Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Iowa, 2006. / Supervisors: Bruce Gronbeck, Meenakshi Gigi Durham. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 123-131).

Communication cannot be successful without the cooperative listening response of an auditor. Auditors must feel empowered to act as agents of change or their decisions and actions cannot be influenced by the discourse. Their every response depends upon their ability to perceive themselves as potential mediators of change. A review of the literature supports the notion that women auditors are affected by biological, social, historical, and psychological forces which serve to inform their ability to perceive themselves as agents of change. In many instances, their lack of perceived personal power is apparent. The purpose of this study was to construct and analyze an instrument developed for the purpose of measuring perceived personal power. The instrument was designed and validated through a Delphi process. The questionnaire contained thirty-six (36) items, with a four-point Likert type scale used to indicate the respondent's attitude. Questions were completed by 300 randomly selected female students at Oregon State University. The mean age of the respondents was twenty years, 34 percent were married and the mean years of university classwork completed was 2.4 years. The Hoyt-Stunkard method was used to assess reliability. The computed reliability coefficient was 0.948. An R-mode factor analysis was utilized by clustering items--acting as a tool for determining construct validity through the extraction of common factor variances, showing the highly correlated items which share variance. Five factors were extracted through use of a varimax rotation of the factor matrix loadings. Thirty-five (35) of the thirty-six (36) instrument items were clustered on one of the five factors. Based on the results, it is reasonable to believe that the Perceived Personal Power Inventory developed for this study is reliable and valid when used with the population from which the population was drawn. / Graduation date: 1993

Written in the form of a narrative, this thesis explores the phenomenon of voice in writing, and what the development of an awareness of the multiplicity voices while writing and reading can mean for language learners. This thesis is also a personal reflection of depression, and a recollection of individual, family and life events. One chapter takes the form of a unified narrative, while another presents anecdotal recollections. It is, in this sense, an exploration of voices through an analysis of available academic and public writing, and a personal inquiry into how the concept of voices in writing has affected my development as an individual and as a writer. The first section reviews some of the academic and public literature on writing and voice, and reveals that early writing on the issue of voice reflected a monolistic theory of voice. That is, that there is one voice that as writers we must find within ourselves, or there is a voice of the author that we must seek out. However, views of the multiplicity of voices in writing are increasingly common. While philosophical tradition since Plato has mistrusted writing and viewed it as secondary to speech, philosophy has nevertheless employed writing to further its own inquiries. Re/viewing the issue of voice in writing may be one way to deal with this long-standing schism between speech and writing. There is a need to further problematize the field of writing, not searching for ways to simplify the process but seeking ways to celebrate the inherent complexity, ambiguity, and paradoxical nature of writing. The thesis concludes with a reflection on the need to seriously consider the significance of voices in writing in first and second language instruction.

Through an examination of the album The Wall by the group Pink Floyd, the intention of this study was to answer questions such as tale following in hopes that a clearer understanding of The Walls popularity might be obtained. What are the major and minor events in this musical narrative? Who are the main characters in -111ne narrative? What cause-and-effect relationships are established in the narrative? now did The Wall function rhetorically in achieving a sense of identification with contemporary listeners?The study found that The Wall achieved identification through the use of its themes which centered around war, derisive school systems, parental overprotection. collapse, and extreme alienation.The study notes that The Wall contained substantial social commentary, and states that the rock music form, often belittled as nothing more than hedonistic escapism, is capable of producing work worthy of scholarly examination. / Department of Speech Communication

Chapter One includes an introduction to AIDS, the AIDS Quilt, and work by communication scholars related to AIDS and the AIDS Quilt. A literature review of creative works inspired by the AIDS Quilt follows. The research question which guides the analysis is included and followed by descriptions of the three artifacts to be analyzed: The Quilt: Stories from The NAMES Project, "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, and The AIDS Quilt Songbook.Chapter Two describes the method to be used in the analysis, cluster analysis developed by Kenneth Burke. The steps in the cluster method are: 1) identify key terms in the rhetoric, 2) chart the terms that cluster around key terms, 3) discover patterns in the clusters, and 4) name the motive, or situation, based on the meanings of the key terms.Chapter Three is a cluster analysis of a book entitled, The Quilt: Stories from The NAMES Project. Key terms found in this analysis are "love," "grief," "memories / remembrance," "hope," "intolerance," and “individuality." Chapter Four is a cluster analysis of a documentary, "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt." Key terms examined in this analysis are "negligence," "disease / AIDS," "grief," "love," and "memories." Chapter Five is a cluster analysis of poetry from The AIDS Quilt Songbook, a performance of poetry, music, and singing. Key terms discovered through this analysis are "death / dying," "disease / sickness," "cool / cold," and "warm / hot."Chapter Six contains conclusions pertaining to the analysis of all three rhetorical artifacts. Conclusions include the effectiveness of the positive, realistic approach to AIDS portrayed in the personal stories, which have helped humanize the AIDS statistics. Positive outlets for handling grief are also found through the analysis. Contributions to cluster analysis and rhetorical theory include the unique results in analyzing visual images, the effectiveness of using cluster criticism to uncover emotion-laden key terms, and evidence for the therapeutic uses of communication. Finally, communication scholars who study the personal side of contemporary problems can contribute by helping people understand the details behind the statistics, encouraging them to take steps toward solving contemporary problems such as AIDS. / Department of Speech Communication

This thesis takes a discursive/rhetorical approach to the topic of support for modern constitutional monarchy. It examines in detail some of the rhetorical devices used by modern Japanese speakers when they discuss monarchism. In so doing the thesis highlights both the discursive and social dilemmas involved in contemporary monarchism. In Britain, another constitutional monarchical state, critical psychologists have analysed what have been called 'dilemmas of lived ideology' (BiIIig et al., 1988). Billig (1992) analysed ordinary people's discourses about British monarchism. He points out that people employ dilemmatic themes as they justifY, mitigate and make sense of their own non-privileged positions under egalitarianism. I use Billig's work as a main reference, and apply his analytical frameworks (discursive psychology) for my investigation ofJapanese monarchism. Amongst several features ofJapanese conversation, I focus on its complicated naming and honorific systems. These systems almost always encode power structures amongst speaker-addressee, speaker-referent as well as addressee-referent relationships. Analysing people's mundane (family) conversations about the Emperor system, I have found contradictory rhetorical common-places, which are not always voiced explicitly, but are often formulated implicitly through these linguistic implications (i.e. naming, honorifics). Moreover, these codes have to be managed in their particular discursive contexts where the different systems of showing honour can conflict. By analysing news articles, in addition, I focus on a terminology which is employed exclusively to describe an Emperor's death. Lookingat the contexts in which terms are used (and not used), the process of construction ofthe social reality (i.e. monarchism under egalitarian social norm) is illustrated. Through my analysis, I believe, a new perspective for Japanese monarchism is introduced: people represent the institutional reality and accept the inequality simultaneously through mundane discursive interaction.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 20, 2008). PDF text: iii, 150 p. ; 617 K. UMI publication number: AAT 3284033. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 121-129). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-51). Also available in print.