“After all, the stubborn belief to which rhetoricians seem to hold fast is that rhetorical practices should do something, that rhetorical inquiry should make a difference in the world. Rhetorical feminists steadfastly believe that human lives are equal in value—and that we must continue to work to make that so in our world.” (4)
— From Rhetorical Feminism and this Thing Called Hope by Cheryl Glenn
Articles
“Evangelical Rhetoric in College Students’ Writing Practice” (with co-author Georgia Privott)
College Composition and Communication 74.4. (2023)
"Transitioning Online Writing Instruction from Crisis to Sustainability”
PARS In Charge (WAC Clearinghouse, 2023)
“Talking Climate Faith: Katharine Hayhoe and Christian Rhetoric(s) of Climate Change”
Enculturation (2020)
“Digital Selves: Personal Narrative Pedagogy in the Online Writing Course”
Currents in Teaching and Learning (2019)
“The Life of the Female Mind: Hester Mulso Chapone and the Gendered Rhetoric of Experience”
Peitho Journal 21.1 (2018)
“What Do Graduate Students Want From the Writing Center? Tutoring Practices to Support Dissertation and Thesis Writers”
Praxis: A Writing Center Journal 13.2 (2016)
This essay investigates the relationship between academic writing and evangelical rhetoric. We interviewed 37 students about their experiences with reading, writing, and debate in religious contexts and how those practices informed their work in first-year writing. Interviews revealed that students had observed or practiced rhetorical skills that had parallels in writing courses. Others critiqued evangelical rhetoric, at times because of skills they learned in first-year writing.
This study appears in PARS In Charge, the third book by editors Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle, which explores the complexity of administrative positions within writing programs and how online courses make administration even more complex. I explain how my writing program implemented the PARS framework to create professional development for online courses.
In this paper, we explore the intersections between Katharine Hayhoe’s religious commitments and her climate rhetoric. We argue that Hayhoe cultivates an evangelical ethos and an invitational rhetoric that asks resistant publics to recognize climate action as belonging to the landscape of their faith. Situating our argument within rhetorical feminism, we first analyze how Hayhoe uses Twitter to publicly establish her ethos as a Christian climate scientist. We then examine how her invitational rhetoric in lectures at two Christian universities enacts that ethos, “renovating” both climate rhetoric and evangelical ways of being (Vander Lei). In this way, she offers a model for rhetorical work that addresses resistant publics from within their own discursive landscapes.
This article proposes a “personal narrative pedagogy” that creates vibrant interaction in online first-year writing (OFYW) by inviting students to situate writing in lived experiences. I advocate an expanded approach, in which elements of personal narrative invigorate “academic” writing. I contend that students interrogate identities during the invention and arrangement of such writing, and can become rigorous, flexible writers by considering the ethics and craft of life narrative.
This article studies the writings of Hester Mulso Chapone (1727-1801) a prolific member of the late-eighteenth century Bluestocking circle. Working within genres traditionally available to women, most notably the conversational rhetoric of letters, Chapone advocates for an expanded social role and rhetorical education for young women.
Addressing this gap between preparation and expected performance, the Council of Graduate Schools Ph.D. Completion Project recommends writing support as a way to shorten doctoral degree completion time and improve retention. The project calls for writing assistance “through trained writing coaches or writing consultants,” ideally senior-level graduate students, and advises universities to create opportunities for students to “focus on the dissertation . . . receive feedback, and build peer support” (“Executive Summary” 4). Since a lack of help and peer interaction contributes to high attrition rates from doctoral programs, particularly among students in marginalized positions, the stakes of this discussion are high.
More From Dr. Bethany Mannon
2023
“The Rhetorical Leadership of Contemporary Evangélicas,” Rhetoric Review 42.3
2022
“Centering the Emotional Labor of Peer Writing Tutors.” WCJ: Writing Center Journal, 41.1.
2020
“The Persuasive Power of Individual Stories: The Rhetoric in Narrative Archives.”
In Feminist Connections, edited by Katherine Fredlund, Kerri Hauman, and Jessica Ouellette (Alabama UP).
“Talking Climate Faith: Katharine Hayhoe and Christian Rhetoric(s) of Climate
Change” (with Megan Von Bergen). Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and
Culture 32. https://www.enculturation.net/Talking%20Climate%20Faith
2019
“Xvangelical: The Rhetorical Work of Personal Narratives in Contemporary Religious
Discourse.” Rhetoric Society Quarterly. 35. 4
2018
“Spectators, Sponsors, or World Travelers? Engaging with the Lives of Others through
Digital Storytelling Projects.” College English. 80. 4
“Self-Representation, Identity, and Bipolar Disorder in Kay Redfield Jamison’s An
Unquiet Mind and Ellen Forney’s Marbles.” Journal of Medical Humanities, 40. 2.
2017
“Kay Boyle, Janet Flanner, and the Public Voice in Women’s Memoirs.” Contemporary
Women’s Writing, 11. 2.
2016
“A Mighty Clamor to Know”: Revelation and Rhetorical Self-Representation in Styron’s
The Confessions of Nat Turner.” Mississippi Quarterly, 69.1.
2014
“Fictive Memoir and Girlhood Resistance in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace.” Critique:
Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 55. 4.
Article Manuscripts in Progress
“Engaging Faith-Based Literacy Practices in Writing Centers and Classrooms,”
Accepted for The Politics of Faith and Secularism in Writing Centers and Writing Studies (edited by Hadi Banat, Andrea Efthymiou, Liliana Naydan, Anna Sicari, and Lisa Wright, under review with Utah University Press)