The neighbourhood environment and use of neighbourhood resources in older adults with and without lower limb osteoarthritis:results from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study

This study aimed to examine the associations of perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion and neighbourhood problems and objectively measured neighbourhood deprivation with the use of neighbourhood resources by older adults with and without lower limb osteoarthritis (LLOA), and to assess whether these relationships are stronger in older persons with LLOA than in those without the condition. Data from the Hertfordshire Cohort Study were used. American College of Rheumatology classification criteria were used to diagnose clinical LLOA (knee and/or hip osteoarthritis). Use of neighbourhood resources was assessed using the Home and Community Environment instrument. Participants were asked about their perceptions of neighbourhood cohesion and neighbourhood problems. Objective neighbourhood deprivation was assessed using the Index of Multiple Deprivation score based on 2010 census data. Of the 401 participants (71–80 years), 74 (18.5 %) had LLOA. The neighbourhood measures were not significantly associated with use of resources in the full sample. A trend for a negative association between use of public transport and perceived neighbourhood problems was observed in participants with LLOA (OR = 0.77, 99 % CI = 0.53–1.12), whereas a trend for a positive association between perceived neighbourhood problems and use of public transport was found in participants without LLOA (OR = 1.18, 99 % CI = 1.00–1.39). The perception of more neighbourhood problems seems only to hinder older adults with LLOA to make use of public transport. Older adults with LLOA may be less able to deal with neighbourhood problems and more challenging environments than those without the condition

Silence as a Rhetor\u27s Tool: Rhetorical Choices for and uses of Silence

Historically, the field of Rhetoric and Composition has participated in little or no investigation of rhetorical silence. Previous scholarship suggests silence as a form of oppressed or suppressed voices and silence as a negative action; however, this dissertation investigates the positive, productive aspects of silence. The study posits that silence can be intentionally utilized as a rhetorical tool, and investigates possible connections between rhetorical silence and rhetorical amplification. The dissertation first reviews available scholarship and organizes a heuristic with which rhetorical silence may be analyzed; and, second, applies the heuristic to two case studies of historic women rhetors who employ silence. Three heuristic categories of invention, delivery, and audience are developed as a means of organizing the focus and direction of the study. The heuristics are applied to two case studies, historical figures Anne Askew and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, as a means of contributing theory and evidence to emerging field-wide discussions of rhetorical silence. Findings suggest that silence was intentionally used by both case studies; however, each rhetor used silence in unique ways. This study is anchored in the scholarship of scholars such as Lauer, Ede, Lundsford, Saville-Troike, Bruneau, and Burke, and extends the contemporary study of rhetorical silence by scholars such as Cheryl Glenn. Conclusions of the research confirm that silence can be intentionally used by a rhetor, and can be positive and productive. The study contributes new findings to the field by revealing the connections between rhetorical silence and rhetorical amplification, especially when the rhetor relies on the audience to supply their own meaning. Similarly, this study contributes a methodology for analyzing rhetorical silences. Implications demonstrate the usefulness of feminist methodologies and methods, that silence can be positive and productive, and that silence can be wielded as a rhetorical strategy; additional research will develop ongoing concepts and analysis with regard to rhetorical silence. The heuristics I designed can be applied to study rhetorical silences in other contexts in contemporary settings. Further, silence relies on a dynamic interplay between rhetor, audience, and context for delivery, reception, interpretation, and meaning

An Introduction to the Work (and Play) of Writing Studies Research Methods through Micro Study

This article addresses the benefits and challenges involved with assigning small-scale research projects in one research methods class as means of introducing new(er) researchers to the work and rewards of empirical writing research. The following discussion does not claim to offer examples of cutting-edge methodological work. That is not our goal here; rather, the purpose of this article is to further Rebecca Rickly’s call for increased curricular attention to empirical field research (“Messy Contexts: Research as a Rhetorical Situationâ€) by offering three case studies—micro studies. Completed as part of a graduate methods class, the studies illustrate the emerging researchers’ research experiences with conducting small-scale, “practice†observational inquiry. Our claim, then, is simple: we tend to forget how thoroughly we have already been enculturated as rhetoric and composition researchers—we tend, that is, to be unaware of the depth and complexity of our own literacies once they become second nature to us. But what may very well seem obvious to established researchers, whether it be the questions posed, the methods used, or the findings reported, are only obvious to those of us who have already had at least one (and likely many) such enculturating experiences. The authors—three student participants and the course instructor of the same graduate methods seminar—narrate critical, self-reflective, self-selected micro studies in order to examine how students of writing researchers came to identify and employ methods and methodologies as a way of “learning and using†writing studies research. The studies, which include a survey of first-year college students on their transition from high school to college; an examination of the actions, sounds, and voices the researcher observed in the hallway of a researcher’s office building in her participant observation of “work in action;†and a textual analysis of Works Cited pages of College Composition and Communication serve as examples of the very real benefits of—and the need for—practical, hands-on experience enacting observational research methods and methodologies