English, Rhetoric, & Spanish
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Item A Developmental English shuffle: Analyzing the impact of one Texas community college’s shift from multi-level stand-alone offerings to corequisite courses(4/5/2021) Dole, Ivan; Scott, GrayDevelopmental English (DE) has been under fire from critics who think it acts as a barrier rather than as a support to the success of students placing into DE. In Texas, such pressures led to a wave of reforms and changes affecting delivery and structure of DE instruction. This dissertation draws on years of internal data at one community college to explore the impacts of these changes on student success. Overall, DE students found success (68.5%) at the same rate as their college-ready counterparts (64.7%). There was a significant difference between Prerequisite support and Corequisite support (p < .001) with Prerequisite having the greater effect on success. There was also significant difference between Hybrid, Lecture, and Online offerings. Hybrid was found to be the most effective modality and Online the least effective. Additionally, a multiple linear regression predicted a success rate of 93.5% if a DE student took a 16-week, Fall-term, Hybrid freshman composition course with Prerequisite support. While there are limitations and more questions to consider, the study’s exploratory and quantitative findings offer direct implications for DE faculty, programs, and administrators.Item A rhetorical analysis of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia(8/31/2018) Joshi, Giribala; Fehler, Brian, 1976-In this thesis, I analyze Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in the framework of Aristotle’s theories of rhetoric. Despite the long-held view that science only deals with brute facts and does not require rhetoric, we learn that science has its own special topics. This study highlights the rhetorical situation of the Principia and Newton’s rhetorical strategies, emphasizing the belief that scientific facts and theories are also rhetorical constructions. This analysis shows that the credibility of the author and the text, the emotional debates before and after the publication of the text, the construction of logical arguments, and the presentation style makes the book the epitome of scientific writing. Through this analysis, I discover the significance of rhetoric science and how it helps us understand science as a subject and how it can be used for the benefit of society.Item A study of human connections through terministic screens and narrative strategies in selected works of Sarah Orne Jewett(7/28/2021) Lentschke, Leanne; Bridges, PhyllisNineteenth-century American author Sarah Orne Jewett provides a voice for undervalued cultures and illustrates the significance of these cultures in her narratives. This study examines human connections in Jewett’s masterpiece, The Country of the Pointed Firs, and six short stories. A Dunnet Landing story, “The Foreigner,” three Irish stories, “The Gray Mills at Farley,” “Bold Words at the Bridge,” “A Little Captive Maid,” and two stories that have a setting outside of Maine, “Tame Indians,” and “Jim’s Little Woman.” Twentieth-century rhetorician Kenneth Burke’s rhetorical theories of terministic screens and identification are applied to the selected works by Jewett to examine Burke’s rhetorical theory of terministic screens. Burke asserts that terministic screens are a type of lens made up of terms that select, reflect, and deflect one’s reality. Consequently, one’s language is a representation of how one interprets the world. Additionally, this study analyzes the narrative structure in Jewett works through James Phelan’s narrative as rhetoric in which he asserts that “texts are designed by authors to affect readers in particular ways conveyed through occasions, words, techniques, and structure forms” (Phelan, Narrative Theory 5); and Wayne Booth’s communication concept of telling and showing. Jewett utilizes various strategies in her narratives to illustrate human connections, which include episodic narrative structures, embedded tales, long quotations, dialect, folkloric elements, and a sense of place. The first chapter of this study includes an introduction to Jewett and the selected works; it further introduces Burke’s term terministic screens. Chapter two of this study examines the function of folkloric elements in the selected works by Jewett. Chapters three through five examine human connections, terministic screens, identification and division, and narrative strategies utilized by Jewett in the selected works. The study concludes with an examination of the vital role of terministic screens and how these screens are significant in understanding Jewett’s folk communities. Jewett was aware of her audience, and she possessed the skill of acquainting readers with the undervalued cultures of the nineteenth century.Item Absence and rhetorical (non) circulation: "Nasty woman" Kamala Harris in 2020(2022-08-01T05:00:00.000Z) Williams, Margaret Virginia; Lackey, Dundee; Fehler, Brian; Hoermann-Elliott, JacquelynThis project is an activist one that adds to digital scholarship, applies to praxis in writing classrooms, and has the potential to inform future political practices. In particular, this project traces the absence, presence, and—ultimately—the transformation of nasty-woman rhetorics related to Kamala Devi Harris during the Fall 2020 presidential election in the United States. Nasty-woman rhetorics entail the persistent, deeply embedded practice of containing, silencing, and demonizing women in public spheres by labeling and stereotyping them. This project weaves a womanist perspective with Actor Network Theory, a weaving that accounts for the intersectional dynamics of nasty-woman rhetorics in terms not just of sexism but also racism. Then-president Donald J. Trump labeling Harris “nasty” in 2020, in short, is inherently different from calling Hillary Rodham Clinton “such a nasty woman” in 2016. This difference surfaces in the absenting of Harris in circulating news-media headlines and social media, in overemphasis on the “nasty” label, and in tweets about Harris as a Jemima or Jezebel (two stereotypes often applied to Black women). Transformation—a hallmark of rhetorical circulation—is also revealed as ebb and flow of nasty-woman rhetorics over time, as well as changes in affect. These transformations were driven by the intra-action of news-media coverage, social-media posts, and events related to Harris. Through such findings, this project offers an ethical framework for feminist scholarship; it also offers a set of strategies for countering nasty-woman rhetorics, from reclaiming our time to understanding (y)our media ecology.Item Academic research, professional discourse: Social bookmarking as a catalyst for rhetorical research pedagogies(5/30/2011) Blackwell-Starnes, Adrienne; Burns, Hugh; Greer, Russell; Thompson, LouThis qualitative study investigates social bookmarking as a tool for college writers to invent comprehensive, real-world arguments. Teaching research as a sub-process of invention and enhancing the inventive process with social bookmarking presents an opportunity to improve students' research through active engagement with members of the profession. This engagement can further students' understanding of the discourse, its critiques, and the significance of their writing. Specifically, social bookmarking can introduce students to their academic major's discourse, further research engagement, and create comprehensive arguments that consider the discourse community, not the instructor, as the target audience. This study uses a tripartite methodology to increase understanding of social bookmarking use. The study combines surveys to assess literacies and use of the social bookmarking site, a site use study that examines how participants interact with the site without assistance, and a case study that delves further into participant motivation, acquired literacies, and problem areas of unguided use. Results indicate that students are capable of navigating an unfamiliar social bookmarking site without assistance; however, a strong pedagogical foundation can further both student use of the site's tools and their critical engagement with research in online mediums. Study implications and recommendations provide methods for creating strong social bookmarking pedagogy that can incorporate the use of social bookmarking effectively in the classroom with appropriate support from the university and the social bookmarking company.Item Addison's influence on the social reform of his age(8/30/1936) Buck, Doris Tomlinson; Ellison, Lee MonroeItem Ahab: A Promethean hero(6/30/1958) Nichols, Martha Frances; Wiley, Autrey Nell; Maddocks, Gladys; Beach, Constance L.; Darden, Frances K.Item Alejandro Casona: Una nota de armonia despues del desengano(8/30/1970) Cantu, Olga; Woolsey, Wallace; Scone, ElizabethItem Alfred Lord Tennyson: social critic(7/30/1971) Howell, Mary Lou; Bishop, J. Dean; Kobler, Turner; Fulwiler, LavonItem Algunos aspectos de la obra de Federico Garcia Lorca(8/30/1950) Hambrick, Jennie Gonzalez; Woolsey, A. W.; Switzer, RebeccaItem Alice's adventures in adaptation: The evolution of power in children's and young adult literature(7/22/2020) Hibdon, Allyson; Busl, Gretchen LynneIn this thesis I have analyzed the evolution of power in children’s and Young Adult literature through Lewis Carroll’s children’s novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Carroll’s novel is one that has been adapted and retold a multitude of times in varying ways. In this thesis, I compare Carroll’s original work to three different adaptations, Walt Disney’s animation (1951), Tim Burton’s visual film adaptation Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Young Adult trilogy Splintered (2013) written by A.G. Howard. In comparing the three works, I discuss how power plays a role in Wonderland through her relationships to three key themes: identity, authority, and time. In doing so, it is demonstrated that as Alice gets older with each adaptation, the more power and responsibility she receives. Her purpose and relationship to Wonderland changes as she gets older, as does her power to choose and become a heroine while navigating elements of the fantastic. Though Howard’s adaptation does not focus on Alice, but rather her fifteen-year-old great-niece, Alyssa, the premise remains the same: She is a teenager who must carry a legacy, yet struggles with the power imbalance that comes with being younger than Burton’s Alice but older than Carroll’s. I demonstrate how power and relationships specifically as it relates to children’s and Young Adult literature as Alice evolves and gets older, therefore receiving more power to save Wonderland and become a heroine.Item "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass": A Menippean assessment and rhetorical analysis of Carroll's Alice books(12/30/1987) Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn; Bishop, J. Dean; Thompson, Joyce; Winston, FlorenceSince Lewis Carroll published Alice in Wonderland in 1865 and Through the Looking-Glass in 1872, critics, psychologists, philosophers, and the general audience have sought to isolate and categorize his stylistic form. Called by a critic in 1865 "loose-ended, inconsistent dream stories" that were "stiff and overwrought" (844) and by Hilaire Belloc in 1898 "skin-deep narratives" (310), the two Alice books have defied proper identification and, consequently, appreciation. Although contemporary critics such as Van Wyck Brooks and Northrop Frye have recognized the books' unusual qualities, qualities that transcend children's literature, no one has yet carefully identified the literary expertise underlying the texts. Amid the myriad of analyses that exist, however, that Carroll employs a classical satiric format has eluded many. When one reads these books as Menippean satires rather than as Juvenalian or Horation and rather than child's simple nonsense, then, a deep-textured purpose and expertise and control evince themselves slowly, consciously, methodically. This paper examines in Chapter One many of the prevalent analyses of Carroll's narratives. Representative criticisms ranging from the Alice books as children's literature exclusively to works revealing aspects of Carroll's inner personality are reviewed and assessed. Chapter Two defines Menippean satire from its earliest origins with Menippus, Varro, and Apulieus. The chapter also includes other contributors such as Rabelais and Swift and delineates what each writer contributes to the genre. The chapter finally proposes that Carroll's works yield themselves to coherent and cohesive comprehension and to deep-structured analysis only when viewed from a Menippean perspective. Chapters Three and Four provide Menippean analyses rhetorically. Such an approach enables the reader to understand clearly the Menippean intent, motivation, and philosophical stance the two books contain. Chapter Five, finally, provides an overall summative reiteration of the thesis and arguments. This chapter also asserts that some technical aspects previously critiqued as weaknesses are in actuality strengths when viewed in the proper context.Item Amelia Opie: exponent and critic of the novel of radical propaganda(6/30/1941) Tevis, Mary Kathryn; Ellison, L.M.Item American arete: The man of steel as a rhetorical model(2/12/2014) Evans, Jonathan; Greer, Russell; Souris, Stephen; Fehler, BrianThere have many criticisms and explorations of Superman throughout his 75 plus year history. The character has become so engrained in the American psyche and culture that he is almost instantly recognizable. However, through all of this, he is a character who is rarely fully understood. Much of this stems from failures to understand "what" Superman is or what he potentially really and truly represents. Superman's continued endurance in American culture is the result of his embodiment and function as a model of American cultural excellence, of what the Greeks called arête. In all the treatments of Superman there has never been a true exploration of the character that has sought to connect, rhetorically, the persuasive power of Superman as a model to the promotion of an American conception of Greek arête. Superman's function as a model, as a rhetorical model, according to the definition given by Chaim Perelman and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca in The New Rhetoric, operates as a guarantee, in a archetypal level the very best qualities, of virtues that have taken root in America since its conception as a nation. Superman is no mere comic book character, but rather the amalgamation and embodiment of classical concepts of excellence and virtue evolved and refined through the lens of the American immigrant experience, and given form. By understanding or beginning to understand how this came to be represents a potential point for understanding what America is as well. This dissertation does not propose to fully answer this question as much as it wishes to draw critical attention to how powerful and impactful a character like Superman can be on a culture at large. By doing this it is hoped that greater recognition and understanding of fictional superheroes as epidictic expressions can be better appreciated and studied by a culture at large as it continues to accept such heroes already as entertainment.Item An exploratory study of reflective journaling in a college composition I course(1/2/2019) McMillin, Jennifer Lynn; Scott, GrayThis exploratory study investigates the impact of directed reflective journaling in a first-year college English Composition course. Student reflections were analyzed for self-regulatory behaviors, evidence of skills associated with course objectives, and writing skill development. Changes in self-efficacy perceptions were analyzed using pre- and post- self-efficacy surveys. It was found that self-regulatory behaviors can be encouraged through reflective journaling and that self-efficacy attitudes were impacted positively as a direct result of the self-regulatory activities. The journaling task met two of the English Composition core objectives (interpretation and evaluation) and students demonstrated gains in writing fluency, conventions, and word choice. Student and teacher perspectives of the reflective exercises are given along with recommendations for future implementations and research.Item An analysis of "Citizen of the World"(8/30/1959) Wear, Anne Guynes; Beach, Constance L.; Wiley, Autrey Nell; Maddocks, GladysItem An analysis of contrast, variation, and irony in four Old English poems: "Wulf and Eadwacer", "The Wife's Lament", "The Husband's Message", and "The Ruin"(5/30/1977) Castle, Dorothy R.; Webb, Suzanne; Fulwiler, Lavon; James, EleanorItem An analysis of frustration in selected novels of Edith Wharton(5/30/1977) Bentley, Sue Hochmuth; Bruce, Charles; Bishop, Dean; Fulwiler, LavonAlthough one may appraise a work of literature as to theme, structure, characterization, and plot and may determine its merits solely by concentrating on that work alone, ignoring the author as a person and the period or environment in which it was written, one benefits from a wider scope of investigation in order to enhance interest, understanding, and , perhaps, appreciation. To understand where particular works fit into an author's literary corpus and to know that author's position in a literary milieu clarify the study of the works . Understanding the conventions of the period and the convictions of the author helps the reader to determine the purpose of the author and to evaluate better the prs'.ser. ta tion. A brief look, therefore, at the body of Edith Wharton's works and a sununary of her place in American liter a t.ure will help to establish a basis for a more cornpre-- hensive study of selected works. ' Mrs. Wharton, nee Edith Newb0ld ·Jone s, descended from old and disting1iish2d American ~;tock" She was born in New York City in 1862 1 a time when the country was in the throes of Civil War. This disaster brought about a revolution in manners as deplorable to her as a revolution in government., Mrs. Wharton's fiction later was to reflect the impact of this social change. An inflated economy, also a result of the war, necessitated her family's prolonged stay abroad following the end of the war. Her travels in Europe, e specially in Italy, France, and England, had a great influence on her; and her impressions gained there were to be transmitted later into her literary works, both fiction and non-fiction.Item An analysis of some literary devices in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time"(8/30/1988) Seibt, Betty Kay; Webb, Suzanne S.; Winston, FlorenceThe purpose of this study is to consider Madeleine L'Engle's place in the literary tradition; lacking such establishment, critical work on L'Engle's work cannot go forward. The brief being supported is that L'Engle's sources and themes and her use of three discrete elements--time, myth, and genre--are within the tradition followed by such generally accepted literary artists as Shakespeare and Milton. This study focuses on her novel, A Wrinkle in Time, the first of four novels collectively called the Time Quartet. The major sources of data for this study are the primary work, some of L'Engle's non-fiction works (including Walking on Water and Circle of Quiet), and Anatomy of Criticism and The Great Code by Northrop Frye. The study suggests that L'Engle's use of literary devices, her sources, and her themes do, indeed earn her the right to further study by scholars and critics.Item An analysis of style in selected works of Edgar A. Poe(12/30/1977) Cresson, Mary Adele; Kobler, Turner S.; Bishop, Dean; Fulwiler, Lavon B.