCET professionals' internal rhetoric at professional trade conferences and through long form, semi-structured interviews. Wind …

Stylistic Imitation As An English-Teaching Technique : Pre-Service Teachers’ Responses To Training And Practice, Min Yi Liang

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

This action research case study project examines stylistic imitation as an English-Teaching technique and includes (1) a review of literature about the history of stylistic imitation and current college composition practice, (2) an analysis of the close imitation journals which were written by senior English majors and minors by following the model paragraph from Katharine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (1965), and (3) writers’ comments and reflections on doing stylistic imitation. Stanley Fish (2005) argued: “[s]tudents can’t write clean English sentences because they are not being taught what sentences are” (as cited in Stodola, 2013, p. 57). Lacking …

Identity, Spectacle, And Embodiment In Social Protest, Craig Alan Crowder

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation examines the way rhetorical performances of identity function within a social movement. Examining the University of Kentucky chapter of a campus activist organization, United Students Against Sweatshops, I argue that embodied performances of identity often leverage spectacle in disruptive ways and work not only to solidify activists’ identities as part of a social movement but ultimately help to create solidarity within the movement, thereby working toward movement objectives. Historically under-examined in social movement literature in the rhetoric and composition tradition, identity performance examples are taken from an oral history project and archival materials to show how identity is …

Frameworks For Collaboration: Articulating Information Literacy, And Rhetoric And Writing Goals In The Archives, Amy J. Lueck, Nadia Nasr

Staff publications, research, and presentations

Rhetoric and composition scholars have recently called our attention to the value of archival research in the undergraduate classroom, leading to rich collaborations with archivists and librarians at many institutions. As we engaged our own pedagogical collaboration as a university archivist and English faculty member, we realized that, though we might use slightly different language to articulate them or cite different sources in support of them, many of our learning goals overlapped. As we explored these goals together, we realized that they evidenced a correspondence in our disciplines that we had not explored—one that is reflected in our fields’ recent …

To The Humanities: What Does Communication Studies Give?, Mari Lee Mifsud

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This special issue of Review of Communication presents new offerings of the study of communication, forging present and future humanities. This Introduction engages the six essays in this special issue—which extend and intersect across categories of the humanistic study of communication: communication philosophy and ethics, rhetorical theory, history, pedagogy, criticism, and digital humanities—to explore their contributions in defense of the humanities. Taken together, these essays explore the study of communication as 1) a resource for inquiring and exchanging with concepts, practices, and embodiments of difference, the other, and the posthuman; 2) a means of examining the ontological, epistemological, technological, existential, …

[Introduction To] Confederate Exceptionalism: Civil War Myth And Memory In The Twenty-First Century, Nicole Maurantonio

Bookshelf

Along with Confederate flags, the men and women who recently gathered before the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts carried signs proclaiming “Heritage Not Hate.” Theirs, they said, was an “open and visible protest against those who attacked us, ours flags, our ancestors, or our Heritage.” How, Nicole Maurantonio wondered, did “not hate” square with a “heritage” grounded in slavery? How do so-called neo-Confederates distance themselves from the actions and beliefs of white supremacists while clinging to the very symbols and narratives that tether the Confederacy to the history of racism and oppression in America? The answer, Maurantonio discovers, is bound …

[Introduction To] Yesternight: A Story For Those Whose Days Cannot Contain All Their Dreams, Linda B. Hobgood

Bookshelf

Recent release Yesternight from Covenant Books author Linda Hobgood is a fascinating story designed to celebrate the potential of imagination, to treasure childhood dreams and remember them for a lifetime.

With this compelling book, the author seeks to persuade readers of all ages that even morning cannot quell our dreams so long as we keep recalling with joy each “yesternight.”

Emergence: Developing Worldview In The Environmental Humanities, Rhonda D. Davis

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

While the environment has long played a role in humanistic expressions and investigations, the need for a more integrated look at the human-environment relationship has become ever more pressing. More than ever, humanities scholars are recognizing their ability to mobilize critical and creative action to address pressing socioeconomic, sociopolitical, and socioenvironmental problems. Teaching and engaging students through interdisciplinary methods, connecting students and communities, developing a sense of agency and responsibility for planetary sustainability has become a visible focus in higher education. My study aimed to understand how an environmental humanities class affects, if at all, the way students construct worldview. …

Ethos In Climate Change Communication: Analyzing Digital And Broadcast News Coverage Of The Fourth National Climate Assessment, Dakota Rohlin Mr.

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This project analyses digital and broadcast news media coverage of the Fourth National Climate Assessment in order to get a sense of ethos constructions in climate communication. The project provides a comparative rhetorical analysis of a range of online print news stories, and two broadcast segments, while coding and categorizing the different authority figures cited or appealed to. By categorizing figures of authority and analyzing the results through a lens of epistemic injustice, and with a more ecological approach to ethos, the findings suggest a need for more expansive and inclusive representations of climate change in mainstream media. The results …

Publishing For Transfer: Notes Toward An Editorial Pedagogy For The Transfer-Based Writing Program, Marcos A. Hernandez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Scholarly journals dedicated to publishing first-year writing have cropped up at a number of four-year universities in the U.S. over the last two decades. Invariably established and run by the university’s writing program, these highly localized journals are meant to showcase the exemplary research and writing that students are doing in their introductory writing courses. Yet, while these publishing projects are nobly undertaken for students, the publications themselves are seldom edited by students. Here arises a golden opportunity for the transfer-based writing program to promote transfer of knowledge and practice in writing beyond the FYC course. This project argues that …

Towards A Critical Game Based Pedagogy, Justin K. Egan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis outlines and examines core concepts of game-based learning as identified by James Paul Gee, and Kurt Squire, among other scholars. These findings are then connected to the contemporary, transformative threshold concepts of composition—as explored in Naming What We Know. This connection seeks to argue game-based pedagogy may be an invaluable tool for introducing critical perspectives to composition students in order to better equip them with critical thinking strategies and cultural critiques, while improving their writing skills. A theoretical framework is presented in the form of four “Pillars” of a Critical Game-Based Pedagogy: Literacy, Identity, Social Learning, and Multimodality—all …

Over, Under And Around: Spanish Heritage Speakers' Production (And Avoidance) Of Subjunctive Mood, David Giancaspro

Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications

The present study explores the subjunctive mood production of 29 heritage speakers (HSs) of Spanish (17 advanced proficiency and 12 intermediate proficiency) and 14 Spanish-dominant controls (SDCs). All participants completed a Contextualized Elicited Production Task (CEPT), which tested their oral production of both lexically-selected (intensional) and contextually-selected (polarity) mood morphology in Spanish. Between-group analyses of the CEPT reveal that the HSs diverge significantly from the SDCs in subjunctive production, specifically by underproducing, overproducing, and avoiding subjunctive mood morphology. Despite these differences, however, the HSs still exhibited sensitivity to mood, producing significantly more subjunctive mood in expected subjunctive contexts than in …

Student Perceptions And Attitudes Towards A Technical Writing Service Course At Missouri S&T, Hannah Claire Coffman

Masters Theses

"In order to learn how STEM students perceive Missouri S&T's English 3560 Technical Writing class, I designed a research study to investigate how a sample population of 90 students viewed the class. Due to the nature of qualitative research, the results of this study cannot be generalized to a larger population. However, the results can and do provide insight into the situation of these Missouri S&T students in English 3560 classes and contribute to our collective understanding of the technical writing service course at Missouri S&T and other US universities. The study investigated whether the sample population of students who …

Unveiling Veiled Voices: Understanding The Experiences Of Muslim Women Who Wear The Hijab In Public Spaces, Mohammed Sakip Iddrisu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In view of the invisibility of Arab(ic)-Islamic rhetorics and the dominance of scholarship on Christian rhetorical traditions in rhetorical studies alongside an increased visibility of public rhetorics about Islamic women in American politics, this research explores the experiences and performances of veiled Muslim women in public spaces. While much of rhetorical scholarship on public spheres focuses on public talk or the circulation of public texts, in this study, I, together with six veiled Muslim women in El Paso, Texas, explore how veiled Muslim women navigate the hijab's visibility as a marker of difference with strangers-simultaneously performing and provoking performative public …

The Representation And Shaping Of The Hispanic Identity And The Assignment Of Power In Three Types Of Hsi-Related Discourse: Hea Amendments, Utep President Diana Natalicio Convocation Speeches, Academic Articles, Julie Ann Rivera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation examines the impact of Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) related written discourse on the representation and shaping of the Hispanic identity and the assignment of power. Performing a critical discourse analysis of three types of written HSI-related discourse: amendments to the Higher Education Act (HEA), academic articles, and UTEP President Diana Natalicio convocation speeches, I look below the surface of the discourse to draw out implications for Hispanic students and HSIs. My analysis merges Norman Fairclough's method of Critical Discourse Analysis, known for its focus on the relationship between language and society, with Lloyd Bitzer's The Rhetorical Situation, which will …

Turning Data Into Deliverables For L2 Writers & Writing Tutors, Vicki R. Kennell, Molly Rentscher

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This workshop aims to help writing centers and writing programs use context-specific research to develop writer support programs and staff training. The slides include information on how the presenters used locally-collected data from IRB-approved research to create L2 writer programming and to develop tutor training modules. Additional materials include sample data from the two case studies, along with hands-on activities with which attendees can explore the usefulness of quantitative and qualitative data for meeting writing center deliverables.

"Just Don't Call It Boot Camp": Implementing Intensive Dissertation Writing Experiences, Vicki R. Kennell, Mitch Hobza, Michelle M. Campbell

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This roundtable presentation explored intensive writing programs for dissertation writers conducted at two R1 institutions. Evaluations indicated the programs encouraged dissertation progress, provided relational support, and taught skills. The materials here share contextual and curricular information and discuss aspects like group dynamics and timing that can affect program success.

A Rhetoric Of Zaniness: The Case Of Pepe The Frog, Sean Milligan

Wayne State University Dissertations

A Rhetoric of Zaniness: The Case of Pepe the Frog argues that Sianne Ngai’s aesthetic category of zaniness is an essential concept for understanding and studying digital rhetoric in the post-truth era. To illustrate how zaniness has come to define online discourse, the dissertation traces the character of Pepe the Frog through various moments of, what Laurie Gries calls, “rhetorical transformation.” Specifically, the dissertation focuses on his initial appearance in Matt Furie’s Boy’s Club comics and transformation into a meme, his appropriation by the alt-right, and his adoption as propaganda for the Trump presidential campaign.

The Digital Public Humanities: Giving New Arguments And New Ways To Argue, Jordana Cox, Lauren Tilton

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In response to the latest "crisis" in the humanities, advocates have marched, rallied, fundraised, and-especially-argued. This essay contends that communication scholars can support the growing "case for the humanities" by analyzing argumentative strategies, and more specifically, by offering ethical argumentative strategies that avoid replicating structures of domination. In particular, we look to Mari Lee Mifsud's theorization of rhetoric as gift, which follows Henry W. Johnstone in conceptualizing argument as something other than winning over an adversary. We place Mifsud's theorization of the gift in conversation with the methods of the digital public humanities (DPH), which acknowledge and offer abundant resources …

The Sight And Site Of North Korea: Citizen Cartography's Rhetoric Of Resolution In The Satellite Imagery Of Labor Camps, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In recent years, satellite mapping of North Korea, especially of its labor camps, has become important forms of evidence of human rights violations, used by transnational advocacy groups to lobby to Western governments for change. A phenomenon of “citizen cartography” has emerged where non-expert humanitarian actors use commercially available software like Google Earth to “infiltrate” the borders of North Korea. This essay interrogates the politics of seeing that takes place in creating the site and sight of North Korea by citizen cartographers, and historicizes these processes of seeing in Cold War and post-Cold War visual culture. Specifically, citizen cartography of …

'Let Me Lock It Up': A Rhetorical Exploration Of Identity And An Emergent Counterpublic Within The Youtube Beauty Community, Rachel Street

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In light of calls to study digital composition outside of school-based domains (e.g. Yancey), this project specifically explores a counterpublic in the YouTube beauty community that has arisen in response to the encroachment of and attempts to institutionalize the space. Utilizing iconographic tracking and rhetorical analysis, this study illuminates a network of discourse geared toward a more responsible and educated consumption of makeup and participation within the beauty community. This study found that within the beauty community, a counterpublic has formed in response to a more commodified, product-centered public sphere that has dominated the space and is most associated with …

Digital Rhetoric Of Cosmopolitanism: A Case Study Of Thai Students At Michigan Technological University, Aranya Srijongjai

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation lies at the intersection of social sciences and humanities. It aims to examine digital rhetoric of cosmopolitanism of people from a marginalized culture as situated in the context of a transnational experience. I view that this rhetoric encompasses digital practices of cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitan repertoire, a set of skills or strategies used in communication via social media in everyday life. I also argue that this rhetoric is connected to other elements in its broader social and cultural networks.

To illustrate these ideas, a case study of Thai students at Michigan Technological University in the United States is conducted …

The Undergraduate 2019, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

Disruption, Remix, And Mediation: Analyzing "Bot" Algorithm Case Studies To Better Understand Rhetorical Agency In The Digital Age, Aaron Geiger

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Algorithms are ubiquitous components of digital age rhetoric and communication. Although they are integrated within our daily online functions, shaping our discourse and interactions with one another and with other algorithms, little is known how they shape rhetorical agency. Most of our online communication occurs through social media on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and we rely on social spaces like Wikipedia for updated information that is shaped by social constructs. We presume that since we program algorithms, their communicating functions mimic human discourse and can be shaped similarly.

However, a rich text analysis of three different case studies …

Spectrum 2019, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.