Master of Arts / Department of English / Daniel A. Hoyt / This project is the opening chapters of a novel in which two brothers, Txanton and Riddley, are split from each other in post-apocalyptic Kansas. The Commune of Eternal Light has been their family’s peaceful home for more than a hundred years but is crushed by a fascist army that considers killing the only way to survive in civilization’s aftermath. In this destruction, Txanton sees his father’s murder, while Riddley watches his mother’s death. After the separation, Txanton, along with several other boys from the Commune, becomes part of the very army that destroyed his family, and he is visited by the ghost of his great-great grandfather who begins telling his personal story along with the tale of the downfall of the world. Riddley, meanwhile, wanders a picaresque path in which he sees cannibals, zombies, witches, a cowboy, and other ghosts. Both boys struggle with the brutality of the wasteland they are thrust into and try to cope with the memories of their peaceful home and the deaths of their family and friends. Told in chapters that jump back-and-forth between the two brothers, the novel parallels their challenges in a close third-person narrative.

Please note: creative writing theses are permanently embargoed in OpenBU. No public access is forecasted for these. To request private access, please click on the lock icon and filled out the appropriate web form. / Short stories and novel excerpt / 2031-01-01T00:00:00Z

Readers often encounter the need to explore a document only for a specific point of interest. We call the phenomena of approaching a narrative not for its entirety, but for a thread of a particular topic, thematic reading. Present reading tools and information retrieval techniques provide only limited assistance to readers in such a situation. Our research centers on this phenomenon. We conducted investigations on both human behavior and machine automation, with a goal of better meeting the requirements of thematic reading. To observe readers? behavior and understand their expectations, we implemented a reader?s interface with designs targeting the predicted needs of thematic readers. We conducted user studies using both the system and Microsoft Word. We proved that thematic reading is capable of achieving the goal of understanding a specific topic, at least to a degree that succeeds in topic-wise tasks. We also reached guidelines for designing future reading platforms in major aspects such as view, navigation, and contextual awareness. As for machine automation, we investigated the potential to automatically locate thematically relevant excerpts. This investigation was inspired by the editorial compilation of a textbook index. To increase the search performance, we proposed a two-step methodology which first expands the query with expansion and then filters the intermediate results by checking the term-occurrence proximity. For query expansion, we compared the query expansion with WordNet, morphological inflections, and both processes together. Our results show that in the context of our study, WordNet made almost no contribution to the enhancement of recall, while expansion with the inflectional variants turned out to be a successful and essential scheme. For the refinement section, the results show that the proximity check on the alternative phrases formed after inflectional expansion can effectively increase the precision of the previously acquired return results. We further tested a different scheme ? using sliding window ? of defining target and verification units in the methodology. Our findings show that the structural delimitations (sentences and chapters) outperformed sliding windows. The first scheme was able to achieve consistently desirable results, while the results from the second were inconclusive.

The content area of social studies has not been given as much attention as its counterparts despite its inclusion in the state wide TAKS exam in Texas. All students in grades 8, 10, and 11 are required to take the social studies portion, and must pass it in order to graduate. The consequences of such a test and the importance of social studies in the everyday lives of students make this content area important. In addition, since ESL students constitute a considerable segment of the student population in our schools nowadays, it is essential that educators understand the challenges these students face and the experiences they go through in such content areas and tests; thus, their performance in the TAKS exam is examined in this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the performance of ESL students in the social studies TAKS exams in grades 8 and 11 in relation to content (represented by the five objectives of the test), and question item format (limited to two text-enriched question types: excerpt-based, and bullet-point questions). The study also sought to find the effects of demographic variables on student performance. The results of the study can further familiarize educators with the challenges ESL students face in social studies to be able to assist them succeed in their classrooms and on standardized tests. This study utilized secondary data analysis with a set of data provided from the Texas Education Agency. The data included information of the students who took the Spring 2003, 2006, and 2009 social studies TAKS exams, which allowed the researcher to conduct longitudinal analysis to further support the results. Overall, the study was non-experimental and descriptive in nature. A statistical significant difference was found between the percentages of correct answers by objective. ESL students performed better on objectives 3 (economics) and 5 (social studies skills), while lagging behind in objective 1 (history). The results were also confirmed in the longitudinal study that showed that although ESL students’ performance increased in all five objectives, there was statistically significant difference in the performance of ESL students among the objectives. In relation to question type, ESL students chose more correct answers for the bullet-point questions than they did for the excerpt-based questions with statistical significance. Longitudinal analysis of excerpt-based questions only showed that ESL students who took the exam in 11th grade three years after taking it in 8th grade, achieved higher. Finally, the results of the study show that the three demographic variables of gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status had an effect on the performance of ESL students. Overall, males scored higher than females, economically non-disadvantaged students outperformed disadvantaged students, and Hispanic ESL students had the lowest scores of all the ethnic groups.

abstract: This document details the conception and creative process of fundamental exercises intended for the refinement of orchestral repertoire for the tuba. Performance practices and study materials that relate to the orchestral tubist have evolved significantly over the instrument’s history. Although much of its current methodology is derived from the pedagogical insights of the brass family, resources intended to specifically address the unique musical and technical challenges of the tuba have become more prevalent in the past decade. This study aims to detail the conception of exercises that target the skills necessary for the realization of eight excerpts. It also begs the question: what might a new resource encompass that would differentiate its quality and intent from existing materials? To create a resource that is reflective of current trends and standards in tuba performance, a dialogue was established with several professional tubists through the creation of an online survey. Respondents’ interpretations of each included excerpt were assessed by generalized, specific, and quantifiable feedback. This data was then utilized to directly inform the creative process of supplementary exercises for the included repertoire. The project fulfills its intent to serve as an educational resource, and has strong potential to expand its coverage to additional excerpts with further professional insights. / Dissertation/Thesis / PDF of composed project materials. / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2020

The purpose of this essay is to examine how movies portray Judaism in movies made for a large audience. The study used four movies ranging from the year 2009-2018 and that were categorized in different genres with the aim of investigating how relationships that involve people from different religious backgrounds get into conflicts and how these are resolved. The study’s main research question was why the characters in the movies get involved with conflict regarding religion and a textual analysis where the movies functioned as text was used as the method. To present the results the method of excerpt commentary units as known by Emerson was used. The analysis showed that one of the reasons why conflicts are created regarding Judaism is because one part of the relationship lacks in knowledge regarding the religion. Because of this the person ridicules and makes derogatory comments to the other person in the relationship, to the point where conflict is created because the other person in the relationship does not feel respected. The study also showed that these particular conflicts were resolved by the person learning more about the others religion which lead to a more understanding standpoint in the relationship. The analysis also showed that another big reason for conflict in the relationships regarding Judaism was that both parties felt pressure from outside sources, such as family, friends or other significant people. This caused the relationship to suffer because neither person in the relationship would stand up to these outside forces and instead they took it out on the relationship.

This study describes in detail the preparation that must be done by aspiring orchestral horn players in order to be sufficiently ready for an orchestral audition. The general physical and mental preparation, through to the very specific elements that require attention when practicing and learning a list of orchestral excerpts that will be performed for an audition committee, is investigated. This study provides both the necessary tools and the insight borne of a number of years of orchestral experience that will enable a player to take a given excerpt and learn not only the notes and rhythms, but also discern many other subtleties inherent in the music, resulting in a full understanding and mastery thereof. Ten musical examples are included in order to illustrate the type of additional information that a player must gain so as to develop an in-depth knowledge of an excerpt. Three lists are presented within the text of this study: 1) a list of excerpts that are most commonly found at auditions, 2) a list of those excerpts that are often included and 3) other excerpts that have been requested but are not as commonly found. Also included is advice regarding the audition procedure itself, a discussion of the music required for auditions, and a guide to the orchestral excerpt books in which these passages can be found. / Dissertation (MMus)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Music / unrestricted

Denna studie undersöker fördelar och nackdelar med att genomföra utdragsundervisning respektive undervisning med hela verk i litteraturundervisning, på gymnasienivå i Sverige. Syftet med studien är att undersöka lärarnas attityder gentemot användningen av utdrag och hela verk, och hur deras attityder korrelerar med den tidigare forskningen i ämnet. Undersökningen syftar till att besvara frågorna; Hur kan svensklärares attityder till användningen av textutdrag respektive hela verk i litteraturundervisningen beskrivas? och hur korrelerar lärarnas attityder till den litteraturdidaktiska forskningen om utdragsundervisning och undervisning med hela verk? med stöd i fenomenologi. Studien använder sig av en kvalitativ metod och genomför intervjuer med sex legitimerade gymnasielärare. Studien undersöker deras användning av utdrag respektive hela verk i litteraturundervisning samt deras uppfattning om vilka för- och nackdelar som finns med utdrag respektive hela verk. Lärarna uppgav att de använder båda metoder i sin litteraturundervisning, men de särskilde på deras användningsområden i kurserna svenska 1, 2 och 3. Resultatet visar att det finns både fördelar och nackdelar med utdrag respektive hela verk; hela verk anses vara mer lämpligt när eleverna läser för berättelsen och tolkar innehållet eftersom det möjliggör en djupare förståelse medan utdrag är mer lämpligt när man studerar litteraturhistoria eftersom det möjliggör en bredare förståelse av de litterära epokerna. / This essay examines the advantages and disadvantages of using excerpts or an entire works in literature teaching at upper secondary schools in Sweden. The objective is to see teachers’ attitudes towards the use of excerpts and entire literary works, and how the correlate with the previous research about the matter. The research aims to answer the questions; How can Swedish teachers' attitudes to the use of text excerpts and entire works in literary education be described? and how do teachers' attitudes correlate to literary didactic research on excerpt teaching and teaching with whole works? with a support in phenomenology. The study is conducted with the qualitative method interviews. Six teachers, certified for upper secondary school, were interviewed about their current use of excepts and entire works in their literary teachings, as well as their attitudes toward the advantages and disadvantages of them. The teachers stated that they use both methods in their literary teachings, however they differentiated their use between the different courses Swedish 1, 2 and 3. The result show that there are advantages and disadvantages with both methods, however, entire works are considered more suitable when students are reading for the story and to interpret the content as it allows for a deeper understanding. Furthermore, excerpts are considered more suitable when studying history of literature as it allows for a broader understanding of the literary eras

Etudes have been composed to address the primary challenges found in ten selected euphonium wind band pieces. Each work was chosen based on its frequency of occurrence in military band auditions as well as its appearance in excerpt books and journal articles. Practice drills, practice variations, and overtraining studies are the primary concepts used for composing each etude. List of selected works: (1) Roman Carnival Overture Op. 9, Hector Berlioz; (2) First Suite in E-flat for Military Band Op. 28 No. 1, Gustav Holst; (3) Barnum and Bailey's Favorite, Karl King; (4) The Melody Shop, Karl King; (5) Aegean Festival Overture, Andreas Makris arr. Albert Bader; (6) Theme and Variations Op. 43 A, Arnold Schoenberg; (7) Festive Overture Op. 96, Dmitri Shostakovich arr. Donald Hunsberger; (8) Festival Variations, Claude T. Smith; (9) The Stars and Stripes Forever, John Philip Sousa; and (10) Suite from the Ballet: Pineapple Poll, Arthur Sullivan arr. Charles Mackerras.

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