Jenna Murphy

616 7th St. N. #202

Fargo, ND 58102
701-652-5538
jenna.murphy@ndsu.edu

May 11th, 2017

English Department
NDSUDept. 2320
P.O. Box 6050
Fargo, ND 58108

Dear Assessment Committee,

In this letter I have been asked to review coursework completed for English 275: Introduction to
Writing Studies. I believe that my work in this course has been beneficial to my studies as an
English major and will provide examples from my work to support this claim. In addition, I have
been asked to report on my exposure to aspects of Writing and Rhetoric Studies, as well as
Public / Civic Writing and Professional / Technical Writing. Below you will find my reflections.

History of Writing and Rhetoric Studies

There are several concepts that stood out to me in our review of the History of Writing and
Rhetoric studies. I was very interested to learn about a central in writing studies surrounding the
use of rhetoric. I learned that the long-lived distrust of rhetoric had its beginning with Platos
recording of Socrates dialogues in the Phaedrus and Gorgias. I had been exposed to some of the
ideas in these dialogues from my Philosophy courses, but I the distrust of rhetoric had not been a
central emphasis in prior coursework. Socrates analogy between rhetoric and cookery as
deceptive practices is both memorable and illustrative. While I disagree with him that rhetoric
should be avoided, I did find his argument compelling that dialogue can be used to arrive at
philosophical conclusions. I would advocate that we use both rhetoric and dialogue in different
contexts, for different purposes. I was introduced to another historical view of rhetoric as we
learned about Aristotles understanding of rhetoric as the faculty of discovering in any particular
case all of the available means of persuasion. This view, I think, is perhaps most compelling for
the present-day audience because it not only engages conceptual modes of persuasion but also
appeals to the tangible, physical world. Finally, the five canons outlined by Cicero, in my
opinion, remain very valuable guiding principles for those studying rhetoric. As Ed Corbett
argues, these elements of classical rhetoric should not be adhered to in a mechanistic way, but
rather serve as guiding principles and helpful formulas for students as they think about invention,
arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.
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Aspects of Public / Civic Writing of Interest

In the course, I found myself very interested in the idea of developing public narratives as a
means of persuasion. The public narrative assignment in English 275 was very compelling to me
in terms of the self, us, now heuristic that displayed the ability to transcend personal storytelling
to engage an entire community with respect to a particular, timely moment. Although I situated
my personal narrative in a very specific context as a letter for a book chapter for those who
suffered betrayal trauma, I can envision re-crafting my narrative for other audiences and goals.
The introduction of other information-based material or changing the letter addressee format of
Dear Innocent One might enable me to share my story in other public settings or forums, such
as print publications like magazines or newspapers. In addition, I would also be interested in
encouraging individuals, such as refugees, to share their stories in a public / civic setting. These
personal stories are of great interest to me, and I would like very much to foster the development
and sharing of these stories. I agree with Marshall Ganz that storytelling has the power to shape
communities and movements.

Aspects of Professional / Technical Writing of Interest

After working on aspects of our Welcoming Week Project and Report that involved professional /
technical writing, I believe that I would be interested in doing similar work in the future. Our
efforts to create effective apps, promotional materials, and other social media outreach helped me
to think about the design principles of CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity)
much more closely as well as any literacy or other barriers our users might face. I particularly
liked using these principles to think about design, genre, and media. In our work on the app, for
example, we decided to use specific placement of the logo to promote Welcoming Week and
other graphic images to transcend literacy barriers. Although our group did not create a website, I
did enjoy in-class work and the test question that required us to think about how we would
specifically apply CRAP principles to website design. I liked thinking about using contrasting
colors and how I would reorganize a page with repetition, alignment and proximity. I believe I
answered this test question well in the exam.

Outcome 3: English Majors will be able to conduct research effectively using a variety of
research strategies and documenting their sources according to standard guidelines.

There are several ways in which I believe I have met Outcome 3 as defined by the English
department in Introduction to Writing Studies. As a graduating senior, the summary assignments
allowed me to demonstrate mastery of introducing sources to support my writing, utilizing
proper citations and MLA formatting, and accurately paraphrasing author claims. For example,
in my summary on Carolyn Millers, A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing, I write,
According to Miller, the view that perceives science and rhetoric as mutually exclusive, has
also created a windowpane theory of language, in technical writing in which it is supposed
that objective, positivistic observations about the world support a mechanistic and materialistic
 Murphy 3

reality (611-612) (Murphy 1). I believe it is because of my effective use of these conventions
that I have obtained 24/25 or 25/25 points on my summaries.

In addition, as I worked on the Welcoming Week Report and Project, I conducted a kind of
academic research to find photos that would be both fitting and appropriately licensed for
Creative Commons use. This Welcoming Week community assignment also reinforced elements
of International Technical Communication in certain ways by causing me to think creatively as I
collaborated with group members to consider literacy barriers and effective design principles for
a broad and multi-cultural audience. For example, in our creation of several wireframes, we
specifically researched and were cognizant of the need to create visual designs that enabled users
with limited or no English language skills.

I believe my work in the Rhetorical Interpretation provides another apt demonstration of

Outcome 3. In the Rhetorical Interpretation I cited a number of sources, including David Lubells
TedTalk, Why We Need to Talk to Strangers, as well as posts from Ann Corcorans blog,
Refugee Resettlement Watch. I also cited academic articles in the Rhetorical Interpretation, going
in search of articles that were not provided as part of the class readings. To support my
explanation of Pentadic Criticism for example, I cite a scholarly article not provided in the
course readings by Anderson as stating that The five termsact, scene, agent, agency, and
purpose are the basis for pentadic pairing (Anderson) (Murphy 2). I accurately cite and
paraphrase a number of research sources in my Rhetorical Interpretation.

Outcome 5: English majors will be familiar with a variety of theoretical lenses, learning to
recognize them at the 200-level and learning how to use them by the 400-level.

I also believe that I have met the requirements for Outcome 5 in my Introduction to Writing
Studies coursework, in which English majors are asked to be familiar with a variety of
theoretical lenses. Our almost continual application of the concepts presented in the course text,
Keywords in Writing Studies, provided perhaps the most frequent use of conceptual lenses to
discussion and writing. The use of Keywords provided a unique addition to my understanding of
using theoretical lenses. For example, in my Rhetorical Interpretation I used a single keyword
of discourse as a theoretical lens to inform my work. In my Rhetorical Interpretation I explain
that the texts used in the study represent at least two kinds of discourse as text. I explain further:

In addition, the scope of these texts also allows the analyst to further understand the range
of discourse presented as part of a social structure. This approach, derived by Michel
Foucault, understands discourse as practices that systematically form the objects of
which they speak (Heilker and Vandenberg 64). In the case of the Welcoming America
texts and the Refugee Resettlement blog post, Foucaults approach can be applied to
reveal the practices and beliefs that shape conceptual objects through discourse,
including those related to immigration and refugee resettlement, as well as how this
 Murphy 4

discourse is then used to shape ideas, values, and behaviors in society at large (64).The
articles and speech used in this study, representing two sides of the current immigration
issue, allow the analyst to bear out the meaning of discourse as social structure
according to differing points of view. (Murphy 5)

The use of discourse as a conceptual lens aided my analysis of the discourse artifacts and
guided my overall conclusion that common ground could be found for both sides of the
immigration debate.

In addition, our use of Kenneth Burke's pentadic and cluster criticism approaches to rhetorical
analysis presented a new, formal, and insightful method of understanding motives and applying
theory. In English 275, Burkes pentadic and cluster criticism approaches functioned much like
the feminist, Marxist, New Historicist, and other theoretical lenses I was introduced to in English
272. Again, in the Rhetorical Interpretation, I was given the opportunity to understand more
deeply how the theoretical approaches of pentadic and cluster criticism could bear out meaning.
For example, my use of cluster criticism in the Rhetorical Interpretation helped me to understand
the underlying motives and concerns of symbol users. I argue in the Rhetorical Interpretation that
the use of Cluster Criticism on texts representative of opposing positions of the immigration and
refugee resettlement debate in the US today reveal that common ground can be found. Although
these concerns are often not represented in the same ways by opposing sides, concerns about
community life are revealed under closer analysis (Murphy 11). In other words, Burkes
theoretical lens of cluster criticism revealed how both sides of the issue were primarily
concerned about community and the forces and structures that fostered community life. This
lens was essential to my interpretation and overall analysis.

The following link leads to my online portfolio: www.jennamurphyblog.wordpress.com

All my Introduction to Writing Studies Portfolio Pieces can be found under the menu item on the
homepage of the site that reads, English 275: Introduction to Writing Studies.

Thank you so much for everything. Its been a great semester.

Sincerely,

Jenna Murphy