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March 1999

  1. Margaret Cavendish and composition style
    Abstract

    Margaret Cavendish has been getting more attention recently as a controversial, prolific, sometimes brilliant, sometimes unintelligible British writer in latter half of seventeenth century.' I approached Cavendish's writings soon after reading essays in Reclaiming Rhetorica, and I noticed in many of her works an intriguing view of composition style. She advocated consistently that fancy and adornment were appropriate stylistic ingredients in scientific and historical prose. This is especially surprising in that Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, and Thomas Sprat targeted science and history as areas in which fanciful and elaborate writing styles had no place. The rise of moder expository prose, with its idea of mimetic disinterestedness, can, in part, be traced back to these well-known calls for stylistic plainness and purity in seventeenth century. Cavendish, however, was not sympathetic to early moder calls for stylistic plainness. She was well read in natural philosophy and had contact with figures such as Sprat, Hobbes, Walter Charleton, Rene Descartes, and Pierre Gassendi. Gassendi's critique of Descartes influenced significantly Cavendish's own antiCartesian, vitalistic view of nature as an intelligent, self-moving, and purposeful entity, not a set of de-animated corpuscles.2 In addition, Cavendish followed closely meetings of Royal Society, and she was well aware of Society's calls for a plain, nearly mathematical style of composition. She attended a meeting in May of 1667, first woman ever to do so, and her attendance drew strong reactions from several members who disapproved of her scientific speculations, her fanciful writing style, and her elaborate clothing as well, as Samuel Pepys notes in his dairy (8:243). Undoubtedly, Cavendish's decision to write scientific and historical prose in elaborate styles was an informed decision, and her style should therefore be seen as a form of dissent directed against her age's escalating positivism. Until recently, Cavendish's writings have been characterized in large part by their excesses, including their proliferating and extravagant stylistic qualities, a characterization that began in her own time. As Henry Perry suggests in his 1918 dissertation on Cavendish, the Duchess's lack of restraint in writing was

    doi:10.1080/07350199909359245

February 1999

  1. Narrative Style, Social Class, and Response to Poetry
    Abstract

    Explores differences in adolescents’ styles of responding to poetry and relates these differences to contrasts in the way students narrate stories of personal experience. Finds contrasts between working-class and middle-class students in styles of responding to poetry which show parallels with their contrasting styles of narrating stories of personal experience.

    doi:10.58680/rte19991671

January 1999

  1. “Unattached” Clauses in Technical Writing
    Abstract

    The views concerning “dangling participles” of grammarians, usage experts and authors of books on technical writing are reviewed and compared. Although many unattached clauses are clearly unacceptable, some are less objectionable and still others are acceptable practice. Absolute constructions and other clause-relational participial, infinitival and verbless clauses need no attachment to a proximate noun or noun phrase, and logical clauses that are not attached to a noun are shown as normal, acceptable use. Even clearly adjectival clauses are often unattached when followed by the passive voice, intransitives and several other grammatical structures; clauses between the subject and verb and at the end of the sentence are also often not attached to the immediately preceding noun. Cultural (perhaps also gender) differences between humanistic teachers and task-oriented engineers are noted as possible causes of different viewpoints regarding the use of unattached participles, and greater acceptance of the many acceptable forms of unattached clauses is argued.

    doi:10.2190/41pb-wpvv-0vxy-jm1q
  2. The Human Rhetorical Potential
    Abstract

    This article explores the possible grounds for a research program in cognitive rhetoric that aims to forge a tight link between the structures of meaning and structures of brain, body, and world. In section one, I outline a theory of human meaning-making in terms of pragmatic, epistemic, and symbolic actions as they relate to the principles of intentionality, projection, publicity, and materiality. In section two, I consider recent global theories of mind and brain to assess the theory's neurological plausibility. The common link between these two sections is the phrase, “tombstone technology,” taken from the voice-over narration from a television show about plane crashes. I first analyze this construction in terms of its effects on attention, value, categorization, and memory; I then use it to speculate on the neurophysiological processes subtending our ability to use symbolic resources to make inferences and decisions. I conclude with some suggestions for future research in discourse production and comprehension.

    doi:10.1177/0741088399016001005
  3. Distant Voices: Teaching Writing in a Culture of Technology
    Abstract

    Describes two ways that teaching and responding to student writing are being pressured by rapidly developing technologies now being introduced into educational institutions. Discusses (1) the increasing replacement of face-to-face contact by “virtual” interaction via multimedia technology, e-mail communication systems, and the recently expanded capabilities of the World Wide Web; and (2) distance education.

    doi:10.58680/ce19991120
  4. Distant Voices: Teaching and Writing in a Culture of Technology
    Abstract

    Sion some three thousand feet below, watching tiny airplanes take off from the airstrip and disappear over the shimmering ridge of alps to the north. Just below us is another chalet, the home of a Swiss family. At this time of day, they gather at the large wooden table on the slate patio behind their home to have a long, meandering lunch in the French Swiss tradition. Madame is setting the table, opening a bottle of Valais wine, which grandpere ritually pours out for the family and any friends who join them. As they sit to eat, the scene becomes for me a vision of all that is most deeply social in human affairs. They could not survive without this interconnectedness, this entwining of selves, the stories passed around, problems discussed, identities shared and nourished. For weeks, away from phones, TVs, computers, and electronic mail, a dot on the rugged landscape of the southern Alps, I have a profound sense of my own familial belonging, of how the four of us are made one by this closeness of being. Just now Bernard, the little boy who lives on the switchback above, has run down with his dog Sucrette to see if the kids can play. He is here, standing before us, his face smudged with dirt, holding out a toy truck to entice the boys. For now, it is his only way to communicate with them, poised here in all his Bernard-ness, his whole being telling his story.

    doi:10.2307/379069

1999

  1. "Look Ma, No Hands!": Voice-Recognition Software, Writing, and Ancient Rhetoric

December 1998

  1. Making the Student, Making the Grade: Fostering Dialogue through Accountability
    Abstract

    Describes a first-year college composition course and the daily preparatory writing assignments, “inquiry response papers,” that form its core. Describes how these assignments, in which students respond to their homework reading, have led to a collaborative, dialogic classroom where students realize and express their own voices, and have fostered a more intrinsic motivation within students.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19981815
  2. Lost Voices of the Harlem Renaissance: Writing Assigned at Howard University, 1919-31
    Abstract

    Ttives of the teaching of writing in United States colleges have inevitably excluded or simplified moments and facets of history in the service of asserting order within their comprehensiveness. While no curricular history means to include references to all the composition activity going on in the country, their representational figures, both professors and colleges, often present cases which ought to be understood as demographically, ethnically, or racially limiting. One striking absence from the broad histories of writing instruction in English and across the curriculum in American colleges is the composition instruction done at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). On the other hand, the history of African American higher education has itself generated a vast literature, including chronicles of Howard University, Fisk University, Tuskegee Institute, and Atlanta University, many journals, including the Journal of Negro Education, as well as countless articles, scholarly books, and textbooks written by HBCU faculties, students, and alumni. This literature and its sources demonstrate that from the late

    doi:10.2307/358515
  3. Transgressing Discourses: Communication and the Voice of Other
    doi:10.2307/358530

October 1998

  1. The Complete English Tradesman: Daniel Defoe and the Emergence of Business Writing
    Abstract

    Daniel Defoe, one of the pioneers of the English novel, primarily earned his living as a journalist, pamphleteer, proposal writer, and freelance business consultant. A born entrepreneur, Defoe's many projects included promoting and marketing the first practical diving bell, designing commercial fisheries and improving London's sewer system, producing a series of popular self-help manuals, and founding and editing the first English technical writing journal, The Projector. These were the products of Defoe's indefatigable pen, and the utilitarian simplicity of his business and technical writing has strongly influenced English prose ever since. This article will examine two major pieces of Defoe's professional writing: An Essay of Projects, (1698) a portfolio of his best proposals, and the landmark The Complete English Tradesman (1725), the first English business writing manual. These and similar texts would form the loam of Defoe's great novels, Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders (1721), and A Journal of a Plague Year (1722). While Defoe's professional writing shaped his creative writing, his gifts as a novelist—his plain, demotic style, his knack for concise narrative and analytical summary, his ability to create convincing personas through textual documentation—shaped his business writing. Both forms of writing made him the premier spokesperson of a new social and economic order.

    doi:10.2190/te72-jbn7-gnut-bnuw

September 1998

  1. New Voices: Teaching and Responding to the Literature of Aids
    Abstract

    Describes how the author came to develop an elective community–college course called “AIDS: A Literary Response.” Discusses the course curriculum and course materials, literature and films, class assignments, formal paper assignments, notebooks of materials, and the impact of the life stories shared with the class by visitors.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19981798
  2. Rhetorical style and the formation of character: Ciceronian ethos in Thomas Wilson's<i>Arte of Rhetorique</i>
    Abstract

    (1998). Rhetorical style and the formation of character: Ciceronian ethos in Thomas Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique. Rhetoric Review: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 93-106.

    doi:10.1080/07350199809359233
  3. Ourselves as Students: Multicultural Voices in the Classroom
    Abstract

    These essays by Old Dominion University students deal with two questions: What impact do their own race, class, gender, and ethnic identities have upon them as students? How do their culture and the university culture interact to affect their ability to learn?The focus of these essays is on the overlap between the students identities as students and their identities based on gender, race, class, and ethnic origin. The project began as an assignment in a women s studies class at Old Dominion University in 1993, when students in a mixed graduate and undergraduate course were asked to write a brief analysis of themselves as students, accounting for the impact of gender, race, and social class on what they studied, what they heard in class, how they were treated in the classroom, how they treated others there, and what their level of comfort in the university was. Invited to add other variables, such as religion, nationality, age, sexual orientation, or disability if they considered these significant to their identities as studentsthe students were urged to consider not only the disadvantages these various identities gave them but also the privileges and advantages.The resulting essays stimulated great interest in what students had to say and led to the formation of The Broad Minds Collectivemade up of four students from the class as well as its instructorwhich set about the task of soliciting and collecting additional essays. Although most essays contain overlapping themes, the editors detected four motifs that encompass virtually every essay included in the book. the section Cultural Perceptions and Assumptions, students show their awareness of how culturally defined categories affect education.Essays in Belonging and Alienation in the Classroom discuss the students level of comfort in the classroom and the degree to which they feel they belong at the university. The essays in Making Sense of Our Lives Through Education reveal the students use of education to learn more about the forces that shape them. In Search of an Education highlights students efforts to wrest what they feel they need from a college education.Rather than presenting a multicultural educational theory or conducting a sterile sociological study, The Broad Minds Collective has allowed students to speak for themselves. Abstraction is replaced by stories of personal conflict, struggle, and victory.

    doi:10.2307/358360
  4. Voices and Visions: Refiguring Ethnography in Composition
    doi:10.2307/358370

May 1998

  1. Education Reform and Social Change: Multicultural Voices, Struggles, and Visions
    doi:10.2307/358953

April 1998

  1. Technical Communication across Cultures
    Abstract

    Technical communication, to be more effective in international business, must attempt to be culture free (without cultural impediments and irrelevancies) and culture fair (adjusted to meet local cultural expectations and communication styles). Both requirements raise serious philosophical questions of strategy and style: (1) Are the principles associated with North American-style technical writing in any sense universal? (2) Is it possible to write natural English documents that are univocal and reliably translatable? (3) Does the characterization of cultural differences lead inevitably to stereotyping and condescending tolerance? (4) Does the business motivation driving much international communication promote situations that may be exploitative of, and disadvantageous to, the targeted cultures? and (5) Does a postmodern approach to technical communication undervalue Western methods and the English language?

    doi:10.1177/1050651998012002005
  2. Administrative Writing
    Abstract

    To understand how context affects language use, students can analyze the relationship between the power dynamics in an organization and the linguistic politeness strategies in memos written to subordinates. Although this assignment offers a viable approach to understanding how power influences language, students should recognize that multiple variables can affect actual language use. They can also scrutinize the responsibility they implicitly assume when they perpetuate—or perhaps attempt to change—an organization's communication style.

    doi:10.1177/1050651998012002004
  3. Relative Clauses in Spectroscopic Articles in the Physical Review, Beginnings and 1980
    Abstract

    This study examines the numbers of relative clauses and the percentages of subordinate clauses they comprise in two sets of research reports from the Physical Review, one from the earliest years (1893-1901) and one from 1980. It finds only a slight decrease in percentages of relative clauses from the first set of articles to the second, but it also finds some striking differences in patterns of what the relative clauses modify, particularly in references to experimental instruments and materials, experimental results or products, and equations. This study also shows evidence of a stylistic shift between the two sets of articles, from what Halliday (1987a) calls the dynamic style (that reflects processes, happenings, and actions) to the synoptic style (that reflects structures, categories, and hierarchies). It speculates that this shift would have been motivated by later physicists' wish to use tenseless expressions and to communicate effectively in an increasingly built-up web of information.

    doi:10.1177/0741088398015002002

March 1998

  1. The voices of English women technical writers, 1641–1700: Imprints in the evolution of modern English prose style
    Abstract

    The first books and the first technical books published by English women during the 1475–1700 period can be useful in teaching students about the emergence of technical style or “plain style.”; If we examine the style of these women writers, long ignored by canonical studies, we can see that plain English existed before Bacon and received its impetus not from science, but from the utilitarian attitude that pervaded the 1475–1700 period. These women writers provide a microcosm for studying the rise of modern English prose and what we now call technical (or plain) style. They also provide an efficient way to expose students to early published works by women and their contribution to the history of technical writing. Examining style from such a perspective helps students see that technical communication was a prevalent kind of writing before Bacon and the Royal Society. Thus, technical communication—and the style of technical communication—studied from this unique historical perspective deepens students’ awareness of the roots of technical communication as it contributed to the history of English discourse.

    doi:10.1080/10572259809364621
  2. Ars Rhetorica en Communitas: Reclaiming the voice of passionate expression in electronic writing
    Abstract

    In this article I intend to share my experiences of teaching writingintensive courses at a large state university with the use of computers.' I want to present my positive experiences to the reader in such a way that will make you want to join me in exploring the myriad of possibilities of teaching with technology: ways that will free us, not constrict us-ways that will enhance learning and dialogue, not provide new ways of shutting down the inquisitive minds of students, but rather of expanding and enhancing all their possibilities and ours. Let me explain at the outset that the technologies I am advocating for teaching writing in writing-intensive literature and folklore courses are largely electronic mail formats and web sites for the distribution of assignments, for syllabi, for student writing, written assignments and peer reviews, and for the position of hypertext archives for class listservs.2 E-mail discussion listserv formats provide an easy way for everyone in the class to communicate automatically with every other member of the class, as well as with the instructor(s).3 Teachers, teaching assistants, tutors, and students can all be subscribed to the discussion listserv; whenever anyone on the list posts a memo addressed to the listserv, all persons subscribed to the list receive a copy of the entry. The listserv owner (generally, the teacher) controls who can be subscribed to the discussion list and who can participate in this electronic forum and how the discussion will operate. For example, in my descriptions below, I will illustrate how every student journal entry or writing assignment goes automatically to the computers of all the other students and myself. However, when I wish to communicate privately with a student or send her or him a graded paper, I can send that message only to that particular student simply by addressing the note to the individual student rather than to the entire list; similarly, when students are doing peer reviews of other students' papers, for privacy, they can post their comments only to the author of a paper, rather than to the entire class. In this paper I am advocating the use of the e-mail discussion list format because I believe in its capacity to better enable students to write well

    doi:10.1080/07350199809389098

January 1998

  1. Virtual voices in “letters across cultures”: Listening for race, class, and gender
    doi:10.1016/s8755-4615(98)90005-6
  2. Using the Active and Passive Voice Appropriately in On-the-Job Writing
    Abstract

    Many current technical writing handbooks still advise writers to avoid the passive voice except in certain limited situations, primarily when the agent is unknown, understood, unimportant, or better left unnamed. However, a growing body of research indicates that the passive voice has a broader array of rhetorical functions. To identify some of the functions of the passive, as well as the active, voice, the frequencies of active and passive verbs were determined in 185 documents written by twenty-eight civilian and military members of the U.S. Air Force. The frequencies were similar to those in similar types of documents written by nonacademic writers in previous studies. In addition, writers were queried about their reasons for choosing active or passive verbs. While the results of the study confirmed the importance of agency in the choice of active or passive, they also revealed numerous other factors that were significant in writers' choices. The most significant reasons for choosing one type of verb over another were the voice of the verb, organizational requirements, audience awareness, efficiency, genre, euphony, personal preference, agency, emphasis, and topic-comment flow. These results suggest that technical writing instruction and handbooks should promote general principles for the use of both active and passive verbs rather than advising against the use of passive verbs.

    doi:10.2190/4g7u-pmyr-8m2t-ra3c

November 1997

  1. Le Style est L’Homme Meme: The Action of Literature
    Abstract

    Suggests that doing literary criticism is how teachers and students hear other voices as they read, instead of projections of themselves. Espouses the study of style as the vehicle of literary criticism. Proposes a definition of style.

    doi:10.58680/ce19973654
  2. Le Style est l'homme meme: The Action of Literature
    doi:10.2307/378637

October 1997

  1. Knowing Learning Styles Can Improve Self-Confidence of Developmental Writers
    Abstract

    Contends that developmental writing students’ self confidence improves when they understand their learning styles. Outlines how the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is used to pinpoint students’ learning styles and how to help students work "their way."

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19973826
  2. Tense Choices in Citations
    Abstract

    Examines tense, aspect, and voice choices in the reporting verbs in a corpus of research articles from the "Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine." Investigates how such choices correlate with other syntactic elements in the citations, as well as with the discourse functions of the citations in their contexts.

    doi:10.58680/rte19973888
  3. A Reevaluation of the Uniqueness of Japanese Written Discourse
    Abstract

    According to contrastive rhetoric research, Japanese expository prose is characterized by a classical style (ki-sho-ten-ketsu), reader responsibility, and an inductive style with a sudden topic shift. It is claimed that English readers have difficulty comprehending texts written by Japanese writers because of such culturally unique conventions. This article challenges these hypotheses concerning the uniqueness of Japanese texts. It argues that previous studies tend to view language and culture as exotic and static rather than dynamic, and overgeneralize the cultural characteristics from a few specific examples. Also, these characterizations of Japanese written discourse can be challenged by multiple interpretations of ki-sho-ten-ketsu offered by composition specialists in Japan and the linguistic and educational influences from the West on the development of modern Japanese since the mid-19th century. This article suggests that researchers and writing teachers should be wary of stereotyping cultural conventions of writing.

    doi:10.1177/0741088397014004002
  4. Text Organization by Bilingual Writers
    Abstract

    This article compares essays written in Spanish and English by bilingual writers whose prior formal academic writing instruction has been only in English. The authors describe both writers' discourse-organizational and clause-combining strategies, showing that one writer's organizational structure reflects explicit planning, whereas the other employs a more emergent organizational structure for her essays. In each case, these choices are the same for Spanish and English. Analyzing these writers' clause-combining strategies demonstrates that organizational structure at the discourse level is reflected in the types of clause combinations chosen by the writers at the sentence level, with one writer using more simple sentences and embedded clauses and the other using more hypotactic and paratactic clause combinations. The article demonstrates how clauses constitute and reflect the structure of texts and suggests that development of a repertoire of styles and discourse strategies depends on control of a variety of syntactic options.

    doi:10.1177/0741088397014004003
  5. The Technology of Voice
    Abstract

    Preview this article: The Technology of Voice, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ccc/48/3/collegecompositionandcommunication3152-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/ccc19973152
  6. Competing and Consensual Voices: The Theory and Practice of Argument
    Abstract

    Situating the teaching and learning of arguments within historical contexts, M. Daly Goggin ushering in the tigers of wrath - playfulness and rationality in learning to argue, S. Clarke narrative and arguemnt, argument in marrative, Mike Baynham argument as a key concept in teacher education, G. Harvard and R. Dunne argument, dialogue and religious pluralism - reflections on the current state of religious education in Britain, Howard Gibson and Jo Backus argument and science education, Carol J. Boulter and John K. Gilbert raised and erased voices - what special cases offer to argument, J. McGonigal extending children's voices - argument and the teaching of philosophy, Patrick Costello conflict and conformity - the place of argument in learning a discourse, S. Mitchell signalling valuation through argumentative discourse, M.A. Mathison thinking through controversy - evaluating written arguments, C.A. Hill negotiating competing voices to construct claims and evidence - urban American teenagers rivalling anti-drug literature, E. Long et al a different way to teach the writing of argument, A. Berner and W. Boswell argumentative writing and the extension of literacy, P. O'Rourke and M. O'Rourke.

    doi:10.2307/358413

June 1997

  1. Hermeneutic retrieval and the conflict of styles in Pirandello's<i>Sei Personaggi in Cerca D'Autore</i>
    Abstract

    A. Introduction In Plato's Phaedrus, Socrates suggests that rhetoric is not only implicated in the continual pursuit of truth, but it is also the study of how truth is made known in (276a). Socrates warns Phaedrus not to suppose that because words are that they have therefore become reliable and permanent (275d). For Socrates, when living speech is down it becomes transformed or objectified into a representation of the real. In Socrates' view, living speech is a state of interiority, an articulation of self-understanding; when speech is alienated from its dialogic context it becomes discourse. Although Socrates argues that one must be exceedingly to believe that written words can do anything more than remind oneself what one already knows, this simple-minded approach to writing provides a means of exploring how discourse produces what Martin Heidegger calls a commemorative meaning. For Heidegger, discourse preserves the remembrance of an event; dead discourse reminds us of the event of living speech because it bears the design and inscribes historical occurrences. character of living speech does not change in its articulation; its character does not begin as an object, does not end as an object, and does not consist of any essential qualities of an object. In Part I of this paper I explore the impact of Heidegger's idea of discourse upon the traditional concept of style to argue, in accordance with Heidegger, that style is a reminder of living speech; style is a disclosure of incarnate thought, the presencing of a human's being that is structured by a two-fold process: first, a standing forth or unconcealing of its presence; and second, a holding back or concealing of its presence. Traditionally, discussions of style have been limited to representational theories of discourse that see style either solely in terms of outward appearance, beautiful form or in terms of some combination that sets form into a bipolar opposition with content. However, Heidegger's argument is that the traditional view of art as an aesthetic object is not adequate. In order to retrieve style from the confines of bipolarity, Heidegger develops a model of art that is based upon his disclosive theory of truth; his theory of art effectively removes beauty as a criterion for understanding art. In The Origin of the Work of Art, Heidegger develops a non-aesthetic approach to a work of art by arguing that truth, rather than beauty, is the origin of a work of art; his essay also suggests the outlines of a non-representational

    doi:10.1080/02773949709391100

May 1997

  1. Instructional Note – Tapping the Sources Within: A Three-Step Approach
    Abstract

    Diane Allen, in "Tapping the Sources Within: A Three-Step Approach", gives a strategy for helping basic writing students develop better essays with stronger voices.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19973814

April 1997

  1. In Defense of the Passive Voice in Legal Writing
    Abstract

    Although the passive voice may be overused in legal prose, warnings in legal writing guidebooks against the passive risk undervaluing its many uses. After briefly introducing the passive voice, and some possible reasons for its misuse, this article will outline the many situations when the passive is more appropriate than the active voice.

    doi:10.2190/hn2d-avl9-7xk4-evvc

February 1997

  1. Writing Conferences and the Weaving of Multi-Voiced Texts in College Composition
    Abstract

    The inquiry posed two basic research questions: a) Could changes in student writing be tied to conferencing, and b) Could the status of the student (weaker or stronger student, native or non-native speaker) or the type of writing course (general freshman composition or specialized genre-specific course) be tied to any systematic differences in the conferencing process or its outcome? This study tracked the discourses generated by 4 teachers around a set of their teacher-student writing conferences. They collected copies of first drafts, tapes of their conferences, and copies of subsequent drafts from one stronger and one weaker student, for a total of 8 students and 32 texts. All students revised their papers in ways indicating that the conference had had an effect on their revision process. The findings indicate that what is ostensibly the “same” treatment does not generate the same response from all students. They also indicate that the divergent backgrounds students bring to instructional events have a structuring effect that cannot be dismissed solely as teacher bias and self-fulfilling prophecy

    doi:10.58680/rte19973872
  2. Silence Is Consent, or Curse Ye Meroz!
    Abstract

    Examines assumptions of “oppositional” literary criticism, namely the assumption that older-style “objective” literary criticism must, in its political silence, be supportive of dominant ideologies.

    doi:10.58680/ce19973617

January 1997

  1. The invisible audience and the disembodied voice: Online teaching and the loss of body image
    doi:10.1016/s8755-4615(97)90019-0
  2. A Phonological Reading Model for Technical Communicators
    Abstract

    When people read silently, they unconsciously translate what they read into a speech-like code that facilitates word identification and the creation of meaning. This article examines that phenomenon—known as silent speech—based upon the published research of cognitive psychologists and psycholinguists. The author develops a phonological model of reading based upon published results of experimental investigators to determine the relationship between cognition and silent speech. The author then applies the model to technical communication. The applications include the use of punctuation, pronouns, and abbreviations, as well as introducing new words, writing to satisfy the speech instinct, cultivating a human voice, and revising technical documents.

    doi:10.2190/lxtc-8xul-u9yk-nbdj
  3. A Descriptive Study of the Use of the Black Communication Style by African Americans within an Organization
    Abstract

    The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the use of the Black communication style by African Americans in an organized environment. The research method which was used involved a multimethod approach of data collection in the field using direct observation, and obtrusive observations, as well as semi-structured interviews. This investigation has shown that although the Black employees in this organization felt, in general, as if they were changing their communication style to fit the organizational norms, they continued to rely on the cultural norms underlying the Black communication style. U.S. demographics are foretelling a future that will require innovative organizational communication strategies. According to Fine, two facts about the U.S. corporate environment which are uncovered by demographic trends are that the workforce will be comprised of a “greater diversity of gender, race, age, culture, and language” and that the demand for qualified workers will exceed the supply thereby “creating intense competition among organizations for workers” [1]. These changing demographics are not going unnoticed by the U.S. corporate leaders. Specifically, the issues of most concern to organizational executives, according to Workforce 2000, center around linguistic and cultural differences. Most organizations have no innovative strategies for meeting the demands of a diverse workforce. Traditional programs, such as day-care provisions, flexible work times, and hiring and recruiting more people of color are being implemented by corporate America in an effort to meet the demand for diversity. However, organizations are often lacking in creative programs which will provide for this emerging diverse workforce an environment that will accept and nurture their diversity. Certainly these corporate executives are receiving little in the way of guidance from organizational researchers.

    doi:10.2190/hu2d-67fd-nduu-9lgy

October 1996

  1. Voices from the Computer Classroom: Novice Writers and Peer Response to Writing
    Abstract

    Preview this article: Voices from the Computer Classroom: Novice Writers and Peer Response to Writing, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/tetyc/23/3/teachingenglishinthetwoyearcollege5496-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19965496
  2. Changing Standards in Technical Communication
    Abstract

    How have Dutch instructive texts changed in the course of the last century? This question is the topic of a research project presented in this article. First, we give some insight into the kind of documents we have collected in our corpus. The oldest instructive texts date from the beginning of the nineteenth century. But for most technical devices, the tradition of adding an instructive text starts about 1925. After that we present a few results of the investigations: the disappearance of persuasive passages and of realistic representations of human beings. Finally, we give a more detailed sketch of the development of the algorithmic style.

    doi:10.2190/hpma-eyln-9g91-vy4l

September 1996

  1. Dionysius of halicarnassus's theory of compositional style and the theory of literate consciousness
    Abstract

    Dionysius of Halicarnassus's attention to harmonious composition from the small part of the clause to the whole of a work is at the heart of what Eduard Norden has called Kuntsprosa, the ancient theory of formal prose composition that came to fruition during the Augustan age of the early Empire. The effort of fifth- and fourth-century BC Greek writers to provide prose the dignity and affective power of oral poetry through literate embellishment and studied arrangement was fundamental to the transformation of literate consciousness and therefore cultural consciousness in which the power of the modern state was birthed. As the eye continued to supplant the ear as a means of using words effectively to move audiences and as literacy brought about an interiorized way of thinking and manner of expression, ancient Greek and Roman historians, orators, and philosophers learned to play with language. They found in this new consciousness exciting ways in which elegantly conceived discourse could formalize the affective power of poetry and the spellbinding magic of persuasive words (Romilly). And it is this compositional tension between words heard and words seen that came to fruition in the first century Critical Essays

    doi:10.1080/07350199609359205

July 1996

  1. Training Engineers to Write: Old Assumptions and New Directions
    Abstract

    Consulting engineering firms that produce reports for clients benefit from having engineers who can write clear, well-organized, grammatically correct descriptions of the work they perform. Despite the obvious value gained through engineers who can write well, universities and the firms themselves do not as a rule train engineers in business technical writing. A typical program a firm can institute to promote writing skills would include developing a house style guide as well as concise examples of writing engineers should emulate and screening and practice exercises. The ability to first organize material in an outline is critical to efficient composition. Engineers with limited English skills can be instructed in building clear, logical lists that can be efficiently converted into narrative form by an editor.

    doi:10.2190/4l3t-yaxc-q0gv-wthu
  2. The Multivoiced Classroom
    Abstract

    This article presents descriptions of and examples from qualitative case studies of 3 high school classrooms in Norway and the United States. The focus is on how classroom discourse and writing interact with each other and provide an important and unique instructional resource. The teachers in 2 of the classrooms consistently elicited, overtly valued, and helped develop student opinions and ideas. In this process, authentic questions and uptake were common, and a great diversity of voices was heard. Bakhtin's and Rommetveit's dialogical framework is used as the basis of analysis, as is Lotman's theory about the functional dualism of texts. The main argument is that the interaction of oral and written discourse increased dialogicality and multivoicedness and therefore provided more chances for students to learn than did talking or writing alone. In this way, the texts, both oral and written, were used to generate thoughts and opinions.

    doi:10.1177/0741088396013003004

May 1996

  1. BOOK REVIEWS
    Abstract

    Reviews of 3 professional books: Revising the Rules: Traditional Grammar and Modern Linguistics by Brock Haussamen reviewed by David J. Cranmer; Grammar in Many Voices by Marilyn N. Silva reviewed by David J. Cranmer; Writings from the Workplace: Documents, Models, Cases by Carolyn R. Boiarsky and Margot K. Soven reviewed by Lois Birky.

    doi:10.58680/tetyc19965486
  2. Aristotle's Voice, Our Ears
    doi:10.2307/358799
  3. Review: Aristotle’s Voice, Our Ears
    Abstract

    Power, Genre, and Technology Deborah H. Holdstein This Is Not an Essay Carolyn R. Miller Notes on Postmodern Double Agency and the Arts of Lurking James J. Sosnoski

    doi:10.58680/ccc19968704

April 1996

  1. Writing Together: Gender's Effect on Collaboration
    Abstract

    Recent studies identify gendered differences in communication and collaboration styles which suggest consequences for professional writing classrooms. If, indeed, men tend to stereotype women as clerks, prefer hierarchical collaboration, and value product over process, and, too, if gendered differences tend to increase counterproductive dissent, then the gender balance of writing groups might affect their dominant styles in those respects. However, when I analyzed the behaviors of over sixty student groups in my professional writing classes, I did not find gender balancing to have such effects. Instead, however, I observed other gender-related effects on collaboration: tendencies to stereotype men as technical experts and to self-segregate into gendered working teams. These findings suggest new perspectives on the role of gender for collaborative groups in professional writing classrooms.

    doi:10.2190/xdca-www0-v9fn-y4u9

March 1996

  1. <i>Aristotle's Voice: Rhetoric, Theory, and Writing in America</i>by Jasper Neel
    Abstract

    Aristotle's Voice: Rhetoric, Theory, and Writing in America by Jasper Neel. Southern Illinois U P: Carbondale, 1994. 225 pp.

    doi:10.1080/02773949609391067

February 1996

  1. When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own
    Abstract

    Preview this article: When the First Voice You Hear Is Not Your Own, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/ccc/47/1/collegecompositionandcommunication8709-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/ccc19968709