This paper is about writing effective recommendations for action based on inquiries, evidence or arguments that have the purpose of effecting change. The importance of the topic for higher education is evident in the increasing accountability being asked of research from within institutions, in other words, research which provides evidenced-based…

I see a parallel between the illiteracy I witnessed while working in the court system and the challenges facing first-year writers at the university. In both cases, problems arise due to unfamiliarity with the discourse community into which one enters. In response, because much of the language governing composition and rhetoric is rife with place…

A perennial problem for many first-year composition (FYC) instructors is deciding what curricular materials to use to teach their students about rhetoric and composition and how to use those resources to enable their students to practice and hone their writing skills. This dissertation argues that humor writing is a viable option as it offers…

The question as to where ethical philosophy ought to end and oratory begin was an abiding interest for the rhetorician-philosophers of Antiquity. This study considers the relationship between the two now distinct disciplines in the theory and practice of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the United States, through the lens of transformative…

This article utilises rhetorical analysis as a method to investigate course level marketing communications for undergraduate fashion marketing degrees in England. The purpose of this method is to explore the persuasive appeals of Aristotle's triad of logos, ethos and pathos, how they are used and how these appeals could differ by university type.…

Knoblauch and Brannon might suggest I pry loose the grip that ancient rhetorical tradition has on my modern classroom, but I'm not convinced I can so easily abandon the ancient rhetoricians. Learning to embrace the different, more creative, and less frequently acknowledged elements of this tradition may be the way for me to go instead. The ancient…

While engaging in learning about roles of evidence, rules of procedure and case law, undergraduate mock trial students must also learn how to effectively communicate their evidence to the fact-finder. In mock trial, as in real courtroom trials in the United States legal system, communication skills and the ability to persuade are essential. This…

In the spaces where the teaching of first-year writing occurs in the North American university and community college, Composition Studies is still a relatively young discipline, and remains focused on process, thesis sentence, argument, and propositional, and linear logic as primary goals. The rhetorical practices that underlie the discipline of…

The author writes that his experience in teaching has taught him that the perfect text simply does not exist, however the closest approximation to perfection lies in the direction of the classical world. Hal McDonald says that he cannot see how one can teach rhetoric without passing through pedagogical territory first cleared by Aristotle,…