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Title: FROM TEXTBOOKS TO SAFETY BRIEFINGS: HELPING TECHNICAL WRITERS NEGOTIATE COMPLEX RHETORICAL SITUATIONS.
Creator: Blackburne, Brian, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In this dissertation, I analyze the organizational and political constraints that technical writers encounter when dealing with complex rhetorical situations, particularly within risk-management discourse. I ground my research in case studies of safety briefings that airlines provide to their passengers because these important documents have long been regarded as ineffective, yet they've gone largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Airlines are required to produce these safety briefings,...
Show moreIn this dissertation, I analyze the organizational and political constraints that technical writers encounter when dealing with complex rhetorical situations, particularly within risk-management discourse. I ground my research in case studies of safety briefings that airlines provide to their passengers because these important documents have long been regarded as ineffective, yet they've gone largely unchanged in the last 20 years. Airlines are required to produce these safety briefings, which must satisfy multiple audiences, such as corporate executives, federal safety inspectors, flight attendants, and passengers. Because space and time are limited when presenting safety information to passengers, the technical writers must negotiate constraints related to issues such as format, budget, audience education and language, passenger perceptions/fears, reproducibility, and corporate image/branding – to name a few. The writers have to negotiate these constraints while presenting important (and potentially alarming) information in a way that's as informative, realistic, and tasteful as possible. But such constraints aren't unique to the airline industry. Once they enter the profession, many writing students will experience complex rhetorical situations that constrain their abilities to produce effective documentation; therefore, I am looking at the theories and skills that we're teaching our future technical communicators for coping with such situations. By applying writing-style and visual-cultural analyses to a set of documents, I demonstrate a methodology for analyzing complex rhetorical situations. I conclude by proposing a pedagogy that teachers of technical communication can employ for helping students assess and work within complex rhetorical situations, and I offer suggestions for implementing such practices in the classroom.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002465, ucf:47729
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002465

Title: GREEN CHAIRS, FICTIONAL PHALLUSES, INFILTRATION, AND LOVE ON THE ROCKS: MEDICAL IMAGING ARTIFACTS BLOWN UP.
Creator: Koller, Lynn, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This text outlines and applies a methodology for deciphering problems and producing new information by analyzing the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies – text and images – using practices gleaned from Surrealists, semiologists, and visual artists, emphasizing its own form as being the product of the apparatuses that produce it and therefore untrustworthy. Its basic assumption is that every text contains the information necessary to solve problems of all sorts, though...
Show moreThis text outlines and applies a methodology for deciphering problems and producing new information by analyzing the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies – text and images – using practices gleaned from Surrealists, semiologists, and visual artists, emphasizing its own form as being the product of the apparatuses that produce it and therefore untrustworthy. Its basic assumption is that every text contains the information necessary to solve problems of all sorts, though because of the limitations of this text in both form and authorial intellect, we may only reach a starting point for a solution herein. In this regard, we are deciphering rather than solving. Further, this text illustrates primarily through narratives how digital imaging technologies mediate our relationship with our doctors, illnesses, and our bodies. It explores how the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies create a data stream that replaces the corporal patient, shifting the physician's focus from the whole body to pieces and parts. It is a study of texts and technologies. The method evolved from a rhetorical approach to examining the medical imaging artifacts and the processes by which those artifacts come into existence, with the method and form becoming part of the story, producing a wide array of new information that transcends disciplinary constraints.
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Date Issued: 2008
Identifier: CFE0002193, ucf:47916
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002193

Title: A SCREN OF ONE'S OWN: THE TPEC AND FEMINIST TECHNOLOGICAL TEXTUALITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
Creator: Barnickel, Amy, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: In this dissertation, I analyze the 20th century text, A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf (2005), and I engage with Woolf's concept of a woman's need for a room of her own in which she can be free to think for herself, study, write, or pursue other interests away from the oppression of patriarchal societal expectations and demands. Through library-based research, I identify four screens in Woolf's work through which she viewed and critiqued culture, and I use these screens to...
Show moreIn this dissertation, I analyze the 20th century text, A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf (2005), and I engage with Woolf's concept of a woman's need for a room of her own in which she can be free to think for herself, study, write, or pursue other interests away from the oppression of patriarchal societal expectations and demands. Through library-based research, I identify four screens in Woolf's work through which she viewed and critiqued culture, and I use these screens to reconceptualize "a room of one's own" in 21st Century terms. I determine that the new "room" is intimately and intricately technological and textual and it is reformulated in the digital spaces of blogs, social media, and Web sites. Further, I introduce the new concept of the technologized politically embodied cyborg, or TPEC, and examine the ways 21st Century TPECs are shaping U.S. culture in progressive ways.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003500, ucf:48939
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003500

Title: THE RHETORIC OF THE REGIONAL IMAGE: INTERPRETING THE VISUAL PRODUCTS OF REGIONAL PLANNNING.
Creator: Torres, Alissa, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: The Rhetoric of the Regional Image: Interpreting the Visual Products of Regional Planning investigates the manner in which visual conventions and visual contexts of regional visioning scenarios affect their interpretation by urban and regional planners, who use visual communication to meet the technical and rhetorical demands of their professional practice. The research assesses Central FloridaÃ‚Â's Ã‚Â"How Shall We Grow?Ã‚Â" regional...
Show moreThe Rhetoric of the Regional Image: Interpreting the Visual Products of Regional Planning investigates the manner in which visual conventions and visual contexts of regional visioning scenarios affect their interpretation by urban and regional planners, who use visual communication to meet the technical and rhetorical demands of their professional practice. The research assesses Central FloridaÃ‚Â's Ã‚Â"How Shall We Grow?Ã‚Â" regional land use scenario using focus groups and interviews with planning professionals, a corresponding survey of community values, and rhetorical analysis to explore the Ã‚Â"How Shall We Grow?Ã‚Â" scenario as persuasive communication. The Rhetoric of the Regional Image proposes specific recommendations for technology-based visual communication and scenario development in urban and regional planning practice, while contributing to literature in technical communication and rhetoric by examining plannersÃ‚Â' professional communication within their discourse community.
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Date Issued: 2010
Identifier: CFE0003511, ucf:48943
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003511

Title: POLITICAL SPACES AND REMEDIATED PLACES: REARTICULATING THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE WRITING CENTER.
Creator: Carpenter, Russell, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Writing center directors (WCDs) often situate their programs in physical and virtual spaces without fully studying the pedagogical and political implications of their decisions. Without intense study, writing centers risk building programs within spaces that undermine their missions and philosophies. In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre argues that "From the analytic standpoint, the spatial practice of a society is revealed through the deciphering of its space" (38). The study of space...
Show moreWriting center directors (WCDs) often situate their programs in physical and virtual spaces without fully studying the pedagogical and political implications of their decisions. Without intense study, writing centers risk building programs within spaces that undermine their missions and philosophies. In The Production of Space, Henri Lefebvre argues that "From the analytic standpoint, the spatial practice of a society is revealed through the deciphering of its space" (38). The study of space also reveals important political and financial priorities within the institution. Furthermore, the positioning of buildings and the spatial layout of a campus display the institution's priorities and attitudes toward writing center work. Theorizing the Online Writing Lab (OWL) through the lens of cultural and political geographies, it becomes apparent that the physical spaces of many writing centers are not as sustainable as WCDs might like, and in many ways, they are marginalized within the larger institution. This dissertation prompts a rearticulation of place and space in the writing center. In this dissertation, I argue that in an attempt to rethink current practices, the virtual space of the writing center should perpetuate, extend, and improve the social practices employed in our physical spaces. I draw from mapping exercises to inform my critique in an attempt to advance our understanding of writing center physical and virtual spaces. The changing geographical and cultural landscape of the institution demands that writing centers pay close attention to spatial implications as they employ technology to create dynamic virtual resources and more sustainable spaces. I rearticulate writing center spaces through cognitive and digital mapping, urban planning, and architectural theories. I make several contributions through this work: theoretical, to rearticulate the physical and virtual space of writing center work; political, to understand the constructions of the writing center's pedagogical spaces; and pedagogical, to understand best practices for creating virtual spaces that enhance learning, unlike those we have seen before or have had available in the writing center.
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Date Issued: 2009
Identifier: CFE0002776, ucf:48092
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002776

Title: GENRE AND PERSONA IN ACTIVIST WEBSITES.
Creator: Boreman, Margaret M.F., Bowdon, Melody A., University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study examines six activist websites in terms of genre and persona to identify electronic-text conventions and forms that must be recognizable to site visitors in order for digital activists to effectively communicate. Activist websites already use a number of text forms and visual rhetorical elements to cue the site visitor; many of these text forms are common to the activist websites examined for this thesis and may constitute an identifiable and distinct genre.In terms of persona,...
Show moreThis study examines six activist websites in terms of genre and persona to identify electronic-text conventions and forms that must be recognizable to site visitors in order for digital activists to effectively communicate. Activist websites already use a number of text forms and visual rhetorical elements to cue the site visitor; many of these text forms are common to the activist websites examined for this thesis and may constitute an identifiable and distinct genre.In terms of persona, this study examines the electronic "public self" of activist websites. The arena becomes a metaphor for the virtual world; the rhetors are the activist sites; and the digital discourse is the intertextual debate--the conversation--that occurs among website users, activist sites, and targets. By categorizing activist sites in terms of their primary activities (helping, protest, and revolutionary), we determine which elements of genre repeat according to categories and we ultimately gauge the intensity and type of the outcome that the website rhetor hopes to create in the user. Designers and owners of activist sites have goals which can only be reached by means of effective, well-considered, digital genre and persona.Because many technical communicators and students of technical communication first experience the profession through service-learning for a nongovernmental organization--often an activist organization--this study will help those technical communicators to reconsider their own assumptions about genre and persona and may lead those students to understand the importance of privileging genre and persona when designing and redesigning digital texts. This study provides both experienced and new technical communicators a framework that they can apply to documents in order to (1) cue site visitors to the meaning of electronic texts and (2) construct effective public personas in the digital forum.
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Date Issued: 2004
Identifier: CFE0000087, ucf:46073
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000087

Title: Post-Secondary Faculty Treatment of Non-native English-speaking Student Writing Errors in Academic Subject Courses.
Creator: Monroe, Laura, Nutta, Joyce, Jahani, Shiva, Mihai, Florin, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: As more non-native English-speaking students enroll in English-medium universities, even more faculty will instruct students who are unprepared for the rigors of post-secondary academic writing in English. Many faculty members lack training and knowledge regarding the assessment of non-native English-speaking students' writing, as well as the ability to provide effective feedback. This quantitative study investigated the possible attitudinal factors, including demographics, which might affect...
Show moreAs more non-native English-speaking students enroll in English-medium universities, even more faculty will instruct students who are unprepared for the rigors of post-secondary academic writing in English. Many faculty members lack training and knowledge regarding the assessment of non-native English-speaking students' writing, as well as the ability to provide effective feedback. This quantitative study investigated the possible attitudinal factors, including demographics, which might affect faculty preparedness and grading practices for both native and non-native English-speaking students' academic writing and plagiarism, as well as the reasons faculty do not deduct points from both populations' writing errors. Structural equation modeling and SPSS Statistics were employed to analyze the results of a faculty questionnaire disseminated to individuals who had taught non-native English-speaking students in academic subject courses. The findings from this study illustrated that faculty's native language, years, taught, and institution type were significant factors in not deducting points for academic writing errors and plagiarism, and the major reasons for not deducting points for errors were that faculty had too many students to grade, not enough training in assessing student written errors and plagiarism, and that the errors and plagiarism would have taken too long to explain. The practical implications gleaned from these results can be applied to most departments in English-medium post-secondary institutions regarding faculty preparedness and training in student academic writing errors and plagiarism, and recommendations for future research are given for similar types of preparation and guidance for post-secondary faculty, regardless of degree path or academic subject.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0007057, ucf:51972
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007057

Title: The Feminine Margin: The Re-Imagining of One Professor's Rhetorical Pedagogy--A Curriculum Project.
Creator: Alvarez, Camila, Brenckle, Martha, Bowdon, Melody, Mauer, Barry, Weishampel, John, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Writing pedagogy uses techniques that institutionalize dichotomous thinking rather than work against it. Cartesian duality has helped to create the marginalization of people, environments, and animals inherent in Western thought. Writing pedagogy based in current-traditional rhetoric uses a writing process that reinforces the hierarchical structure of Self/Other, Author/Reader, and Teacher/Student. This structure, in conjunction with capitalism, prioritizes the self and financial gain while...
Show moreWriting pedagogy uses techniques that institutionalize dichotomous thinking rather than work against it. Cartesian duality has helped to create the marginalization of people, environments, and animals inherent in Western thought. Writing pedagogy based in current-traditional rhetoric uses a writing process that reinforces the hierarchical structure of Self/Other, Author/Reader, and Teacher/Student. This structure, in conjunction with capitalism, prioritizes the self and financial gain while diminishing and objectifying the other. The thought process behind the objectification and monetization of the other created the unsustainable business and life practices behind global warming, racism, sexism, and environmental destruction. A reframing of pedagogical writing practices can fight dichotomous thinking by re-imagining student writers as counter-capitalism content creators. Changing student perceptions from isolation to a transmodern, humanitarian, and feminist ethics of care model uses a self-reflexive ethnography to form a pedagogy of writing that challenges dichotomous thought(-)by focusing on transparency in my teaching practice, the utilization of liminality through images, the use of technology to publish student work, and both instructor and student self-reflection as a part of the writing and communication process. This practice has led me to a theory of resistance and influence that I have titled The Resistance Hurricane, a definition of digital rhetoric that includes humanitarian and feminist objectives that I have titled Electric Rhetoric, and a definition for the digitally mediated product of that rhetoric that I call Electric Blooms or electracy after Gregory Ulmer's term for digital media.
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Date Issued: 2019
Identifier: CFE0007777, ucf:52371
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0007777

Title: E:Portfolios and Digital Identities: Using E-portfolios to examine issues in technical communication.
Creator: Moody, Jane, Wallace, David, Marinara, Martha, Bowdon, Melody, Dziuban, Charles, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Technical writing teachers have always struggled with understanding how to best deal with pedagogical issues including rapidly changing technology, audience construction, and transposing an academic ethos into a professional one. The expanding online world complicates these issues by increasing the pace of digital change, making the potential audience both more diffuse and more remote, and creating a more complex online rhetorical situation.E-portfolios provide a vivid way to examine this...
Show moreTechnical writing teachers have always struggled with understanding how to best deal with pedagogical issues including rapidly changing technology, audience construction, and transposing an academic ethos into a professional one. The expanding online world complicates these issues by increasing the pace of digital change, making the potential audience both more diffuse and more remote, and creating a more complex online rhetorical situation.E-portfolios provide a vivid way to examine this complex technological situation, and in this study, the author examines four cases of students creating online portfolios in a technical communication classroom. The author looks at both their e-portfolio process as well as their product, interviewing them to get a sense of how they used rhetoric, identity, and technology in an attempt to form a coherent professional presentation through a technological medium. In addition, the author looks at some issues inherent in e-portfolios themselves that may be applicable to a technical communication classroom, as this medium becomes ever more popular as a way of assessing both programs and the students themselves.
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Date Issued: 2011
Identifier: CFE0004141, ucf:49062
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004141

Title: Examining Gender in Pharmaceutical Rhetoric Through a Cultural Studies Lens: A Case Study on the Gardasil Vaccine.
Creator: Fickley, Jennifer, Bowdon, Melody, Scott, John, Bell, Kathleen, Delorme, Denise, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: On June 8, 2006, Merck announced the debut of Gardasil, the world's first vaccine found successful in preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, a sexually transmitted infection that is one of the main causes of certain cancers in men and women, including cervical, vulvar, penile and anal cancers. To promote the vaccine's release, Merck launched Gardasil's (")One Less(") advertising campaign that included television commercials, print ads and a consumer-focused website (www.Gardasil...
Show moreOn June 8, 2006, Merck announced the debut of Gardasil, the world's first vaccine found successful in preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) infections, a sexually transmitted infection that is one of the main causes of certain cancers in men and women, including cervical, vulvar, penile and anal cancers. To promote the vaccine's release, Merck launched Gardasil's (")One Less(") advertising campaign that included television commercials, print ads and a consumer-focused website (www.Gardasil.com), each promoting the message that (")you(") could now be (")one less woman(") affected by cervical cancer ((")One Less(") campaign). The vaccine, tested and approved only for females age 9-26, was advertised to this age group, as well as parents or guardians responsible for making medical decisions for female minors. As the campaign launched, commercials depicted females laughing and enjoying hobbies while mentioning the positive decision they made to receive the Gardasil vaccine. Many commercials also included portrayals of mothers talking happily about their decision to get their young daughters vaccinated. Interestingly, male figures were completely left out of Gardasil's (")One Less(") campaign ads, despite the fact that in reality, males administer the vaccine as medical professionals, transmit the infection as sexual partners, and suffer cancers as HPV-infected patients. Males were even left out of the ads as parents, who were always portrayed by women in the ad campaign. Informed consumers may have expected all this to change on Oct. 16, 2009 (-) three years after Gardasil's debut (-) when the Food (&) Drug Administration (FDA) approved the vaccine for use in males age 9-26 to protect against HPV-caused genital warts. Though Merck's vaccine was now accessible to more consumers than ever, the advertising that surrounded this medical breakthrough changed very little. Television commercials for the vaccine still promoted Gardasil primarily to women for the purpose of preventing HPV-related cervical cancer. Again, men were not featured in commercials as medical professionals, parents, guardians, romantic partners, or even as patients able to get the vaccine. Males did begin appearing on the vaccine's official website, however these depictions were limited to showing only young boys, who appeared standing with a mother's protective arm around them. Males that represent the older age range (up to age 26) were never shown. What effect does the lack of male representation have on the verbal and nonverbal message these ads are sending consumers about who fits in the target consumer group, as well as who is at risk for an HPV infection? On a broader level, how does gender representation as a whole affect pharmaceutical advertisements and the adoption of the potentially life-saving products they promote? How does a pharmaceutical technology become (")gendered(")? How do specific gender portrayals impact the educational aspects of pharmaceutical ads, which may shape a consumer's opinion of who is at risk for an illness, and who is responsible for its treatment or prevention? And how do these gender portrayals connect with, reflect or reinforce dominant cultural beliefs about the roles males and females play in protecting themselves and others from disease? In this study, I investigate these questions using a blended cultural studies/social sciences research perspective, first looking at the controversial history of direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising and the gender stereotypes that traditionally exist in this form of rhetoric. I then test the affect Merck's gender portrayals has on its ad message in a blind study done with a small sample population, which provides evidence that Merck's ads are confusing and exclusive of certain populations, particularly men. I then investigate how Merck's existing gender portrayals, and strong focus on women, reflect larger historical beliefs on the roles that males and females play in health care and in the family. I show how, through advertising, Gardasil has become (")gendered(") as a pharmaceutical technology for female children. From here, I will show how pharmaceutical companies, such as Merck, have both reflected and reinforced the belief that women are the primary caregivers to children, how this stereotype is both damaging and statistically incorrect, and how using it targets Gardasil ads to a very narrow population of consumers, miscommunicating the message of who is at risk for illness contraction and perhaps even damaging sales in addition to prevention. I later provide evidence that Merck's current Gardasil ad series and other actions in the marketplace are dangerously misleading certain populations regarding the nature of the HPV virus, the protective abilities of the vaccine, and the populations responsible for accessing Gardasil. I then provide the argument that gendering Gardasil as a (")women's technology(") is done intentionally by Merck, which has a history of making profits a priority over responsibly treating patient health. I conclude by providing detailed suggestions on how Merck can augment their current ad series to de-gender Gardasil to become more medically responsible, and break out of the cycle of portraying men and women using damaging and outdated stereotypes. Instead, my suggestions for changes to Gardasil's advertising approach would make the vaccine's messages appeal to all audiences at risk.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004304, ucf:49486
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004304

Title: Aliterate College Students: A Neglect of Reading or a New Type of Literacy?.
Creator: Wells, Crystal, Marinara, Martha, Bowdon, Melody, Young, Beth, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study examines the literacy practices of college students in order to determine whether their reading habits are likely to detract from their future professions. Based on reports that many college students and individuals in general do not read regularly, this study examines numerous studies that focus on the reading habits of students and their attitudes toward reading. Findings show that a considerable number of students do not practice what many educators consider to be (")good(")...
Show moreThis study examines the literacy practices of college students in order to determine whether their reading habits are likely to detract from their future professions. Based on reports that many college students and individuals in general do not read regularly, this study examines numerous studies that focus on the reading habits of students and their attitudes toward reading. Findings show that a considerable number of students do not practice what many educators consider to be (")good(") reading habits; that is, they do not read approved print literature and texts regularly. This study also introduces the idea that perhaps students are supplementing traditional reading with engagement in new types of literacy, including digital literacy, which might still yield positive benefits that are commonly associated with reading in its traditional sense. Educators are called to adopt an expanded notion of literacy that would recognize the validity of new literacies in the lives of students. Viewing literacy in this way would promote literacy amongst students, providing them with valuable tools for their futures. Moreover, adopting an expanded definition of literacy would alter how aliteracy reports such as the ones discussed in this study would be assessed.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004310, ucf:49485
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004310

Title: Intercultural Communication in the Global Age: Lessons Learned from French Technical Communicators.
Creator: Tallman, Nicole, Flammia, Madelyn, Bowdon, Melody, Jones, Daniel, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis explores the cultural considerations American technical communicators must address when working with French colleagues and when creating technical documentation for French audiences. A review of the literature on intercultural communication theory was conducted, along with a review of the limited research on technical communication in France and the needs of French audiences. A qualitative online survey of French technical communicators was also conducted. Through this survey,...
Show moreThis thesis explores the cultural considerations American technical communicators must address when working with French colleagues and when creating technical documentation for French audiences. A review of the literature on intercultural communication theory was conducted, along with a review of the limited research on technical communication in France and the needs of French audiences. A qualitative online survey of French technical communicators was also conducted. Through this survey, French technical communicators reported on their intercultural beliefs, experiences, and practices, and information, language, and cultural needs.Survey responses were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Two main themes were developed as a result of this analysis: the importance of adapting content to French audiences, and the cultural differences between French and American information needs and communication styles. Survey findings were combined with theoretical and practical literature to offer American technical communicators guidance for successful intercultural interactions. This thesis concludes with suggestions for future practice and research in intercultural technical communication.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004944, ucf:49604
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004944

Title: Investigating Place in the Writing Classroom: Designing a Place-Based Course with a Local Service-Learning Component.
Creator: Pompos, Melissa, Bowdon, Melody, Pigg, Stacey, Rios, Gabriela, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Drawing on literature about place-based education and service-learning, as well as three groups' perspectives about their service-learning experiences, this research describes how place (understood simultaneously as a material agent, a setting for human activity, and a factor in an individual's situatedness) and identity (understood in terms of one's social position) are socially- constructed concepts that impact students' writing and learning experiences. More specifically, this project...
Show moreDrawing on literature about place-based education and service-learning, as well as three groups' perspectives about their service-learning experiences, this research describes how place (understood simultaneously as a material agent, a setting for human activity, and a factor in an individual's situatedness) and identity (understood in terms of one's social position) are socially- constructed concepts that impact students' writing and learning experiences. More specifically, this project presents place-based education as a teaching method that can focus and reinvigorate service-learning in a writing course.Including place-based content and service-learning projects in a writing course requires careful design and reflection. However, course design should not be an activity limited to just teachers. In alignment with feminist research methods and standpoint theory, this research values and privileges the perspectives of stakeholders who are not normally included in the course design process: students and community partners. To present a rich account of these stakeholders' experiences designing, implementing, and participating in a place-based service- learning project, a combination of qualitative data methods (interviews, classroom observations, and textual analyses) is used. This information serves as the basis for the design of a place-based writing course with a local service-learning component. The proposed course asks students to work with community partners to identify a place-based need that can be addressed(-)at least in part(-)by writing-related service. By collaborating with community partners, creating writing products that address community needs, and reflecting on how their identities and learning experiences have been impacted by the places they've worked and the communities they've worked with, students can apply their knowledge in meaningful contexts, write for real audiences, and develop more thorough understandings of the places where they study, work, and live.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005865, ucf:50853
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005865

Title: Female Bias in Technical Communication and an Exploration of Pedagogical Strategies for Reversing the Bias.
Creator: Beeson, Rebecca, Applen, John, Jones, Daniel, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This thesis explores technical communication and seeks to establish that females outnumber males in the field while also holder more high-level positions. It further seeks to show why a field does not benefit from having one sex outnumber the other. The benefits of having an equal number of females and males contributing to the growth and expansion of the field are discussed. Finally, this thesis discusses potential pedagogical strategies which could be employed at the college level as a...
Show moreThis thesis explores technical communication and seeks to establish that females outnumber males in the field while also holder more high-level positions. It further seeks to show why a field does not benefit from having one sex outnumber the other. The benefits of having an equal number of females and males contributing to the growth and expansion of the field are discussed. Finally, this thesis discusses potential pedagogical strategies which could be employed at the college level as a means of attracting more young men to the field and allowing for maximum growth of technical communication as a field of study and work. The thesis begins by exploring the history of technical communication as a means of understanding how it came to be a field where women outnumber men. It then briefly explores the differences between the learning styles of females and males as a means of demonstrating the importance of including both sexes equally. Lastly, using research from other, related fields pedagogical strategies are suggested for drawing more young males into the study and practice of technical communication.The conclusions drawn in this thesis are as follows: 1.) Women currently outnumber men in both the study and practice of technical communication. 2.) Research indicates that any field will benefit the most from including the skills and experiences of both sexes. 3.) Pedagogy may be effectively used as a means to help attract more young males into the field, thus increasing the growth and development of technical communication.
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Date Issued: 2014
Identifier: CFE0005131, ucf:50680
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005131

Title: Sherlock Fandom Online: Toward an Ethic of Advocacy for Asexual Identity.
Creator: Wojton, Jennifer, Bowdon, Melody, Scott, Blake, Brenckle, Martha, Pigg, Stacey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This study applies theories of texts and technologies to examine ways in which fan culture and mainstream entertainment media can shape and be shaped by each other through digital interactions and negotiations. Further, it considers ways in which these interactions have potential to foster community building and advocacy efforts beyond the limitations of the screen. The analysis focuses, in particular, on the subject of asexuality as it is represented in BBC's 2010 television series, Sherlock...
Show moreThis study applies theories of texts and technologies to examine ways in which fan culture and mainstream entertainment media can shape and be shaped by each other through digital interactions and negotiations. Further, it considers ways in which these interactions have potential to foster community building and advocacy efforts beyond the limitations of the screen. The analysis focuses, in particular, on the subject of asexuality as it is represented in BBC's 2010 television series, Sherlock, tracing the multiple ways in which the traditional boundaries between fans and entertainment professionals have been breached as each group works to engage the other while pursuing their separate objectives, including social change, personal and professional acceptance and/or acclaim, and commercial profit. The dissertation traces four distinct but interconnected types/sites of interface among fans, advocates, mainstream media, showrunners, and celebrities, including 1) mainstream media articles related to Sherlock and those officially associated with it; 2) social media; 3) single-owner or small group-operated fan websites; and 4) fan fiction and associated comments. This interdisciplinary project draws on the work of fandom/digital culture scholarship (e.g., Henry Jenkins, Matthew Hills, Paul Boothe) within a broader framework informed by scholars of digital culture and queer and feminist ideologies (e.g., Donna Haraway, Lee Edelmen, Lauren Berlant), as well as emerging scholarship on asexuality, which is informed by queer and feminist perspectives (e.g., Brenda Chu, Julia Decker, Jacinthe Flore).
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Date Issued: 2016
Identifier: CFE0006421, ucf:51487
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006421

Title: Learning Spaces are WAC: Investigating How Classroom Space Design Influences Student Disciplinary Identities.
Creator: Berry, Landon, Zemliansky, Pavel, Vie, Stephanie, Bowdon, Melody, Pigg, Stacey, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This dissertation used classroom observations, movement mapping, instructor interviews, and student focus groups to examine the ways in which both instructors and students navigated the classroom spaces they were assigned in upper-level, discipline-specific courses. By focusing on three diverse disciplines (writing and rhetoric, education, and chemistry), this dissertation makes arguments about how the design of classroom spaces (as well as the tools that are housed therein) support,...
Show moreThis dissertation used classroom observations, movement mapping, instructor interviews, and student focus groups to examine the ways in which both instructors and students navigated the classroom spaces they were assigned in upper-level, discipline-specific courses. By focusing on three diverse disciplines (writing and rhetoric, education, and chemistry), this dissertation makes arguments about how the design of classroom spaces (as well as the tools that are housed therein) support, facilitate, and detract from a student's ability to develop a disciplinary identity, which is defined here as the social and linguistic construction of a practitioner of a discipline that is shaped by the language, positions, and peer acknowledgement negotiated by that discipline. Moreover, this dissertation also makes arguments about how tools that are common across many disciplines (desktops, chairs, etc.) support or detract from student engagement. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that teachers across disciplines can be mindful of the spaces they are assigned (even if those spaces were perhaps not designed with disciplinary goals in mind) in an effort to help students begin to think of those spaces as extensions of their discipline so they can better imagine themselves as future professionals in those spaces.
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Date Issued: 2018
Identifier: CFE0006977, ucf:51651
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006977

Title: Avatar and Self: A Rhetoric of Identity Mediated Through Collaborative Role-Play.
Creator: Andrews, Pamela, Pigg, Stacey, McDaniel, Thomas, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This project responds to a problem in scholarship describing the relationship between virtual avatars and their physical users. In Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle identifies points of slippage wherein the persona of the avatar becomes conflated with the user's sense of self to create an authentic self predicated on both real and virtual experiences (Turkle 184-5). Although the conflation of the authentic self with the virtual has provided various affordances for serious games or other...
Show moreThis project responds to a problem in scholarship describing the relationship between virtual avatars and their physical users. In Life on the Screen, Sherry Turkle identifies points of slippage wherein the persona of the avatar becomes conflated with the user's sense of self to create an authentic self predicated on both real and virtual experiences (Turkle 184-5). Although the conflation of the authentic self with the virtual has provided various affordances for serious games or other pedagogical projects such as classrooms hosted through the game Second Life, the processes enabling identification with an avatar have been largely overlooked. This project examines several layers of influence that affect how users play with identity to create successful social performances within an online community connected to a work of fiction. In doing so, the user must consider his or her own motivations for creating a persona, how these motivations will allow the avatar to achieve social acceptance, and how these social performances connect to the scene created by the work of fiction. Using an online role-playing forum based on a work of fiction as a site of analysis, this project will borrow from game studies, dramatism, and identity theory to create a framework for discussing processes through which users identify with their virtual avatars.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0004807, ucf:49735
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004807

Title: Somatechnologies of Body Size Modification: Posthuman Embodiment and Discourses of Health.
Creator: Griffin, Meghan, Bowdon, Melody, Scott, John, Campbell, James, Oliveira, Leonardo, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This project focuses on persistent gaps in philosophies of the body: the enduring mind-body divide in accounts of phenomenology, the unfulfilled promises of representing and inhabiting the body in online and virtual spaces, and the difference between health as quantified in medical discourse versus health as lived experience. These tensions are brought to light through the electronic food journal genre where the difficulty in capturing pre-noetic, outside-consciousness aspects of experience...
Show moreThis project focuses on persistent gaps in philosophies of the body: the enduring mind-body divide in accounts of phenomenology, the unfulfilled promises of representing and inhabiting the body in online and virtual spaces, and the difference between health as quantified in medical discourse versus health as lived experience. These tensions are brought to light through the electronic food journal genre where the difficulty in capturing pre-noetic, outside-consciousness aspects of experience and embodied health are thrown into relief against circulating cultural discourses surrounding health, body size, self-surveillance, and self-care. The electronic food journal genre serves as a space for users to situate themselves and their daily practices in relation to medicalization, public policy, and the conflation of health and body size. These journals form artifacts reflecting life writing practices in digital spaces that model compliant self-surveillance as well as transgressive self-care. The journals instantiate the mind-body-technology interactivity of extended cognition, but also point toward a rupture in the feedback loops that promise to integrate pre-noetic aspects of being and experience. By exploring the tensions inherent in these online food journaling spaces, this project concludes by offering a PEERS heuristic/heuretic for assessing theories and technologies of embodiment and health for their ability to access what resides in the (")remainder(") of current embodiment philosophy and to identify the aspects of lived experience left unattended in USDA health policy, food journaling interfaces, and embodiment philosophy. The PEERS model can be used to evaluate existing technologies for their capacity to map true mind-body-technology interactivity and to build new theory that accounts for a fuller, more nuanced approach to understanding embodied reality and embodied health.
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Date Issued: 2012
Identifier: CFE0004783, ucf:49773
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004783

Title: Inverse Intuition: Repurposing as a Method to Create New Artifacts, to Invent new Practices, and to Produce new Knowledge.
Creator: Jones, Warren, Mauer, Barry, Grajeda, Anthony, Bowdon, Melody, Koller, Lynn, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: This dissertation argues that Digital Natives, rather than employing novel ways of thinking (such as those suggested by Walter Ong's concept of Second Orality), are in fact employing a way of thinking that has always existed: repurposing. Ruth Oldenziel discusses how, historically, women used (")a kind of mental quality(") enabling them to re-use objects in novel ways to accomplish more of life's tasks. My research led me to investigate how a wide variety of people, especially historically...
Show moreThis dissertation argues that Digital Natives, rather than employing novel ways of thinking (such as those suggested by Walter Ong's concept of Second Orality), are in fact employing a way of thinking that has always existed: repurposing. Ruth Oldenziel discusses how, historically, women used (")a kind of mental quality(") enabling them to re-use objects in novel ways to accomplish more of life's tasks. My research led me to investigate how a wide variety of people, especially historically marginalized people, used this kind of mental quality. This dissertation explores repurposing's real world uses as well as its uses in narratives, specifically dystopia and apocalyptic narratives. Within these narratives, repurposing plays a similar role to repurposing in the real world, filling the gap between a survival mode of life and a science/technology driven society. The last part of this dissertation explores the place of repurposing among a myriad of current concepts concerning creativity.
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Date Issued: 2013
Identifier: CFE0005010, ucf:50013
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005010

Title: Institutionalizing Service-Learning as a Best Practice of Community Engagement in Higher Education: Intra- and Inter-Institutional Comparisons of the Carnegie Community Engagement Elective Classification Framework.
Creator: Plante, Jarrad, Cox, Dr. Thomas, Robinson, Sandra, Bryer, Thomas, Bowdon, Melody, University of Central Florida
Abstract / Description: Service-learning, with a longstanding history in American higher education (Burkhardt (&) Pasque, 2005), includes three key tenets: superior academic learning, meaningful and relevant community service, and persistent civic learning (McGoldrick and Ziegert, 2002). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has created an elective classification system (-) Carnegie Community Engagement Classification (-) for institutions of higher education to demonstrate the breadth and depth of...
Show moreService-learning, with a longstanding history in American higher education (Burkhardt (&) Pasque, 2005), includes three key tenets: superior academic learning, meaningful and relevant community service, and persistent civic learning (McGoldrick and Ziegert, 2002). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has created an elective classification system (-) Carnegie Community Engagement Classification (-) for institutions of higher education to demonstrate the breadth and depth of student involvement and learning through partnerships and engagement in the community (Dalton (&) Crosby, 2011; Hurtado (&) DeAngelo, 2012; Kuh et al., 2008; Pryor, Hurtado, Saenz, Santos, (&) Korn, 2007). Community engagement (")is in the culture, commonly understood practices and knowledge, and (CCEC helps determine) whether it is really happening (-) rhetoric versus reality(") (J. Saltmarsh, personal communication, August 11, 2014). The study considers the applications of three Carnegie Community Engagement Classification designated institutions to understand the institutionalization of service-learning over time by examining the 2008 designation and 2015 reclassification across institution types (-) a Private Liberal Arts College, a Private Teaching University, and a Public Research University located in the same metropolitan area. Organizational Change Theory was used as a theoretical model. Case study methodology was used in the present qualitative research to perform document analysis with qualitative interviews conducted to elucidate the data from the 2008 and 2015 CCEC applications from the three institutions. Using intra- and inter-comparative analysis, this study highlights approaches, policies, ethos, and emerging concepts to inform how higher education institutions increase the quality and quantity of service-learning opportunities that benefit higher education practitioners as well as community leaders.
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Date Issued: 2015
Identifier: CFE0005864, ucf:50852
Format: Document (PDF)
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0005864

rhetoric (4)	+ -
technology (3)	+ -
Pedagogy (2)	+ -
Rhetoric (2)	+ -
cyborg (2)	+ -

gender (2)	+ -
service-learning (2)	+ -
technical communication (2)	+ -
?Civics (1)	+ -
?Community Programs (1)	+ -
?Higher Education (1)	+ -
?Interpersonal Communication (1)	+ -
?Peer Relationship (1)	+ -
?Postsecondary Education (1)	+ -
?Service?Learning (1)	+ -
?Social Responsibility (1)	+ -
?Student Attitudes (1)	+ -
?Student Behavior (1)	+ -
?Student Participation (1)	+ -
?Student Surveys (1)	+ -
?Undergraduate Students (1)	+ -
?Volunteers (1)	+ -
Airline (1)	+ -
Apocalyptic (1)	+ -
Barthes (1)	+ -
Brecht (1)	+ -
Carnegie Community Engagement Classification (1)	+ -
College Students (1)	+ -
Community College (1)	+ -
Connection (1)	+ -

University of Central Florida (24)	+ -
Bowdon, Melody (23)	+ -
Pigg, Stacey (4)	+ -
Marinara, Martha (3)	+ -
Applen, John (2)	+ -

Brenckle, Martha (2)	+ -
Cintron Delgado, Rosa (2)	+ -
Jones, Daniel (2)	+ -
Koller, Lynn (2)	+ -
Mauer, Barry (2)	+ -
Scott, Blake (2)	+ -
Scott, John (2)	+ -
Alvarez, Camila (1)	+ -
Andrews, Pamela (1)	+ -
Barnickel, Amy (1)	+ -
Beeson, Rebecca (1)	+ -
Bell, Kathleen (1)	+ -
Berry, Landon (1)	+ -
Blackburne, Brian (1)	+ -
Boreman, Margaret M.F. (1)	+ -
Bowdon, Melody A. (1)	+ -
Bryer, Thomas (1)	+ -
Campbell, James (1)	+ -
Carpenter, Russell (1)	+ -
Cox, Dr. Thomas (1)	+ -
Cox, Thomas (1)	+ -
Craiger, John (1)	+ -
Delorme, Denise (1)	+ -
Dombrowski, Paul (1)	+ -
Dziuban, Charles (1)	+ -

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