Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

A Case Study Of Perceived Self-Efficacy In Writing Center Peer Tutor Training, Shaun T. White

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This explorative case study used mixed methods to examine and analyze the two following research questions using the psychological framework from Perceived Self-Efficacy Theory: 1) what variables of writing center tutor training affected the trainees’ perceived self-efficacy levels towards their work, and 2) what aspects of this training contributed to the attainment of persistence? Both questions were answered using quantitative and qualitative methods for analyses. The quantitative research revealed that the initial six week period of observation for peer tutors at the beginning of their training was highly beneficial for increasing their perceived self-efficacy levels in believing they could complete …

The Apprenticeship Of Laurell K. Hamilton: How Aspiring Writers Learn To Write, Chelsea Ann Pierce

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

How do aspiring writers learn to write? Laurell K. Hamilton’s blog records and presents her thorough apprenticeship to readers. This thesis is a case study of the writing process that she documents on her blog. The results reflect aspects of composition theory including formula deviation, character persona construction, audience function and awareness, diverse research possibilities, revision and motivation strategies, digital literacy and technology acquisition, and the blog as a genre. Hamilton also develops and contributes her own writing process theories. The study reveals that both aspiring and professional writers both adhere to common established composition theories and create their own …

The King’S Table: A Semiotic Analysis Of A Medieval Noble Banquet, Robert Raymond Shaffer

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores an expanded definition of the words profile and profiling in order to demonstrate how a person or people construct images of themselves in order to join with, mold, and position themselves over other people or groups. For the purposes of this thesis, profiles are manifested in the form of physical events or tangible artifacts and are composed to represent, define, and impose the character of the person presenting the profile. Specifically, I focus on an actual medieval banquet in honor of King Richard II hosted in London on September 23,1387.

I bring together semiotic theories common to …

"This Is Just, Like, A Random Article?": The Reading Resources Of Six First-Year College Composition Students, Alex Goochey

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

For students enrolled in First-Year Writing courses, reading is an important aspect of the writing process; for this reason, reading has been discussed and researched in a variety of ways by composition scholars. Departing from the long and ongoing debate about what types of texts should be read by composition students, this thesis explores both the ways that students read when they arrive at their first-year composition courses and how they make sense of the new, and often difficult, things they are asked to read there. Using verbal protocols, a research method developed by Michael Pressley and Peter Afflerbach, I …

The Effects Of Service-Learning On Student Writing And Research, Kimberly Anne Pierce

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Several researchers have investigated the outcomes achieved by service-learning; however, the primary focus of many of these studies is on student engagement or the development of civic outcomes. Edward Zlotkowski and Paul Feigenbaum have argued that researchers should look beyond these benefits to discover how service-learning might enhance course work and academic goals. Despite the calls for further research, studies investigating the academic outcomes of service-learning are limited, and those focused on writing outcomes are fewer still. This study, building off the concerns of Zlotkowski and Feigenbaum and utilizing student interviews and artifact analysis, investigates how service-learning affects student writing …

Constructive Engagement: Second Life In The Composition Classroom, Richard Nathan Samuelson

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The recent development of digital tools has spurred educators to think differently about how they teach and how they can use computers in their classrooms. The use of virtual worlds, in particular Second Life, in higher education has been the focus of quite a few studies, although few if any researchers have evaluated the value of Second Life in a hybrid implementation of a first year composition course. This thesis is based on such an experiment—in the fall of 2010, I taught 23 students in a hybrid English 101 course that included Second Life in the first three assignments. The …

Comments And The Classroom Context: Investigating Students’ Rhetorical Relationships To Instructor Response, Jeremy C. Branstad

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Jane Mathison-Fife and Peggy O'Neill, along with Nancy Summers, have decried the lack of student voices in composition studies' literature on teacher response. Responding to these researchers' concerns, I present three exploratory case studies of student readers of commentary within their classroom contexts. Using reading theory's insight that the interpretive act is always both subjective and socially situated, these case studies demonstrate that a richer literature on written feedback is possible through a consideration for student perspectives and for the cultural, institutional, and instructional factors that influence their understandings. At the same time, these case studies also illuminate the complexity …

Charles Erskine Scott Wood, Edwin R. Bingham

Western Writers Series Digital Editions

No abstract provided.