Exploring the dimensions of discourse : a multi-model analysis of electronic and oral discussions in developmental English

This study investigated participation levels of developmental writing students inoral discussions and electronic discussions using the synchronous conferencing software InterChange. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in a naturalistic/quasi-experimental design under a social constructivist epistemology. The methods included: word counts onto which biological sex and socially-constructed gender (as measured by the Bern Sex-Role Inventory) were overlaid as variables; a modified taxonomy based on Bales' Conversational Analysis measure; a taxonomy which measured the direction of discourse; and "thick description" in the form of subjective reactions to videotaped oral discussions and transcribed electronic discussions.The multi-modal, descriptive findings indicate that students participate more frequently in electronic discussions; that subsequent oral classes take on participatory characteristics of an InterChange session; and that while the more frequent participation in InterChange discussions does appear to carry over into subsequent oral discussions, socially constructed variables such as gender may, in fact, encourage students to participate less frequently in oral discussons after using InterChange. The findings also show that InterChange discussions are primarily student-centered: most of the responses generated are aimed at other students. In the oral classroom, very little student-to-student interaction occurs. The findings of this study indicate that while the computer environment may not promote egalitarian discourse, it does tend to produce more democratic discourse.Thesis (Ph. D.)Department of Englis

Performing Feminism and Administration in Rhetoric and Composition Studies

This book posits definitions, tactics, and consequences of feminist administration. Inspired by tensions that arise between feminist beliefs and administrative imperatives, contributors write from their locations as WPAs, Graduate WPAs, Writing Center Directors, WAC Directors, Chairs, and Journal Editors, and also from their locations as graduate students, adjunct faculty, and assistant, associate and full professors. From these differing locations, contributors identify issues of concern for feminist administrators, share stories of their own successes and failures, theorize these experiences in light of feminist thought and practice, and offer pragmatic recommendations to readers. Because contributors do not all agree, the 14 chapters challenge one another as well as readers. Together these chapters forward three claims: (1) gendered issues still exist within rhetoric and composition studies, (2) the models in this collection may be adapted by readers for their own situations, and (3) the dominant trope for performing feminist administration is oxymoron, the ability to keep two conflicting ideas in one’s head at the same time and engage that conflict as a springboard for productive feminist action.https://epublications.marquette.edu/marq_fac-book/1210/thumbnail.jp

The online writing classroom

Betsy Bowen is a contributing author, “Composition, collaboration, and computer-mediated conferencing”, pp. 129-145. Book description: This book is designed for writing teachers who teach in online environments—primarily networked computer labs and the Internet—and for writing teachers who would like to teach in such spaces. All the contributors write from their own teaching, research, or administrative experience, and all tell their stories in a rich theoretical context that will allow readers to see the relationship between theory, context and practice. The chapters serve as descriptive guides to teaching practices to help the reader find ways to use online activities to further their own pedagogical goals within their own specific contexts.https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/english-books/1013/thumbnail.jp

Wildfire influence on urban ozone: an observationally-constrained box modeling study at a site in the Colorado Front Range

Increasing trends in biomass burning emissions significantly impact air quality in North America. Enhanced mixing ratios of ozone (O3) in urban areas during smoke-impacted periods occur through transport of O3 produced within the smoke or through mixing of pyrogenic volatile organic compounds (PVOCs) with urban nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) to enhance local O3 production. Here, we analyze a set of detailed chemical measurements, including carbon monoxide (CO), NOx, and speciated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), to evaluate the effects of smoke transported from relatively local and long-range fires on O3 measured at a site in Boulder, Colorado, during summer 2020. Relative to the smoke-free period, CO, background O3, OH reactivity, and total VOCs increased during both the local and long-range smoke periods, but NOx mixing ratios remained approximately constant. These observations are consistent with transport of PVOCs (comprised primarily of oxygenates) but not NOx with the smoke and with the influence of O3 produced within the smoke upwind of the urban area. Box-model calculations show that local O3 production during all three periods was in the NOx-sensitive regime. Consequently, this locally produced O3 was similar in all three periods and was relatively insensitive to the increase in PVOCs. However, calculated NOx sensitivities show that PVOCs substantially increase O3 production in the transition and NOx-saturated (VOC-sensitive) regimes. These results suggest that (1) O3 produced during smoke transport is the main driver for O3 increases in NOx-sensitive urban areas and (2) smoke may cause an additional increase in local O3 production in NOx-saturated (VOC-sensitive) urban areas. Additional detailed VOC and NOx measurements in smoke impacted urban areas are necessary to broadly quantify the effects of wildfire smoke on urban O3 and develop effective mitigation strategies

Nighttime and daytime dark oxidation chemistry in wildfire plumes: an observation and model analysis of FIREX-AQ aircraft data

Wildfires are increasing in size across the western US, leading to increases in human smoke exposure and associated negative health impacts. The impact of biomass burning (BB) smoke, including wildfires, on regional air quality depends on emissions, transport, and chemistry, including oxidation of emitted BB volatile organic compounds (BBVOCs) by the hydroxyl radical (OH), nitrate radical (NO3), and ozone (O3). During the daytime, when light penetrates the plumes, BBVOCs are oxidized mainly by O3 and OH. In contrast, at night or in optically dense plumes, BBVOCs are oxidized mainly by O3 and NO3. This work focuses on the transition between daytime and nighttime oxidation, which has significant implications for the formation of secondary pollutants and loss of nitrogen oxides (NOx=NO+NO2) and has been understudied. We present wildfire plume observations made during FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality), a field campaign involving multiple aircraft, ground, satellite, and mobile platforms that took place in the United States in the summer of 2019 to study both wildfire and agricultural burning emissions and atmospheric chemistry. We use observations from two research aircraft, the NASA DC-8 and the NOAA Twin Otter, with a detailed chemical box model, including updated phenolic mechanisms, to analyze smoke sampled during midday, sunset, and nighttime. Aircraft observations suggest a range of NO3 production rates (0.1–1.5 ppbv h−1) in plumes transported during both midday and after dark. Modeled initial instantaneous reactivity toward BBVOCs for NO3, OH, and O3 is 80.1 %, 87.7 %, and 99.6 %, respectively. Initial NO3 reactivity is 10–104 times greater than typical values in forested or urban environments, and reactions with BBVOCs account for >97 % of NO3 loss in sunlit plumes (jNO2 up to 4×10−3s−1), while conventional photochemical NO3 loss through reaction with NO and photolysis are minor pathways. Alkenes and furans are mostly oxidized by OH and O3 (11 %–43 %, 54 %–88 % for alkenes; 18 %–55 %, 39 %–76 %, for furans, respectively), but phenolic oxidation is split between NO3, O3, and OH (26 %–52 %, 22 %–43 %, 16 %–33 %, respectively). Nitrate radical oxidation accounts for 26 %–52 % of phenolic chemical loss in sunset plumes and in an optically thick plume. Nitrocatechol yields varied between 33 % and 45 %, and NO3 chemistry in BB plumes emitted late in the day is responsible for 72 %–92 % (84 % in an optically thick midday plume) of nitrocatechol formation and controls nitrophenolic formation overall. As a result, overnight nitrophenolic formation pathways account for 56 %±2 % of NOx loss by sunrise the following day. In all but one overnight plume we modeled, there was remaining NOx (13 %–57 %) and BBVOCs (8 %–72 %) at sunrise