Recently, feminist scholars have begun to question the traditional telling of the history of rhetoric. Dissatisfied with a history which is told in terms of privileged, white males to the exclusion of all other voices, these scholars have worked to recover "lost" female rhetoricians and have begun critically rereading the...
Within literacy and composition studies, writing, as a
social act, is believed by many to have the potential to effect
change in and transform situations of injustice. Community literacy,
as an emergent practice within composition studies, embraces
and stretches this notion of linking literacy to social
change. Community literacy also...
The purpose of this thesis is to aid in qualitative improvements to technical support documents on the Internet. By using a generic criticism this analysis will make substantive suggestions towards the improvement of this type of document by engaging the rhetoric employed by their authors. It will discuss the history...
The frame of reference for understanding the
rhetorical significance of cultural acts lies in the
identification and explication of the diversity of theories
which encompass sociological and anthropological
definitions of culture. The paradigms presented in this
thesis range from unilinear evolution, biological and
environmental determinism, materialism, historical
ethnology and reductionism...
Like other social institutions, universities have been
created and administered by and for a white-male dominant
culture that continues to marginalize women and anyone else
designated as -Other- according to race, class, ethnicity,
ability, age, size, and sexuality. This discussion
questions the dominant model of standard written discourse
in the...
Clashes of ideology are all around us, from our computer and television screens to our composition classrooms, and they merit attention within the composition classroom. This thesis examines the justifications and pedagogies that scholars in rhetoric and composition use to infuse issues of ideology and social ethics into writing instruction...
First Ladies have performed a variety of public and private roles, from presidential escort, hostess, and social advocate to policy maker and presidential advisor. The nature of the position has always been both traditional and gendered, greatly influencing each First Lady's performance. Due to the changing role of women in...
Senator Al Gore Jr. was elected Vice-President of the United States
on November 3, 1992. During many of his public speeches, Gore utilized
a speaking style that differed radically from the style he used in other
political campaigns of his life. This style, which will be called the "rhetoric
of...
The phenomenon of phantom limb pain has been well documented for centuries, but little clinical work has been done to alleviate it. Physician and neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran began researching this condition nearly two decades ago, and has discovered a promising alternative treatment: mirror-box therapy. This therapy is not yet...
The nature and extent of classical rhetoric's influence
on subsequent ages has been the focus of much recent study.
Scholars have been concerned with how classical authors,
particularly Cicero and Quintilian, emerged in educational
and rhetorical theories of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance,
and later centuries. Despite this flurry of...
The purpose of this study is to examine how autobiography functions as image restoration for a political candidate through the analysis of Sarah Palin's memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life. In particular, the study will identify and evaluate specific restoration strategies implemented by Palin in order to repair her image...
Pornography remains one of the most controversial topics in our culture. Politicians, religious groups, and special interest organizations tend to focus on the ‘effects’ pornography has on those who consume it, and fear that pornography is a threat to public health. The general discourse surrounding pornography is that men produce...
Shifting the Scholarly Conversation: A Rhetorical Reading of Peter Elbow's Work explores Peter Elbow's contributions to the field of writing and rhetoric. Over the course of his long career, Elbow’s scholarly and pedagogical work has been much praised and much criticized. Elbow's work has influenced generations of teachers and writers,...
More women compete in sports currently than ever before. However, the historical tensions which relate to their participation--as athletes and as females--remain. Mixed martial arts (MMA) has proven to be the most visible introduction of females into sports that have traditionally been considered exclusively for men. Gina Carano and Cristiane...
In twentieth century America, women continue the age-old struggle for recognition
as whole, intelligent individuals, not just an "other," less hearty, less deserving
or less capable being than man. Sarah Grimke spoke of the inequalities over 150 years
ago during the abolitionist movement when she compiled her major arguments into...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the
rhetorical strategies used by Reverend Jesse L. Jackson
from the 1970's to the 1990's. Specifically, this study
examines Jackson's use of narrative to empower himself, his
constituency, and his political ideologies without
possessing a traditional political platform. Jackson
raised political and...
Stephen Biko was a black leader in South Africa who
died in police custody on September 12, 1977. Biko's death
echoed within the Republic of South Africa and around the
world, showing that racial tensions in that country were
severe. At his death he was a hero to the black...
Presenting and synthesizing several paradigms for the teaching of literature in American colleges, I investigate how definitions of reading, readers, texts, interpretations, and knowledge affect student acts of reading and writing. In addition, I draw upon specific examples of text-based, reader-based, and social-cultural based models for the teaching of reading...
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of narratives within public policy, surrounding the issue of doctor-assisted suicide. Specifically, this study attempts
to examine the way(s) in which narratives both shape and influence public policy; pertaining to Measure 16, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Narrative communication
involving...
The purpose of this study is to illuminate the role,
the function, and the ironic outcome of the Victory in
Vietnam Committee's campaign pamphlet to recall Senator
Frank Church of Idaho in 1967. The VVC's political
strategy was to build credibility with the media through
the recall pamphlet. The analysis...
Communication cannot be successful without the
cooperative listening response of an auditor. Auditors must
feel empowered to act as agents of change or their decisions
and actions cannot be influenced by the discourse. Their
every response depends upon their ability to perceive
themselves as potential mediators of change.
A review...
First year college writing classes originated in the United States at Harvard University in 1874. Since then, theorizing such a course has proven a place of contention, as its purposes and subjects have proven difficult to sort and impossible to agree upon. When Harvard first began teaching introductory composition, literature...
The purpose of this study is to examine how rhetoric functions in the
Alternative Birth Movement (ABM). In particular, communication published by
movement leaders will be examined to discover how rhetoric propels the movement from
one stage to the next as well as how rhetoric facilitates the goals of the...
A 2014 Pew Research poll revealed large gaps between public opinion and scientific opinion over environmental and biomedical issues (Funk and Rainie). Similarly, a number of recent popular books have described a growing public mistrust in scientific expertise (Mooney; Storr; Specter). Why is it, then, that so much of the...
In Nazi Germany, 1938, Der Stürmer publishing house, under the control of Julius Striecher, published Der Giftpilz or The Poisonous Mushroom; an anti-Semitic children's book. Disseminated in the thousands, Der Giftpilz became infamously known as a children's book so grotesque it could be, and in fact was, admitted as evidence...
This qualitative study examined the influence of the 2011 Oregon Writing Project (OWP) Summer Institute (SI) on the professional development of six teachers in the following ways:
1. The development of case descriptions of teachers' personal and professional backgrounds relevant to their teaching of writing.
2. An examination of the...
Doris Lessing and Tsitsi Dangarembga write fiction set in Zimbabwe, the former Southern Rhodesia. Although Lessing grew up as a white settler and Dangarembga, a generation later, as part of the colonized African population, the women sometimes address similar issues. Both write of young girls trying to find a speaking...
Curricular models and teaching techniques that support college students as the primary authors of their writing-across-the-curriculum experiences remain largely unexplored. This thesis addresses that research gap by investigating the use of a start-of-term writing self-assessment and goal-setting questionnaire (STQ) for upper-division undergraduates taking writing-intensive (WI) college courses in their majors....
This thesis examines the recent history of the teaching of argument and its implications in the face of new writing standards being implemented in K-12 classrooms under the Common Core State Standards. The new educational policies will shift the focus of writing instruction onto argument writing as part of students'...
Sexual assault in the military is prevalent, underestimated, and sadly overlooked. This is largely due to the inherent patriarchy and hegemonic masculine ideologies that set rigid power boundaries in the military. The roles of powerful and powerless are indoctrinated into Servicemembers from the first moment of training, and are reified...