Personality testing is an elementary part of recruitment. The test results are increasingly considered a necessary means of obtaining information about candidates’ personalities and suitability. This has raised questions about who has the right to define a candidate’s personality in recruitment interviews. Here, we use conversation analysis to describe two strategies through which recruiters evaluate candidates’ personalities based on the personality test results and show how these methods are linked to different interactional affordances. We recommend the candidate-driven strategy that attends to the candidates’ fundamental right to define their personality in a situation where their career is at stake.

The article presents results from a survey about the academic writing practices among the students of the University of Tartu (Estonia). We analyse how the use of generative artificial intelligence has changed between spring 2023 and spring 2024. Our data shows that there has been a small increase in the percentage of students who have used the help of AI while writing: in 2023, 43.9% of the students reported using or having used AI, in 2024 it was 51.6%. AI is most popular among the students of Science and Technology and least popular among the students of Humanities. In 2023, using AI was more common among undergraduates than master’s students, but by 2024 this situation had reversed. Among the activities that students use AI for, gathering ideas is most popular in both years. The biggest change between the two years is that the number of students using AI for summaries and overviews has nearly tripled. The paper discusses the possible reasons for these tendencies, as well as some relevant implications for learning and teaching (academic) writing.

This article investigates the rhetorical means used by EFL university students in interactions with ChatGPT with emotional prompts. It has been found that most participants do not construe the interaction with the bot as a traditional communicative situation, and do not frame the bot as a humanlike agent. However, after being prompted to use emotional appeal, the participants mapped the features of human-human communicative situation without mapping the perception of the interlocutor as a human being.

Integrated tasks are often used in higher education (HE) for diagnostic purposes, with increasing popularity in lingua franca contexts, such as German HE, where English-medium courses are gaining ground. In this context, we report the validation of a new rating scale for assessing reading-into-writing tasks. To examine scoring validity, we employed Weir’s (2005) socio-cognitive framework in an explanatory mixed-methods design. We collected 679 integrated performances in four summary and opinion tasks, which were rated by six trained student raters. They are to become writing tutors for first-year students. We utilized a many-facet Rasch model to investigate rater severity, reliability, consistency, and scale functioning. Using thematic analysis, we analyzed think-aloud protocols, retrospective and focus group interviews with the raters. Findings showed that the rating scale overall functions as intended and is perceived by the raters as valid operationalization of the integrated construct. FACETS analyses revealed reasonable reliabilities, yet exposed local issues with certain criteria and band levels. This is corroborated by the challenges reported by the raters, which they mainly attributed to the complexities inherent in such an assessment. Applying Weir’s (2005) framework in a mixed-methods approach facilitated the interpretation of the quantitative findings and yielded insights into potential validity threads. • FACET analyses show reasonable reliabilities and scale functioning. • Mixed-methods approach facilitates interpreting the quantitative findings. • Raters perceive rating scale as valid operationalization of integrated construct. • Applying Weir’s socio-cognitive framework reveals potential validity threads. • Raters attribute challenges to the complexities inherent in integrated writing.

In recent years, rhetorical scholars have turned to study the materiality of rhetoric as well as the rhetoricity of material, often introducing a posthumanist or anti-anthropocentric stance rejecting mind-body dualism(s), while often also turning to affirmative frameworks as an alternative to criticism. Introducing the Nordic Waste scandal in Denmark in 2023, we point to the risk of toxically affirming the perspective of environmentally harmful corporations in rhetoric centering materiality and affirmation.

This article offers articulation theory as a tool for listening and thinking about the culture in and around writing centers. After defining a method of articulation analysis that considers articulation, disarticulation, and rearticulation, as well as alignments, contradictions, and tensions within a context, the article performs an articulation analysis on contemporary writing center work. The analysis considers the writing center’s relationship to democracy, multiculturalism, neoliberalism, ethics, and social justice, as shaped by the Great Depression, the Vietnam War, and the 2008 financial crisis. The article concludes with a reflection on the results of the analysis and interventions that may open possibilities for systemic change, including approaches to communal justicing, modeling workplace culture, and training tutors in articulation analysis.

Writing center scholars have long debated whether writers are best served by “generalist” tutors trained in writing center pedagogy or “specialist” tutors with insider knowledge about a course’s content or discipline-specific discourse conventions. A potential compromise that has emerged is training tutors in the purposes and features of specific genres. The writing center literature showcases many different approaches to genre training. However, little empirical research, if any, has explored how tutors’ genre knowledge affects session outcomes. The present study used a mixed-methods approach to compare session outcomes for students who worked with generalist and genre-trained tutors. We analyzed pre-consultation and revised literature review drafts to determine whether students who worked with tutors trained in the genre of literature reviews improved their drafts more or revised their drafts differently than students who worked with generalist tutors. Additionally, we performed a qualitative analysis of student reflections about their writing processes to explore how tutor training impacts students’ impressions of their consultations. Findings indicated that students who worked with genre-trained tutors revised their drafts more substantively than did students who worked with generalist tutors. Moreover, students who worked with genre-trained tutors left with notably better and richer impressions of their consultations.

We conducted an exploratory study to test the delivery of technical instructions built on the principles of minimalism. The aim was to investigate how we could support target users’ skill levels in a context-sensitive manner. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Literature review:</b> Related work examines minimalism, user needs and profiling, and industrial maintenance and technician experience. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. How can the semantic structure of DITA XML be utilized in delivering technical information to users based on their skill levels? 2. How would a layered system of information support the principles of minimalism? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</b> We created material and tested the concept in user studies with maintenance personnel in three countries. We collected feedback through participant observation, interviews, and questionnaires. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results and discussion:</b> The minimalist approach of delivering information to maintenance technicians was well received and supported users with varying skill levels. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> The context-sensitive level of expertise concept empowers users to decide on the depth of technical information that they require to complete the task at hand. The semantic structure of DITA XML works well in the delivery of technical information to the users based on their skill levels. Many of the key principles of minimalism are applicable to hardware maintenance instructions.

The present article examines collaborative writing in organizational consulting and training, where writing takes place as part of a group discussion assignment and is carried out by using digital writing technologies. In the training, the groups use digital tablets as their writing device in order to document their answers in the shared digital platform. Using multimodal conversation analysis as a method, the article illustrates the way writing is interactionally accomplished in this setting where digital writing intertwines with face-to-face interaction as the groups jointly formulate a documentable written entry for specific institutional purposes. The results show how writing is managed in situated ways and organized by three specific aspects: access, publicity, and broader organizational practice. The article advances prior understanding of the embodied nature of writing and writing with technologies by demonstrating how the body and the material and social nature of writing technologies intertwine within situated social interaction.

A concept in Aristotle’s thought that is both politically and rhetorically significant for all life forms is a sign (sêmeion). Yet, scholarship has historically left underexplored how Aristotle positions the utility of a sign across human and nonhuman animal domains. Rereading his presentation of signs in the Rhetoric in light of his statements on the use of sign-inference through physiognomy in Prior Analytics elucidates how rhetoric’s interest in persuasive things makes use of a sign’s physicality. In so doing, Aristotle demonstrates how rhetoric enables political communities to grapple with an inescapable nonhuman status.

Introduction: Virtual teams, especially project teams, increasingly rely on computer-mediated communication for interaction when collaborating and completing their tasks. Team members represent various cultures, occupations, and industries. Virtual teams often use English as a business lingua franca in communication. This study investigates critical factors related to virtual project teams that influence computer-mediated communication. Research questions: 1. How is diversity in video meetings experienced by the members of multidisciplinary and multicultural project teams? 2. Do differences in team members' occupational or industrial backgrounds show in their opinions on video meetings? Literature review: The effectiveness of communication has been identified as playing a critical role in the success of virtual projects. Diversity, whether disciplinary or cultural, enriches teamwork by bringing different viewpoints to discussions. On the other hand, diversity can also set some challenges for communicating these viewpoints. Research methodology: Mixed methods were used to analyze data obtained from 104 responses to an online survey. Spearman's correlation coefficient and Kruskall-Wallis nonparametric tests were used for statistical analysis, and open comments were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results and conclusion: The findings show that linguistic, cultural, and occupational diversity facilitates communication in virtual project team meetings. In addition, applying appropriate features of video meeting tools in different stages of project teamwork leads to better communication in virtual teams. A high level of English proficiency is not required, but clear communication rules are essential. In addition, some occupational or industry-specific differences in opinions on communication could be identified.

For most MA programs, it is common to enroll students with different BA degrees. The MA students who have changed their discipline are required to adopt a new disciplinary discourse and learn to write academic texts in line with appropriate genres and conventions. This study exemplifies an attempt to redesign the academic writing course for MA History programs at the Ural Federal University in order to ease the difficulties faced by students with non-history backgrounds. The essence of the redesign was to enhance the traditional teaching by demonstrating fundamental dissimilarities between history and other disciplines in terms of writing conventions. Teaching academic writing in that manner was supposed to facilitate students with both a history and non-history backgrounds to master the effective conventional writing of history texts. The efficiency of the redesigned course was estimated on the basis of students’ performance and feedback. This teaching practice can be of use for academic writing instructors who seek to help students from different backgrounds develop skills and competences that are necessary for a specific professional community.

Background: Engineers increasingly work and advance their careers in international business settings. As technical managers, they need management and technical skills when working with different stakeholders with whom they may not share a common first language. Studies have revealed that informal oral communication skills are of prime importance for global engineers who face challenges in building shared meaning and formulating clear messages in meetings with non-native speakers of English. This article proposes that studying the use of multimodal resources (spoken language, gaze, gestures, and objects) in meetings can unpack how work tasks are accomplished in business through different communicative strategies. Literature review: This paper focuses on engineers' and technical managers' needs and challenges in professional and intercultural communication where English is used as a business lingua franca (BELF) in multimodal meetings. While multimodal conversation and discourse analytic studies highlight the dynamic nature of meeting interaction, previous technical and professional communication and BELF research on multimodality is limited. Research questions: 1. How do technical managers use multimodal resources to articulate their ideas in BELF meetings with their peers? 2. How does the use of multimodal resources contribute to the construction of shared meaning in explanatory, consensus-seeking, and solution-finding communication? Methodology: This study reports on two case studies and multimodal discourse analysis of video-recorded meetings among technical managers and their peers in four companies. The use of multimodal resources is analyzed in explanatory, consensus-seeking, and solution-finding communication. Results and conclusions: In BELF meetings, assemblages of spoken language, gestures, tools, whiteboard, and documents contribute to constructing shared meaning. This study has implications for global professional and engineering communication. Future research should further examine multimodality in BELF meetings.

This study builds on extant replicable, aggregable, and data-supported (RAD) research to posit and examine correlations between writing center intervention and improved student writing. The authors review three decades of quantitative writing center scholarship and provide data resulting from four writing center assessments. These assessments include two pre-and post-intervention studies and two intervention/ non-intervention studies. Results are mixed. The pre-and post-intervention studies show statistically significant improvements in student writing. The intervention/non-intervention studies show considerable to limited improvements in student writing. Possible reasons for these results are discussed, including study protocols, self-selection bias, and the difficulty of imposing controls. Impacts on the practice of one writing center are shared, and suggestions for further research are provided.

Despite the fact that a considerable proportion of today’s writing programs operate according to the principles of genre-based instruction, research has not adequately dealt with the teaching of various genres (e.g., job application letters). Nor has research, to date, attempted to address the issue of written corrective feedback in conjunction with genre-based instruction. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate the impact of written corrective feedback in the context of genre-based instruction on job application letters. To this end, 120 Iranian advanced-level EFL learners at Kish Institute of Science and Technology participated in the present study. After administering the TOEFL test, 80 students scoring within ±1 SD of the mean score were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups?namely, Direct Feedback Group or Indirect Feedback Group. Having sat a writing pretest, the participants received genre-based instruction on how to compose job application letters. Meanwhile, they were supplied with direct or indirect feedback on their writing. Following this instruction, a writing posttest was administered, the results of which showed that direct corrective feedback was more effective than indirect corrective feedback in the context of genre-based instruction on letters of job application.

Despite widespread interest in the reintegration of Post-9/11 military veterans into civilian life, the literacies of Post-9/11 veterans, both academic and professional, remain largely untheorized. This paper addresses this dearth of information by examining the induction processes and resulting workplace literacies of soldiers, airmen/women, sailors, and Marines. Examining two recent war memoirs, one by an enlisted soldier and another by an officer, we examine uses of language, particularly in terms of the way military values are inscribed during the period of induction yet also are subject to interaction with the service member’s history and scripts prior to military service. We posit “residence time” as a theoretical approach for understanding veterans’ transition challenges. We hope that this model may be useful to higher education, civilian sector employers, and veterans themselves as the US draws down from the Post-9/11 wars and service members transition back into civilian sectors of society.

Research Article| January 01 2010 Perelman’s Theory of Argumentation and Natural Law Francis J. Mootz III Francis J. Mootz III William S. Boyd School of Law University of Nevada, Las Vegas Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Philosophy & Rhetoric (2010) 43 (4): 383–402. https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.43.4.0383 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Francis J. Mootz III; Perelman’s Theory of Argumentation and Natural Law. Philosophy & Rhetoric 1 January 2010; 43 (4): 383–402. doi: https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.43.4.0383 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressPhilosophy & Rhetoric Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © Copyright 2010 The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University. All rights reserved.Copyright 2010 The Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Pennsylvania State University Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: ARTICLES You do not currently have access to this content.

This study analyzes the procedural explanations written by remedial college mathematics students. Relevant literatures suggest that six communication activities might be key in effective procedural explanations in mathematics writing: (a) orienting the learner, (b) providing kernels or definitions of concepts and procedures, (c) using exemplars or worked examples, (d) providing descriptions of the process or procedure, (e) solidifying learner understanding, and (f) facilitating linguistic control of mathematical terms. Using this framework, 18 practices or types of difficulties were discovered in students' written explanations. Independent experts consistently evaluated student explanations more highly when the explanations contained arithmetic or algebraic exemplars, described specific actions and their meanings, linked new with prior knowledge, and used descriptive language; experts evaluated student explanations more negatively when students displayed difficulties reasoning with kernels, reasoning with exemplars, or with describing processes.

Electronic mail (email) has rapidly become one of the most prominent communication media, and a substantial amount of information is processed by it in the contemporary workplace. It is well known that digital technology produces a “digital divide.” In addition, it is well examined that the digital divide produces cognitive differences (e.g., knowledge gaps) among users. Yet, little is known about affective disparities. In addition, few studies on the digital divide were undertaken in organizational setting. This study considers the human side of the digital divide in an organizational setting and investigates if the digital divide exists in the workplace by examining multiple dimensions of communication satisfaction. The data from 303 university employees indicates that email experience differentiates communication satisfaction with amount of email and email use for equivocal tasks.

What follows is an essay-as-speech, offered as a direct response to a weekend of freewriting at Bard College enacted under the direction of skilled practitioners of Peter Elbow's principles of writing and thinking. Elbow, in attendance, gave the keynote address. This essay-as-speech both critiques the practices enacted at Bard and offers a very different way of teaching writing, one that honors the epistemological underpinnings of Elbow's work while outlining a pedagogy founded on constraints and images.

This paper compares the Finnish and English Web sites of a Finnish company to find out what culturally geared strategies emerge and what constitutes the genre of company information on the Internet. Drawing on genre theory and cultural studies, the paper further explores the relationship between linear texts and nonlinear hypertext genre. The paper shows how the Web sites aimed at the English-speaking readers are different from the sites targeted to the Finnish readers. It further illustrates the company strategies employed to establish the Web site in Finnish and English. These are endorsed by a company representative who was interviewed for the paper. The Finnish Web site meant for local Finnish readers contained detailed and itemized information and portrayed a retail-oriented strategy. The Internet presence targeted toward English-speaking readers portrayed an investor-oriented strategy. The characteristics of hypertext that distinguish it from linear texts are high rate of repetition and low macrolevel cohesion.

A common genre of corporate promotional materials in Finland is a video that introduces a company to various audiences, including customers, shareholders, and visitors to the company's offices. The video uses visuals, sounds, and text to establish the company's identity and credibility as well as informing the audience about company products. The video appeals to deep‐seated cultural values to promote its message. This study applied theories of both advertising and semiotics to analyze the first minute of a video produced for a Finnish company that manufactures log buildings and wraps its image around a concept of leisure.

Engineering students, faculty, and administration all agree that instruction in writing is an important component of engineering education. And since engineering students will take up technical matters in their careers, it seems only natural that a writing class will require them to write papers about technology, that is, to practice technical writing. While this approach may indeed be of value, the following article presents an alternative to the teaching of technical writing per se. The author suggests that if students learn how to approach an issue they care about, form an arguable idea from this issue, then logically prove it in subsequent paragraphs, that this deep level of writing and thinking comprehension can then be used to enhance any piece of writing, especially the technical document.

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WOMEN'S STUDIES IS no longer a fad. It is a reality of the academic world affecting all schools, all curricula, all students. Those schools which have women's studies programs are asking, Where do we go from here? Those schools which have no programs or courses are asking, Why not? At some level, articulated or not, faculty, students, and administrators at every school are involved in a reevaluation of curriculum as it represents and affects all of them. With the publication of Female Studies I-VII (Know, Inc., Pittsburgh, PA and Feminist Press at Old Westbury, NY) we can trace the history and expansion of Women's Studies. We can see that, at more and more schools, the interest has steadily increased. At Tompkins Cortland Community College we have recognized and begun to act on the very vital role such programming can play in meeting the special needs of students at the community college. The community college student population is diverse. Some enter directly from high school, and some have been out of school for over twenty years. We have more and more students who are attending school parttime. Many have other obligations-jobs, families, community commitments. We have excellent students and students with serious remedial problems. And, of course, we have students who know exactly what they want to study as well as those who need much vocational and personal counseling. The community college, I believe, is one of the few institutions flexible enough to meet these varied needs. And women's programming is a significant aid to this flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of the community population. When I talk about Women's Studies courses, I mean courses which are primarily concerned with awakening students to the situation of women in society and which aim at stimulating reevaluation of traditional educational and social practices. Once students become aware of the secondary status of women, it is my hope that they are no longer content to accept it but get involved in attempts to initiate change. Basic to Women's Studies is a recognition that method is as important as content. This recognition implies changing the attitudes inherent in a hierarchical teacher/student relationship. It is important to encourage a collective searching for and sharing of information rather than vying for grades or personal ap-

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Sylvan Barnet, I. B. Cauthen, Jr., David Kaula, James G. Southworth, Joseph H. Summers, William B. Coley, William Gillis, Martin Steinmann, Jr., John C. Thirlwall, Leon O. Barron, Henry W. Wells, Philip Young, Arthur Fenner, Jr., George T. Watkins III, Daniel Bernd, Walter F. Wright, Lucille S. Cobb, Paul R. Stewart, Books, College English, Vol. 22, No. 6 (Mar., 1961), pp. 434-447