DOCSLIB.ORG

The Value of Scholarly Writing: a Temporal-Material Rhetorical Analysis of Delivery in Google Documents

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Value of Scholarly Writing: a Temporal-Material Rhetorical Analysis of Delivery in Google Documents Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English 5-9-2016 The Value of Scholarly Writing: A Temporal-Material Rhetorical Analysis of Delivery in Google Documents Valerie Robin Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Recommended Citation Robin, Valerie, "The Value of Scholarly Writing: A Temporal-Material Rhetorical Analysis of Delivery in Google Documents." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2016. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/162 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE VALUE OF SCHOLARLY WRITING: A TEMPORAL-MATERIAL RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF DELIVERY IN GOOGLE DOCUMENT by VALERIE ROBIN Under the Direction of Mary Hocks, PhD ABSTRACT This project examines the impact that cloud-based writing has on scholars’ material work processes and the temporal value shift that occurs as we write in an ‘always-on’ environment. It analyzes how interactive writing software (IWS) like Google Documents serve to forefront functions of interactivity between writers, and by doing so, reshape and create Western values surrounding the academic writing process that are uniquely post-industrial. Using James Porter’s (2009) components of digital delivery as a lens, this project contextualizes the ways that the work of writing is performed online by looking at the features embedded in a Google Document. This examination confirms that the canon of delivery itself has undergone a shift. In arguing for different values assigned to the performance of scholarly writing, that decenter the autonomous writer free of material needs, this project illustrates the affordances and limitations of scholarly writing that is both developed and delivered in and through interactive writing software. This dissertation then offers readers a theory of temporal-materiality that creates a model through which to exact an in-depth exploration into the impact Web 2.0 tools have had on writers and writing. INDEX WORDS: Rhetoric, Composition, Digital writing, Cloud software, Interactivity, Canons of Rhetoric THE VALUE OF SCHOLARLY WRITING: A TEMPORAL-MATERIAL RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF DELIVERY IN GOOGLE DOCUMENTS by VALERIE ROBIN A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2016 Copyright by Valerie Robin 2016 THE VALUE OF SCHOLARLY WRITING: A TEMPORAL-MATERIAL RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF DELIVERY IN GOOGLE DOCUMENTS by VALERIE ROBIN Committee Chair: Mary Hocks Committee: Michael Harker Ashley Holmes Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University May 2016 iv DEDICATION To Charlie P. Frazier v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To arrive at a point where I realized that I have always been interested in material theory, took a lot of work. I have a lot of people to thank for helping me safely through. Most notably, I am grateful to my dissertation director and advisor, Mary Hocks, for being honest with me when I needed it, and drinking coffee with me in at least half of our meetings. I am further indebted to my dissertation committee members, Michael Harker and Ashley Holmes. It was in Michael Harker’s independent study where I found my path, and to him I owe gratitude for steering me toward the majority of my readings on temporality. I thank Ashley Holmes for always having an open door, and being the most accessible professor I’ve known. Nothing of note can be accomplished without emotional support, and for that I have many family, friends, and colleagues to thank. I am eternally grateful to my parents, Susan and Gary Knapp for showing support in every which way they knew how. And to my brother Dan, for listening to me talk about graduate school and letting me teach him Google Documents. To Melissa, my confidant, Anda, my roomie, and Nicole, my neighbor; to Grant, Deborah, Marcela, Kateland, Belle, and Shane, for participating in the harder things in life with me; to all the Rhetoric and Composition faculty at GSU, especially Lynée Gaillet for being an excellent WPA, and George Pullman for encouraging me to find my digital interests; to the entire Student Innovation Fellowship, who opened my eyes to a world of data visualization and web building, I can’t express my thanks enough. Last, I cannot be thankful enough to Oscar for encouraging me through the meatiest parts of my dissertation writing, and for listening to me talk through my thoughts when I needed to just talk it out. I will never hesitate to save your life in a car fire. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... ix 1 EVALUATING THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY: AN INTRODUCTION ...... 1 2 MATERIAL TIME: A RHETORICAL THEORY FOR THE DIGITAL SITUATION ................................................................................................................................ 13 2.1 An Emerging Rhetorical Situation .................................................................. 16 2.2 Time and Temporality ...................................................................................... 20 2.3 Theories of Materiality ..................................................................................... 28 2.4 A Theory of Temporal-Material Rhetoric ...................................................... 33 2.5 Experiencing the Cloud .................................................................................... 37 3 DELIVERY IN GOOGLE DOCUMENTS: THE FIFTH CANON MEETS THE CLOUD 39 3.1 Delivering the Fifth Canon ............................................................................... 41 3.1.1 A Move beyond Speech ................................................................................. 45 3.1.2 An Interrelation of Canons .......................................................................... 49 3.1.3 An Interconnectedness with New Media ...................................................... 51 3.1.4 A Look at Porter’s koinoi topoi .................................................................... 53 3.2 Google Documents as Artifact .......................................................................... 56 3.2.1 Interactive Writing Software History ........................................................... 59 vii 3.2.2 Implications of IWS ...................................................................................... 61 3.2.3 Impact of IWS ............................................................................................... 63 3.3 Delivering Ahead ............................................................................................... 65 4 CHALLENGING THE LANGUAGE OF CAPITAL: ECONOMICS, DISTRIBUTION, AND CIRCULATION IN DIGITAL RHETORIC .................................. 67 4.1 Caring about Economics in Computers and Writing .................................... 71 4.2 The Language of Capital .................................................................................. 74 4.3 The Circuit of Capital Revisited ...................................................................... 77 4.4 Substituting Non-Measurable Capital ............................................................. 86 4.5 Distribution via Google Documents ................................................................. 92 4.6 Going Beyond Classic Industrial Values ......................................................... 98 5 TIME AND LABOR IN THE CLOUD: AN ANALYSIS OF GOOGLE DOCUMENTS............................................................................................................................. 99 5.1 Connection to Temporal-Material Theory ................................................... 101 5.2 Analysis of Delivery in a Google Documents Environment......................... 107 5.2.1 Body/Identity ............................................................................................... 107 5.2.2 Interactivity.................................................................................................. 114 5.2.3 Access/Accessibility ..................................................................................... 121 5.3 A Future in the Cloud ..................................................................................... 125 6 UNLOCKING THE INVISIBLE .......................................................................... 127 viii REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 134 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 'Real World' Advertisement......................................................................................... 13 Figure 2.2 Internet use over time .................................................................................................. 27 Figure 4.1 Marx's circuit of capital equation ................................................................................ 82 Figure 4.2 Circuit of knowledge capital ......................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Layering Literacies: Computers and Peer Response in the 21St Century Christopher Warren Dean University of New Hampshire, Durham
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Fall 2001 Layering literacies: Computers and peer response in the 21st century Christopher Warren Dean University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Dean, Christopher Warren, "Layering literacies: Computers and peer response in the 21st century" (2001). Doctoral Dissertations. 36. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/36 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quaiity of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics
    To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/161 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Practices, Principles and Politics Edited by Brett D. Hirsch http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2012 Brett D. Hirsch et al. (contributors retain copyright of their work). Some rights are reserved. The articles of this book are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Licence. This license allows for copying any part of the work for personal and non-commercial use, providing author attribution is clearly stated. Details of allowances and restrictions are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ As with all Open Book Publishers titles, digital material and resources associated with this volume are available from our website at: http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/161 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-909254-26-8 ISBN Paperback: 978-1-909254-25-1 ISBN Digital (pdf): 978-1-909254-27-5 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-909254-28-2 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-909254-29-9 Typesetting by www.bookgenie.in Cover image: © Daniel Rohr, ‘Brain and Microchip’, product designs first exhibited as prototypes in January 2009. Image used with kind permission of the designer. For more information about Daniel and his work, see http://www.danielrohr.com/ All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified.
    [Show full text]
  • Proposed Table of Contents
    Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities Eds. Jim Ridolfo and William Hart-Davidson Tel Aviv University. 5, June 2012 Proposed Table of Contents Part 1: Defining Field Connections 1. Rehberger, Dean. “Rhetoric of Digital Humanities.” 2. Reid, Alex. “Speculative Rhetoric and the Digital Parliament.” 3. Sano-Franchini, Jennifer. “Cultural Rhetorics and the Digital Humanities.” 4. Brown Jr, James J. “Crossing State Lines: Rhetoric and Software Studies.” 5. Eyman, Douglas, Kathie Gossett, and Cheryl Ball. “Digital Humanities Scholarship and Electronic Publication.” 6. Anderson, Daniel and Jentery Sayers. “The Metaphor and Materiality of Layers.” 7. Johnson, Nathan. “Infrastructure, Mathematics, and Databases: A Rhetorical Methodology in Digital Humanities Scholarship.” Part 2: Research and Methodology 8. Koteyko, Nelya. “Corpus-assisted analysis of digital discourses.” 9. Hart, Roderick. “Patterns of Rhetoric: Text Analysis in the Digital Humanities.” 10. Boyle, Casey. “Low-Fidelity in High-Definition: Speculating the Potentials for Rhetorical Editions.” 11. Hoffman, David and Don Waisanen. “Textual analysis at the digital frontier: An overview of tools and methods for systematic rhetorical studies.” 12. McNely, Brian and Christa Teston. “Tactical and Strategic: Qualitative Methodologies in the Digital Humanities.” 13. Kennedy, Krista and Seth David Long. “The Trees Within the Forest: Extracting, Coding and Visualizing Subjective Digital Data in Authorship Studies.” Part 3: Interdisciplinary Trajectories 14. Rice, Jenny and Jeff Rice. “Pop-Up Archives.” 15. Micciche, Laura and Jennifer Glaser. “Digitizing English.” 16. Potts, Liza. “Archive Experiences: A Vision for User-Centered Design in the Digital Humanities.” 17. Walls, Douglas. “Forging Digital Trade Routes.” 18. Graban, Tarez Samra, Alexis E. Ramsey-Tobienne, Whitney A. Myers. “In, Through, and About the Archive: What Digitization (Dis)Allows.” 19.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Humanities
    Miriam Posner Digital Humanities Chapter 27 DIGITAL HUMANITIES Miriam Posner Digital humanities, a relative newcomer to the media scholar’s toolkit, is notoriously difficult to define. Indeed, a visitor to www.whatisdigitalhumanities.com can read a different definition with every refresh of the page. Digital humanities’ indeterminacy is partly a function of its relative youth, partly a result of institutional turf wars, and partly a symptom of real disagreement over how a digitally adept scholar should be equipped. Most digital humanities practitioners would agree that the digital humanist works at the intersection of technology and the humanities (which is to say, the loose collection of disciplines comprising literature, art history, the study of music, media studies, languages, and philosophy). But the exact nature of that work changes depending on whom one asks. This puts the commentator in the uncomfortable position of positing a definition that is also an argument. For the sake of coherence, I will hew here to the definition of digital humanities that I like best, which is, simply, the use of digital tools to explore humanities questions. This definition will not be entirely uncontroversial, particularly among media scholars, who know that the borders between criticism and practice are quite porous. Most pressingly, should we classify scholarship on new media as digital humanities? New media scholarship is vitally important. But a useful classification system needs to provide meaningful distinctions among its domains, and scholarship on new media already has a perfectly good designation, namely new media studies (as outlined in Chapter 24 in this volume). So in my view, the difference between digital humanities and scholarship about digital media is praxis: the digital humanities scholar employs and thinks deeply about digital tools as part of her argument and research methods.
    [Show full text]
  • Four Valences of a Digital Humanities Informed Writing Analytics Gregory J
    Research Note Transforming Text: Four Valences of a Digital Humanities Informed Writing Analytics Gregory J. Palermo, Northeastern University Structured Abstract • Aim: This research note narrates existing and continuing potential crossover between the digital humanities and writing studies. I identify synergies between the two fields’ methodologies and categorize current research in terms of four permutations, or “valences,” of the phrase “writing analytics.” These valences include analytics of writing, writing of analytics, writing as analytics, and analytics as writing. I bring recent work in the two fields together under these common labels, with the goal of building strategic alliances between them rather than to delimit or be comprehensive. I offer the valences as one heuristic for establishing connections and distinctions between two fields engaged in complementary work without firm or definitive discursive borders. Writing analytics might provide a disciplinary ground that incorporates and coheres work from these different domains. I further hope to locate the areas in which my current research in digital humanities, grounded in archival studies, might most shape writing analytics. • Problem Formation: Digital humanities and writing studies are two fields in which scholars are performing massive data analysis research projects, including those in which data are writing or metadata that accompanies writing. There is an emerging environment in the Modern Language Association friendly to crossover between the humanities and writing studies, especially in work that involves digital methods and media. Writing analytics Journal of Writing Analytics Vol. 1 | 2017 311 DOI: 10.37514/JWA-J.2017.1.1.11 Gregory J. Palermo accordingly hopes to find common disciplinary ground with digital humanities, with the goal of benefitting from and contributing to conversations about the ethical application of digital methods to its research questions.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1 1. Anthony J. Niez and Norman N. Holland, “Interactive
    notes.qxd 11/15/1999 9:14 AM Page 173 Notes Chapter 1 1. Anthony J. Niez and Norman N. Holland, “Interactive Fiction,” Critical Inquiry 11 (1984): 111. 2. Articles on readers and hypertexts include Stuart Moulthrop and Nancy Kaplan, “Something to Imagine: Literature, Composition, and Inter- active Fiction,” Computers and Composition 9, no. 1 (1991): 7–24; Moulthrop and Kaplan, “They Became What They Beheld: The Futility of Resistance in the Space of Hypertext Writing,” in Literacy and Computers: The Complications of Teaching and Learning with Technology, ed. Susan Hilligoss and Cynthia L. Selfe (New York: Modern Language Association, 1991), 105–32; Michael Joyce, “Siren Shapes: Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts,” Academic Computing 3, no. 4 (1988): 10–14, 37–42; J. Yel- lowlees Douglas, “Plucked from the Labyrinth: Intention, Interpretation, and Interactive Narratives,” in Knowledge in the Making: Challenging the Text in the Classroom, ed. Bill Corcoran, Mike Hayhoe, and Gordon M. Pradl (Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook, 1994), 179–92; Douglas, “Gaps, Maps, and Perception: What Hypertext Readers (Don’t) Do,” Perforations 3 (spring–summer 1992): 1–13. 3. Jurgen Fauth, “Poles in Your Face: The Promises and Pitfalls of Hyper‹ction,” Mississippi Review 2, no. 6 (September 1995): <http://orca.st.usm.edu/mrw/backweb.html>. 4. Thomas Swiss, “Music and Noise: Marketing Hypertexts,” review of Eastgate Systems, Inc., Post Modern Culture 7, no. 1 (1996): <http:// jefferson.village.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.996/review-4.996>. 5. Espen J. Aarseth, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature (Bal- timore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 49. 6.
    [Show full text]
  • Information Ansfer; Instructional Innovation; Technological Advancement; User Needs (Information); *Writing Instruction; Writing Processes IDENTIFIERS *Hypertext
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 307 626 CS 211 841 AUTHOR Davis, Ken TITLE Toward a Hypertext on Writing. PUB DATE 13 May 89 NOTE llp.; Paper presented at the Annual Computers and Writing Conference (5th, Minneapolis, MN, May 13-14, 1989). For a companion article, see CS 211 840. PUB TYPE Speeches/Conference Papers (150)-- Viewpoints (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Cognitive Processes; *Database Management Systems; Educational Technology; Futures (of Society); Higher Education; *Information Retrieval; *Information Technology; *Information ansfer; Instructional Innovation; Technological Advancement; User Needs (Information); *Writing Instruction; Writing Processes IDENTIFIERS *Hypertext ABSTRACT Hypertext can bring much to the teaching of writing. Specifically, it combines the product and process approaches to writing. What can be taught about writing, by teachers and textbooks, is what cannot be learned from reading written products. What can and must be taught is the process by which those products were produced. Because hypertext is nonlinear or multidimensional, because it can alluw scrolling forward or backward in time, it can allow student writers to see "behind" finished documents to the processes that produced them. Hypertext thus has the potential--not achievable by normal, linear textbooks--to truly relate process and product. Hypertext can give students flexible, individualized access to various stages in the writing of various documents. Hypertext allows people to create textbooks that do well the only thing that writing instruction can do at all. (Twelve references are attached.) (MS) * Reproductions supplied by EDR, are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * Toward a Hypertext on Writing Ken Davis Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis ra"PERMISSIONTO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Fifth Computers and Writing Conference U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Minneapolis, Minnesota Office of Edu,:ational Research and Improvement 6mA(P.
    [Show full text]
  • Victor J. Del Hierro
    Victor J. Del Hierro Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures (WRAC) (517) 355-2400 Michigan State University [email protected] 434 Farm Lane www.victorjdh.com East Lansing, MI 48823 @VictorJDH Education PhD Candidate in Rhetoric and Writing, Michigan State University, May 2017. Concentration: Cultural Rhetorics Committee: J. Estrella Torrez and Dylan AT Miner (Co-Chairs), Malea Powell, Bill Hart-Davidson Dissertation: Still Tippin’: A Borderlands Hip Hop Rhetoric(s) Migration through Houston Master of Arts in English, Texas A&M University, August 2013. Concentration: Cultural Rhetorics and Writing Thesis: The Emcee’s Site of Enunciation: Exploring the Dialectics between Authorship and Readership in Hip Hop Committee: Robert Griffin (Chair), Laura Mandell, Felipe Hinojosa Bachelor of Arts in History, University of Texas at El Paso, May 2011. Concentration: U.S. and Latin American History/ Minor: Chicano Studies Academic Appointments Graduate Research Assistant, Michigan State University, Writing, Information, and Digital Experience (WIDE) Research Center (2016-Present) Graduate Teaching Assistant, Michigan State University, Department of Writing, Rhetoric and American Culture, (2013- Present) Writing Coordinator/Instructor Michigan State University, Engineering and Science Success Academy (ESSA), (2015-Present) Graduate Research Assistant, Michigan State University, Graduate Program-Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Culture, (2014-2015 AY) Graduate Intern (Summer 2013) Texas A&M University, Department of English Curriculum Office Graduate Instructor (2012-2013) Texas A&M University, Department of English Graduate Teaching Assistant (2011-2012) Texas A&M University, Department of English Awards and Grants The Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe Caring for the Future Scholarship (2016) Computers and Writing Conference, $400.
    [Show full text]
  • Computers, Composition and Context: Narratives of Pedagogy and Technology Outside the Computers and Writing Community
    COMPUTERS, COMPOSITION AND CONTEXT: NARRATIVES OF PEDAGOGY AND TECHNOLOGY OUTSIDE THE COMPUTERS AND WRITING COMMUNITY Richard Colby A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2006 Committee: Kristine L. Blair, Advisor Julie A. Burke Graduate Faculty Representative Sue Carter Wood Bruce L. Edwards ii ABSTRACT Kristine L. Blair, Advisor This dissertation examines the technology and pedagogy histories of composition teachers outside of the computers and writing community in order to provide context and future avenues of research in addressing the instructional technology needs of those teachers. The computers and composition community has provided many opportunities for writing teachers to improve their understanding of new technologies. However, for those teachers who lack the resources, positions, and backgrounds often enjoyed by the computers and composition community, there is little that can be provided to more equitably address their teaching needs. Although there is much innovative work in the computers and composition community, more needs to be done to address the disconnect between theory and practice often perceived by the marginalized majority of composition teachers. Although the community has often cast itself as sensitive to the majority of composition teachers, they have also implicitly ignored these teachers because the community has addressed technology in highly focused terms, relied on contexts for its scholarship that do not reach many composition teachers, and has been dismissive of many mainstream technologies. In order to address the gaps left by these assumptions, this dissertation shares literacy, teaching, and technology narratives of five writing teachers from different generations, educational backgrounds, and regions, situating their histories against the backdrop of composition and computers and writing history.
    [Show full text]
  • Technology, Literacy, and Access in 21St-Century Writing Programs Eric James York Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2015 Programmatic knowledge management: technology, literacy, and access in 21st-century writing programs Eric James York Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the Instructional Media Design Commons, Other Communication Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Recommended Citation York, Eric James, "Programmatic knowledge management: technology, literacy, and access in 21st-century writing programs" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 14898. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/14898 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Programmatic knowledge management: Technology, literacy, and access in 21st-century writing programs by Eric James York A dissertation submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Rhetoric and Professional Communication Program of Study Committee: Barbara Blakely, Major Professor Charles Kostelnick Kathie Gossett Stacy Tye-Williams Thomas Brumm Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2015 Copyright © Eric James York 2015. All rights reserved. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ..............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Smartphone and Tablet Multiliteracies and Their Implications for Writing As Process
    WRITING IN THE AGE OF MOBILE: SMARTPHONE AND TABLET MULTILITERACIES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR WRITING AS PROCESS Matthew Arthur Bridgewater A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2014 Committee: Kristine L. Blair, Advisor Radhika Gajjala Graduate Faculty Representative Lee Nickoson Donna Nelson-Beene ©2014 Matthew Arthur Bridgewater All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Kristine L. Blair, Advisor This dissertation compares the writing practices of students on desktops and laptops with their writing practices on mobile computing devices, namely tablets and smartphones. While there is much scholarship on computer-mediated writing (e.g., Eldred, 1991; Dave and Russell, 2010; Haas, 1989; Hochman and Palmquist, 2009; Palmquist et al., 1998), there has been less attention paid to how mobile computer devices mediate writing practices and promote (digital) literacies. This study used mixed methods, specifically quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. Using a process-oriented first-year research writing class as a research site and the research paper as the genre of analysis, the study found that there are significant differences between the writing, research, and reading practices done on these computing devices. The student survey found that students indeed use mobiles for academic writing purposes, are less likely to revise on mobile devices than on desktops and laptops, and generally make local edits to global revisions when they do revise. It also found that students are more likely to access sources that are not typically considered scholarly, preferring to use unscholarly and advertisement- supported sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Planning for Hypertexts in the Writing Center... Or Not
    WCJ_winter2004 2/19/04 11:26 AM Page 9 Planning for Hypertexts in the Writing Center... Or Not by Michael A. Pemberton It will come as no surprise, perhaps, to say that writing centers have long been grounded in – some would say "bounded by" – the conventions of printed text. True, writing centers, like most of the rest of the world, have been influenced by advances in computer technology, most recently through the explosive growth of Online Writing Labs (OWLs) and computer-mediated conferencing with students, but fundamentally, most of the interactions between students and tutors still center on the handwritten or printed texts that are placed on a table between them or, perhaps, shared in a word- processed file. These texts are structured linearly and hierarchically, moving along a single path from beginning to end, following well-known and universally taught dis- course forms that have emerged from a print-based rhetorical tradition. But times may be changing. As we enter an era when electronic publishing and com- puter-mediated discourse are the norm, an era when new literary genres and new forms of communication emerge on, seemingly, a weekly basis, we must ask ourselves whether writing centers should continue to dwell exclusively in the linear, non-linked world of the printed page or whether they should plan to redefine themselves – and retrain themselves – to take residence in the emerging world of multimedia, hyper- linked, digital documents. To put it plainly, should we be preparing tutors to confer- ence with students about hypertexts? This is not a simple question to answer, but it is About the Author Michael A.
    [Show full text]