Defining a new kind of scholar, one who takes a holistic approach to his or her profession, involves examining models of writing that integrate personal and professional parts of one's life. As a vehicle towards holism, the essay is a superb model. It can integrate critical thought and personal expression organically and intelligently, inviting readers in rather than alienating all but a narrow readership. Because personal expression is integral to this model, I briefly examine a historical chronology of theories of epistemology and expressive discourse in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Next, I look at other writing models--therapeutic, philosophical, journal-oriented, and spiritual--for their integration of formative experiences in the writing process. These two contextual explorations lead to a chapter in which I propose my theory of the critical/personal essay as a scholarly vehicle that integrates theory and lived experience. To demonstrate the essay's flexibility and power, I then examine the writing of Nancy Mairs and several nature, medical, spiritual, and pedagogical essayists. Throughout the dissertation, I interweave excerpts from personal experience. These sections anticipate the final chapter, which is a personal essay examining the role of expressive writing and the sacred in my teaching history.

This dissertation is a rhetorical study of mediation that theorizes ways in which people can use language to consistently achieve peaceful resolutions of conflicts. In this study, I analyze community mediation at the Our Town Community Mediation Program, which provides free or low cost dispute resolution services. Disputants engage in a conflict defined by a particular rhetorical situation with its own exigence and constraints. The major finding of this study is that once the disputants have entered into a mediation, they become engaged in a second rhetorical situation that is in a dynamic relationship with the first. Thus the mediation experience involves a "rhetorical system" of situations. The primary exigence is defined as the urgency that obliged the unresolved conflict. The primary constraints are those factors that determined the rhetorical discourse. Through interviews with four mediators and a case study of a mock mediation, I identify eleven new constraints in the secondary situation that give presence to a secondary exigence, namely, miscommunication. The secondary situation values conciliatory rhetoric, making a mutually satisfactory resolution possible. In this way, rhetorical situation is itself used as a rhetorical device to elicit a resolution. I begin by arguing that mediation is a rhetorical activity that resembles ideal public discourse as described by Chaim Perelman and Kenneth Burke. Qualities such as on going dialog and situationally specific justice make mediation a useful model for critiquing deliberative democratic discourse. In Chapter Two, I explain that my research methodology serves to acknowledge mediation as a living process. In Chapter Three I explore the rhetorics of mediation taking into account, for example, its unusual use of argument and its transformative goals. In Chapter Four, I analyze the data from my research, redefining concepts such as neutrality, agency, good communication and conflict. And in Chapter Five, I explore the possibility of a wider application for the concept of rhetorical system, concluding that while the discourse of mediation may be too situationally specific to apply whole cloth to other forms of public discourse, the concept of rhetorical system has wide ranging applications.

Public debate about how, and whether, to graze southern Arizona's desert grasslands has been ongoing for decades. Increases in ecological knowledge and the creation of public discussion forums have failed to build consensus about grazing and related land policies. One major line of public argument takes the form of identity politics, with valued cultural and social movement identities, such as rancher or environmentalist, pitted against each other. Another site for contention is contrasting ecological claims about the effects of cattle on grass cover. In this ethnography-based dissertation, I analyze: (1) the rhetorical construction and representation of identities, and (2) the forms of evidence that provide epistemic support for scientific claims about ecology. Both reified identities and decontextualized scientific argument hinder consensus-building. A more open discussion of conflicting desires and explicit acknowledgment of human agency to affect both cultures and landscapes can shift public debate to more productive grounds for collaboration.

This dissertation examines the pedagogical practices and written texts of The New York Association for Working Girls between 1890 and 1894 in order to identify elements that are useful in constructing a just rhetoric for teaching business communication today. The late 1890s were a period of economic pressure In the face of cultural, physical, and industrial expansion for the United States much like the late 1990s--early 2000s mark a time of economic pressure in the context of cultural, physical, and technological expansion for the university. The older New York women aimed to uplift the souls of the newly arrived immigrant working girls by defining and identifying for them appropriate ways of speaking, writing, dressing, and living. They were concerned with the exterior identity and conscious identifications among all females. However, an identification of the pedagogical unconscious, that is those sites of conflict, ambiguity, or contradiction in the works of the New York Association for Working Girls serves as a foundation for using the past to examine current definitions and identities in teaching business communications. Most research on business communications within a technological age identifies theoretical links between composition and computers, business communications and rhetoric, but few if any identify practical pedagogy within the context of links between electronic business, rhetoric, and composition within an integrated curriculum of a business college. In using the tools to uncover the unexamined differences within the New York Association for Working Girls, I define the pedagogical unconscious of a team-taught MBA course that integrates business communications. I use the elements I identify to construct a new pedagogy that I believe is just and inclusive to all when used to teach business communications in a technological age.

The final issue of Assemblage marks a new form of discourse in architecture: compilations of short responses to general provocations about architecture from numerous writers active in the field. Why are polls of this nature being taken now? The provocations imply a fundamental uncertainty, a gnawing existential angst. This trend relates to a current fascination in the broader architectural discourse with self-organizing systems. Yet self-organizing discourse fails to resolve the fundamental issues concerning architecture. In fact, soliciting input and disseminating it in this fashion, with no attempt at synthesis, provides a false sense of accomplishment. This shifts focus away from the question generating crisis and may contribute to dissolution of the discipline of architecture as we know it through appropriation by an emerging body of thought on the broader role of creativity and aesthetics in culture. The question then becomes, who cares? Architectural autonomy and critical practice are at stake.

This thesis examines Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall's opinion for _Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh_ (1823) in light of the fictional history he employed in justifying the decision of the Court. I work from Hannah Arendt's conceptions of myth and legend as corrective of history, and conclude in line with Milner S. Ball that the legal transcription of custom into statute finds a natural corollary in the poetic license exercised by forging precedence from obiter dicta. In my examination, I treat law as literature insofar as it allows one to elucidate the elements of _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ that are amorally imperial in nature, and on which America is founded. While legend and law can be formally quite similar, I argue that racist, ethnocentric decisions like _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ demonstrate that if we desire for our laws to endure as the paramount social embodiment of justice, it is essential that the forms of law and legend remain disparate. As I conclude, the violence done Indian tribes by the statutory institution of Marshall's mythical opinion as authoritative, "true" history is unforgiveable and irreparable. / Cette thèse examine l'opinion du président de la Cour suprême des Etats-Unis, John Marshall, sur l'arrêt _Johnson and Graham's Lessee v. William M'Intosh_ (1823), au regard de l'histoire fictionnelle qu'il employait pour justifier la décision de la Cour. Cette thèse étudie la conception d'Hannah Arendt du mythe et de la légende comme correctif de l'Histoire, et conclut, en accord avec Milner S. Ball, que la transcription légale de la coutume en loi trouve un corollaire naturel dans la licence poétique exercée dans la construction de la préséance de l'obiter dicta. Puisque épopée et loi peuvent être formellement similaires, je soutiens que des décisions racistes et ethnocentriques telles que _Johnson v. M'Intosh_ démontrent que si nous désirons que nos lois restent l'incarnation sociale prédominante de justice, il est essentiel que les textes de lois et l'épopée restent distincts. Comme je conclus, la violence faite aux tribues indiennes par l'institution, par Marshall, de l'épopée comme faisant autorité car officielle, "vraie" Histoire, est impardonnable et irréparable.

The three studies presented here represent a two-year program of research that critically explored one case of high-stakes language assessment—English proficiency assessment for teacher certification in Quebec, Canada.The first study was an examination of the final administration of a writing test used for this purpose at one Quebec university before this test was replaced. In this study, mismatches were revealed in stakeholder perceptions of the task to be produced in this assessment. The second study examined the pilot administration of a new replacement test. It focused on the socio-political environment of the test—namely, how the perception of high or low stakes by raters affected scoring. Results from this study suggested that test stakes—to all stakeholders, including raters—is a worthwhile focus of study. The third study examined the first official administration of the new test, and focused on rater behavior from a socio-cognitive perspective, suggesting that information on decision-making style may provide insight into variability in rater scoring.This program of research has been critical in that •it has integrated social and political values into the test validation process;•test stakeholders, including the test takers themselves, have not only been consulted but have determined the direction of the research program to a great extent; and•the conflicting views and competing interests of the stakeholders have been embraced and have enriched the research program.These studies will make contributions to the field of language assessment, and in particular, in better understanding how all elements of the subjectively-scored assessment situation interact. Because of its critical approach, these studies have demonstrated a responsible and progressive approach to researching the assessment of language proficiency for professional certification. In addition, the use of mixed methods designs in all three studies has been somewhat innovative and will add to the emerging field of mixed method research. / Les trois études présentées ici forment une programme de recherche unie, étalé sur deux ans, qui explore de manière critique une étude de cas se rapportant aux enjeux majeurs de l'évaluation de la langue et en particulier, au jugement de la compétence en anglais dans la certification des enseignants du Québec.La première étude est une exploration de l'ancienne épreuve finale du test écrit évaluant cette compétence. Celle-ci trace un portrait des divergences de perceptions des partis impliqués (étudiants, administrateurs et correcteurs) de la tâche exigée par cette épreuve. La deuxième étude examine l'administration pilote d'un nouveau test (The English Exam for Teacher Certification ou EETC). Cette étude s'attarde à l'environnement sociopolitique du processus d'évaluation et tente de déterminer en quoi les perceptions des conséquences d'échec entretenues par les évaluateurs peuvent affecter le score attribué. La troisième étude porte sur la première administration officielle du EETC. Dans une perspective sociocognitive, le comportement de l'évaluateur y est analysé. Cette étude cherche à déterminer comment l'information est perçue et traitée selon le style cognitive des évaluateurs et en quoi ce style peut affecter leur décision.Ce programme de recherche est critique dans le sens qu'il :-a intégré des valeurs sociales et politiques tout au long du processus de validation du test ;-a impliqué les différents acteurs concernés (étudiants, administrateurs et correcteurs) dans l'orientation de ce projet ; -a pris en compte les divers points de vue et intérêts des partis impliqués pour enrichir le programme de recherche.Ces études contribueront à l'élargissement des connaissances dans le domaine de l'évaluation de la langue. Entre autres, les résultats de celles-ci permettront de mieux saisir les interactions de chacun des partis impliqués dans cette situation d'évaluation. Cette recherche critique sur l'évaluation de la compétence de la langue pour la certification professionnelle a donné lieu à trois études menées dans une perspective progressiste et responsable. De plus, le recours à des méthodes variées pour chacune des études s'inscrit dans le domaine émergeant des méthodologiques mixtes.

<p> This dissertation is a historical project that traces the development of notable strands of composition pedagogy first crafted by Gregory Ulmer in his 1984 Applied Grammatology that continue to the present day, and groups them together in how they are incorporating multimodal tools in writing instruction that demand innovation in composition instruction. This will demonstrate how the work of certain contemporary composition scholars can be seen as creatively re-working the invention model that was devised and promoted by Ulmer in 1984. Through this history of invention in composition, Ulmer's invention model of writing instruction is clearly seen as both situated within a contemporary American Romanticism, and influenced heavily by Derridean deconstruction, and I will show that today's scholars who are students of Ulmer's invention model are creating pedagogy that effectively bring together elements of both Romanticism and Deconstruction.</p>

<p> For over two decades, scholars in rhetoric and composition studies have been invested in helping to shape and adapt writing studies as institutions of higher learning negotiate conceptualizations of subjects and knowledge production in digital culture. The canon of invention, in particular, has propelled forth theories and practices that resist hermeneutic modes of knowledge production and instead advocate invention as performance. Inspired by the aforementioned scholarship, Victor Vitanza's call for knowledge production that relies on the language games of paralogy, Gregory Ulmer's heuretics, and Sarah Arroyo and Geoffrey Carter's participatory pedagogy, this thesis puts forth a method of invention entitled "producing as a listener." This methodology harnesses the potential of video editing software and video sharing ecologies as choric sites of invention, relies on the reconceptualization of subjects as whatever singularities, and invites electrate and proairetic lines of reasoning wherein video composers invent and write as listeners. </p>

<p> In deliberative argument, in political discourse, in teaching, and in casual conversation, as rhetors we often hope that our attempts at interaction will have some effect on the participants in these discursive environments. The phenomena of stubbornness, however, would seem to suggest that, despite our efforts, there are times when rhetoric just doesn't work. This dissertation complicates this premise, and in so doing complicates common understandings of both stubbornness and rhetorical effect. As I argue, rhetorical effects exist within a complex rhetoric <i>system</i>, within which they circulate and are interconnected with a diversity of other rhetorical and non-rhetorical elements. Using N. Katherine Hayles's concept of "making the cut," I argue that within such complex systems, stability and change are tangled up in an interdependent relationship; in short, in order for complexity to exist it must be constrained by contingent stabilities. These necessary stabilities mask the way that systems are always moving, and so we often do not see changes in the rhetoric systems we inhabit. In this sense, these changes are <i> compensatory</i>, and they work to maintain a stability that can manifest precisely as stubbornness. In delineating what I call a "rhetoric-systems" approach, this dissertation maps the stabilities and movements of several different rhetoric systems, and provides new insight into the complex and relational movement of rhetorical effect. Our use of this approach asks us to recognize the existence and value of certainty and stability, and <i> then</i> to pull back and recognize the existence of complexity and change. The approach integrates insights from systems theory (and so from the sciences) into existing rhetorical theory, and in so doing models an interdisciplinary approach to public rhetorics and writing studies that is firmly grounded in rhetorical theory.</p>