Creating Memories: Writing and Designing More Memorable Documents
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Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons English Theses & Dissertations English Summer 2015 Creating Memories: Writing and Designing More Memorable Documents James Eric Sentell Old Dominion University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds Part of the Rhetoric and Composition Commons Recommended Citation Sentell, James E.. "Creating Memories: Writing and Designing More Memorable Documents" (2015). Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Dissertation, English, Old Dominion University, DOI: 10.25777/8tfp-x251 https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/english_etds/3 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CREATING MEMORIES: WRITING AND DESIGNING MORE MEMORABLE DOCUMENTS by James Eric Sentell B.A. May 2007, Missouri State University M.A. May 2009, Missouri State University A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Old Dominion University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ENGLISH OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY August 2015 Approved by: Julia Romberger (Director) David Metzger (Member) Dan Richards (Member) Stewart Whittemore (Member) ABSTRACT CREATING MEMORIES: WRITING AND DESIGNING MORE MEMORABLE DOCUMENTS James Eric Sentell Old Dominion University, 2015 Director: Dr. Julia Romberger If communication’s purpose is to enable action or belief (Johnson-Sheehan, 2012), then communication will be more effective—and thus more ethical—if the audience can easily remember it. However, the study of memory has long been neglected in English Studies. Therefore, communicators lack strategies for enhancing documents’ memorableness and an ethical framework for assessing (un)memorable documents and composing processes. To develop an “ethic of memory” and identify strategies that enhance a document’s memorableness, I asked twenty subjects—ten teachers and ten college freshman—to walk down a high school hallway in which various posters and flyers had been posted by the administration, teachers, or students. Then I interviewed the subjects about their recollections, reasons for remembering this information, and the likelihood that they might apply it. One week later, I conducted a follow-up interview to determine which information “stuck,” the subjects’ self- reported reasons why, and their likelihood of applying it. I counted the number of information units and specific details that the subjects remembered at each interview, and I also categorized the types of details they recalled. I coded the subjects’ reasons for remembering and (not) applying information according to commonly-accepted design and psychological terms drawn from Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell et al. The subjects’ memories were very consistent in both quantity and quality from the first to the second interview, indicating that documents influence long-term memory. Certain posters and flyers were remembered much more often than others, demonstrating that rhetorical and design strategies affect a documents’ memorableness. The codes “schema” and “relevance” were very consistent themes in the subjects’ interview responses; so-called “self-schema” shape judgments of relevance, which then affect efforts to encode information into memory. This study describes six strategies for engaging an audience’s collective self-schema, prompting the audience to ascribe relevance to documents and thus endeavor to encode them: convey practical value; use the familiar; use contrast, color, and imagery; use unexpected elements; arouse emotion and build social currency; and “break-and-remake” existing schema. iv © 2015, by James Eric Sentell, All Rights Reserved. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank my dissertation chair, Dr. Julia Romberger, for all of her teaching, support, and dedication. She has been one of my most formative influences during my studies at Old Dominion University, and this dissertation would not exist without her advice and enthusiasm. I also want to acknowledge the rest of my dissertation committee, Dr. Stewart Whittemore, Dr. David Metzger, and Dr. Dan Richards, for their valuable feedback and encouragement throughout the process. I could not have completed this dissertation without the willing assistance of my research subjects. I greatly appreciate their time, effort, and energy participating in my study. Finally, thank you, Jessica, for your love and support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE ...........................................9 1.2 RESEARCH METHODS ...............................................................................................11 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................13 2.1 THE PERILS AND PROMISES OF RECONSTRUCTIVE MEMORY ......................15 2.1.1 Research on Reconstructive Memory .................................................................16 2.1.2 Reconstructive Memory as a Facilitator of Persuasion.......................................19 2.1.3 Reconstructive Memory and Schema .................................................................21 2.1.4 Reconstructive Memory as an Obstacle to Persuasion .......................................27 2.2 A SHORT HISTORY OF MEMORY’S DECLINE AND NEGLECT..........................29 2.3 MODERN RHETORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON MEMORY ......................................34 2.3.1 Memory in Composition and Rhetoric ...............................................................34 2.3.2 Memory in Technical Communication ...............................................................39 2.3.3 Public Memory Studies and Marketing ..............................................................43 2.3.4 Summarizing Rhetorical Scholarship on Memory ..............................................45 2.4 MEMORY’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ETHICS ............................................................49 2.5 THE RHETORIC AND ETHIC OF MEMORY ............................................................55 2.5.1 Memorable Invention ..........................................................................................56 2.5.2 Memorable Arrangement ....................................................................................63 2.5.3 Memorable Style .................................................................................................68 2.5.4 Memorable Delivery ...........................................................................................73 2.6 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................83 3. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................84 3.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY .................................................................................85 3.1.1 Populations ..........................................................................................................86 3.1.2 Instruments ..........................................................................................................87 3.1.3 Procedures ...........................................................................................................90 3.1.4 Potential Benefits and Risks to Subjects .............................................................91 3.1.5 Data Analysis ......................................................................................................91 4. RESULTS ..............................................................................................................................100 4.1 LIMITATIONS .............................................................................................................101 vii Chapter Page 4.2 DESCRIBING THE SUBJECTS ..................................................................................105 4.3 CONTEXTUALIZING ATTENTION TO FLYERS AND POSTERS .......................106 4.4 REMEMBERING INFORMATION ............................................................................107 4.4.1 Information Teachers Remembered ..................................................................109 4.4.2 Information Students Remembered ..................................................................112 4.4.3 Creating Visuals of the Recollections ...............................................................115 4.4.4 Visualizing the Information Teachers Remembered ........................................116 4.4.5 Visualizing the Information Students Remembered .........................................119 4.4.6 Reasons Why Teachers Remembered Information...........................................121 4.4.7 Reasons Why Students Remembered Information ...........................................129 4.5 REMEMBERING SPECIFIC DETAILS .....................................................................133 4.5.1 Specific Details Teachers