Composition and Rhetoric

New Media Texts of WWII: Kenneth Burke’s Intersection with Computer Culture

by Jason C. Thompson

Disability, Usability, Universal Design

by Jay Dolmage

Mapping Composition: Inviting Disability in the Front Door

by Jay Dolmage

Review of Bernard Alan Miller: Rhetoric's Earthly Realm

by Ira Allen

Composition Studies 40(1): 151-154.

Plain Speaking : Judging an Oratory Contest

by Thorold (Thor) May

Although first published in 1989, this paper retains relevance, especially for the "speech competitions" which are run (usually poorly) in countries where English is taught as a second language.

Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the criteria which judges are likely to apply in the Fiji National Oratory... more Abstract: This paper attempts to explain the criteria which judges are likely to apply in the Fiji National Oratory Contest. It comments upon some features of the 1989 contest, and suggests factors which may have underlain the performance of contestants. However, the analysis is not merely local to an historical time or place. Oratory contests are a special case of the “speaking competitions” which are widespread in countries where English is learned as a second language. The cultural beliefs and traditions which come into play in public speaking are especially important in cross-cultural situations. The solutions discussed here have universal relevance for speakers and judges.

GSU Spring 2012 Teaching Evaluations

by Robin Kemp

The RHIZOME Project

by Martin E. Rosenberg

_The RHIZOME Project_ (1988-91; @1991), co-authored with Tom I. Ellis, and created in Hypercard. _RHIZOME_ was a critical thinking hypertext which offered creative as well as rhetorical and logical heuristics for the writing of a range of undergraduate essays. It was available at numerous writing programs in the early 1990's, and several articles were generated to explain its theoretical as well as pedagogical implications. Two other programmers, Stuart Selber, and Johndan Johnson-Eiola, worked briefly on the interface in 1991.

The RHIZOME Project was an experiment in instructional software to use the decision-tree environment of hypertext to... more The RHIZOME Project was an experiment in instructional software to use the decision-tree environment of hypertext to model specific sequential (as in narrative and logic) and non-sequential (as in creative and associative) thought strategies to help students write academic and creative essays. It was available at numerous writing programs in the early 1990's, including U Michigan, UC Berkeley, ASU, University of Illinois and Carnegie Mellon U. Comprised of separate "stacks" each modeling a specific heuristic, these stacks included:
1. Jazzwriting--a non-linear and recursive environment for generating and then exfoliating ideas in response to an automated or self-initiated prompt. Designed with the composing practices of BeBop jazz musicians in mind (improvisation/composition/improvisation), it offered recursive access to strategies for the improvisation of thoughts, and guided students to explore their more formal elaboration according to the rules of rhetoric, which was then linked to another "stack called:
2. Brainstorming--a non-linear, yet also sequential cluster of rhetorical heuristics: "Narrative," "Description," "Definition," "Comparison/Contrast," "Argument,"--each of which consitituted a "stack" which contained a sequence of prompts (often based on challenging heuristics such as Kenneth Burke's Pentad, for Narrative) to help expand the range of implications of ideas generated spontaneously in Jazzwriting. It was also possible to "jump" randomly or deliberately from one to the other of these heuristics, so that five separate threads of thought might be developed from the initial Jazzwriting responses. All five of these stacks then were projected into the next stack:
3. Arguprompt--which guided students through a series of prompts that would generate positions, assumptions, arguments and evidence, objections and replies to those objections, in such a way that each prompt generated a paragraph in sequence. At any point in the process of "inventing" and "arranging" an argument, the user could highlight and then export a particular assertion into another "stack" called:
4. Enthymemes--which would, through the use of dialog boxes, center that assertion into the form of an Enthymeme, which would then prompt the student to respond to a few questions. Answering these additional questions would then trigger the hypertext program to translate the Enthymeme into a formal syllogism; and then offer the opportunity to translate that socratic syllogism into a Toulmin unit of logic, with assumptions and grounds for those assumptions. Furthermore, from Arguprompt, the students could access another stack called:
5. Style--which would offer students exercises to work on semantics, grammar and syntax.
As the student progressed through the sequence of four distinct environments, or worked exclusively with just one of them, the student could export generated text to a word processing program for further engagement with the processes of invention, arrangement and style.

Informed by the specific practices of jazz musicians and composers, the behavior of bifurcating systems in non-equilibrium thermodynamics described by Ilya Prigogine, as well as the non-linear models from philosophy exemplified by the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and their concept of the rhizome, the project was an application of the theories explored in my theoretical dissertation: _Being and Becoming: Physics, Hegemony, Art and the Nomad in the Works of Ezra Pound, Marcel Duchamp, Samuel Beckett, John Cage and Thomas Pynchon_ (1989). This project was followed by an online real-time text-based virtual reality classroom of multiple rooms with functional tools at the Media Lab MOO called _MER's Fungal Palace_ (1996), with which I taught several graduate seminars linked to seminars at other universities (1996-8); and _Chess RHIZOME_, an exploratory hypermedia database to explore the contradictory epistemological implications of the metaphor of chess across all disciplinary formations (1998).

Eco-Arsonists, Bomb-Wielding Neighbors & Queer Vegans: Reflecting on Labeling As Reflective Practice [2012]

by Michael Loadenthal

The following discussion will attempt to draw out aspects of reflective practice a bit more, focusing on the three... more The following discussion will attempt to draw out aspects of reflective practice a bit more, focusing on the three venues touched upon namely: researching the animal and environmental liberation movement, organizing and reporting on the Palestinian intifada, and finally, advocating for a politic of holistic anti-oppression situated in problematizing the animal-human binary and advancing a vegan framework within academic fields of analysis.

College Composition Topics: Give Regional Topics a Chance

by J.D. Meyer

HubPages

This article vindicates the choice of regional model essays through the sustainability research of Derek Owens.... more This article vindicates the choice of regional model essays through the sustainability research of Derek Owens. Sustainability is more than ecologically sound building practices; it's allowing kids to write about meaningful aspects of their lives and neighborhoods, whether liberal or conservative.

Nga Tamatoa and the Rhetoric of Brown Power: Re-Situating Collective Rhetorics in Global Colonialism

by Lachy Paterson

By Sharon Stevens and Lachy Paterson.  In Darin Payne and Daphne Desser (ed). Teaching Writing in Globalization Remapping Disciplinary Work, Lanham: Lexington Books, pp. 17-38.

Why I No Longer Use Groups in the Classroom

by Greg Graham

Published on the website Education Week 4/11/2012

In this article, I explain my change of heart regarding peer groups in the writing classroom. Where I initially... more In this article, I explain my change of heart regarding peer groups in the writing classroom. Where I initially embraced the concept, I no longer do. My teaching practice now emphasizes solitary writing and classwide discussion under my direction.

Reclaiming Experience: Aesthetics & Multimodal Storytelling

by Aimee Knight

Aimee Knight. Computers and Composition: An International Journal. (2013)

Recent scholarship points to the rhetorical role of the aesthetic in multimodal composition and new media contexts. In... more Recent scholarship points to the rhetorical role of the aesthetic in multimodal composition and new media contexts. In this article, soon to be published in Computers and Composition: An International Journal, I examine the aesthetic as a rhetorical concept in writing studies and imagine the ways in which this concept can be useful to teachers of multimodal composition. My treatment of the concept begins with a return to the ancient Greek aisthetikos (relating to perception by the senses) in order to discuss the aesthetic as a meaningful mode of experience. I then review European conceptions of the aesthetic and finally draw from John Dewey and Bruno Latour to help shape this concept into a pragmatic and useful approach that can compliment multimodal teaching and learning. The empirical approach I construct adds to an understanding of aesthetic experience with media in order to render more transparent the ways in which an audience creates knowledge—or takes and makes meaning—via the senses. Significantly, this approach to meaning making supports learning in digital environments where students are increasingly asked to both produce and consume media convergent texts that combine multiple modalities including sound, image, and user interaction.

Designs of Meaning: Tools for Digital Storytellers

by Aimee Knight

Aimée Knight & Austin Starin (submitted to Kairos)

As the creation of digital texts flourishes in and out of the classroom, new strategies for composition are needed.... more As the creation of digital texts flourishes in and out of the classroom, new strategies for composition are needed. Digital stories are multimodal by nature; they communicate meaning through multiple media, especially the combination of text, audio, image, animation, video, and interactive content forms.

Kress, Van Leeuwen, Wysocki, Ball and other multimodal scholars believe that as we see writing transition to the “logic” of the senses, new spaces and new approaches are necessary. DeVoss & Selfe (2002) argue for new “rhetorical positionings” for teachers of writing in digital environments— to “help students explore, develop, and communicate more effectively in them” (Devoss and Selfe, p. 146). It is clear that as both teacher and student navigate these mediated spaces, new approaches are needed for the composing and designing of multimodal texts.

Our webtext, a collaboration between teacher and student, seeks to better understand and communicate how multimodal texts rhetorically “work.” We focus on how stories are shared through digital platforms. A digital storytelling experience involves the central idea or story arc and how it engages the senses and creates meaning through the combination of its form and content. We draw across disciplinary borders— from rhetoricians, philosophers, aestheticians, social theorists, technologists, artists and interaction designers to offer storytellers a heuristic to compose and evaluate multimodal works (and bridge the gap between theory and practice).

Performing/Writing/Learning Bodes and Texts: Critical Pedagogies and Performances in the Composition Classroom

by hari stephen kumar

Co-winner of 2012 Gibson Prize for Best Graduate Essay in Rhetoric and Composition.

Analysis of the generic discourse features of the English-language medical research article: a systemic-functional approach

by Daniel Lees Fryer

Published in Functions of Language, 19(1), 2012

Genre analysis can be used as a means of understanding the communicative practices of specific discourse communities... more Genre analysis can be used as a means of understanding the communicative practices of specific discourse communities and may therefore be of particular benefit to students in higher education for whom the interpretation and production of discipline-specific texts is paramount. This study takes global medical research as a case in point and examines the generic discourse features of the experimental medical research article (RA), using a systemic-functional and ‘structural moves analysis’ approach. Based on this novel, combined methodology, a sequence of generic rhetorical moves and steps across a series of medical RAs are described in terms of their function and lexicogrammar. The implications of the study are discussed in relation to previous research and their potential pedagogical and methodological applications.

[2011] Asymmetric Labeling of Terrorist Violence as a Matter of Statecraft Propaganda: Or, Why the United States Does Not Feel the Need to Explain the Assassination of …

by Michael Loadenthal

published in "Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies," special topics issue, "Ten Years After 9/11: An Anarchist Evaluation"

“Terrorism” is fundamentally the same, whether it is carried out by States or non-State actors. Difference arises as... more “Terrorism” is fundamentally the same, whether it is carried out by States or non-State actors. Difference arises as one identifies the processes wherein labels are applied which identify select acts of political violence as "terrorism," while terming others "legitimate defense" within the national interest. The subjective labeling of “terrorism” which obscures the systemic violence of State terrorism has accelerated in the post-9/11 "Global War On Terror/Terrorism," as wars advanced by the US and its allies have further expanded into the Middle East, Asia and Africa with numerous proxy wars. This construction of terrorism can be seen as a rhetorical tool utilized by the State, as well as non-State actors that challenge State authority. Throughout these arenas of violence, authoritative language is used by the State within a process of “othering,” and intentional language is adopted to demonize anti-State opponents and legitimize State-crafted actions

[2012] Operation Splash Back!: Queering Animal Liberation Through the Contributions of Neo-Insurrectionist Queers

by Michael Loadenthal

TO BE published Spring 2012 in the Journal of Critical Animal Studies Special Edition: Intersecting Queer Theory and Critical Animal Studies.

The neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse... more The neo-insurrectionist network known as Bash Back! has contributed to the queering of the animal liberation discourse through the publication of their 2010 communiqué entitled, “Bash Back!ers in Support of Autonomous Animal Action Call For Trans-Species Solidarity With Tillikum.”  The politic developed by the larger movement of neo-insurrectionist Queers, as exemplified by Bash Back!, has served to disrupt anthropocentric notions of human-liberator, animal-captive that form the centerpiece of the animal liberation discourse.  Through their appropriation of an attack wherein an orca whale killed its trainer at SeaWorld, Bash Back! problematizes not only the normalized domestication of non-human animals for entertainment, but also the discourse used to critique such enslavement.  Through satirical posturing and a liberatory framework, Bash Back! attempts to draw intersectional connection between the systems of domination that enslave both non-human animals and non-heterosexual Queers.  Through a queering of this understanding of liberation, Bash Back! serves to shift the animal liberation discourse away from the human centric “total liberation” framework, and towards an anti-speciest framework proposed herein, termed “total solidarity.”

. “Towers Open Fire: From Knowing to Doing” Computers and Composition Online. Special Issue on Sound in/as Compositional Space (Fall 2006).

by Robert Leston

As the theme music plays, take alook at the buttons at the bottom of the page. The play button starts an audio... more As the theme music plays, take alook at the buttons at the bottom of the page. The play button starts an audio composition/sound experimint called "Towers Open Fire." This sound experiment is inspired by the film made by William Burroughs in 1963 that carries the same name.

Romantics on writing: Liberal culture and the abolition of composition courses

by David R. Russell

Making Wiki Waves

by John Alberti