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October 2019

  1. Review of Service-Learning in Technical and Professional Communication by Melody Bowdon and J. Blare Scott, reviewed by Chris Anson
    Abstract

    In spite of the growing embeddedness of service-learning programs in American higher education and the increasing publication of scholarship and professional resources on the subject, there remains a dearth of textbooks for students enrolled in service-learning courses and experiences. This lack of published instructional material owes historically to the localized and curriculum-specific nature of service… Continue reading Review of Service-Learning in Technical and Professional Communication by Melody Bowdon and J. Blare Scott, reviewed by Chris Anson

  2. Review of Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Public Engagement by Linda Flower, reviewed by Deborah Brandt
    Abstract

    What makes racial segregation in the United States especially harsh is that it robs most people of the means they need to bring it down. These include mutual knowledge, trust, and, most of all, a language of engagement that can keep people talking past the negativity, hurt, and hopelessness. In Community Literacy and the Rhetoric… Continue reading Review of Community Literacy and the Rhetoric of Public Engagement by Linda Flower, reviewed by Deborah Brandt

  3. Review: Code-Meshing as World English: Pedagogy, Policy, Performance by Shane Teague
    Abstract

    Currently, the cultures of our students clash in the composition classroom. These classrooms are like brackish river deltas where the saline language of the university, which many of these students haven’t yet learned to use naturally, collides with the home languages they comfortably employ in everyday contexts. This often results in an awkward focus on… Continue reading Review: Code-Meshing as World English: Pedagogy, Policy, Performance by Shane Teague

  4. Review: After the Public Turn: Composition, Counterpublics and the Citizen Bricoleur by Phyllis Mentzell Ryder
    Abstract

    If rhetoric and composition is taking a “public turn,” Frank Farmer cautions, let’s be sure that the “public” we imagine actually exists. Farmer examines what a public is—or, more precisely, what publics and counterpublics are. His close examination of the punk zines and his new term, citizen bricoleur, highlight the creative ingenuity of counterpublics, and… Continue reading Review: After the Public Turn: Composition, Counterpublics and the Citizen Bricoleur by Phyllis Mentzell Ryder

  5. Review: composing (media) = composing(embodiment): bodies, technologies, writing, the teaching of writing by Jennifer England
    Abstract

    The collected essays in composing(media) = composing(embodiment): bodies, technologies, writing, the teaching of writing articulate our relationship with new media and current and emerging technologies as a dual process of embodiment: As producers of new media /technologies, we express what matters to us, yet as consumers we are always already carried into and through a… Continue reading Review: composing (media) = composing(embodiment): bodies, technologies, writing, the teaching of writing by Jennifer England

  6. Review: Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times by Stephanie Rae Larson
    Abstract

    Producing Good Citizens excavates the historical trajectories of immigration and economic uncertainty by arguing that citizenship has long been yoked to literacy. Wan posits that literacy learning holds curative and corrective power to ameliorate anxieties over citizenship in the face of immigration and imperialism. Turning to the early twentieth century, she impressively deconstructs citizenship’s assumed… Continue reading Review: Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times by Stephanie Rae Larson

  7. Review: Working with Multimodality: Rethinking Literacy in a Digital Age by Timothy R. Amidon
    Abstract

    Nearly two decades ago, the New London Group (NLG) theorized the concepts of multiliteracies and multimodality in their groundbreaking work, “A Pedagogy of Multiliteracies: Designing Social Futures.” Challenging literacy education which overprivileged “formalized, monolingual, monocultural, and rule-governed forms of language” (61), the NLG argued that conceptions of literacy—and its attendant pedagogies—must be sensitive to the… Continue reading Review: Working with Multimodality: Rethinking Literacy in a Digital Age by Timothy R. Amidon

  8. Review: Bad Feminist by Laura Finley
    Abstract

    I first heard about Bad Feminist in Entertainment Weekly magazine and was very excited to read it. Bad Feminist was to me mostly refreshing. Author Roxane Gay embodies a complexity of perspective that is still, in my eyes, missing from much of the popular feminist discourse. Is Beyonce a bad feminist because she is sexy… Continue reading Review: Bad Feminist by Laura Finley

  9. Review: Artifactual Literacies: Every Object Tells a Story by Katherine Silvester
    Abstract

    Artifacts are sensory, material objects that can travel through time and space. As they travel, artifacts hold memories and tell stories. They are texts in contexts, and as such, they can be used as a point of entry into different forms of writing, text making, and narrative. Kate Pahl and Jennifer Rowsell’s Artifactual Literacies: Every… Continue reading Review: Artifactual Literacies: Every Object Tells a Story by Katherine Silvester

  10. Review: Scalawag: A White Southerner’s Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism by Candace Epps-Robertson
    Abstract

    In Scalawag: A White Southerners Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism, Dr. Edward Peeples traces his personal journey from being compliant with the status quo of racial codes to becoming a fighter for social justice. His journey was never an easy one, but his experiences remind us of two important principles: we must remember… Continue reading Review: Scalawag: A White Southerner’s Journey through Segregation to Human Rights Activism by Candace Epps-Robertson

  11. Review: Signs and Wonders: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language by Elizabeth Bentley
    Abstract

    Since the creation of American Sign Language, deaf community activists in the United States have fought to sustain Deaf culture and language in face of an unreceptive—or even hostile—hearing majority. In Signs And Wonders: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language, Tracy Ann Morse argues that religious rhetoric has been central to those efforts,… Continue reading Review: Signs and Wonders: Religious Rhetoric and the Preservation of Sign Language by Elizabeth Bentley

  12. Review: Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference by Tara K. Wood
    Abstract

    Roughly mid-way through Stephanie Kerschbaum’s recent book Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference, as she reflects on the shifting meanings invoked by her deafness in various contexts, she hypothetically addresses her readers, stating, “When you meet me, you might find that I fit a lot of your assumptions about deaf people and that many of… Continue reading Review: Toward a New Rhetoric of Difference by Tara K. Wood

  13. Review: Democracies to Come: Rhetorical Action, Neoliberalism, and Communities of Resistance by Moira Ozias
    Abstract

    Community literacy workers and publicly engaged teachers of writing have long been concerned with questions not only of learning and writing, but also of social change, equity, and justice. Whether we trace roots through Myles Horton’s Highlander School to critical pedagogy and activism (Branch) or through more institutionally focused efforts of land-grant colleges and organizations… Continue reading Review: Democracies to Come: Rhetorical Action, Neoliberalism, and Communities of Resistance by Moira Ozias

  14. Review: PHD to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life by Mariana Grohowski
    Abstract

    Shamefully, I was not familiar with Dr. Richardson’s important work in African American and Hiphop literacies until I read her memoir PHD to Ph.D. In fourteen powerful chapters, Richardson unfolds her resolute history. The memoir is not like Richardson’s other academic work, though it reveals an early engagement with language politics; it was her Mama’s… Continue reading Review: PHD to Ph.D.: How Education Saved My Life by Mariana Grohowski

  15. Review: Gravyland: Writing Beyond the Curriculum in the City of Brotherly Love by Kelly Langan
    Abstract

    In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through the efforts of the working class community by which he was raised, Stephen Parks was given the opportunity to attend college. In his book Gravyland: Writing Beyond the Curriculum in the City of Brotherly Love, Parks narrates his own successes and failures with community partnerships during his time as the director of… Continue reading Review: Gravyland: Writing Beyond the Curriculum in the City of Brotherly Love by Kelly Langan

  16. Review: Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia by Iris D. Ruiz
    Abstract

    Out in the middle of nowhere, there lies a bundle of buildings and in this bundle of buildings lies a space to discuss sensitive subjects safely. The door opens, the class begins, the time passes and the question gets asked: “How do you feel when someone calls you a wetback?” Blank stares look back at… Continue reading Review: Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia by Iris D. Ruiz

  17. Review: Conquistadora by Lisa Roy-Davis
    Abstract

    From 2007-2009, I designed and led an oral history project focused on gathering the stories of recent immigrants to Collin County, Texas. Students in my first year writing courses learned interviewing techniques before gathering stories from local volunteers. We built an archive of interviews that the students then used to connect the act of preserving… Continue reading Review: Conquistadora by Lisa Roy-Davis

  18. Unresolved issues in defining and assessing writing motivational constructs: A review of conceptualization and measurement perspectives
    doi:10.1016/j.asw.2019.100417
  19. Review: Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community reviewed by Megan Adams
    Abstract

    When I was undergraduate student, I had the chance to intern at the prestigious news magazine, 60 Minutes. The story above comes from a meeting I had with the late Mike Wallace. In Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community, Joe Lambert asks all of us to take “our deeply felt attraction to media” (5) which… Continue reading Review: Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community reviewed by Megan Adams

  20. Review: Rhetorics for Community Action: Public Writing and Writing Publics reviewed by Rebecca Hayes
    Abstract

    In Rhetorics for Community Action: Public Writing and Writing Publics, Phyllis Mentzell Ryder aims to complicate the “real public vs. private service” binary (12) that often circulates in discussions of public writing and service-learning, arguing that to “best study and teach the complexities of public writing, we should partner with multiple community nonprofits” (11). Drawing… Continue reading Review: Rhetorics for Community Action: Public Writing and Writing Publics reviewed by Rebecca Hayes

  21. Student Misreading
    Abstract

    Review of The Writer in the Well: On Misreading and Rewriting Literature. By Gary Weissman. The Ohio State University Press, 2016. 219 pages.

    doi:10.1215/15314200-7615604
  22. Literature Review: Design Thinking and Place
    Abstract

    Design-thinking frameworks help professionals to design solutions for complex problems. Design processes take into account the context of a problem, and among these contextual factors is place. Because place is relational, capturing dynamic relationships between other factors of design problems, it deserves special attention from stakeholders trying to tackle wicked problems. This literature review elaborates on the relationship between place and design thinking, focusing on the importance of privileging place in user-centered design processes.

    doi:10.1177/1050651919854079

September 2019

  1. Review: Stick ‘Em Up by Jennifer Wingard
    Abstract

    To call Stick ‘Em Up a quintessential Houston documentary is both a compliment and a critique. It represents praise because the film does what it sets out to do very well: document and celebrate the thriving wheatpaste street art movement in Houston, TX. On the other hand, it is a criticism because unlike its more… Continue reading Review: Stick ‘Em Up by Jennifer Wingard

  2. Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop by Lauren Goldstein
    Abstract

    A lone elephant, awash in red paint and stenciled with gold fleur-de-lis, lumbers through the loading deck of a warehouse on Skid Row in L.A. She matches the wallpaper background of a freestanding living room, designed to be the centerpiece of an art exhibition by newly-minted street artist Mr. Brainwash (MBW). The impressive, gentle animal… Continue reading Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop by Lauren Goldstein

  3. Review: Postcomposition by Scott Campbell
    Abstract

    One cannot read Postcomposition without reacting to its claims that the field of composition is in the doldrums, that the “conservatism” of composition, most notable in its attachment to pedagogy, is ripe for attack. Dobrin writes “with the intent of violence” (2), and, although he qualifies this celebration of disruption, his goal of unsettling readers… Continue reading Review: Postcomposition by Scott Campbell

  4. Review of Teaching/Writing in Thirdspaces: The Studio Approach by Rhonda C. Grego and Nancy S. Thompson reviewed by William Bums
    Abstract

    Over the last twenty years, space and place have become increasingly common tropes in composition studies, resonating with the recognition of the social construction of writing and identity. Bridging the divide between composition practice and spatial theory, Rhonda Grego and Nancy Thompson’s Teaching/Writing in Thirdspaces: The Studio Approach articulates an “institutionally aware” methodology called the writing studio,… Continue reading Review of Teaching/Writing in Thirdspaces: The Studio Approach by Rhonda C. Grego and Nancy S. Thompson reviewed by William Bums

  5. Review of Living Room: Teaching Public Writing in a Privatized World by Nancy Welch reviewed by William H. Thelin
    Abstract

    Making writing meaningful for our students entails, to a great extent, finding a real audience for their ideas. Students, after all, instinctively know they are writing for their instructor, which often turns what should be audience-based decisions into gradebased decisions. The movement toward public writing seems to have considered this need, as real readers not… Continue reading Review of Living Room: Teaching Public Writing in a Privatized World by Nancy Welch reviewed by William H. Thelin

  6. Review: Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age by Adam J. Banks reviewed by Steph Ceraso
    Abstract

    In Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age, a provocative new addiction to the CCCC Studies in Writing and Rhetoric series, Adam Banks offers a fresh perspective on the relationships between race, technology, and scholar-activism. Like the figure of the griot—a masterful storyteller who simultaneously preserves and shapes history—Banks mashes up past and present… Continue reading Review: Digital Griots: African American Rhetoric in a Multimedia Age by Adam J. Banks reviewed by Steph Ceraso

  7. Review of Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action in the Composition Classroom by Kristie S. Fleckenstein reviewed by Tanya K. Rodrigue
    Abstract

    In Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action in the Composition Classroom, winner of the 2009 JAC’s W. Ross Winterowd Award for composition theory, Kristie Fleckenstein presents a provocative theory of social action and describes how it can be used to help students recognize personal, cultural, and social injustices and gain tools to make changes in the… Continue reading Review of Vision, Rhetoric, and Social Action in the Composition Classroom by Kristie S. Fleckenstein reviewed by Tanya K. Rodrigue

  8. Review of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six by Jordan Flaherty reviewed by Doreen Piano
    Abstract

    While many Katrina-related books have highlighted the egregious national government negligence in the immediate aftermath of the levee breaks in New Orleans, Jordan Flaherty’s Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six is more concerned with how local government decisions, such as the closing of Charity Hospital, the razing of public housing, and… Continue reading Review of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six by Jordan Flaherty reviewed by Doreen Piano

  9. Review of Going Public: What Writing Programs Learn from Engagement edited by Shirley K. Rose and Irwin Weiser reviewed by Emily Donnelli-Sallee
    Abstract

    Composition’s public turn has been rendered most often in pedagogical or theoretical terms. To expand this legacy, Shirley K. Rose and Irwin Weiser offer the field an insightful new portrait, one that features the writing program in the public turn. Going Public: What Writing Programs Learn from Engagement identifies valuable theoretical and practical implications of… Continue reading Review of Going Public: What Writing Programs Learn from Engagement edited by Shirley K. Rose and Irwin Weiser reviewed by Emily Donnelli-Sallee

  10. Review of Writing Community Change: Designing Technologies for Citizen Action by Jeffrey T. Grabill reviewed by Thomas Deans
    Abstract

    This book—slim in size but big on ideas—won the 2010 Reflections Civic Scholarship Outstanding Book Award. The subtitle might scare away those who aren’t computer and composition enthusiasts, but that would be a shame because Jeffrey Grabill, while certainly invested in emerging technology, is making a case—and a convincing one—about how we should reconceptualize several… Continue reading Review of Writing Community Change: Designing Technologies for Citizen Action by Jeffrey T. Grabill reviewed by Thomas Deans

  11. Review of The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning by Randy Stoecker and Elizabeth A. Tryon reviewed by Paula Mathieu
    Abstract

    Organized into ten chapters and an epilogue, the book focuses on recurrent themes that the research uncovered: organizations’ motivations for taking part in service learning partnerships, issues of timing, fit, management, communication and diversity. Chapters One, Ten, and the Epilogue are written by the editors, while the individual chapters are authored by the graduate students… Continue reading Review of The Unheard Voices: Community Organizations and Service Learning by Randy Stoecker and Elizabeth A. Tryon reviewed by Paula Mathieu

  12. Review of Active Voices: Composing a Rhetoric of Social Movements edited by Sharon Mckenzie Stevens and Patricia M. Malesh by Megan O’Neill Fisher
    Abstract

    In 2008, I attended a symposium that highlighted our university’s outreach and community engagement initiatives. Sessions and exhibits ranged from promoting pesticide safety programs in Africa to local community design assistance projects. The symposium was very satisfying, but my conversations with participants often began the same way, with questions arising from my “Rhetoric and Writing”… Continue reading Review of Active Voices: Composing a Rhetoric of Social Movements edited by Sharon Mckenzie Stevens and Patricia M. Malesh by Megan O’Neill Fisher

  13. Review of Keith Gilyard, “Composition and Cornel West: Notes Toward a Deep Democracy” by Linda Flower
    Abstract

    William James argued that for a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference. He would have liked Keith Gilyard’s new book on the relevance of Cornel West to composition. One strand of the book is a lucid theoretical guide to West’s intellectually expansive yet deeply passionate call to public engagement. The other… Continue reading Review of Keith Gilyard, “Composition and Cornel West: Notes Toward a Deep Democracy” by Linda Flower

  14. Review of Kirk Branch, “Eyes on the Ought to Be: What We Teach About When We Teach About Literacy” by David Stock
    Abstract

    The title and thesis of Branch’s book-“eyes on the ought to be”-come from Myles Horton (1905-1990), an American educator and activist who established with fellow educator activist Don West the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tennessee.Highlander is one of three sites of nontraditional adult education Branch examines to illustrate ideological and material consequences of educational… Continue reading Review of Kirk Branch, “Eyes on the Ought to Be: What We Teach About When We Teach About Literacy” by David Stock

  15. Editor’s Valedictory
    Abstract

    I am grateful and honored to have served as editor of Advances in the History of Rhetoric for four years (2016–2019). A valedictory is an occasion for expressing gratitude, here to all who have made my four-year stint as editor meaningful to me.First, I express gratitude to the American Society for the History of Rhetoric (ASHR) and its Board. During Katya Haskins tenure as editor, the ASHR board voted to devote one issue of the journal to the best papers presented at the ASHR symposium. This policy ensures that the journal represents the interests of ASHR members. In the absence of such a policy, the contents of journal would depend entirely on what came in willy-nilly through the Taylor and Francis portal. If the editor was one who, let us charitably say, was not famous for stretching the boundaries of the discipline, the journal might soon reflect only an editor’s narrow interests. During my tenure, the ASHR policy generated special issues “Rhetoric In Situ,” curated by Kassie Lamp, and “Diversity in and Among Rhetorical Traditions,” curated by Scott Stroud, thus ensuring that Advances documented current interests in visual and material rhetoric and in rhetoric outside of the Western tradition. This policy and Kassie and Scott’s good work helped me to meet my pledge on assuming the editorship to continue Katya Haskins effort to expand the journal’s purview. I should also thank the editors of the other special issues published during my tenure, one on Quintilian, edited by Jerry Murphy, on the occasion of the four-hundred-year anniversary of the discovery in St. Gall, Switzerland by Poggio Bracciolini of the first complete version of Quintilian’s Institutio Oratoria; and a most interesting special issue on Rhetoric and Economics edited by Mark Longaker.Under my tenure, Advances also inaugurated the policy of publishing book review forums – three – and book reviews – sixteen – over the four years. The forums enabled me to ensure that the journal continued, in a tradition begun by Robert Gaines in his tenure as editor, to be a place for debate and focused discussion. For the book review forums, I owe special thanks to Heather Hayes, who helped organize them. A forum on a critical edition of Jeannette Rankin’s 1917 Address at Carnegie Hall by Tiffany Lewis and the publication in this issue of a translation of work by Chaim Perelman by Michelle Bolduc and David Frank ensured that Advances remained a depository for primary material, as Robert Gaines hoped it would. For help with this focused issue on Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, I thank Andreea Ritivoi for work on the introduction and for her critical eye and good advice.From its beginning under the editorship of the journal’s founder Rich Enos, Advances has taken seriously its commitment to publishing the work of emerging scholars. Sometimes what that means in practical terms is issuing a “revise and re-submit” for manuscripts that the editor knows will require two, three, four revisions on its way to meeting the journal’s expectations. When I committed to such manuscripts I pledged not only my own time but the time of reviewers as well. Reviewing even the most polished of manuscripts requires critical intelligence and tact and takes hours of uncompensated time. We could not continue as a scholarly community without the commitment of talented, conscientious reviewers. I am most grateful to all who served as reviewers for manuscripts I sent them. I don’t feel I can thank all here (though I considered it) but I will single out Glen McClish, Dave Tell, James Fredal, Michele Kennerly, Brandon Inabinet, and James Kasterly for their help and, especially in Glen’s case, sage advice.I certainly would be remiss if I did not thank those who readied manuscripts for production: my three editorial assistants, Allison Prasch, Tara Wambach, and Brittany Knutson, and the Communication Studies Department at Minnesota, embodied in its Chair, Ron Greene, who paid for their help. I thank Taylor and Francis for supportive collegiality and the Press’s Megan Cimini, who, in response to queries, was always helpful, always professional, and always immediate.

    doi:10.1080/15362426.2019.1671698
  16. The Effect of Leader Rapport-Management Feedback on Leader–Member Relationship Quality and Perceived Group Effectiveness in Student Teams
    Abstract

    Background: Preparing students to work on teams in the workplace is both important and challenging. The transfer of learning from school to work requires that faculty provide guidance to support teamwork processes, including team communication. Literature review: Leader communication, especially when nondirective, has been associated with team success. Nondirective leaders influence others and develop quality relationships through personal rather than position power. Personal power is created partly through interactions in which a leader's linguistic behavior effectively manages rapport with team members. Research questions: We wanted to explore the influence of team member feedback on leader rapport management, leader-member relationship quality, and perceived team effectiveness. Research methodology: We designed a feedback intervention that was delivered to team leaders within multidisciplinary student teams in a technical writing course. The study was a traditional, intervention-based, between-subjects quasi-experiment. Results/discussion: Despite its singular focus on team leader behavior, the intervention resulted in higher perceived group effectiveness. Although leader rapport management and leader-member relationship quality were higher in teams with feedback intervention, the effects were not statistically significant. Conclusion: We discuss several potential causes of our results, including several options for future research. Ultimately, because the intervention is simple to create and efficient to share, we conclude that it can supply instructors with one useful tool for intervening in student teamwork processes to improve team outcomes and for emphasizing the importance of interpersonal communication and leadership in teams.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2913238
  17. Legitimating Negative Aspects in Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: Evidence From China
    Abstract

    Research problem: This study investigates the way in which large Chinese firms communicated occupational fatalities in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. Research questions:1. Did the sample firms disclose information about workplace fatalities in their CSR reports? 2. What communicative strategies were used in the disclosure for the purpose of self-legitimation? 3. How were these strategies manifested linguistically and rhetorically? Literature review: The study is based on legitimacy theory, which suggests that when reporting bad news, firms may use communicative strategies to maintain or restore organizational legitimacy. Previous studies of negative CSR disclosures focus more on information selection and omission than on information presentation. A lack of consideration of actual organizational performance in some studies also makes it less feasible to account for strategies that firms use to misrepresent reality. Methodology: The study compared CSR reports issued by Fortune 500 Chinese firms with the firms' reports of fatal occupational incidents to see whether the incidents were reported faithfully. An integrated analytical framework of legitimation strategies, developed from previous studies of legitimation in organizational communication, was applied to the analysis. Results and conclusions: Most firms disclosed their fatality incidents. Legitimation strategies-in particular, positive performance evaluations and corrective actions-were used by the firms to de-emphasize or minimize the bad news. This study calls for greater attention from CSR monitors and professionals to information presentation as an important indicator of report quality. The findings are limited to one type of CSR disclosure and to the firms that were examined.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2913917
  18. Gender Effects in Student Technical and Scientific Writing—A Corpus-Based Study
    Abstract

    Background: This study adopted a corpus-linguistics approach to investigate the gender effects in students' technical and scientific writing. Specifically, we analyzed whether gender influenced how males and females used adverbs (e.g., very, really, and definitely) and passive voice (e.g., the article was published in the journal). The overuse of both adverbs and passive voice has been associated with poor writing clarity and concision. Literature review: Previous research works on gender effects in language have been mixed. Since these are all the essential elements of effective technical communication, teachers need to know what gender effects might exist. Research questions are as follows: 1. Does gender influence the student writers' use of adverbs? 2. Does gender influence the student writers' use of passive voice? Methodology: The sample included 87 writers (46 females and 41 males) who contributed to a 757,533-word corpus. Researchers analyzed 12,111 instances of adverbs and 4,732 instances of passive voice within a variety of technical texts. Results/discussion: Female writers used significantly more adverbs as well as more additive/restrictive, degree, and stance adverbs than expected. Male writers used more linking and manner adverbs than expected. Female writers also used significantly more passives, particularly passive verbs associated with reporting findings and interpretation. In contrast, male writers associated with passive verbs used to describe methods and analyses. Overall, the results suggested that females and males used the same style markers to fulfill different rhetorical functions.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2920029
  19. How Technology Support for Contextualization Affects Enterprise Social Media Use: A Media System Dependency Perspective
    Abstract

    Research background: Using enterprise social media (ESM) in the workplace has become an important channel for initiating communication activities for employees in the organization. However, some organizations reported that they did not obtain expected returns from their ESM investments. This outcome may be attributed to employee underutilization of ESM. Thus, exploring how employees use ESM is vital to improving communication efficiency. Research questions: 1. How does ESM support for contextualization affect employees' dependency relations with ESM? 2. How do dependency relations affect ESM use? Literature review: For professional communicators and other workers, dependency relations can enhance their media use behavior by channeling more useful information. In studying how professional communicators use a medium, researchers indicated that users' continuance intention rarely occurs without users' dependency on the medium, thus making media system dependency (MSD) relations critical for media use. Based on the MSD theory, we investigate how ESM support for cognitive and affective contextualization affects employees' understanding, orientation, and play dependency relations with ESM, and consequently affect work-related and social ESM uses. Methodology: We surveyed 258 employees of a large software development firm in China. Results and conclusions: Our findings suggest that technical and professional communicators who have not yet used ESM in their work may take the following steps: 1. explore ESM and their specific use by employees; 2. manage and control different information sharing among employees on ESM so as to satisfy employees' different goals; and 3. design and develop different ESM functionalities.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2906440
  20. H. A. McKee and J. E. Porter: Professional Communication and Network Interaction: A Rhetorical and Ethical Approach [Book Review]
    Abstract

    Digital media abound, so technical communicators must continually invent new ways to communicate in these new technologies. They must understand new media and find the most effective ways to use them. Using rhetorical and ethical theory, the authors of this book analyze the changes to professional communication provoked by technological advancement. The book offers case studies and analysis to demonstrate approaches to network interactions such as phatic communication, rhetorical interaction, social listening, and artificial-intelligence (AI) agents. This book is divided into two sections. The first details rhetorical and ethical approaches in communication; the second examines four “Cases of Network Interaction.” The first half of the book explains how rhetoric and ethics can be used to help create successful networked communication. The second half recommends how to apply rhetoric and ethics in specific workplace settings. Each chapter contains detailed subheadings and a helpful conclusion summarizing its main points, a feature sure to help students and novices digest the theoretical concepts presented. The summaries will also help readers who must quickly read and understand a specific topic without having to read the book in its entirety. This book provides a fairly general overview of the main issues influencing communication using digital media and new technology. It offers case studies and key concepts that could be applied to a variety of fields. This book could be used as an introduction to corporate communication across industries. It focuses on a few key rhetorical concepts; therefore, other theories such as postcritical approaches are not considered. This book introduces rhetorical theory applied to realworld cases. Doing so might help a wider range of readers see practical applications for it, even though the book does not offer rules, checklists, or guidelines to follow in networked communication. Nevertheless, the book clearly offers a comprehensible introduction to cases and considerations for professional communication and network interaction.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2922723
  21. K. Healy: Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction [Book Review]
    Abstract

    This book offers a hands-on master class in building effective data graphics using the ggplot package for the R language. While the implied audience is researchers in the social sciences, there is a lot of practical wisdom here for anyone who works with numerical data. This book treats both the theoretical principles of effective data visualization design (in the mode of Edward Tufte, Stephen Few, Alberto Cairo, and others) as well as concrete guidance on how to integrate such wisdom into a slick data-analysis workflow in the R ecosystem. This practitioner-oriented approach is a very welcomed addition to the literature. By covering both the whys and the hows of data visualization, this single volume swiftly equips researchers to build compelling graphics from their numerical data. The book itself is attractively typeset. One commendable feature is the direct integration of many graphics alongside the corresponding passage of text, by setting them in the wide scholar’s margins. This richly graphical approach makes the lessons engaging, tangible, and enjoyable to read. The book ends with a generous Appendix, which is a compendium of various productivity-oriented tips for working in the R and tidyverse ecosystems. This single volume represents an excellent entry point for those wishing to enhance their capabilities in data visualization. Much of the relevant theoretical work is covered explicitly, and the rest is clearly signposted. The software tools presented are mainstream, open source, and powerful, and the author’s enthusiasm for the ecosystem is infectious. There is only one topic that felt slightly overlooked: the importance of choosing appropriate ranges and divisions for the axes of a graph. Indeed, many of the figures in the book seemed a bit too cluttered with excessive gridlines and tick marks. These are minor gripes, though. Overall, the book is a welcome and timely volume that is full of practical wisdom for producing attractive and effective technical graphics.

    doi:10.1109/tpc.2019.2922787
  22. Review: Multimodal Argumentation and Rhetoric in Media Genres
    doi:10.1007/s10503-019-09485-z
  23. Review Essay: Applying the “Teaching for Transfer” Model
    Abstract

    Preview this article: Review Essay: Applying the “Teaching for Transfer” Model, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/tetyc/47/1/teachingenglishinthetwo-yearcollege30326-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201930326
  24. Review: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education
    Abstract

    Preview this article: Review: Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/tetyc/47/1/teachingenglishinthetwo-yearcollege30327-1.gif

    doi:10.58680/tetyc201930327
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