The purpose of this study is to describe how a high school student retrieves information in order to write a history research paper, and to investigate the role genre plays in this process of search and paper construction. This study interrogates the conditions under which students are sent to the library to complete research assignments. What is absent from the research of school library use is how the kinds of knowledge expected from the students, and how the kinds of uses and manipulations that information is to be put through are connected to the access and retrieval of information. Because use is the final stage in the information process, this problem is approached by examining the assumptions about language, knowledge, and genre that teachers and students bring to research assignments in the school library. Rhetorical genre theory may be used to construct a representation of information use within an educational setting. Rhetorical genre theory will also be used to determine the method of analysis. By examining a few instances of high school history research, we can begin to systematize the features found beyond the sample to a larger study. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates classification theory, information seeking behavior, and rhetorical practices may help to characterize effective models in information retrieval. This model may provide a structure for understanding how a core set of research tasks utilizes a certain set of genres.

This thesis features a qualitative study of student source use and speech representation in two corpora of review essays that acknowledges the complexity of classroom writing contexts and the rhetorical nature of school genres. It asks how students engage with the texts they review, for what reasons, and in response to what aspects of the writing context. When considered as a distinct genre of student assignment, review essays make for a particularly interesting study of source engagement because they challenge students to maintain an authoritative voice as novices evaluating the work of an expert. In addition, citation issues in the review assignment might not be as obvious to students or their instructors as they would be, for instance, in a research paper for which multiple sources are consulted and synthesized. The review essays interrogated in this study were collected with appropriate ethics clearance from two undergraduate history courses. The analysis is extended to a small corpus of published reviews assigned as model texts in one of these courses. The study features a robust method that combined applied linguistics and discourse analysis to tease out connections between the grammatical structures of speech reports and their argumentative roles. This method involved a recursive process of classifying speech reports using Swales’ (1990) concepts of integral and non-integral citation, Thompson and Yiyun’s (1991) classifications of speech act verbs, and Vološinov (1929/1973) and Semino and Short’s (2004) models of speech reporting forms. In addition, the analysis considered the influence of the writing context on the students’ citation practices and took into account theories of rhetorical genre and student identity. The results show connections between assignment instructions and the effective and problematic ways students engaged with the texts they reviewed, such as a correlation between a directive to reduce redundancy and the absence of in-text attributions. Most notably, this study offers a fluid set of descriptors of the forms and functions of speech reports in student coursework that can be used by students, educators, plagiarism adjudicators, as well as scholars of rhetoric and composition, to illuminate some of the methods and motives of student source use.

This master’s report presents a literary criticism of the novel ¡Caramba! by Nina Marie Martínez that attends to both genre and mass culture theory. The novel, when recognized as a multigenre text consisting of both chick lit and Chicano literature conventions, reveals how informal economies employ methods of cultural appropriation in order to articulate an oppositional voice. In particular, Martinez’s literary intervention of the trademark symbol subverts dominant forms of consumption (and genre) to expose how her protagonists emerge as subjective, discerning consumers in her fictional Californian town. / text

The purpose of this study is to describe how a high school student retrieves information in order to write a history research paper, and to investigate the role genre plays in this process of search and paper construction. This study interrogates the conditions under which students are sent to the library to complete research assignments. What is absent from the research of school library use is how the kinds of knowledge expected from the students, and how the kinds of uses and manipulations that information is to be put through are connected to the access and retrieval of information. Because use is the final stage in the information process, this problem is approached by examining the assumptions about language, knowledge, and genre that teachers and students bring to research assignments in the school library. Rhetorical genre theory may be used to construct a representation of information use within an educational setting. Rhetorical genre theory will also be used to determine the method of analysis. By examining a few instances of high school history research, we can begin to systematize the features found beyond the sample to a larger study. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates classification theory, information seeking behavior, and rhetorical practices may help to characterize effective models in information retrieval. This model may provide a structure for understanding how a core set of research tasks utilizes a certain set of genres.

This thesis features a qualitative study of student source use and speech representation in two corpora of review essays that acknowledges the complexity of classroom writing contexts and the rhetorical nature of school genres. It asks how students engage with the texts they review, for what reasons, and in response to what aspects of the writing context. When considered as a distinct genre of student assignment, review essays make for a particularly interesting study of source engagement because they challenge students to maintain an authoritative voice as novices evaluating the work of an expert. In addition, citation issues in the review assignment might not be as obvious to students or their instructors as they would be, for instance, in a research paper for which multiple sources are consulted and synthesized. The review essays interrogated in this study were collected with appropriate ethics clearance from two undergraduate history courses. The analysis is extended to a small corpus of published reviews assigned as model texts in one of these courses. The study features a robust method that combined applied linguistics and discourse analysis to tease out connections between the grammatical structures of speech reports and their argumentative roles. This method involved a recursive process of classifying speech reports using Swales’ (1990) concepts of integral and non-integral citation, Thompson and Yiyun’s (1991) classifications of speech act verbs, and Vološinov (1929/1973) and Semino and Short’s (2004) models of speech reporting forms. In addition, the analysis considered the influence of the writing context on the students’ citation practices and took into account theories of rhetorical genre and student identity. The results show connections between assignment instructions and the effective and problematic ways students engaged with the texts they reviewed, such as a correlation between a directive to reduce redundancy and the absence of in-text attributions. Most notably, this study offers a fluid set of descriptors of the forms and functions of speech reports in student coursework that can be used by students, educators, plagiarism adjudicators, as well as scholars of rhetoric and composition, to illuminate some of the methods and motives of student source use.

The essay is a theoretical analysis on genre, based on André Breton's views on black humor. Breton is believed to be the person who is the mind behind the term "black humor", but his views on black humour have not – as far as I’m concerned – been applied in a film-scientific context. There is no cohesive view of the genre concept, as reflected in four selected genre theorists' texts that I selected. Texts that also have been published in various decades. The disposition for my essay is to begin by clarifying the definition of “black humour” by Breton and then highlight the key ideas of Leo Braudy, Thomas Schatz, Rick Altman and David Bordwell. In the end, I will try to interpret the ways in which black humor can be formed as a genre of its own. My conclusion is that there is no clear answer to how black can be formed as its own genre, but on the other hand there are a number of critical perspectives on the genre concept. Together, all theorists demonstrates complex relationships between ideological roots and present-day added significance. In the final discussion, I argue that there is a need to continue studying more about "black humor" by adding additional relevant dimensions and linking them to genre theory.

The purpose of this study is to describe how a high school student retrieves information in order to write a history research paper, and to investigate the role genre plays in this process of search and paper construction. This study interrogates the conditions under which students are sent to the library to complete research assignments. What is absent from the research of school library use is how the kinds of knowledge expected from the students, and how the kinds of uses and manipulations that information is to be put through are connected to the access and retrieval of information. Because use is the final stage in the information process, this problem is approached by examining the assumptions about language, knowledge, and genre that teachers and students bring to research assignments in the school library. Rhetorical genre theory may be used to construct a representation of information use within an educational setting. Rhetorical genre theory will also be used to determine the method of analysis. By examining a few instances of high school history research, we can begin to systematize the features found beyond the sample to a larger study. An interdisciplinary approach that integrates classification theory, information seeking behavior, and rhetorical practices may help to characterize effective models in information retrieval. This model may provide a structure for understanding how a core set of research tasks utilizes a certain set of genres. / Arts, Faculty of / Library, Archival and Information Studies (SLAIS), School of / Graduate

Utopias, by their very nature, verge on the impossible. Yet utopian dreams continue to inform the literary imagination. Why is that, and how? The present thesis approaches these questions through a reading of Drömfakulteten: - tillägg till sexualteorin (The Faculty of Dreams: Amendment to theTheory of Sexuality or Valerie), a novel or “literary fantasy” about the life and work of radical feminist and writer Valerie Solanas, by the Swedish writer Sara Stridsberg. The reading examines the possibility of utopian desire and imagination in a hopeless and anti-utopian world. I argue that Drömfakulteten revolves around, and tries to resolve, a seemingly impossible contradiction: to represent an unbearably closed and confined existence, and, at the same time, to break out of this closure from within. A pervading aim of the thesis, then, is to render visible the forms and flows of utopian desire in Stridsberg’s novel. The first part of the reading does this by connecting Drömfakulteten to Fredric Jameson’s and Northrop Frye’s perspectives on historical genres and modes; especially, but not exclusively, on romance. Here, I primarily examine the mechanisms that continually distort and pervert utopian desire in the text. The second part, in contrast, takes as its starting point those utopian forms and impulses that appear to escape or unsettle such distorting mechanisms. The theoretical framework at this stage is provided by Jameson’s structural readings of romance and the utopian form, as well as José Esteban Muñoz queer-utopian thinking. I contend that Drömfakulteten can be read as a narrative structure directed towards a determined closure or ending, which is opened up through various – essentially utopian – strategies.

<p>“Entrepreneur” is a broad concept which encompasses many types of businesspeople. This dissertation aims to shed light on two distinct forms of entrepreneurs by applying writing, activity, and genre research (WAGR) analysis to two separate entrepreneurial ecosystems. By examining the genre ecologies used by these entrepreneurs to achieve their goals, we can differentiate between them. The WAGR approach employed in this study focuses on three aspects of networks: the participants' goals, their use of genres, and the connections between goals and genre-use. The case studies in this dissertation revolve around two business accelerators; however, these accelerators differ significantly in the types of businesses they support. Spaceworks Tacoma exclusively accelerates art-oriented businesses with fewer than five employees, particularly those owned by entrepreneurs from marginalized backgrounds. These Spaceworks businesses start small and anticipate remaining small. On the other hand, Start-Up Chile (SUP) accelerates businesses centered on disruptive technology with the aim of rapidly scaling into large organizations.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The key finding of this research is that the entrepreneurs in the case studies not only diverged in their genre-use but also in the goals they sought to accomplish using genres. The most significant genre for microenterprise entrepreneurs in this study was the oral elevator pitch, which aimed to attract new customers. While these microenterprise entrepreneurs were focused on achieving business success, their real priority was improving their community, and this orientation was evident in the genre ecology they employed. On the other hand, high-growth entrepreneurs followed distinct stages where they initially focused on data gathering and iterating their product or service, then shifted their attention to marketing and seeking investment. Genres such as the business plan, business case, and slide-based business pitch, which were scarce or nonexistent at the microenterprise accelerator, were quite popular at SUP. The business pitch served multiple purposes at SUP, including receiving feedback from peers, progressing through the acceleration program, and establishing a reputation. Moreover, apart from genre-use, the objectives of these entrepreneurs were markedly different: the Spaceworks entrepreneurs had a local focus, whereas the SUP entrepreneurs were concerned with industry-level change.</p>

Within the past two decades, theorists have begun to look back to the classical rhetorical past for answers to modern dilemmas in composition teaching. Several textbooks have been published that focus their teaching of college composition on the classical tradition. While the movement to revitalize classical rhetoric is gaining strength in universities, however, the benefits of this movement have not yet reached, in any real way, the levels of elementary, middle school, or high school education. This thesis shows how the classical rhetorical curriculum generally, and a specific part of that curriculum, the progymnasmata, accomplish important aims of modern composition approaches, while at the same time providing answers to modern deficiencies in composition instruction, especially at the secondary level. The thesis compares the progymnasmata and their accompanying pedagogy with the most prevalent and up-and-coming approaches in composition teaching, including current-traditional, expressivist, and social epistemic—including genre theory—approaches, and process-based, or cognitive, composition pedagogy. Modern theorists are finding value in the classical rhetorical curriculum because, since the 1800s, advances in composition instruction are now recognized as reinventions of the classical past, recovering vital elements once present in rhetorical instruction and then lost. The classical curriculum also provides solutions to problems in modern composition approaches. Because modern theoretical approaches are partial reiterations of the classical rhetorical tradition, and because the classical tradition can enable students in ways modern approaches cannot, exploring the possibilities of teaching the progymnasmata in secondary schools is worthwhile.