Technical Writing and Digital Rhetoric
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Item The Joseph Smith Papers Digital Archive on Mormon-Missouri Communities, 1833-1838: A Rhetorical Analysis Using Kenneth Burke's Theory of Identification(2024-05) Huntsman Baldwin, Rachel KayAt the culmination of a twenty-two year project and twenty-seven-volume printed work, The Joseph Smith Papers digital archive or website digitally published all of Joseph Smith’s extant documents for the first time on an open-access website. The website is a rich information infrastructure for scholars and researchers in technical writing and digital rhetoric and other academic fields. Using Kenneth Burke’s theory of identification as method, this paper examines how a sense of connection is fostered among different users of the digital archive, and how rhetorical devices guide users in understanding the historical context of its archived materials. The findings suggest four central themes that promote connection for different users of The Joseph Smith Papers digital archive: a sense of recognition, ownership, user determination, and persuasion. Additionally, this paper discusses the rhetorical devices of the website that guide users in understanding the artifacts’ historical context.Item Veteran Voices: Military Identity and Narrative Writing(2022) McFadden, BriannaAfter they have completed their time in the military, service members go on to interact with and join many other discourse communities, including academia and the civilian workforce. Within each of these communities, narrative is an important writing structure for conveying information. However, the way that service members write using the narrative structure is often different from the expectations of non-military discourse communities. This research aims to discover how service members’ military identity influences their narrative writing. Understanding that influence can help service members and non-military discourse communities better connect and communicate with one another as service members work to match the writing standards of these communities.Item Two Blondes and a Hunka Hunka Burning Love: Examining Identity in Digital Fan Communities(2022) April, VeVeaOld Hollywood (1910-1967) studios and the press created a plethora of stars that still attract rabid fan bases in the 2020s. Many of these stars’ fans have undertaken the monumental platform change from physical media to digital spaces. These digital spaces allow communication and connection with fans around the world, allowing collective identities to form. However, these digital spaces also rely heavily upon physical media from the star’s lifetimes, including photographs and magazine articles. Using the ideas of Kenneth Burke and Karl Marx, this study examines how these digital fandoms have unique identities that form around how Betty Grable, Jayne Mansfield, and Elvis Presley were commodified through the press and studios during their respective lifetimes. Researchers will see the patterns present in both the studio as well as in modern fan responses. This will help researchers examine identities in digital spaces as well as platform migration.Item The Holocene Heuristic: A Framework for Activating Change in Response to the Climate Crisis(2022) Hicken, ChelseaThe global climate crisis is real. Scientists have been warning of the dire effects of human impact on the planet; however, many people feel disconnected from viable solutions. This thesis is concerned with how humans address their role in responding to the impacts of climate change. The Holocene Heuristic, developed in this thesis, provides a climate-conscious framework that can be applied to the intentional design of college courses, corporate policies, government actions, and more. In this study, the Holocene Heuristic guides the development of a special studies college composition course focusing on environmentalism. The research design describes a pilot project interested in determining how students might create, critique, and share visual arguments related to climate change. Methods include a visual rhetoric lecture, a service-learning and place-based education outing, and visual argument assignments. Findings suggest servicelearning and reflection impact students’ visual arguments. This thesis concludes with a reflection on how the Holocene Heuristic impacted this course design and offers recommendations for implementing the framework within the technical and professional communication community, environmental humanities, and community programs.Item A Never-ending Story: How Youtubers Use Narrative as Digital Rhetoric(2022) Brock, DawnYouTube is an online video platform that allows individual users the freedom to upload their own videos. Many of those creators, or YouTubers, choose to use the narrative structure to increase the viewership of their videos. In this thesis, I will look at what narrative structure is and how studying its use on YouTube benefits future entrepreneurs and researchers of digital rhetoric. I will also look into how the personas created by these YouTubers add to the channel’s success. By analyzing the most popular and least popular videos and the oldest and newest videos of different YouTube channels, I hope to uncover a pattern to help current and future YouTubers maximize their use of narrator persona and narrative structure to expand their businesses upon the platform. This pattern will show how the use of narrator personas and narrative structures act as a form of digital rhetoric in the creator’s goal to persuade viewers to not only watch the videos but to subscribe to the channel. Not only will the research help YouTubers, but it will provide a foundation for further research into the connections between narrative structures and the success of social media creators.