Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

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 …

The Curious Case Of Jim Mcgreevey, Justin Eckstein

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project examines the apologetic discourse surrounding James Edward "Jim" McGreevey's August 12, 2004 resignation as governor of New Jersey. A cursory reading of the allegations McGreevey faced reveals a curious incongruity between the initial accusations of corruption and his apologizing for being homosexual. In short, McGreevey stood accused of corruption for a number of terrible cabinet appointments. Yet, he apologized for being gay and having a "consensual" affair with his former director of Homeland Security, Golan Cipel. Through a close reading of the texts, I decipher how McGreevey's apology modified the public's understanding of the events that lead to …

The Cuban Missile Crisis Speech: An Analysis Of Text Evolution, Ashlyn Gentry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On October 22, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered a televised speech announcing the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This speech has been a subject of scholarship in the field of communication, yet no critic has performed a comprehensive analysis of its multiple drafts and their relationship to the final version. By using a comparative analysis, one can examine the process of presidential decision-making, the translation of those decisions into prose, and the strategic language used to communicate a particular message. This project follows the evolution of Kennedy's address, tracing the changes from one draft to the next, in …

Next Generation Owls: Customized Solutions And The Move Toward Open-Sourcing, Matthew J. Gilchrist, Tammy Conard-Salvo

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This session from the 2009 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) identifies technologies for next generation online writing centers, describing customized solutions for online tutoring and the potential for making these into open-source technologies for other centers. Presenters will discuss new OWL technologies, definitions for changing technologies, and OWL pedagogy and praxis, as well as usability, development, and sharing/open-sourcing of online tutoring technologies. The issues raised in this panel are the result of an OWL Technology Summit held in 2007 where representatives from eleven institutions met to explore trends in online tutoring technology development. This panel brings forward key …

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.

Lamp Winter 2009, Liberty University

Lamplight: Literary and Fine Arts Magazine

No abstract provided.

The Undergraduate 2009, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

Spectrum 2009, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

United States Certificate Programs In Technical Communication : A Feminist-Sophistic Investigation, Jim Nugent

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Technical communication certificates are offered by many colleges and universities as an alternative to a full undergraduate or graduate degree in the field. Despite certificates’ increasing popularity in recent years, however, surprisingly little commentary exists about them within the scholarly literature. In this work, I describe a survey of certificate and baccalaureate programs that I performed in 2008 in order to develop basic, descriptive data on programs’ age, size, and graduation rates; departmental location; curricular requirements; online offerings; and instructor status and qualifications. In performing this research, I apply recent insights from neosophistic rhetorical theory and feminist critiques of science …

Not Your Mother's Latinas : Film Representations For A New Millennium, Jeannie Ann Patrick

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

This dissertation seeks to contribute to film, feminist and Latino/a studies by exploring the construction and ideological implications of representations of Latinas in four recent, popular U.S. films: Girlfight (Kusama 2000), Maid in Manhattan (Wang 2002), Real Women Have Curves (Cardoso 2002) and Spanglish (Brooks 2004). These films were released following a time of tremendous growth in the population and the political and economic strength of the Latina/o community as well as a rise in popularity and visibility in the 1990s of entertainers like Selena and actresses such as Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek. Drawing on the critical concepts of …

El Análisis De La Consigna Argumentativa En La Calidad Del Discurso Y En El Aprendizaje De Las Ciencias Naturales, Sandra Gilabert Medina, Merce Garcia-Mila Palaudarias, Mark Felton

Faculty Publications

En los últimos años nuestras aulas de ciencias han incorporado la argumentación como una herramienta para promover la construcción de conocimiento. Un aspecto generalmente olvidado en dichas intervenciones, así como en las investigaciones de las cuales derivan, es el análisis del impacto que el objetivo de la argumentación tiene en la actividad argumentativa desplegada en las aulas. En el discurso argumentativo distinguimos dos tipos de actividad: la oposición y la deliberación. En la actividad de oposición el objetivo es mantener el punto de vista y debilitar las alternativas, mientras que en la actividad de deliberación el objetivo es consensuar un …

A Critical Analysis Of Immigration And Terrorism In The Usa Patriot Act Of 2001 Through Political Rhetoric., Cesar Hugo Rodriguez, Jr,

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study incorporates the rhetorical implications that presented themselves after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2009. A look at the history of rhetoric in this study gives insight into the present situation of what political rhetoric can accomplish when used as a tool of deception.

Silent Subjects: Silence In Theories Of Subjectivity, Nikki Ann Agee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Postmodern theories describe human subjectivity as fragmented. (Faigley 12). Unlike Enlightenment thinkers, who theorized the Cartesian subject as an autonomous, stable, rational self with "privileged insight into its own processes" (111), postmodern theorists "decisively [reject] the primacy of consciousness and instead [have] consciousness originating in language, arguing that the subject is an effect rather than a cause of discourse" (Faigley 9).

The idea that language constructs who subjects are, how they are, and who they may and may not become is very powerful, for it suggests subjects cannot consciously know themselves apart from language. Self-knowledge results from social, institutional, and …

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 …

A Mock Rhetoric: The Use Of Satire In First-Year Composition, Michael James Sobiech

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

On the eve of the Second World War, high school English teacher Leon Ormond writes about a minor skirmish he has with a history teacher over the pedagogical usefulness of wit. After telling her about his book, Laugh and Learn: The Art of Teaching with Humor, she tells him, “Only morons laugh.” Ormond goes on to describe her as one who exhibits “a countenance curiously reminiscent of an ancient Greek tragic mask”—she was “an exemplary member of the Cult of Pedagogic Pallbearers.” Although educators, historically, have often frowned upon humor, humorous writing—especially satirical writing—helps students understand the fundamentals of …

Teaching Creativity In Technical Communication Curricula, Curtis Robert Newbold

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis addresses the need to claim creativity as an essential component to our technical communication curricula as we prepare students for what their managers want. While many technical communication programs at universities across the country have recognized a need to teach skills beyond "writing technically," few, if any, have addressed or "claimed" a concept such as creativity that helps build these skills. I argue that creativity is what managers are looking for and what technical communication programs are already implementing. Claiming this concept will help us further define a discipline that is becoming much richer and help students develop …

Bryson’S Dictionary For Writers And Editors, Priscilla Finley

Library Faculty Research

This update to Bryson's Penguin Dictionary for Writers and Editors (1991) lists and glosses selected proper nouns, frequently confused words, and anomalies of written usage that are likely to draw the attention of copy editors.

Mapping Support For Diversity Through Writing Center Administration, Tammy Conard-Salvo, Joy Santee, Richard Sévère

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Presentations

This workshop presented at the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) 2008 conference explores how issues of diversity impact and shape writing center administration, specifically through tutor recruitment, tutor training, and policy development. The session focuses on a broad definition of diversity—including, but not limited to, race and culture, gender, sexuality, linguistics, age, and dis/ability.

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.

Something's Fishy Here, Kate Comer

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

I wrote this piece as a sort of Harlot test run. When we began talking about the need for public-oriented rhetorical criticism, Jim Fredal challenged me to figure out what that might look like. I'd recently written a rather academic analysis of Hans Christian Andersen's original "Little Mermaid" and was hoping to make it relevant/current; Disney's version had just been re-released in a "Platinum Edition" DVD and was being adapted into a Broadway show. So it made sense to put it all together, using my sister as my ideal audience: smart, fun, feministá and concerned about her new baby's exposure …

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.

Welcome To Harlot!, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

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

Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games, Harlot Editors

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

To stretch your rhetorical muscles, check out this provocate prompt on Beijing's 2008 Olympic Games.

Real Estate Downturn, Sonya Huber

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This piece began in the heat of a real-life dilemma: the real-estate market tanked and I was stuck with a house in Columbus, Ohio, long after I moved to Georgia. Neurosis and anxiety demanded that I think of every possible way to get rid of the darn house, and as I became more desperate, I became willing to sell it even for scrap materials. Luckily it sold (finally) after a year on the market. I used this essay to joke about some real-life challenges, including the fact that someone broke into the vacant house and stole all the copper plumbing. …

“Phonesex : A Digital Collage” And “Dis|Orientation : A Straight Closet”, Jonathan Alexander

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

As a scholar in rhetoric and composition and a media artist, I am primarily interested in exploring how people compose with digital technologies, as well as what these compositions mean for their many and varied senses of self, individually and collectively. I also work at the intersection of writing studies and sexuality studies, exploring what it means to "compose queerly," as well as what theories of sexuality, particularly queer theory, have to teach us about literacy in pluralistic democracies. These interests permeate the two digital compositions that Harlot has graciously agreed to publish.

See the original creator's statement and two …

We've Come So Far . . ., Kerry Dirk

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

This piece is a brief rant about the current gender stereotypes that play out in commercials and other forms of advertisements. While sarcasm constantly reigns in this rant, there is also a grain of truth to these complaints. Yet there is also an amount of truth in these commercials, as they are not unintentionally addressing these stereotypical audiences. I was inspired to write this piece after seeing endless commercials trying to sell me, a woman, various cleaning and cooking products. I was especially bothered because these commercials, by appealing to women, are really confirming that women are still the primary …

Caroling Commercialism: The Rhetorical Power Of Christmas Music, Daniel Wharton

Harlot: A Revealing Look at the Arts of Persuasion

"Caroling Commercialism" focuses on the tiny topic of Christmas music and uses this as a lens through which the author examines the growing commodification of the Christmas holiday. At the surface, the expanding season during which radio stations play holiday music seems more like an annoyance than a problem. But the practice is actually a harbinger of a more dastardly intention. In short, there is economic incentive for retailers to pay more money for advertising during the holiday season. Because Christmas music puts consumers in the holiday spirit, stations are more likely to comingle holiday advertising with holiday music. And …

Revivalism In The Baptist Bible Fellowship, 1959‐60: A Burkean Analysis, Gregory A. Smith

Faculty Publications and Presentations

By 1960, the 1,100 churches of the Baptist Bible Fellowship (BBF) claimed a cumulative membership of 1,000,000--an impressive number given that the movement had begun with 120 churches in 1950. The Baptist Bible Tribune provides the most extensive documentation of the BBF's early history. The 1959-60 volume of the Tribune contains numerous references to revivals. Analysis of these references via Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad demonstrates the centrality of revivalism to the life of the BBF in its early years. Members of the BBF’s first generation viewed revival meetings as (one of) the foremost means of building a fellowship of churches …

The Tractarians' Political Rhetoric, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This article examines the political speaking and writing of John Keble, John Henry Newman, and other leading figures of the Oxford Movement. It argues that while they were essentially conservative in the pulpit, where they spoke as official representatives of the Established Church, they were more critical and outspoken in other works, where they enjoyed more of the freedom afforded to private citizens.