Rhetoric Commons^™

Fostering Healing Through Reconciliation In The Abernathy Church Of Christ, Randall K. Carr

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This project is an exercise in addressing anxiety as a result of unresolved conflict in the Abernathy Church of Christ. In 2009 emotions escalated to a climactic point, leading a group of participants to separate from the Abernathy Church of Christ. The events surrounding this episode have played an influential role in shaping the narrative of the Abernathy Church of Christ. This project seeks to identify areas of residual pain in the existing narrative and move the congregation into a narrative of hope for the future of the Abernathy Church of Christ. The central theme is reconciliation and results from …

Cultivating The Practice Of Missional Hospitality For Small Groups At West Houston Church Of Christ, Kevin Stewart

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project in which I led a team to develop a plan to cultivate the practice of missional hospitality for small groups at West Houston Church of Christ. I used missional theology as a framework to give shape to the practice of hospitality. The project team met for nine weeks in the fall of 2014. The team practiced lectio divina focused on Luke 10, participated in theological reflection on missional hospitality, and fulfilled assignments to practice missional hospitality. These activities helped form the group spiritually and informed the development of a …

Evaluating An Oral Draft Of Luke 8:4-15 In Uduk, Jeremy N. Harrison

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the findings of a project in which I led a group of immigrants from South Sudan through the process of generating and evaluating an oral draft of Luke 8:4-15 in Uduk. The aim of this project was to provide a substantive field test of an oral translation methodology conducted among immigrants living in the United States who speak a language that lacks a translation of the entire Bible. The project involved facilitating basic translation training and conducting an oral drafting process with a team of three Uduk speakers. This project also involved evaluating the …

Siren Song: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender And Intimate Partner Violence In Gotham City Sirens, Katlin Schmidt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project investigates comic book discourse. Specifically, I investigate how comic narratives provide readers with an interpretation for how they should discern and assess “appropriate” behaviors for women. The artifact of analysis included in this project is DC Comics Gotham City Sirens (2009). This text features popular female superheroes, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy. Because comic books utilize both textual and visual means to disseminate a message, this project evaluates the visual rhetoric of these characters within the narrative. Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm is used to provide an understanding to how these visual means contribute to the meanings assigned …

The Theory Of Imaginative Resistance: Narrative Conflict & Contested Realities In The Right To Die Versus Disability Studies Perspectives On Medical Euthanasia, Jessica Fawley

Open Access Theses

In this thesis, I introduce a philosophic concept termed "imaginative resistance," a concept which targets the unimaginability of narratives, which I argue offers new insights into polarized communication. I discuss the philosophic debate on imaginative resistance to date, and piece out central puzzles and approaches. I show that imaginative resistance can be applied to broader types of communication than those currently being discussed by philosophers, and indicate that polarized debates are especially likely places to uncover imaginative resistance. I discuss, and respond to, a recent article by Susan M. Behuniak (2011) in which she analyzes a subsection of the contemporary …

Youth Narratives Of The Conflict In Northern Uganda, Ellen Eichelberger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Narratives are an essential method of communication that create windows into human experiences. Narratives are also responsible for generating the societies in which they are told, or are shaped indelibly by the societies generated by more powerful narratives. In a post-conflict environment where society has been destroyed by decades of violence, the power of narratives to influence society is heightened. Such a postconflict environment is that of northern Uganda, as it emerges from the violence of the war between the LRA and the UPDF. Due to the heightened powers of narratives, it is necessary to give attention to what those …

Playing With Food: Practices Of Consumption Cuisine And Embodiment In Video Games, Zachary Graham Hill

English Theses & Dissertations

The implementation of food in video games is extremely common to the medium, yet its function and placement within the cultural paradigms of video games remain unexamined. The purpose of this thesis is to examine games where culinary practices and foodways are brought to the forefront, making them either a key element to gameplay, or the only element of gameplay. By critically examining the various usages of food in game-spaces, this thesis examines the embodied relationship in video game spaces between players and their avatars through their encounters with food in these spaces. The relationships between player, avatar, and food …

Governing Bodies: Caster Semenya And The Rhetorical Management Of Sex And Gender Ambiguity In Professional Athletics, Samuel Robert Evans

English Theses & Dissertations

Sport has long been thought of as an "opiate for the masses," where a collective can forget about social, political, racial, or economic differences and unify to compete in the same space or root for a common team (Eitzen and Sage 202). Scholarship in sports communication, sports rhetoric, and sports sociology, however, has shown that this view of sport as an apolitical cultural institution separate from impactful political debate is oversimplified. Rather, sports are key sites in which beliefs about gender, race, class, and politics are made manifest.

This dissertation uses the case of Caster Semenya, a female South African …

An Equivocal Truth: An Analysis Of Climate Change Communication In Respect To The Double Ethical Bind, Taylor Whitney Brown

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The purpose of my thesis will be to analyze how climate change translators address the double ethical bind, which includes how the communicators struggle and succeed in explaining environmental evidence while revealing the whole truth of the situation, which includes the doubts, caveats, and questions while still motivating the public to action (Russill, 2010, p. 63). To construct my thesis, I will first evaluate the key texts surrounding climate change communication in an integrated literature review that incorporates defining the role of climate change communicators, determining common restraints and problems communicators face, describing communication techniques, and illustrating the usefulness of …

Living Proof: Autobiographical Political Argument In We Are The 99 Percent And We Are The 53 Percent, Doron Taussig

Media and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

People often cite life experiences as evidence in political arguments, though personal experience is far from generalizable. How do these arguments work? In this paper, I consider the rhetorical dynamics of “autobiographical political argument” by examining We are the 99 Percent and We are the 53 Percent, two blogs that use autobiographical stories to make discursive points. I argue that these autobiographical appeals efficiently use all three of Aristotle’s persuasive “proofs”—logos (logic), ethos (credibility), and pathos (emotion). Then I show that many of the blogs’ stories focus on “redemption,” a theme personality psychologists have found emphasized in the narrative …

Of Frogs & Rhetoric: The Atrazine Wars, Carol Reeves

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In a scientific dispute over the effects of atrazine on amphibians, chemical industry–funded and publically funded scientists present stunningly contrasting constructions of atrazine's environmental concentrations, persistence, and potential to harm. Considerable scientific uncertainties and variable ranges allow authors to construct preferred versions of the story of atrazine. These incommensurate rhetorical constructions, more the result of competing economic and environmental interests than of any paradigmatic misalignments, have prolonged the dispute not only over atrazine's effects but also over whether its sales should be banned.

Evidence Of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase And Frame Analysis Of Texts About The Herbicide Agent Orange, Sarah Beth Hopton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From 1961 to 1971 the United States and the Republic of South Vietnam used chemicals to defoliate the coastal and upload forest areas of Viet Nam. The most notorious of these chemicals was named Agent Orange, a weaponized herbicide made up of two chemicals that, when combined, produced a toxic byproduct called TCDD-dioxin. Studied suggest that TCDD-dioxin causes significant human health problems in exposed American and Vietnamese veterans, and possibly their children (Agency, U.S. Environmental Protection, 2011). In the years since the end of the Vietnam War, volumes of discourse about Agent Orange has been generated, much of which is …

Scribblescholar Was Here: Confessional Notes Of A Vandal Academic, Clay Shields

Theses and Dissertations--English

As a (former) vandal-punk in the academy, I often fear succumbing to Ivory Tower Stockholm syndrome. The identities I perform, vandal-punk and scholar, ideologically clash to the point that they often feel irreconcilable. By codemeshing the high-low discourses associated with these adopted cultures, I attempt to disrupt any hierarchal privileging of either, instead searching for a way to live with and harness both.

Detroit's Sport Spaces And The Rhetoric Of Consumption, Anthony C. Cavaiani

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation argues how Detroit’s spaces of sport consumption rhetorically configure the city’s identity. Specifically, this project interrogates the city’s sports spaces and argues how they anchor identity in the following ways: through the production of accessible discourses, through the emphasis on certain discourses and the de-emphasis of other discourses, through the regulation, control and biopower of the city’s sports spaces and their rhetorical effect on Detroit’s identity, and through the creation of distinct public memories produced from these discourses.

Rhetoric Of Young Non-Regular Workers In Post-Bubble Japan: A Genealogical Analysis, Noriaki Tajima

Wayne State University Dissertations

This work explores the development and struggle of a rhetorical subject of Japanese young non-regular workers against the recent slow economic trend. In Japan, the bubble-burst in 1991 invited a long economic recession, and companies started to adopt non-regular—low-wage, short-term and insecure—contracts from quintessential Fordist full-time seishain regular contract; yet, a large body of older seishain workers has retained this stable and affordable status. As a result, the vast majority of working forces enrolled in the job market since then has suffered from a low living standard, many on the verge of survival, while domestic mass media discourses have legitimated …

Facilitating Holistic Spiritual Formation At The Northside Church Of Christ In Laredo, Texas, Kirk R. Cowell

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a project to facilitate holistic spiritual formation at the Northside Church of Christ in Laredo, Texas. A program consisting of seven weekly sessions of intergenerational religious experiences was enacted at the church in hopes of catalyzing growth in the cognitive, relational, affective, and behavioral domains. These sessions were constructed on a foundation consisting of the experiences of the non-class Churches of Christ—a group of congregations that has historically rejected the Bible class model—and informed by the intergenerational formation literature. Evaluation of this project showed relational and affective growth greater than what the congregation had experienced with the …

Crime Control, Due Process, & Evidentiary Exclusion: When Exceptions Become The Rule, Elizabeth H. Kaylor

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

This paper uses the dichotomy between Herbert Packer’s (1968) two models of criminal justice advocacy – “crime control” and “due process” – as a rhetorical paradigm for understanding policy debate about the exclusion of relevant evidence at trial. Understanding the opposition between crime control and due process advocates as a rhetorical controversy, in which commonly-used ideographs camouflage dramatically different constructions of the concepts at stake, helps to illuminate the way each side mobilizes public support for their narrative of doing . While both the exclusionary rule (which prohibits the use of illegally-obtained evidence in criminal cases) and the “fruit of …

Makers: Technical Communication In Post-Industrial Participatory Communities, John Timothy Sherrill

Open Access Theses

In the past few decades, web technologies and increasingly accessible digital fabrication technologies such as 3D printers and laser cutters have made it easier for individuals and communities to create complex material objects at home. As a result, communities of individuals who make things outside formal institutions, known as maker communities, have combined traditional crafts and technical knowledge with digital tools and web technologies in new ways. This thesis analyzes maker communities as post-industrial participatory design communities and examines them as participatory spaces where technical communication occurs between individuals with varying levels of expertise and sometimes drastically different knowledges. Ultimately, …

Occupy Wall Street's Challenge To An American Public Transcript, Christopher Neville Leary

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the rhetoric and discourses of the anti-corporate movement Occupy Wall Street, using frameworks from political ethnography and critical discourse analysis to offer a thick, triangulated description of a single event, Occupy Wall Street's occupation of Zuccotti Park. The study shows how Occupy achieved a disturbing positionality relative to the forces which routinely dominate public discourse and proposes that Occupy's encampment was politically intolerable to the status quo because the movement held the potential to consolidate critical thought and action. Because the "soft" means of re-capturing public consent were weak in 2011 because of the 2008 economic collapse, …

Risk Of Compliance: Tracing Safety And Efficacy In Mef-Lariam's Licensure, Julie Marie Gerdes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Walter Reed Institute of Army Research developed the antimalarial drug mefloquine then collaborated with Hoffman-La Roche to produce the drug under its brand name "Lariam," after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved licensure in 1989. For over twenty years, the Army used this pill as its "drug of choice" for soldiers deployed to endemic regions until 2009, and in 2013 the Food and Drug Administration warned that the drug's neurotoxic effects could be lasting, if not permanent. The sociopolitical exigence of developing a new biochemical antimalarial drug rushed the development and licensure processes, and the modern craving for certainty …

Aesthetics In Visual Rhetoric: An Analysis Of The Volkswagen Beetle, Melanie Ann Barker

English Theses & Dissertations

This thesis outlines how aesthetics can add to the current functionality of the field of visual rhetoric. A methodology for an aesthetic analysis was created and then executed using the classic Volkswagen Beetle as an artifact. The end result of this thesis will be an argument for the inclusion of aesthetics in visual rhetoric, and thus greater understanding of the emotional ties of audiences and the potential for stronger analyses.

Microblogging As A Facilitator Of Online Community In Graduate Education, Vincent Anthony Rhodes

English Theses & Dissertations

Part-time and distance-learning students can experience a sense of isolation from their peers and the university. Concern about this isolation and resulting student attrition has increased in the midst of explosive growth in online course enrollments. One possible solution: building a stronger sense of community within the online graduate classroom using microblogging technology such as Twitter. Unfortunately, scholars across disciplines define community in different ways with some rejecting the concept altogether in favor of other theoretical constructs. And, few scholars have examined the notion of online classroom community from an English Studies perspective exploring the rhetorical exigencies that underpin this …

Refusing A Spoiled Identity: How The Swinger Community Represents On The Web, Barbara Kreston

English Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines whether and how Websites provide a way for the unique community of swingers, also called Lifestylers, to represent a new (and revise an old) deviant identity without risk to their social and employment standing. Unlike many marginalized social groups who publically rally, swingers have had to take advantage of virtual space to safely appeal to their audiences. The time period studied includes the history of the swingers "spoiled" identity via academy articles, newspaper headlines, and moral turpitude clauses from the 1950s to the current use of the Web to showcase swingers and their clubs. The study used …

The Rhetoric Of Corporate Identity: Corporate Social Responsibility, Creating Shared Value, And Globalization, Carolyn Day

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In today's global political and media climate, the stakes are high for corporations, local or otherwise, to create and maintain an `ethical' perception of not only their daily business activities and how they can benefit society or protect the environment, but also their enduring characteristics or `corporate identity' (Conrad, 2011) for numerous, sometimes conflicting stakeholder audiences (Cheney, 1983). This dissertation examines how such forms of `socially responsible' corporate identities are created and maintained through the use of persuasive language. In particular it examines the role and implications of rhetoric within the contexts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), as well as …

Brave: A Feminist Perspective On The Disney Princess Movie, Danielle Morrison

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Idealism And Pragmatism In The Rhetoric Of John Boehner: A Weaverian Analysis Of Congressional Discourse, Cody Hawley

Masters Theses

American political rhetoric is characterized by a synthesis of contradictory idealistic and pragmatic elements, both of which are necessary if there is to be convincing persuasion. The way in which politicians rhetorically approach this dichotomy is significant, however, current studies on the topic are limited to presidential discourse. There is little research on this topic in other settings such the United States House of Representatives. This criticism analyzes John Boehner's congressional rhetoric in the idealistic-pragmatic dichotomy. The critical method utilized is Richard Weaver's four forms of argument-genus, similitude, consequence, and circumstance. Eight speeches of John Boehner, four from his position …

Developing An Intentional Mentoring Model For Disciple Formation At The Mayfair Church Of Christ, Jason Bybee

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project to lead a team in the development of an intentional mentoring model for disciple formation at the Mayfair Church of Christ. This intervention involved the team members in a series of sessions during September and October 2013. Project sessions were designed to provide participants an intentional mentoring experience through exposure to four core practices: exploration of the biblical text, appreciative inquiry exercises, communal sharing, and prayer. Sessions were informed by (1) an understanding of discipleship as following behind Jesus and walking alongside our fellow sojourners, (2) the nature of …

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney's Tangled And Disney/Pixar's Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman as progressive, industrious, …

Hermes, Technical Communicator Of The Gods: The Theory, Design, And Creation Of A Persuasive Game For Technical Communication, Eric Walsh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For my thesis, I have undertaken the creation of a persuasive game to advance a particular argument of the way that work is performed in the field of technical communication. Designed using procedural rhetoric, with an attention to aesthetics, fun, and the qualities that make games viable pedagogical tools, my game has been programmed using HTML5 and JavaScript, and made freely available online at RhetoricalGamer.com. This written document is meant to serve as a supplement to the game, providing a rationale for the use of games in education and in technical communication; a definition of procedural rhetoric and the necessary …

Political Third Parties' Representation In"The Big Three": 24-Hour Cable News Networks' Ideological Construction Of The American Political Duopoly, William Breault

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts content and functional analyses to investigate the amount and functions of third-party mentions in 24-hour cable news networks. Additionally, this thesis applies framing tactics, ideographs, and other rhetorical theory to examine strategies utilized to ideologically construct cognitions regarding the current American political duopoly.