Below are listed dissertations in Rhetoric and Composition completed by graduates of Purdue University. You may access the abstract and UMI information for each dissertation by clicking on its title. For dissertations cataloged since 1997 the UMI database--now owned by ProQuest [Disserations & Theses] -- makes 24-page previews available. [note: The Big Ten offers free digital downloads to the member schools of the CIC.


Abraham, Matthew (dual primary areas in Rhetoric/Composition and Philosophy & English) The Rhetoric of Resistance and the Rhetoric of Theory: Controversial Academic Scholarship in the American Public Sphere 2003

Addison, Joanne Emancipatory Research and Composition Studies: Feminist Postmodern Cultural Studies and Teacher Research Methodologies 1995

Agena, Kate Process and power: Building strategies for technical communicators to effect organizational change 2006

Allen, Nancy Collaborative Voices: Rhetorical and Textual Features of Collaboratively Written Reports 1991

Amenya, Hulda English in a Kenyan University: How Kenyan Students Negotiate Their Cultural Upbringing and the University's Western-oriented Education in Writing 2001

Andres, Laura Gay The Authentic I: A Theory of Expressive Writing 1987

Atkinson, Dianne [dual with Educational Psychology] A Meta-Analysis of Recent Research in the Teaching of Writing: Workshops, Computer Applications, and Inquiry 1993

Atwill, Janet M. Refiguring Rhetoric as Art: Aristotle's Concept of Techne and the Humanist Paradigm 1990

Baker, Lori Collaboration and gender communication traits: The negotiation of authority in a composition class 1999

Barcelow-Hill, Georgina The Effect of Peer Critique Groups on Students' Critiquing and Writing Ability 1988

Bergland, Robert Patrick Downsizing and Upgrading: A Manufacturing Firm's Move to Electronic Distribution of Documents 2002

Bishop, Karen Lynn Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign 2002

Blair, Kristine The Politics of Popular Culture in the Composition Classroom: Toward a Pedagogy of Resistance and Transformation 1994

Blythe, Stuart Conceptualizing the Technologies of Writing Center Practice 1997

Brooks, Randy Mark Rhetorical Theory in Business Communication Curricula from 1900 to 1980: An Historical Critique 1991

Brown, Nicole R. Constructing "Community" Online: A Discussion of Metatphor, Mearning, and Rhetorical Action 2003

Bush, Jonathan Teaching Writing in a Middle School: A Multiple Case Study of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Context, and Beliefs 2001

Byard, Vicki Considering Heuristics as Symbolic Acts: Their Relevance to Epistemic Rhetoric 1993

Calendrillo, Linda Theresa The Art of Memory and Rhetoric 1988

Campbell, Jonathan Lee The Relevant Communication of Rhetorical Arguments 1990

Carlton, Susan Brown Poetic Rhetoric and Disciplinary Discourse 1991

Carrell, David The Rhetoric of Corporate Annual Reports: A Study of Ethos 1994

Carter, Geoffrey 2007

Carter, Michael Genesis of Written Discourse: Features of the Art 1986

Charlton, Colin 2005 A pedagogical becoming: Alternatives to the rhetoric of 'You don't know jack' in first-year composition

Charlton, Jonikka 2005 Explaining ourselves to others: A study of how WPAs argue for humanities-oriented composition programs in the 'Corporate University'

Clark, Jessica An investigation of the quantity and quality of collaboration in writing center tutorial 2005

Clemens, Thomas A Rhetoric of Early Anglo-Saxon Law: A Revisionary Interpretation of the Interrelationship Among Rhetor, Audience, and Culture 1996

Comstock, Michelle Re-Mapping the Territory of "Youth": Youth-Centered Sites of Rhetorical, Cultural, and Political Practice 1999

Conrey, Sean Coming to Terms with Place: Toward a Phenomenological Technique of Rhetorical Placemaking 2006

Courtney, Jennifer The Rhetoric of Domestic Advice: Ethos and Metaphor 2003

Cubbison, LaurieValidating Illness: Internet Activism in Response to Institutional Discourse 2000

Daniloff-Merrill, Mary Ellen Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Analyze a Basic Writing Workbook 2001

Dautermann, Jennie Writing at Good Hope Hospital: A Study of Negotiated Discourse in the Workplace 1991

Davis, Suanna Haston A Rhetorical Analysis of the Influence of Official Missionary Correspondence on Community Identity in Selected Churches of Christ 2000

Dedo, David Richard Profile of the ESL Freshman Writer: Predicting Success in the Academic Setting 1990

DeJoy, Nancy Rhetoric of Critique/Critique of Rhetoric: Toward Critical Discursive Practices in the Academy 1992

DePew, Kevin Eric The Rhetorical Process of Digital Subjectivities: Case Studies of International Teaching Assistants Negotiating Identity with Digital Media 2003

Ding, Huiling 2007

Dwyer, Karen A Cultural and Rhetorical Analysis of Internationalized Human Rights Discourse 1997

Evans, Karin Broadening Environments and Practicing Literacy: A Contextual-Developmental Approach to Basic Writing 1997

Ewing, Sheila C. [dual with Educational Psychology] The Effects of Time and Instruction on Writing Performance of Eighth-Grade Students in Writing Assessment Situations 1992

Farrar, Julie Constructing Chaim Perelman: Implications of the New Rhetoric for Teaching Argumentation in the Composition Classroom 1994

Fishman, Teresa Anne Ederer Writing Distance Education: Select Histories of Distance Education Writing Courses and their Effects on Ongoing Distance Education Writing Course Pedagogy 2002

Flisk, Bridgett O'Rourke Meanings and Practices of Literacy in Urban Settlement Communities: Chicago's Hull House 1890-1940 1998

Foster, Helen An institutional critique of writing process 2001

Gellis, Mark Burke, Campbell, Johnson, and Priestley: A Rhetorical Analysis of Four British Pamphlets of the American Revolution 1993

Gilliard, Christopher Scott Sports, Power, and the Black Body: Pedagogy and Writing Race 2003

Gitzen, Mary ( Roblin) Face to face: Conferencing as ESL writing instruction 2002

Gong, Gwen A Conceptual Theory and Application of Gricean Heuristic for Rhetoric 1981

Gorkemli, Serkan The globalization of digital technologies and lgbt identities: The Turkish collegiate lesbigay population's access to the Internet and the formation of lesbigay identities and communities in Turkey 2005

Gos, Michael W. [dual with English Education] Computer Anxiety and the Computerized Writing Classroom: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study 1992

Graban, Tarez 2006

Grabill, Jeffrey Situating Literacies and Community Literacy Programs: A Critical Rhetoric for Institutional Change 1997

Griggs, Karen Audience Complexities in Administrative Law: An Historical Case Study of an Environmental Policy 1994

Gu, Baotong From the Oracle Bones to the Computer: A Rhetorical Perspective on Writing Technology Development in China 2000

Haas, Mary Flaherty A Case Study of Grant Proposal Writing in a Nonprofit Workplace: Writing to Keep Families off the Street 2002

Hafer, Gary R. An Analysis of Writing Instruction in the Home School 1990

Harrienger, Myrna Medicine as Dialogic Rhetoric and Elderly Ill Women 1993

Hart-Davidson, William Writing Networks: A Participatory Design Initiative for Preparing Teachers of Professional Writing for Networked Environments 1999

Heba, Gary Inventing Culture: A Rhetoric of Social Codes 1992

Henning, Teresa Ethics and the Scope of Rhetoric: Constructions of Moral and Rhetorical Agency in Selected Cultural Critical Rhetorics 1998

Hettich, Becke Writing Apprehension: A Critique of Terminology 1994

Hobbs, Catherine (then Peaden) Language and Rhetoric in Locke, Condillac, and Vico 1989

Hoger, Elizabeth Anne Writing in the Discipline of Music: Rhetorical Parameters in Writings about Music Criticism 1992

Hovde, Marjorie Rush The Knowledgeable Practice of Computer Documentation Writers: Tactics for Constructing User and Software Images and for Negotiating Organizational Boundaries 1994

Howard, Tharon Wayne The Rhetoric of Electronic Communities 1992

Huettman, Elizabeth Writing for the Unknown Reader: An Ethnographic Case Study in a Business Setting 1990

Jablonski, Jeffrey Reconceiving Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Locating the Intellectual Work of Writing Across the Curriculum Consultants 2000

Jacobs, Debra Positioning the Subject in Discourse: Toward a Rhetorical Theory of Voice in Writing 1995

Jenkins, Patricia A Pedagogy for Basic Writing 1998

Johnson, Robert Rhetoric and Use: Toward a Theory of User-Centered Computer Documentation 1991

Jones, Scott Lyle The Role of Electronic Mail in Workplace Writing 2002

Kapper, Jessie Moore Mapping the Geographies of Second Language Writing 2004

Kapper, Michael Affect as Epistemic Source in a Posthuman Age 2004

Karbach, Joan Writing Expressive Discourse: ESL and Native English Speaking Freshmen 1993

Karper, Erin 'Ordinary people do this': A Rhetorical Case Study of Novice Web Design 2004

Kelb, Barbara Jeanne Martin Buber's Philosophy of Dialogue and Three Modern Rhetorics 1991

Kimme Hea, Amy Catherine Entanglements: Re-articulating Discourses and Practices of Web-based Teaching and Learning 2001

Kopelson, Karen Lynn Teaching Trouble. Performativity and Composition Pedagogy: Composing Connections 2002

Kopp, Bryan The Cultural Rhetorics of Deviance: True Crimes in Postwar America 2000

Kuralt, Karen Collaborative Literacy in the Writing Classroom: A Theory of Pedagogy 2004

Langstraat, Lisa Feeling the Power: Toward a Feminist Politics of Affect for Cultural Studies Approaches to Composition 1996

Latta, Susan Women and Writer's Block: An Exploration of Social and Cultural Influences upon the Writing Processes of Five Graduate Student Writers 1995

L'Eplattenier, Barbara Investigating Institutional Power: Women Administrators during the Progressive Era, 1890-1920 1999

Liu, Lu Understanding rhetorical traditions, rethinking writing pedagogies: A cross-national study of written argumentation instruction in secondary school textbooks 2006

Lopez, Elizabeth The Geography of Computer Writing Spaces: A Critical Postmodern Analysis 1995

Lupo, Dan Negotiating Context: A Multiple Case Study of Professional Writing Majors in Transition from Academic to Workplace Contexts 1996

McComiskey, Bruce Postmodern Cultural Studies and the Politics of Writing Instruction 1994

McCoy, Nancy A Relationship between Rhetoric and Poetics: English Studies in Secondary Schools, A Composition-Literature Paradigm (1874-1917) 1994

McGee, Sharon James A Qualitative Study of Students' Response to Teacher-Written Comments 1999

M cGrady, Lisa Davidson 2006

Matsuda, Paul Kei ESL Writing in Twentieth-century United States Higher Education: The Formation of an Interdisciplinary Field 2000

Merrill, Stephen M. Audience Adaptiveness in Job Application Letters Written by College Students: An Exploratory Study 1986

Mian, Shayela Literacy for Bangladeshi Students 1999

Miles, Elizabeth Building Rhetorics of Production: An Institutional Critique of Composition Textbook Publishing 1998

Miller, Bernard A. Heidegger and Gorgian Kairos 1987

Morgan, Margaret Patricia Four Dimensions of the Collaborative Composing Processes of Student Writers 1988

Moriarty, Thomas South Africa's Rhetoric of Reconciliation: Changes in ANC and Pretoria Government Rhetoric 1999

Morrison, Jennifer Purdue University's School of Liberal Arts Writing Intensive Initiative: A case of professional development for teaching assistants (Indiana) 2002

Murray, Mary Measuring Insight in Student Writing 1987

Nagelhout, Edwin Writing and Professional Apprenticeship: Case Studies of Biology Graduate Students' Entry into the Scientific Community 1996

Norris, Christine Michele The Rhetoric of Cookbooks in Eighteenth-century England 2003

Olver, Miriam Negotiation of Difference, Context, and Audience: A Case Study of Haitian-American Young Adult's Written and Oral Strategy 1999

Parvin, Kathleen Toward a Theory for Ethical-democratic Composition Practice: Transgressing Boundaries of Radical Pedagogy Discourses 2000

Peeples, Tim (Re) Writing the WPA: A Spacial Analysis of the Organizational Subject 1999

Pender, Kelly Writing beyond the art/chance binary: The ongoing debate about techne in rhetoric and composition 2005

Pennell, Michael English in the 'hurricane winds of change': Labor market intermediaries and literacy in two Indiana counties 2005

Persak, Christine Representing the Social Order: Rhetoric and Victorian Hierarchy, 1839-52 1991

Reuer, Larissa (Vinogravada) The Eighteenth-century Russian Rhetorical Tradition: V. K. Trediakovsky's Career and Rhetorical Views 2000

Romberger, Julia The Ecology of a Digital Environment: Using Ecofeminist Theory to Understand Microsoft Word's Rhetorical Design 2004

Rosenthal, Anne Marie Transforming the Cultural Politics of Writing Across the Curriculum Cross-Disciplinarity, Advanced Literacy, and Democracy 1992

Rowan, Katherine Ellen Producing Written Explanations of Scientific Concepts for Lay Readers: Theory and a Study of Individual Differences among Collegiate Writers 1985

Ruetenik, Bridget Fahey Visual Rhetoric, Media, and Rhetors: Creating Spaces for Deliberation 2003

Ryan, Cynthia Competing Discourses and the Female Consumer: Implications for Feminist Composition Theory, Research, and Pedagogy 1998

Salinas, Carlos Toward a Critical Rhetoric of Images: Design/Writing Within a Corporate Web Site 2000

Schaub, Mark Sociolinguistic Profiling and the Negotiation of Stakeholder Expectations in a Writing Program: A Case Study 1998

Scholl, CarlAnn 2005

Schrag, Sonya The Discourse of Music Scholars 1992

Selting, Bonita The Entry of Student Discourse into Academic Conversation: An Inquiry into Student Identities in Composition Classrooms 1997

Sidler, Michelle Teaching Genre Literacy in Composition 1998

Silva, Tony A Comparative Study of the Composing of Selected ESL and Native English Speaking Freshmen Writers 1990

Simmons, Michele Building Public Rhetorics: A Critical Approach to Public Participation in Environmental Public Policy 2000

Simpkins, Ann Marie Mann The Professional Writing Practices and Dialogic Rhetoric of Two Black Women Pubishers: Discourse as Social Action in the Nineteenth Century 1999

Simpson, Mark D. Shaping Computer Documentation for Multiple Audiences: An Ethnographic Study 1989

Staggers, Julie Learning to Love the Bomb: Secrecy and Denial in the Atomic City, 1943-1961 2006

Stolley, Amy Ferdinandt 2007

Sykes, Lynn Collaboration in a Group of Graduate Writing Teachers 2001

Takayoshi, Pamela Theorizing Technocentrism in Computers and Composition: Conflicting Values, Competing Visions, and Pedagogical Intervention 1994

Thatcher, Barry Orality and Writing in Latin America and USA Professional Communication 1997

Toner, Lisa Ethical Roles for the Writing Teacher: A Rhetorical Casuistry Perspective 1996

Tovey, Jan A Visual Rhetoric of Electronic-Aided Publishing 1995

Turnley, Melinda Re-writing Media: A Critical Investigation of Mediological Assumptions in Composition Pedagogies 2001

Uber-Kellogg, Nan Moments of Encounter, Modes of Engagement: A Mulitiple Case Study of Four Colleges and Four Composition Instructors 1998

Wang (now Lan), Haixia Chinese Public Discourse: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Newspaper People's Daily 1993

Weaver, John The Concept of Ethos in Tudor Rhetorical Theory and Practice 1993

Weston, James Toward a Contextual Approach to Cliches 1987

Williams, Debbie Olelo Huna: A Rhetorical Critique of Literacy Policies in Hawaii 1996

Yost, Linda 2007

Zerbe, Michael Toward a Cultural Studies-Based Pedagogy for the Rhetoric of Science 1998

Zhao, Heping Wen Sin Diao Long: Chinese Rhetoric of Written Discourse 1990

Zoetewey, Meredith Weisberg Mobile writing technologies and the dis/location of the computer classroom 2005