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The purpose of writing this thesis is twofold. The writer will first establish the importance of the communal theatre as a civic institution, and then he will regard the original research material as it indicates the means by which the communal theatre may be strengthened and improved. It is hoped that this research will prove interesting and valuable to dram enthusiasts, educators, and the people of any community.

Scholars of rhetoric and speech communications have suggested that the study of a women's rhetoric should focus on the "distinctly female modes of leadership" that may be found among women in "out-groups" that challenge established political authority. Such leaders must be especially inventive to be effective, and are thus likely to be talented rhetoricians. In looking for such leaders, the religious and political rhetoric of early Latter-day Saint women provides a noteworthy, unique study. Nineteenth-century Mormon women not only battled discriminatory political norms—arguing fervently for both universal woman's suffrage and for the freedom to practice polygamy—they did so from their position as members of a stigmatized and persecuted religious community.One exemplary figure is Sarah Melissa Granger Kimball (1818-1898). A founding member of the Church's Female Relief Society in 1842, Kimball was later instrumental in reestablishing the organization in Utah. In Salt Lake City she was called to be president of her ward's Relief Society; she served over 40 remarkably influential years in that position, while instituting and organizing programs church-wide. During the same four decades she also served in two General Relief Society presidencies, as a member of the territorial committee of the People's Party, and as a national delegate and President of the Utah Woman's Suffrage Association. Kimball was a leader dedicated to stimulating thought in and provoking action from her Relief Society sisters and her fellow citizens, and she developed her own powerful voice as a communicator.Kimball used her rhetorical skills and leadership strategies both to "educate and agitate" and to "instruct and happify" her audiences. This thesis is a historiography which examines Kimball's public discourse within its social contexts, analyzing samples of her rhetoric from several different genres: autobiographical sketch; political rally; ceremonial speeches; formal encomium; official minutes from weekly Relief Society meetings; and the text of her own life's actions. These various texts survey the broad range of Kimball's social and spiritual concerns, and showcase her discursive skill among her contemporaries. This textual analysis illustrates the strategies she developed to establish her noted effectiveness as a rhetor and widespread influence as a leader.

A critical study of the literary values contained in homiletic writing demands at the outset a careful consideration of what differentiates literature from mere language. Following a line of distinction made by Professor Albert Guerard of Stanford, literature may be defined from two points of view: technique and intention. A more exalted concept is furnished by the philosophy of James Russell Lowell, as it has been paraphrased by Norman Foerster: “Literature is the ideal representation of human nature…” Recognizing the fact that literature involves “overtones of the soul” (Guerard), or “spiritual imagination” (Foerster), we are forced to depart from the realm of mere word-counting and consider taste and a sense of values. The subjective element enters in, and we must raise the question: Whose taste and what values shall decide what constitutes literature? It is to answer these questions that the critic exists.

Ideology is a powerful means of persuasion in contemporary audience appeals. Through the means of ideographic and fragmentary analyses provided by Michael Calvin McGee (1980, 1990) and Saindon (2008), I examine the rhetorical appeals made by the Liberty Counsel, an evangelical Christian organization, which provides legal counsel for cases regarding “religious liberty.” Through an ideographic and fragmentary analysis, I conclude that the Counsel utilizes the ideograph as a superseding means of denoting its ideology. Further, I argue that is the ideograph that represents the ontological nature of the organization’s philosophy and serves as the guiding principle for many of the other ideographs that the organization employs. Further, the ideograph displays relative influence for the Liberty Counsel with and from other organizations, as illustrated when is compared to competing ideologies, such as that from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The importance of the ideograph is incumbent upon its utility in understanding a “snapshot” of the rhetorical situation. Rather than attempting to draft ideological archetypes, as the initial ideographic form attempted, this new ideographic form accepts the relativistic cultural influences and accounts for them synchronically.

The legend is a permanent fixture of human societies. Though the legends themselves are permanent, their functions and meanings can fluctuate as the context in which they are told and retold shifts. As societies move through history, certain authoritative institutions create narratives that direct those societies and frame debates within them. Issues neglected by these institutions yet experienced by members of the population can be said to be unconstructed. Social problems that have achieved some level of construction inevitably provoke those who dissent from those constructions. In these situations, members of a society look for alternative means for talking about these problems. Often they turn to the contemporary legend for this purpose. This study reviews a sample of the most popular legends in the early part of 2012 to determine the ways members of American society were dealing with the unconstructed social problems of that time.

This thesis explores the potential for creating a composition syllabus that presents a model of good writing, is an enthusiastic invitation to the discipline, and provides a clear roadmap to success, not only for the course, but also for the students’ college career. This is especially useful for an increasingly diverse student community that arrives to college with a varying knowledge of the academic institution, with its specialized language and systems. The project explores the existing research on syllabus crafting, uses current composition studies and a survey of English 100 students to interrogate the rhetorical situation of the author’s own syllabus, and finally reflects upon a section-bysection revision of that syllabus. With a present and positive voice from the teacher that includes students in the process of their own learning, a dynamic composition syllabus can initiate trusting relationships in the classroom, and support greater success for the students.

This analysis is an examination of the use of Jane Austen quotes on the social networking site Pinterest in order to explore the messages disseminated by the dismantling of Austen’s works. Austen’s novels contain subtle feminist ideals that empower women to find their own unique paths. Pinterest has a large female following and the messages created and shared by women hold importance because they highlight salient values and ideas. The quotes collected were analyzed using a feminist rhetorical method. Questions of whether women were empowered outside the private sphere and encouraged to engage in independent thought guided the analysis. Findings indicated that Austen’s words are removed from context in order to reinforce hegemonic ideas of beauty, love, and intelligence. Women can engage in independent thought and exist outside the home as long as they follow socially prescribed rules that create unattainable standards and contradictory dichotomies.

This study examines the process and procedures employed by storytellers to craft an oral historical narrative. Contemporary storytellers are working toward a transferable methodology and this work is an effort toward that end. Using the various procedures described by nearly 20 storytellers, a single process is assembled. The methodology is then tested, checking for transferability. The case study used to test the methodology is based on the life of Emmeline B. Wells, the fifth Relief Society President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Wells was born in Massachusetts and emigrated to the west in 1848. She edited a leading suffrage paper of her time, The Woman's Exponent. Wells also worked, unsuccessfully, to repeal anti-polygamy laws. Engaging the methodology, through the means of this case study, the paper outlines both the contemporary storytellers' crafting processes as well as her own experiences. As gaps in the descriptive model are noted, techniques are discovered to strengthen the procedure. Through replication of this process, insight will be provided into a transferable methodology.

In this study the goal was to determine if there was a shift in the extent to which children’s attitudes toward deception change as they age. Participants (N=278) enrolled in grades 3-12 completed a survey assessing their lie acceptability and other factors as potential variables associated with a prodeception attitude. Results indicated that greater lie acceptability was correlated with male children who had self-reported acts of bad behavior. Results also suggest that nontraditional family environments may increase one’s perception of the acceptability of lying. These findings provide potential predictors of the acceptability of lying in children and adolescents that offer insight into the development of antisocial attitudes, which may have practical implications regarding the timing of crucial interventions as to prevent the continuance and escalation of such behaviors in the future.