PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2024, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Educational Studies

The narrowing English language arts (ELA) curriculum in American public schools has negatively impacted students. Creative writing, specifically fictional narrative writing, has nearly vanished from ELA curriculum in the United States. This study focused on the literacies involved in creative writing to critically examine what is lost with a narrowing ELA curriculum. As an intermediate grade-level teacher and literacy researcher, I conducted this qualitative case study to better understand how 14 fifth-grade students experienced an after-school creative writing club while writing fictional narratives. By using process writing theory and expressivism as a conceptual framework, this study focused primarily on the writing processes and overall experiences that students had throughout the duration of the club. The analysis highlighted the literacies that students had access to, as well as the wide array of experiences they had within a creative writing club context. Findings showed that students must balance opposing experiences, broadly conceived as positive and negative, during all parts of the writing process so that they can make continued progress on their fictional narratives. These oppositions were grouped into three categories: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental. This act of balance was defined as “author equilibrium.” This writing experience provided students with a creative outlet, allowed students to participate in the writing process in an engaging way, provided students the opportunity to work alongside others, and showed students that writing can be enjoyable. While the narrowing of ELA curricula has prevented students from writing creatively in the classroom, this study highlighted the benefits of allowing space for creative writing within the ELA classroom.

Committee: Mark Sulzer Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Constance Kendall Theado Ph.D. (Committee Member); Lauren Colley Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

PHD, Kent State University, 2023, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

This formative experiment aimed to examine how teachers can enhance the quality of first-draft writing in the content and discourse of third-grade writers across narrative, informational, and opinion writing using an oral language intervention termed verbal rehearsal. The verbal rehearsal intervention allowed students to experiment with their writing orally by “saying” their intended message aloud several times before committing words to the page. This study was grounded in theoretical approaches to writing synthesized from cognitive, sociocultural, and critical humanizing perspectives. A case study was embedded within the formative experiment and included nine third-grade focal student participants from one writing workshop classroom. Data was collected from multiple sources: 1) video and audiotaped verbal rehearsal conferences, 2) student video reflections, 3) video and audiotaped follow-up teacher-student interviews, 4) completed student pieces, and 5) reflective teacher journal. Information from these data sources was used to determine the intervention's effectiveness and efficiency in meeting the pedagogical goal of enhanced first-draft writing. Findings revealed that progress could be made toward the goal by making several modifications to the intervention based on enhancing and inhibiting factors. One of the most considerable progressions of the intervention were the writers' ability to elaborate and revise their oral composition by transforming their initial content for writing through a recursive cycle of oral revision until their ideas were ready for a commitment to the page. Additionally, the intervention allowed the writers to focus on and repeat key details throughout the rehearsal process, bringing cohesiveness to their writing.

Committee: Denise Morgan (Committee Chair); Doug Ellison (Committee Member); Danielle Gruhler (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2022, Arts and Sciences: English

In Willful Objects and Feminist Writing Practices, I tell stories about the relationships between people and the objects they use when writing. Drawing on archival research and interdisciplinary methodologies, each chapter looks at a different object, including the typewriter, the kitchen table, the end papers in cookbooks, and the hashtag. This work demonstrates how objects are more than inert, passive observers of the writing process, but instead are participants and co-creators alongside the writer, shaping and changing the process of writing along the way. Put differently, the tools we use to write help us navigate how to write, as well as shape what gets written. Therefore, the objects and writers I study engage in a feminist writing practice, one that rejects the division between subjects/objects and embraces the fuzziness between the human and nonhuman. By navigating this complex materiality of writing, I hope to better understand the embodied, everyday challenges and pleasures of the writing process.

Committee: Laura Micciche Ph.D. (Committee Member); Russel Durst Ph.D. (Committee Member); Christopher Carter Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, EDU Teaching and Learning

In higher education, students are expected to present their knowledge through reading-to-write tasks such as synthesis writing (i.e., multisource-based writing), which is challenging for many L2 students. Research on L2 students' composing process during multisource-based writing has mostly been conducted using relatively controlled tasks written in decontextualized settings (e.g., integrated writing assessments or experimental design studies), and little research has been conducted in naturalistic contexts, such as English for academic purposes (EAP) writing classes, where this kind of writing is commonly assigned. Given the significance and complexity of multisource-based writing and the paucity of relevant research guiding our understanding of L2 students' composing process for completing such writing, the present qualitative multiple case study examined three L2 undergraduate students' understanding of and approach to composing a multisource-based argumentative essay in an EAP writing course. Data sources for this reading-to-write study included participants' writing samples (outline, first draft, and final draft of their argumentative essay), reading-to-write logs, semi-structured interviews, stimulated recall protocols, instructor's written and oral feedback, and pretest and posttests on synthesis writing. To depict how the participants approached a reading-to-write composing task, the data were primarily analyzed using category construction analysis guided by Stein's (1990a) cognition of reading-to-write model and then Lenski and John's (1997) patterns for reading-to-write. Textual analysis was also conducted for use of source integration types (Sole et al., 2013), purposes (Harris, 2017), and strategies (e.g., quoting and paraphrasing). The findings revealed that, in this naturalistic context, the participants adopted varied composing approaches to this reading-to-write task that fit their individual needs and experiences despite sharing the characte (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Hirvela (Advisor); Leslie Moore (Committee Member); Melinda Rhoades (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Education; English As A Second Language; Pedagogy; Teaching

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2021, English-Composition

In this text, I examine the relationship of three concepts: healing, lived writing process, and the making of knowledge. This inquiry blends theory and practice, and it is situated within Black life writing. I situate my inquiry accordingly not to produce a collapsed framework of “racial healing,” but to show how Black life writing, while marginalized, is yet central. Though other scholarly work on healing and the writing process exists, I argue for a greater recognition of what I call "the lived writing process." I also argue that the lived writing process—as demonstrated by Black composition scholars—embodies healing and transformative knowledge-making, particularly within ethnography. Within the depth of this tradition, we may observe, grapple with, and universally consider what it means to heal.

Committee: Janet Bean (Advisor); Philathia Bolton (Committee Member); Lance Svehla (Committee Member) Subjects: Black Studies; Composition; Ethnic Studies; Rhetoric; Womens Studies

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 0, Education

Ohio middle school teachers have had difficulty getting students to pass the state writing assessment (ODE, 2019b). A critical discourse analysis was conducted to examine the intertextuality of current compositional theory use in the IRA/NCTE's Standards for the ELA, Ohio's Learning Standards for ELA, and Ohio's State Test in ELA to search for possible misalignment. It was found that both sets of standards align with current compositional theory; however, the Ohio writing assessment, constructed by Ohio Department of Education (ODE) and American Institutes for Research (AIR), lacks sociocultural characteristics and diverges from the Ohio ELA standards due to the lack of inquiry, the inability to practice adequate attention to audience, and insufficient time to implement writing as a process effectively. It is recommended that the state use a sociocultural writing assessment that utilizes the social nature of these current compositional theory elements.

Committee: Christine Denecker (Committee Chair); Kathleen Crates (Committee Member); Jon Brasfield (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Education

Master of Fine Arts, The Ohio State University, 2020, Design

The ways thoughts are externalized is a difficult one met with many choices, first and foremost being the mode in which an idea is conveyed. While design is often thought of as visual fields defined by renderings, models, and sketches, the use of writing can be just as pertinent and necessary. This thesis sparks an investigation into how design students use writing to effectively move through the design process. Utilizing an ethnographic approach, this study examines three interdisciplinary design studios at The Ohio State University, one at the beginner level and two at the advanced level. Classroom observations of students at work, informal chats and formal interviews with key participants, and documentation of students' process work (notes, sketches, models, and other forms of documentation used to inform a final design) all serve to paint a complete picture of the manner in which writing is used in design education. These varied means of data gathering serve to create a corpus that references the many ways in which students use writing as a part of the design process. Understanding designers' writing aims to inform better ways of designing, suggest how to effectively communicate across disciplines, and aid in formulating a process for formally incorporating writing in design education and practice. By reflecting on a compilation of student writing practices, this study presents the modes in which we communicate design textually while reconsidering the possibility for new ones that incorporate interdisciplinary values and verbiage.

Committee: Mary Anne Beecher (Advisor); Rebeka Matheny (Committee Member); Laurie Katz (Committee Member) Subjects: Design; Education

Master of Arts in Rhetoric and Writing​, University of Findlay, 2019, English

The project detailed throughout these chapters addresses a critical scholarship gap in meeting the needs of autistic students in a collegiate composition classroom. I became aware of this gap as a mother of an autistic son, as an English teacher, as a student in Rhetoric and Writing, and as a graduate student instructor of English 106: College Writing II. My experience in English 501: Writing Theory and Pedagogy led me to believe that through examining the Cognitive Process Model by Flower and Hayes that a series of lesson plans could be produced to make First Year Writing more accessible for students with ASD. I determined areas of potential breakdown in each stage of the Flower and Hayes model in the composing of students with ASD. I applied strategies from my literature review to develop accommodations for deficiencies in each stage for autistic students. As a result of applying strategies to make writing more accessible for students on the autism spectrum to the different stages of the Cognitive Process Theory by Flower and Hayes, I proposed modified English 106 lesson plans for an argument research essay unit. As a result of my study, instructors will be able to find suggestions for teaching the analysis of primary and secondary sources, research and documentation skills, and argumentative thesis generation to students with ASD. Each lesson plan will contain scaffolding, suggested strategies and rationale for implementation of the strategies.

Committee: Christiine Denecker PhD (Committee Chair); Christine Tulley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Composition; Education; Educational Theory; Rhetoric; Secondary Education; Special Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2017, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature

Toward a Relational Theory of Invention argues that rhetorical invention— the constellation of practices and theories involved in discovering or gathering ideas —can be productively theorized as relational. Rather than being concerned with origins, a relational invention is a means of relating to others and to the world; a relational invention steps away from the idea that writing is controlled by humans, as well as from the elision of human agency, and instead envisions agency as distributed amongst an assemblage of both human and nonhuman actors, like composers, texts, objects, feelings, and sensations. A relational approach to invention thus helps writers to dwell longer in process—and more closely attunes invention to potentiality and becoming—because it as an emergent method of response, in which the composing subject is adapting to and interacting with others in an entangled network. First I review literature on invention, primarily focusing on work on the teaching of writing, arguing that field conversations have characterized invention as either a private, interior process or as a process that is socially constructed and distributed. To remedy this binary, I work to recover moments in formative field scholarship that acknowledge the contributions that material, environmental, and affective agents (and their interactions) make to invention, moments that have been erased by dominant field narratives. Then, I offer three characteristics of relational invention—(1) networked mediation, (2) inviting rhetorics, and (3) complex and interactive systems—and develop a discussion that associates relational invention with theoretical concepts from contemporary theoretical work, primarily in writing ecologies, affect, and new materialism, in order to construct a vision of invention that is dynamic, emergent, and responsive. Finally, I turn to a narrative theory analysis of video-recorded interviews gathered in 2013 at Ohio State's Digital Media and Composing Insti (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Laura Micciche Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Christopher Carter Ph.D. (Committee Member); Russell Durst Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Rhetoric

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2017, English (Arts and Sciences)

Composition instructors have investigated how students transfer writing knowledge into contexts beyond composition classrooms in higher education (e.g. Reiff, & Bawarshi, 2011; Wardle, 2012; Yancey, Robertson, & Taczak, 2014). These scholars have used studies of transfer in education (e.g. Beach, 1999; Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino, 2000) in order to see how composition instructors might teach for the transfer of learning. In this thesis I show how critical pedagogues (Freire, 1978, 1997; Shor, 1987a, 1996; Keating, 2007, 2013) have also been thinking about how to foster students' use of knowledge in new contexts. In this project I develop a framework from the work on transfer from Donovan, Bransford, and Pellegrino (2000). Then, I use this framework to analyze the pedagogies of Freire (1978, 1997), Shor (1987a, 1996), and Keating (2007, 2013), in an attempt to put these pedagogical ideas in conversation with each other, hoping to inspire more interdisciplinary research.

Committee: Ryan P. Shepherd Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Gabriel Hartley Ph.D. (Committee Member); Mara Holt Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Education; Higher Education; Literacy; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, EDU Teaching and Learning

In spite of the increasing number of studies examining the reading-writing connection since the 1980s, little research has been conducted on how integrated reading-writing summary tasks in an L2 affect learners' reading abilities. The complexity of the L2 learning context – two languages and two different sets of literacy practices – as well as the large number of English learners worldwide proves the need for more studies examining the relationships between reading and writing in the L2 context. Further evidence of the need for such studies can be found in Korea. Although integrated reading-writing tasks have become part of the official curriculum in Korea, little is known about reading and writing connections among the country's L2 learners. Thus, the current study examined Korean college students' reading and writing processes while performing a summary writing task, the relationships between these processes, and the resulting changes in students' reading comprehension. Throughout the study, L2 proficiency was analyzed as a factor that may affect these processes. Methodologically, the study relied mainly on think-aloud verbal protocols, supplemented by two interviews, a Reading Strategies Questionnaire, written summaries, and recall protocols. The study revealed that L2 proficiency seems to make a difference in the processes learners use during the reading-only stage and the writing stage of a summary task. Whereas high proficiency Korean EFL learners tended to use a top-down, meaning-oriented approach, low proficiency learners were more likely to depend on a bottom-up decoding approach. Interestingly, low proficiency Korean EFL learners shifted their style of reading to a more interactive approach in the review reading stage. Additionally, L2 proficiency seemed to make a difference with regard to the methods learners employed to improve their reading, their areas of focus in the writing stage, and the way the source text was used in the writing stage. With a c (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan R. Hirvela (Advisor); George E. Newell (Committee Member); Francis J. Troyan (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Education; English As A Second Language; Social Research; Teaching

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation examines the ways that teachers of writing conceptualize and employ the term “writer.” The field of Rhetoric and Composition has a long history of prioritizing the writer in the writing process; a steady stream of scholarship has called for students to “see themselves as writers,” and the central issues of the field have long been associated with—sometimes even defined by—various conceptions of what a “writer” ought to be or do. This project responds to calls across the discipline for a more comprehensive understanding of both the writer and its place in scholarly conversations. Through two qualitative studies of writing teachers—a series of 10 multi-tiered ethnographic interviews and an interactive focus group—I explore various notions of "writer" and their pedagogical ramifications. Data were gathered and analyzed using a constructivist methodology (unstructured interviews and inductive coding) and contextualized within observed trends in Composition scholarship. Results reveal widely disparate notions of writer amongst participants, but also some shared assumptions. The coding process resulted in eight data-based categories: four broad types of writer and four overarching characteristics of writer. These categories, while discrete, interconnect in intriguing ways, and the observed tension between them suggests that the word “writer” cannot be viewed in singular terms. The most pronounced disjuncture is between identity and activity; that is, notions of writer based on the act of writing tend to clash with the mythologized “figure” of the writer. Results further suggest that even as Composition pedagogies evolve in the 21st century, the term “writer” tends to be associated with neo-romantic and anachronistic ideas of writing and literacy. In light of these results, I argue that the identity of writer may be too tenuous and unstable to serve as a pedagogical goal. In a broad sense, this research illuminates the implications of competing discou (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sara Newman Ph.D. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication; Composition; Curriculum Development; Higher Education; Literacy; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Teaching

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry study was to investigate seventh grade students' possible changes in both writing and attitudes and perceptions regarding revision when paired with transmediation (movement between and among sign systems, such as drawing, music, drama) in the writing process. Specifically, this research focuses on students' thinking concerning why and how they revise when transmediation is part of the writing process. Participants in this study were 27 seventh grade students enrolled in a language arts class in a public middle school. Multiple data were collected: writing journals, questionnaires, transmediated objects, technology artifacts, interviews, videos, and reflections. The constant comparative method was used to analyze and triangulate the data. Results revealed that students selected sign systems based on comfort and availability. In addition, students focused on macro-structural changes rather than centered on superficial changes that are more specific to the traditional editing process. Students attributed these revisions to transmediation, which enabled them to view their writing in a new way. Student attitudes and perceptions demonstrated that while they initially believed revision to be more editing-specific, at the end of the study students shared that revision should be more holistic, centering on transforming content and ideas in an effort to produce stronger writing.

Committee: William Bintz Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Denise Morgan Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Susan Iverson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Language Arts; Literacy; Teaching

Bachelor of Arts, Marietta College, 2014, English

This Research Honors Project comprises two main components: a creative writing portion and a corresponding critical analysis piece. The project was devised as a way of combining the literary analysis skills taught and developed over the course of the English major with concepts of creative writing. The project required rigorous application of literary analysis to the creative writing process by approaching the writing portion of the project from a literary standpoint centered in Jane Austen's writing. The basic concept of the project involved the development of four short stories incorporating and responding to Austen's style of humor. The project later developed a focus on thematic similarity to Austen's work in the thematic concerns of the short stories. The course of the project began with reading three Jane Austen novels, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Persuasion, which followed the progression of Austen's writing career. These novels were then analyzed, not only for their literary worth but also as an example of talented writing. The development of the creative portion followed this analysis, though the novels and Austen's writing style remained a continual reference point. Throughout the process of reading and writing, the first two parts of this explanatory text (the critical component of the project) were developed in conjunction with the short stories, and the third part added during the final completion process of the project. The first part of the critical text focuses on text-based analysis and the results of the reading portion of the project. The second part examines the creative writing process, including how Austen's influence on the short stories changed as the creative work was completed as well as developments specific to the writing process that affected the project. The third part of this text primarily reflects on the project as a whole, including self-evaluation of the resulting short stories, how they work together as a unit, and how the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Janet Bland (Advisor); Joseph Sullivan (Committee Member); David Makuch (Committee Member) Subjects: British and Irish Literature; Literature

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Allied Health Sciences: Communication Sciences and Disorders

The effect of a process approach to early writing in which children created storybooks through drawing, writing and narration was investigated. A 5-month collaborative, classroom-based intervention with nine African American children in an urban Head Start classroom was implemented. Two analyses were conducted. The first investigated pre- and post-intervention differences using measures for early writing forms and spoken narrative development (macrostructure and microstructure). The results indicated a significant difference between pre- and post-intervention measures for macrostructure development. Clinically significant gains ranging from small to large effects were found within all measures. Results suggest that a process approach through storybook writing led to gains in early writing and narrative development. The second was a qualitative, sociocultural analysis, using cultural-historical theories of learning to reconceptualize early literacy development. This analysis examined literacy practices, what counted as literacy development, and redefined development as transformation through participation within this intervention setting. Video and audio recordings, interviews, and writing artifacts were re-examined from the original study. The results of this qualitative, classroom case study analysis illustrate how specific ideology and research frameworks that propose a one-size-fits-all approach to literacy and development conflicted with and constrained the varied paths of diverse learners. This analysis challenged ideologies of individuality, notions of universality, and a “fix-it” mentality of the intervention that unknowingly perpetuated deficit views of young, diverse children and may further contribute to the homogenization and standardization of early literacy programs and early childhood classroom practices.

Committee: Nancy Creaghead Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jory Brass Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jo-Anne Prendeville Ed.D. (Committee Member); Cheri Williams Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Preschool Education

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 0, Arts and Sciences: English and Comparative Literature

This project argues that the concept of the writing process can become a dynamic and expansive site for sustained consideration of the physicality of writing. I seek to enliven conceptions of “the writing process” by first disrupting composition studies' most familiar associations with process, muting in particular the writer's internal, thinking dialogue at the core of the most familiar process models. I examine writing's production newly focused on the writer's body and complexities of the writer's physical environment. Complicating our sense of “where” writing happens, I bring research attention not just to objects populating writing environments, but also to physical and environmental factors like arrangement, habit, bodily sensations, movement, gesture, pace and rhythm, and even to what are often considered peripheral activities like vacuuming, stretching, walking, surfing social networking sites, etc. This project makes something of the physical pressures and pulls within writing environments, and in so doing, brings rhetorical, theoretical, and empirical research attention to the full physical and material scene of writing through which writing is accomplished. This project's primary goal is to reveal pictures of material embodied writing processes, the swirl of embodied, material, and affective forces that shape the production of writing just as much as the writer's cognition or her immersion in social communities.

Committee: Laura Micciche Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Russel Durst Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Ridolfo Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Rhetoric

PHD, Kent State University, 2013, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

This dissertation describes how four professional graphic designers use rhetoric in their design processes. While the classical understanding of rhetorical arrangement refers to the ordering of elements within oral discourse, I argue, instead, that arrangement is a creative and guiding tool for making meaning in these graphic design processes. This perspective suggests that arrangement is used horizontally and vertically instead of in a static, linear fashion. Ultimately, I describe how rhetorical arrangement in professional graphic design processes is layered and dimensional—a rational reconstruction of the classical understanding of arrangement as the organization of the parts of verbal discourse (Schiappa, 1990). An underlying theme of this dissertation is the invisibility of these composing processes and their respective technologies and techniques. Data were collected through research methods designed to capture much of the rhetorical complexities in a set of four professional graphic design processes, including: • Pre-interviews to develop a contextual picture of each participant’s design approach and background, • Think-aloud protocols (multimodal recording with video screen-capture and audio software) to create a trace of each participant’s design process, and • Stimulated recall retrospective interviews (using the video screen-capture recording to stimulate responses) for additional context. I analyzed verbal think-aloud protocol data by looking for emergent rhetorical themes with support from video screen capture data and supplementary interviews for context. I then define and describe horizontal and vertical arrangement through multi-dimensional examples supported by verbal and visual think-aloud data. This project is not intended to support broad generalizations about contemporary multimodal and graphic design processes (a kind of multimodal composing). Instead, the purpose is to contribute curren (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Pamela Takayoshi (Committee Chair); Raymond Craig (Committee Member); Sara Newman (Committee Member); Stanley Wearden (Committee Member); Albert Ingram (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Design; Rhetoric; Technical Communication; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, EDU Teaching and Learning

This dissertation traces the participation of three students across two instructional units during the teaching and learning of argumentation and argumentative writing. The data is drawn from an ethnographically informed study in a 9th and 10th grade English language arts class within a humanities course. The teacher foregrounded argumentative writing as a product of argumentation and taught argumentative elements (i.e., claim, evidence, warrant) progressively, co-constructing knowledge with her students. Using a micro-ethnographic discourse analysis, the researcher analyzed typical and telling events to trace students; participation and triangulated with students; written products and student and teacher interviews. The investigator found that both the teacher and the students understood argumentation as a set of social and relational practices, that they learned and deployed the language of argumentation, and that they created intertextual links as they developed arguments. The teacher provided learning opportunities through multiple levels of classroom activity. The focal teacher had two years to work toward deep understanding with her students. The findings help complicate argumentation as a social and relational process. The study suggests providing students opportunities for taking up and adapting argumentation in a range of ways that are sensitive to student identities and sensitive to an adaptation to a range of tasks opens up space for students and teachers to create arguments. More so, when argumentation is presented as a way of thinking;a habit of mind;rather than a regime of textual discipline, it becomes another way to interact with others and gain deep understanding of academic content

Committee: David Bloome (Advisor); Caroline Clark (Committee Member); George Newell (Committee Member); Cynthia Selfe (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2013, English (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation considers verbal dysfluencies, such as stuttering, as generative to writing and its complex process through the various techniques and strategies that derive from verbal dysfluency. Very little work in the field of Rhetoric and Composition has been undertaken to further understand what might occur, and how writing teachers can help, during moments of writing dysfluency or moments in the process that are not necessarily generating text. Writing dysfluencies include a range of things from a hyper- attention to the generalized rules of writing to various avoidance behaviors that inhibit the composition of prose, all of which slow or disrupt the process of writing. I argue that techniques such as circumlocution offer a new way to conceptualize the dysfluencies that student writers may encounter and offer possibilities to better manage or adapt to these dysfluencies. I also argue that the field has too long neglected Demosthenes, famed stutterer, and I suggest that his fabled dysfluency created some of the rhetorical strategies we now rely on. This work posits that Demosthenes's life story may also be considered one of the first "overcoming narratives," a narrative form common in Disability literature. While Disability Studies has recently quite firmly disavowed the overcoming narrative, I suggest that the "overcoming narrative" may provide an avenue for dysfluent speakers and student writers to voice their apprehensions, moments of uncertainty, and misunderstandings about the writing process. Moreover, I assert that dysfluency and its related narratives have been neglected in Disability Studies and suggest that their inclusion would strengthen the field's awareness of other lesser known (dis)abilities. Finally, I argue that an infusion of dysfluency into Composition theory and pedagogy would provide student writers and writing teachers with new, unexplored techniques and strategies for overcoming the moments when students find themselves unabl (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Sherrie Gradin (Committee Chair); Mara Holt (Committee Member); Eric LeMay (Committee Member); Janis Holm (Committee Member); David Descutner (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Higher Education; Language Arts; Linguistics; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Sociolinguistics; Speech Therapy; Teacher Education

MEd, University of Cincinnati, 2005, Education : Curriculum and Instruction

This study was an attempt to view the writing process through the eyes of the students. It was an effort to discover what students believe about writing, specifically about the social aspects and the process of writing. In addition, teachers were questioned to determine if they could accurately report what students believe about writing. Questionnaires were completed by 80 fourth-grade students and 3 fourth-grade teachers in a middle-class, suburban district. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 5 students and 1 teacher. Findings showed that students value being creative and choosing their own topic. Students also stated that content and mechanics, followed closely by neatness, were the most important aspects of good writing. Results of teachers' reports of student beliefs were mixed. When reporting which genres students enjoy the most, teachers accurately reported fictional stories, letters and journals. However, teachers believed that students enjoyed the social aspects (sharing and discussing their writing with others) more than the students actually did. Students reported that they preferred the private aspects of writing (drawing pictures, being creative and typing).

Committee: Keith Barton (Advisor) Subjects: