Date of Award

2013

Rights

Access is available to all users

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA) in English: Rhetoric and Technical Communication

Department

English

First Advisor

Logan Greene

Second Advisor

Justin Young

Third Advisor

Jane Ellsworth

Abstract

"Over the past 40 years, the field of composition has recognized of the importance of legitimizing students' linguistic diversity in the composition classroom. However, a framework for a pedagogy of linguistic diversity does not yet exist. This thesis seeks to provide such a framework by identifying a new genre of academic writing entitled Pluralistic Linguistic Expression (PLE). First, this thesis begins with the research question, how do educators respect students' linguistic diversity in writing while still teaching them rhetorically appropriate discourse? A review of the historical approaches to PLE and the current pedagogical research provides a framework for further discussion. By using the work of Karlyn Campbell as a lens to identify unique substantive and stylistic features of the PLE genre, this thesis conducts a rhetorical analysis of five published examples of PLE documents. This analysis substantiates the finding that PLE constitutes a new academic genre. Afterwards, current best practices of college composition are reviewed to show how the PLE genre can be integrated into established First Year Composition curriculums to form a framework for pedagogy. Finally, a performance of the PLE genre demonstrates the conclusion that conceptualizing PLE as an academic genre is a useful method for developing a pedagogy based on legitimizing linguistic diversity in academic writing"--Document.

Comments

Typescript. Vita.

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