A perennial problem for many first-year composition (FYC) instructors is deciding what curricular materials to use to teach their students about rhetoric and composition and how to use those resources to enable their students to practice and hone their writing skills. This dissertation argues that humor writing is a viable option as it offers…

The release of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys is part of a public health initiative to limit the spread of infectious disease. The local debate over this proposed action provides a current case study of a public, scientific controversy in which citizens and officials disagree about what is best for the community. The case…

Borrowing from rhetorically based theories of usability, this article offers an invention tactic designed to help students understand how mundane features of everyday dwelling places have significant impacts on their educational experiences. Additionally, the offered tactic helps students understand how to craft rhetorical critiques in contexts…

Though multimodality is increasingly incorporated into our pedagogies and scholarship, explorations of collaborative multimodal composition are lacking. Existing literature on collaborative writing focuses predominately on texts either composed in singular modes or by a single author, neglecting the ways in which multimodal texts are composed…

When college composition teachers carefully consider the role and function of multimodal composition in their classrooms, they can enhance the teaching of writing and communication, engage and empower students, and better prepare students for the challenges and possibilities of life in our rapidly changing digital age. To meet this teaching…

Students are experts at sizing up instructors, but many do not extend this analysis to non-instructor audiences, which can reduce their effectiveness in new communication situations. Audience, therefore, is a crucial threshold concept not only in Rhetoric and Composition, but in any discipline that values communication skills. How can instructors…

Argues that composition students can become aware of audience and purpose and develop ideas for original essays through study of film reviews. Suggests relevant writing assignments. (RAE)

Suggests strategies for applying Kenneth Burke's theories of rhetoric and dialectic to technical writing instruction. Shows how teachers can use Burke's dialectic heuristic, the Pentad, to analyze writing situations they present to students. Describes how writers can use Burke's concept of "identification" as a strategy for analyzing and…

The concept of audience has emerged as a central theme in many scholarly discussions. Walter Ong focuses on fiction and believes that what has been said about fictional narrative applies to all writing. Lev Vygotsky offers the view that students work in the zone of proximal development and observes that thought itself develops as a result of our…

Discusses how presenters must act as guides to their audiences. As an example, the paper describes a trip through the Serengeti in which the guide was powerful and effective in teaching his audience. Notes goals that all presenters must strive for (activities, engagement, content, dispositions, capacities, and ideals). (SM)

Includes a preface and two articles: "Rhetoric in Action: Roger's Social Studies Classroom" and "Rhetorical Understandings for Social Studies Teachers." Details how one teacher applies rhetorical principles to teaching, so that student learning, enjoyment, and motivation increase. Focuses on the definitions and principles of…

Writing teachers should employ a pragmatic-eclectic approach to help freshman students become acquainted with as many writing models as possible. To privilege one model over the many others is to ignore the student's need for self- and world-discovery. The composition classroom has become the current center of critical reading and thinking skills,…