It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted. Last semester was a tough one for me, but I managed to accomplish the things I had set before me. I took and passed the qualifying exams at the end of August, I wrote and had approved my full proposal, and I submitted …

I recently learned that I passed my qualifying exams: the day would be September 9, 2011. It was a hot day, and I had been waiting 11 days, on pins and needles, awaiting a call from my chair. As I typed…no, I won’t bore you with the narration of the big …

I’m not sure how one is supposed to feel when she reaches this moment, but I was over-the-moon happy. What moment is this? Finally having my pre-proposal approved and quals date set.
I went through three revisions of the pre-proposal with my diss chair before we submitted it to the entire …

I just received my midterm grade for Rhetorical Theory. It has me pleased. This is the first exam I’ve taken where I wasn’t nervous or worried. I went into the exam with several thoughts: I’ve been going to class, I’ve done all the reading, I’ve been making charts and taking …

Yes, I know “Rhetting” is not a word, but I wanted to use it anyway. Took my 20th Century Rhetoric final. It thoroughly blew my mind. The final consisted of four questions we were to answer as thoroughly as possible within the three-hour time limit. I talked of Bakhtin and …

NO WORDS can describe how I feel right now. Despite the fact that I have two studies to write and three finals to take within the next five days, I am done writing major papers.
My 20th Century Rhetoric paper, “The Power of the Spirit: Rhetorical Moves of Maria W. Stewart” …

…Rhetoric can never be reduced to symbology. Logic is increasingly becoming “symbolic logic”; that is its tendency. But rhetoric always comes to us in well-fleshed words, and that is because it must deal with the world, the thickness, stubbornness, and power of it.
Richard Weaver, “Language is Sermonic”

Finally nailed down a topic for Kemp’s 20th Century Rhetoric. Found an African American orator/feminist from the 19th century that interested me: Maria W. Stewart; I’m always interested in “the firsts” – those people who seem to be a voice for a generation of others to come along and promote …

On the first day of school, I recited – many times – subjects that interest me as possible research topics. They include hypertext, social media, online communities, rhet. comp., writing instruction, and rhetoric of blogging.
While reading chapters one and three of Mary Sue MacNealy’s book Strategies for Empirical Research in …

The use of this spot on the web is two-fold. Through the blog, I will write about various topics within the courses I’m taking in the Ph.D. program in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University. Through the pages that are linked at the top of the site, I …