Young Scholars in Writing: Announcements

Blog: Meet Amiee Zhao the author of “Proud To be Autistic: Greta Thunberg’s Queering Rhetorical Genre in Climate Change Advocacy.”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-04-09

Amiee Zhao is a freshman at Oxford College of Emory University and the author of “Proud To be Autistic: Greta Thunberg’s Queering Rhetorical Genre in Climate Change Advocacy.” Her article examines the effectiveness and function of non-standard rhetorical speech through the framework of neurological queerness and rhetorical genre studies (RGS). In Aimee’s article, she discusses “how Thunberg harnesses her autistic power through adding variations to the existing rhetorical genre for climate change advocacy, which is the epideictic political speeches genre.”

Aimee was drawn to this topic because she wanted to show that autistic people can be as rhetorically intelligent and effective as neurotypical people. She also has a personal connection to this topic, as both Aimee and her mother are autistic. Aimee explains that she did not receive a diagnosis until much later in her life, but because of her research about Greta Thunberg, Aimee became more confident in her autistic identity.

Aimee initially wanted to do quantitative research with all of Thunberg’s Tweets but quickly realized it would have been too much data to analyze. Instead, she took a qualitative approach and examined patterns in Greta’s speech. While conducting her research, Aimee found that there was somewhat of a research gap regarding autism in rhetorical genre studies. She speculates that this is due to a lack of knowledge about autism and the misconceptions surrounding it.

Aimee notes how Greta’s speech and accompanying mannerisms are unconventional, which led some to doubt Greta because of the stigma surrounding autism. Aimee believes that being so open and straightforward is Greta Thunberg’s strength, and those strengths should be valued. Through her work, Aimee hopes to change the narrative around autism as people become more accepting of neurodivergence. However, she reiterates that the current environment still needs to change as autistic people are still subjected to ridicule.

Aimee credits her English professor at Oxford College of Emory University, Dr. Gwendolynne Reid, in the acknowledgments of her manuscript. Dr. Reid’s class is where she “first discovered the power of rhetoric and the realm of rhetorical studies.” Dr. Reid also guided Aimee through her research and helped her become a researcher with integrity. Aimee also expresses her gratitude to Dr. Joseph Janangelo at Loyola University of Chicago, who closely evaluated and revised her article.

She is grateful to the editors of YSW, stating that “they have given me the valuable opportunity to inquire and research as a college freshman and have provided me with sufficient advice.”

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This post was initially developed through a partnership between Dr. Cope’s Fall 2023 WRT280: Research Methods students, who interviewed the author, and Dr. Cutrufello’s Fall 2023 WRT320: Digital Writing students, who drafted the post. Lee Krauss edited and updated it for publication.

Blog: Meet Karen Quick the author of "Linguistic Inclinations in Query Letters."

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-04-05

Karen Quick is a junior at Montana State University majoring in English and Psychology. She is the author of "Linguistic Inclinations in Query Letters," in the 21st volume of Young Scholars in Writing.

From a young age, Karen enjoyed writing her own stories and novels, with the hope that she would publish them in the future. Her personal experiences while searching for an agent to represent her writing led Karen to look more insightfully at the purpose and effectiveness of language within query letters. Specifically, she was eager to dive deeper and search for “a way to empirically define acquiring success rather than just subjective ‘Oh, well it depends’ answers” as it pertains to aspiring authors.

Karen looked for a way to apply what she was learning as a Psychology major to her interests as an English major. After experimenting with different methods to analyze query letters, she used the Linguistic Inquiry Word Processor (LIWC) to decrease potential bias. However, collecting query letters for unpublished projects proved difficult for Karen as it required a lot of trust from other authors to volunteer their projects. Ultimately, her own literary experiences helped her navigate this issue as she began to “approach potential participants as a member of the community rather than a researcher looking in.”

Karen’s research allowed her to immerse herself in the literary publishing industry, making sense and finding comfort in a world that had seemed daunting previously. Initially, she felt that one has “to have numerous accolades under your belt” to get published; however, these preconceived notions were reevaluated upon executing her research. Her experience writing for YSW helped her break free of the “rat race” that she, like many young authors, had found herself in by establishing “a fire and an interest in researching for me rather than an interest in just pushing words for publication.”

Looking back, Karen is glad to have written about a topic in which she’s passionate, stating that “if [the research topic] matters to someone, and it makes a difference, then put your whole heart into it, and send it off to submissions.” She hopes to continue pursuing her dreams of becoming a published author in the near future while also experimenting with the literary publishing industry and potentially returning to studies and querying down the road.

When asked about any encouragement she might have for future YSW contributors, Karen reminisced on the initial intimidation she felt after spending a few weeks looking at the journal in her first year. “I remember thinking [the published undergraduate researchers] were leagues above me,” she commented. To others interested in submitting their work to Young Scholars in Writing, Karen notes how her experience was incredibly rewarding and expressed gratitude to the YSW team for having “such a phenomenal working system put up that helps elevate research, students, and faculty.”

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Blog: Meet Anusha Kothari the author of “Transforming Taboo: Discursive and Generic Uptake in South Asian Mental Health Recovery Narratives.”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-04-03

Anusha Kothari is a second-year student at Oxford College of Emory University and the author of “Transforming Taboo: Discursive and Generic Uptake in South Asian Mental Health Recovery Narratives.”
As someone from a South Asian community, Anusha was able to observe the culture-specific stigma around mental health and how it varies depending on the community. As Anusha said, “I'm interested in medical anthropology. But how health and medicine attitudes around illness experiences are different and similar across different communities.” In addition to her interest in differing culture’s views of mental health, Anusha also expresses her interest in the power of communication and how it shapes one’s culture and ideas throughout the college experience. “I learned after writing the first draft I had to ground [the research] in a lot more in cultural background because what's in my mind is not in your mind…and it was really important for me to convey that.”
When asked about her writing process, Anusha explained that she often had difficulty finding the time and motivation to work on her research. She credited her ability to remember the reason behind her research as a significant motivator, stating that she’s “interested in rhetoric and communication, whether or not that's a part of medicine and this [research] was a way for me to explore that and pursue that and kind of affirm my interest in that. And similarly, I think anyone doing research, knows the purpose of your research broadly, as well as the personal purpose for you.” Anusha also discussed how it was challenging to conduct research in an academic setting with which she was not entirely familiar. “Honestly, just finding time to write and then the time that I found to write sometimes I just would not be able to [write]. I wasn't getting distracted or anything, it just was that I wouldn't be able to be as productive as I wanted to be. And then dealing with that frustration and kind of like the impostor syndrome of like, am I really in a position to be staying this much or like doing this kind of scholarship?”

Anusha’s advice for students trying to get into writing and or looking to publish articles on the YSW page is to find a good mentor and “just go for it…it wasn't because this is some great project that I wanted to do. I didn’t even know what writing studies was. It was just because I had a really good mentor who gave me the idea of connecting something that we were doing in class to something else I'm interested in which unleashed all these different interests and opportunities for me.”

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Blog: Meet Isabelle Lundin the author of "Making Confident Changes: Using Metacognitive Revision as a Pedagogical Tool"

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-03-27

Isabelle Lundin graduated from Oakland University and was heavily involved with the school's Writing Center. She is the author of “Making Confident Changes: Metacognitive and Writing Self-Efficacy in Writing Courses.”

Isabelle wanted to expand the “preexisting relationship between metacognition and writing self-efficacy” with her research. She was specifically drawn to the relationship between writing and metacognition due to her time spent in the writing center and her educational pursuits. Isabelle credits her work at her university’s Writing Center for allowing her to identify the gaps of knowledge in her field, stating that “it helps me pay deeper attention to the ways writers' unique experiences are tied to their writing processes…there is so much literature that talks about metacognitive reflection after the fact and how that helps people transfer their knowledge from one rhetorical context to another. But there's not a lot of research that talks about using it within the writing process and harnessing the power of metacognition to help you accomplish the writing task.”

However, Isabelle’s research was not always seamless, and she faced two significant challenges. While conducting the study, she realized that she could not match student participation with her initial structure and thus had to adapt it to fit her needs better continuously. Additionally, her research mentor passed away unexpectedly; this painful loss not only affected Isabelle personally but also drastically altered the course of her research project.

Despite her challenges, Isabelle continued her research by adapting it when necessary, as she was far too passionate about the subject to quit. She explained that the most helpful strategies she employed while having to alter her project were “trusting [herself] and making connections with everything that [she’d] read prior… and synthesizing it.” When asked what advice she would give to anyone interested in entering a new disciplinary field, she recommended: “embrace that you are not going to know what you're doing right away, but you will figure it out…do your best to enter the genre and enter the discipline— it is also important to have a faculty member that can support you.”

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Blog: Meet Gabby Bunko the author of “Reframing Writing, Rhetoric, and Literary Studies: A Mixed Method Approach to Interrogating Intersections"

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-03-22

Gabby Bunko graduated from Montana State University with a double major in Writing and Literature, specializing in rhetoric. She is the author of “Reframing Writing, Rhetoric, and Literary Studies: A Mixed Method Approach to Interrogating Intersections”.

The origin of Gabby’s fascination with this topic derives from a Public Rhetoric course that she took. While taking the course, she determined that there was a relationship between the rhetorical performance and literary elements of one of Frederick Douglass’ speeches. She wondered if Douglass’ speech was simultaneously a form of rhetorical writing and perceived as a work of literature. In her article, she argues that both rhetorical and literary analyses are associated with one another when reviewing assorted texts.

Gabby had taken various writing and literature classes and found a lot of intersectionality between them. She states that she “had noticed that we were using a lot of the same scholars, the same text, but in a very different way.” During her research, Gabby discovered a relationship between rhetorical and literary analysis and applied the same critical thinking skills to find their similarities. She expressed interest in how rhetoric shapes the narrative of a given text and how that can be helpful when approaching complicated texts. She acknowledged the history that writing and literature had with one another and sought to divulge some of the commonalities across both fields. Gabby believes that writing and rhetorical analysis are symbiotic with literature and literary analysis, where the styles and rhetoric embedded in writing are translated into many different works of literature.

Gabby approached her research with broad and generalized questions, which took some time to narrow. While attending the Naylor Workshop for Undergraduate Researchers, Gabby was able to revise her survey questions. “I originally had these very complicated technical survey questions that weren’t getting very many answers...They helped me narrow that down and ask pointed questions that were simple to answer.”

While compiling data and writing her analysis, Gabby struggled with a few different aspects. Though her methods were straightforward and meaningful, there were other possible directions she could have taken the research, so she had to keep reminding herself of the main focus. “The most difficult part was kind of narrowing down what findings do I want to talk about in this article...especially given that it’s Young Scholars in Writing and wanting to make sure that it felt relevant to Rhet Com people,” she explained. She also struggled with the literature review and finding “a way to create a through line to the actual findings” and ensuring it remained relevant to her research.

Gabby explained that she was surprised to find how much overlap there was between the conceptual metaphors found in both writing and literary studies: “I had assumed there would be more divergence, but it turns out we actually have quite a lot in common.” She also found the difference between “having the power to do something with reading or writing” versus “the power over” in literature very interesting.

Throughout the research and writing process, Gabby worked closely with a faculty member of Michigan State University, Dr. Doug Downs. Working with a mentor was irreplaceable to her as Dr. Downs aided in her “understanding of how you narrow down, or research... in the humanities, especially when we have more abstract stuff to work with.” Having that guiding figure to help point her in the right direction and being available to answer questions was an integral part of writing her article. Gabby suggested that finding the right mentor was a huge aspect and how “open communication is the best” alongside how important it is in “making sure that you guys actually click.”

When asked if she had any advice for others interested in submitting to Young Scholars in Writing, Gabby explained that she wishes she would have started writing and had “pull[ed] the trigger on this sooner” as that would have granted her more time to meet with different professors and have a larger pool of research. Because of her experience, she advised undergraduate researchers to begin their writing process as soon as they had the topic chosen. Gabby plans on continuing to pursue her passion for rhetorical writing and literary studies and is currently “working on doing another study that’s based on this one.”

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Interview with Dr. Travis Kurowski on Selecting the YSW Cover

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-03-08

Dr. Travis Kurowski is a professor of Creative Writing at York College of Pennsylvania, where he teaches a variety of courses, including Literary Publishing and Student Publications. He also serves as the Production Editor for Young Scholars in Writing and is responsible for choosing the journal’s cover image.

YSW frequently used the same cover image for each issue, but when the journal came to York College, the editors decided to change the image. “We wanted the cover to represent the issue, not just the ‘brand,’” Travis explains. “We wanted to focus on the experience of what the volume is and reflect its contents. We felt like the experience mattered.” Because of his background in publishing, Travis was asked to help with the cover design and layout. “We decided to outsource the layout to Parlor Press, our publisher, to create the layout. Dave [Blakesly] . . . created the layout pretty simply, and we made the decisions on the typeface, font, etc.” Travis typically chooses the images, and when asked about the process, he described it as similar to “writing a poem or a short story. It’s just a creative act where I had the experience of reading the issue’s contents, and the image is the result.”

Travis uses public domain databases to obtain the images, such as Splash and Public Domain Review, and chooses the image based on the issue’s contents. He explains that “as a research journal, we have to make sure that we copyright correctly by using images that can be found in a public domain.” While the cover image is often chosen using inspiration from a particular article in the issue, Travis ensures that the image is also representative of the rest of the volume. For example, the contents of Issue #18 seem to be responding to concerns regarding the pandemic and its relationship with identity and American identity. In the 19th volume, several articles related to the research of activism and protest within writing studies, so Travis found an image from a climate protest march in Sweden. “Each [cover image] responds to a particular article and then also a theme found throughout all of the articles…even within years, writers engage with the zeitgeist [of that time].”

For Travis, the cover of an academic journal is of equal importance to its contents as it establishes the reading experience. “It's just like designing a plate of food or something. You want to create the experience for the readers so they can have that experience you want to help them have.” The cover image’s purpose, Travis explains, is to do precisely that: to set up the ‘right’ kind of experience intended for the readers.

This post was written by Lee Krauss.

YSW is accepting submission for Volume 22 until April 16th, 2024

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-02-16

YSW is accepting submissions for vol. 22 until April 16th, 2024.

You can find the Call for Papers here: https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/V22CFP

We also suggest interested authors and their mentors review "What We Do and Don't Publish".

YSW is currently seeking undergraduate peer reviewers for Young Scholars in Writing volume 22.

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-02-13

We are currently seeking undergraduate peer reviewers for Young Scholars in Writing volume 22.

Who can serve as a student peer reviewer?

Any undergraduate student! This is a great opportunity to expose students to undergraduate research in writing studies and provides an opportunity to learn about the process of scholarly publishing.

What are the responsibilities of a YSW student peer reviewer?

Students serving as peer reviewers would receive a multimedia presentation to watch (approx 20 min) which covers the history of the journal and publication criteria. After reviewing this background information, peer reviewers will be assigned 1-2 manuscripts to review and provide feedback on. The review of each manuscript should take approximately 1-2 hours. Reviewers will receive manuscripts to review on April 18, 2024, and would need to have reviews completed by May 3, 2024.

You can learn more about being a Peer Reviewer here.

If you are interested in having students serve as peer reviewers for this volume, please share the above description along with the link to a peer review interest form (below) to any interested students. The deadline to sign up to be a student peer reviewer is April 5, 2024.

https://ycp.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4VLyGqE8dfek0Ie

Here is the CFP for volume 22. Please share this CFP with any undergraduate researchers in rhetoric and writing studies and your colleagues. We'll be accepting submissions for volume 22 through April 15th.

We are also eager to support undergraduate research and are available to Zoom into your classes to discuss research and publication in YSW with your students. Just send us an email (youngscholars.editor@gmail.com) to let us know if you'd like to schedule a virtual meeting.

Blog: Introducing the Spring 2024 YSW Intern - Lee Krauss

Young Scholars in Writing — 2024-02-09

Hello! My name is Lee Krauss (They/Them), and I am the new intern for Young Scholars in Writing. I’m a York College of Pennsylvania senior majoring in Professional Writing and Literary and Textual Studies. I’m involved around campus as a peer writing tutor in the Writing and Communication Studio, the secretary for YCP’s chapter of Delta Alpha Pi, and the print editor of the upcoming 30th volume of The York Review. When I’m not in classes or working, I enjoy reading, writing, playing video games, and spending time with my cat, Enid.

When I first started college at York, I had only declared a Literary and Textual Studies major. Growing up as an avid reader, I thoroughly enjoyed analyzing and discussing literature, so it would be the perfect major to pursue. However, after a few semesters of taking literature classes, I realized a key component needed to be added to my education, which I found in the few writing classes I had the opportunity to take. Thus, I declared a second major in Professional Writing, which has allowed me to strengthen my creative and technical writing skills while also being immersed in literature. The professional writing major has also allowed me to explore aspects of writing studies I hadn’t originally considered, such as equity and social justice in writing spaces. For example, I’m currently conducting a research project examining accessibility (or lack thereof) within the Writing Center at YCP.

I’ve had the opportunity to interact with YSW in several of my writing courses and have been able to participate in the peer review process in classes such as Teaching and Tutoring Writing and Digital Writing. I’ve also had the opportunity to practice my copyediting skills in my Professional Editing class, where I assisted in editing Dana Diab’s article, “Bridging the Gap: Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement” and Stephanie Leow’s “Types of Peer Feedback Training, The Feedback Provider, and Performance: Toward a Process/Product Perspective.” Participating in this process allowed me to develop more copyediting experience and introduced me to an academic journal’s editing process.

I’m looking forward to gaining more experience and skills while working as an intern for YSW. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the journal in the past, and I’m excited to have a more in-depth role in its production. After college, I plan on furthering my education by getting my M.F.A. in Creative Writing, with the ultimate goal of working in the publishing industry.

Blog: Dr. Michael Zerbe is a Professor of English at York College of Pennsylvania Who Gives Students the Chance to Work With YSW in the Classroom

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-04-18

Michael Zerbe is a Professor of English at York College of Pennsylvania who teaches topics including the rhetoric of science and editing. Michael has supported Young Scholars in Writing in multiple classes allowing students to assist in the publishing process; last year, his Professional Editing class served as editorial assistants in Vol. 20 of YSW.

Michael thinks “it presents a really interesting and unique opportunity for students because they get to apply their skills and some of the classroom content to a real-life professional situation that is in their field.” Depending on the class, students can play different roles in supporting the journal. For example, his Language and Linguistics and Civic Rhetoric and Writing classes are helping early on in the process by working as peer reviewers. “The articles are going to be sent out to the students, and the students are going to read through the articles and then evaluate them using a series of questions and prompts from the YSW editors to decide whether they are far enough along, interesting, important, and timely enough to warrant consideration for publication.” On the other hand, his Professional Editing class joined the process towards the end once the articles had been accepted and been through the editing process alongside their FAEs. “We really come in at the end of the process, and we’re copyediting for grammar and mechanics and consistency at that point. And we are looking at the YSW style guide, which is always a work in progress, and just making sure that [the articles are] going to be ready to go right before the issue gets printed and posted online.”

Michael sees this as a valuable opportunity for his students as a potential resume line and relevant editorial experience that can be brought to professional settings such as job interviews. “It's also good because a lot of the stuff we talk about in class becomes real: working with authors, trying to decide what needs to be addressed, and what can just be let go—you also don’t want to overedit—negotiating those boundaries becomes a lot more real with practice.”

As a professor, Michael enjoys watching his students have a good time in a real-life, professional situation, “and I think that always makes a difference.” With personal experience as a peer reviewer, he recognizes that skills don’t always feel real for students until they get first-hand experience with them. “It’s a lot of fun for me as an instructor to be able to give students that opportunity. He also appreciates that the journal is hosted at York College because all the editors are familiar with his students. They “know that my students are just learning this; they don’t expect it to be perfect.” He likes that the experience is project-based learning with expectations that aren’t necessarily perfection.

As one of the unique project-based learning experiences for students, Michael thinks “it’s fairly unusual for undergraduates especially to get that kind of editorial experience working on a real journal that gets published internationally.” He generally views project-based learning as a way to cater to different learning styles and methods. While some students benefit more from lectures or visual aids, some prefer when the class is more social or hands-on, but “in reality, most of us are a combination of those things….You can’t just assume that one learning style or one learning method is going to work for all students all the time. And so one of the things I like about [YSW] is it brings some variety in learning style to the class, and that helps all students, but I think it’s going to help some students more than others.”

Michael looks forward to giving his students the same opportunities and appreciates getting to help them in addition to YSW.

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Shurli Makmillen

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-04-11

Shurli Makmillen is an Assistant Professor of English at Claflin University. Outside of teaching, Shurli serves as a Faculty Advisory Editor (FAE) for Young Scholars in Writing. In Vol. 20, she worked with Maegen Sargent to edit her article, “Analyzing Hedge Frequency of Art Historical Undergraduate Research Essays for Writer Development.”

Working with Maegen was a pleasure for Shurli since “Maegen did her undergraduate degree at an institution where I had worked for 5 years,” and she was delighted to be assigned to work with another Canadian. Furthermore, as FAEs are assigned to work with students researching within their expertise, Shurli felt that her background in Writing in the Disciplines (WID), discourse analysis, and linguistic pragmatics was a perfect fit for Maegen, who “was doing a linguistic analysis of student writing in her discipline of art history, looking at modal expressions.” She also enjoyed working over the summer with Maegen since “the suggested revisions and expansions asked a lot of her, and she rose to the occasion.”

Maegen’s project was the result of directed readings, so she already knew a lot about her topic but was open to reading more. For Shurli, one of the biggest challenges as an FAE was reviewing the content that took her in new and interesting directions. “Many disciplines have been the focus of the type of study Maegen engaged in, but not Art History. This focus propelled the project and inspired her thinking.”

Shurli was introduced to the FAE position through the Naylor Workshop for Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies right before the pandemic. Having just moved from Vancouver, Canada to South Carolina, “this community resonated with my own interests and pedagogy. I met a lot of the people involved in the journal and expressed an interest working on it as an FAE.” She describes the FAE position as “straightforward, with deadlines and benchmarks, and involves other undergraduate students in the substantiation feedback stage, such that useful experience with that part of the publication process is available as well.”

Shurli has always loved helping her students through Writing Centers and within her current courses, and she thinks that “working with YSW authors is a rewarding opportunity to spend more time seeing projects to their fruition.” She encourages other faculty members to take on the position: “It’s fun and rewarding.”

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: John “Jack” Selzer Talks About The Center for Democratic Deliberation at Penn State University and Their Partnership with Young Scholars in Writing for the 2022 National Undergraduate Essay Contest

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-04-04

John “Jack” Selzer is a Liberal Arts Professor Emeritus of English specializing in Rhetoric and Composition. As a recent member of The Center for Democratic Deliberation Faculty Advisory Board, he studies The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement. Jack wrote “Center For Democratic Deliberation Essay Contest Winner Introduction” to introduce Dana Diab, the author of “Bridging the Gap: Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement,” in Vol. 20 of YSW.

The Center for Democratic Deliberation (CDD) at Pennsylvania State University, founded in 2006, “invites scholars and rhetoric, wherever they live, to play together.” As a combination of rhetoric faculty from the Department of English and the Department of Communication, Arts, and Sciences, The CDD serves as a place to “invigorate the thinking of the faculty and graduate students in those two programs” and welcomes other rhetorical thinkers from various departments as well. Jack thinks it is an important center for creating cooperation between departments, attracting sponsors with its mission, and sparking thoughts about interdisciplinary issues.

Jack thinks “undergraduate research is really at the heart of the undergraduate experience; it’s meant to change your mindset. You become an investigator…instead of being told how to do it.” He thinks that many students, when transitioning from high school to college, use outside sources to get their knowledge and instruction. Still, after college, “you’re expected to be an independent researcher” who can learn on their own. “Undergraduate research is designed to encourage that thought process to change you from somebody who just takes in knowledge to somebody who creates it,” which he thinks is also its main benefit. Changing people’s mindsets so they become increasingly curious and independent in their thinking will help contribute to the calling for active and resourceful seekers of knowledge. Additionally, graduates get the “opportunity to show their stuff. They can develop independent projects that they can then show…to indicate that they’re ready for advanced studies or a really fine first job.

When it comes to challenges in undergraduate research, Jack thinks the biggest is that many students have never been asked to do independent work as undergraduates. While they may prove their proficiency on tests and analysis papers, “When have they really been invited to find the answer to a question that they pose themselves to do an authoritative paper on some topic that interests them?” Jack finds that many students are excited about that chance.

Young Scholars in Writing partnered with The CDD for their National Undergraduate Essay Contest in which the winner was given the opportunity to publish their work in Vol. 20. Jack “always invited my undergraduates to aspire to put their work into YSW” when he taught his course on Rhetoric in the Civil Rights Movement. After retiring, Jack wanted to continue the website created with his students from the course over the past twelve years. “I just didn’t want to give that up. I wanted to try to see if other teachers around the country could make use of it. I thought: Well, maybe YSW would be a way of publicizing this website.” This idea led to the collaboration between YSW and The CDD as they were happy to sponsor the essay contest. “The YSW people were so gracious and so wonderful about offering the opportunity for people to submit essays about The Rhetoric in the Civil Rights Movement to YSW. They really picked up on it just great.” He was thrilled with the outcome and pleased to see how much attraction the contest received.

For current undergraduate students, Jack is passionate about the value of learning how to think rhetorically. He thinks it is important to see the world as “a bunch of discourses that they’re trying to respond to, add to, think about, analyze, and so on; and The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement is a great way to train minds to think in that way.” He wants to promote the Civil Rights Movement as a topic of scrutiny for rhetoric for undergraduate research and scholarship more broadly. “It’s a great topic for understanding America” and for understanding “my community and the larger communities that I belong to, and students seem to like that approach as well.”

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Curious about our past authors? Read “YSW Retrospectives: What Does It Mean to Publish in Young Scholars in Writing?” in Volume 20 to learn their stories.

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-31

“YSW Retrospectives: What Does It Mean to Publish in Young Scholars in Writing?” looks back at YSW authors from 2005–20022 and where they are now. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of YSW, the editors reached out to authors who were published throughout the journal’s history to ask for short reflections on their publications and how the experience had an influence on their lives.

The authors now work in a variety of fields, from academia to the publishing industry, while some are currently pursuing a graduate degree. They all value their time working with YSW and view their publications as the first step to success in their futures. It opened opportunities and brought a new perspective on the value of undergraduate research. Some even returned to volunteer as FAEs for the journal, encourage their students to submit their work, and have seen their work used in classrooms.

They recommend any students hesitant about submitting to YSW to do so. Even if the experience seems intimidating or you do not want to pursue research, there is still a lot to gain from the process of reviewing and revising your work and seeing the final product in an undergraduate research journal like Young Scholars in Writing.

This post was written by Alex Merritt

Blog: Meet Lexi Stewart, Author of “Retrospective Interview with YSW's Past and Present Editors”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-28

Lexi Stewart is a York College of Pennsylvania senior majoring in Professional Writing with a minor in Creative Writing. She is the author of “Retrospective Interview with YSW's Past and Present Editors” in Vol. 20.

The idea for Lexi’s article was introduced during a weekly staff meeting during her internship with YSW. She was excited about the opportunity to write in a new genre and meet previous editors. In addition, she hopes the article “reflect[s] back on YSW’s history and growth and give[s] readers a bit of insight in what running an undergraduate research journal like YSW looks like.”

Lexi worked alongside Travis Kurowski, a faculty mentor and Young Scholars in Writing co-editor throughout the writing process. Lexi thought there were many layers to the writing process. Even before creating questions, she and Travis generated topics of interest to maintain a specific focus. “We wanted to make sure the questions were ones that all of the editors could respond to (for the most part) rather than having questions geared towards only one editor/editorial team.” She wanted to keep the readers in mind when organizing the questions as well as her intentions to focus on the history of YSW, “such as when editors changed, when new genres were added, when the role of FAEs came into place, and so on,” and what it is like to manage.

After conducting the interview, Lexi spent most of her time editing the auto-generated transcript for accuracy. “I think I spent a few weeks going over the transcript alone before I could get into any serious writing, which was essentially going through the conversation and deciding what information to keep, and what to cut out to reach my final draft of the paper (this took me a few weeks as well).” Finally, with the draft completed, she was able to edit and revise it alongside Travis.

There are a lot of benefits to working with a faculty mentor, according to Lexi’s positive experience. As the genre was new to her, she felt lost and unsure in the beginning, but “being able to talk to Travis gave [her] a lot of much needed guidance” as he “was much more familiar with the genre.” She was also glad for the easy and frequent communication between them, with in-person discussions in Travis’s office and Zoom meetings after the semester ended, and found it beneficial to the process. “We met to create the original questions, then we met again after the interview to discuss what the writing process would look like. Then, we kept in contact through email and met again on Zoom afterwards to look at the finished draft together.”

She is grateful for the opportunity and for having a great mentor like Travis. “His experience with this genre was incredibly helpful, and without his experience I would’ve had a much more difficult time with this project.” For those struggling to work with faculty mentors, Lexi thinks that communication is key. “Don’t be afraid to admit you need help, or that you’re having a hard time with something. Your mentor can likely help you with whatever you’re having troubles with, but they won’t know to help you on that unless you take the first step to bring it up to them!”

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Gwendolynne Reid, the Director of the Writing Program, Assistant Professor of English, and Student Mentor at Oxford College of Emory University

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-24

Gwendolynne Reid is the Writing Program Director and an English Assistant Professor at Oxford College of Emory University. Gwendolynne is a faculty member and mentor who has encouraged many of her students to submit to Young Scholars in Writing, the most recent being Mercedes Sarah, the author of “Covert Resistance to #MeToo: The Uptake of Social Change and Public Anxiety in the Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Cover Genre,” in Vol. 20.

With five students published in recent years, Gwendolynne recognized their promise after seeing their work as assignments in her class. When they approached her with an interest in pursuing it further, she helped them in any way she could, from independent studies where they read more scholarship to develop their ideas to back-and-forth conversation about each version of the manuscript. As each manuscript went through one or more rounds of peer review in her classes, she was able to give further feedback through margins and meetings with the authors in preparation for submission.

One of the significant struggles that students often face when working with Gwendolynne is “how to put their work in conversation with that of others.” As all of her students are either first or second-year students, that is “the newest thing I have to support them in doing” throughout her mentorship. She has also had to support her students in building confidence in English as a second language and in developing their ideas enough to create a piece that adds to a larger conversation.

Gwendolynne thinks publishing research for students, faculty members, and their institution has many benefits. Even for many students who do not plan to pursue writing studies, “whatever the field, it can instill confidence that you are capable of saying something that matters within a larger intellectual conversation.” One of the most significant benefits is “realizing that you’re a thinker who matters and can make a difference in the world through research.”

Gwendolynne highly values the opportunity to learn “from and with students, because they often have expertise that I don’t have in their rhetorical world.” It also encourages her to research around their topic and understand those conversations and how readers may respond to them. “I feel like it keeps me alive as a researcher” by forcing her to stay current and be involved in wider conversations. Another benefit she values is communicating with her colleagues and introducing them to the field of rhetoric and writing studies by showing them “it is a serious area of research and one with many many opportunities for our students.” Finally, she uses these connections to improve the writing program at her institution and have others realize “it’s important to the liberal arts, not just in service of other disciplines, but as a discipline itself.”

She advises other faculty members who want more of their students to publish their work to think about it when designing their courses and assignments. “I think about building assignments that have flexibility so that, if a student really is passionate and wants to take it to the next level, they could be building a foundation in my course for something like that; thinking about introducing methods and genres and key pieces of literature and concepts, theories that they might be able to use, if they want to really did into a topic and research it and write for a larger audience.” She also advises to give feedback to any students who may be interested in taking their research to the next step, even if it is as simple as “Hey, you said something really important here; there’s a lot of promise. I think you could work on it and maybe send it somewhere.”

As a faculty member, Gwendolynne feels gratified to see her students’ work get published. “I really love helping my students act in the world, and I see research also as a way to act in the world and say important things.” She enjoys getting to help young writers and thinkers develop their ideas fully and share it with a broader audience. She also feels it is a way to pay back her many mentors who have believed in her, nurtured, and supported her intellectually by doing the same for her students. She also likes to keep in mind a piece by Downs et al. in the Naylor Report on Undergraduate Research in Writing that talks about consequential publicness which helps her think about the importance of undergraduate research and how it is essential for students to act in the world in a public way.

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Liz Crouse, Author of “Toward Ethnographic Justice: Equitable Research with and for Linguistically Diverse Communities”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-21

Liz Crouse graduated from Elon University in May 2022 with a BA in Professional Writing and Rhetoric. She is working as the Policy and Advocacy Manager at Tacoma/Pierce County Habitat for Humanity in Washington. Liz is the author of “Toward Ethnographic Justice: Equitable Research with and for Linguistically Diverse Communities” in Vol. 20 of YSW.

She was drawn to the topic of her article after her time working as a TA in an ESOL classroom. As someone who can speak some Spanish and German, she loves learning languages which led to her interest in ELL experiences: “I wanted to know what it was like to learn English under extenuating circumstances and heightened stakes.”

Liz spent two and a half years working on her research which initially started with ethnography. She said she “wanted to get as full an understanding of the context my subjects were situated in as possible.” She also attended the Naylor Workshop On Undergraduate Research In Writing Studies through York College in fall of 2021, where plenary speaker Dr. Carter-Tod discussed Embodied Social Justice Research. Listening to his speech then inspired her to incorporate another layer of heuristic methodology into the remainder of her research.

She enjoyed writing her methodological reflection after her research was completed because it felt like a reflection in the deepest sense. It allowed her to relive a lot of the seminal moments throughout her research and “process them by attempting to find words to describe everything I saw and what it might mean for a larger audience.”

Liz was excited to submit to Young Scholars in Writing because it gave her a chance to contribute to the discourse about writing research in her area of study. In addition, she was unfamiliar with what undergraduate research in writing could look like, so she wanted her article to serve as a “roadmap for students who may be interested in writing/rhetoric research but aren’t sure how it fits into their subject area interests.”

Liz’s advice for anyone interested in submitting to YSW is to “Do it! It’s an incredible, full-circle feeling to know your research can be accessed, cited, and used in someone else’s investigation. Pick something you’re passionate about and see where it takes you!” She thinks the process of submitting and working with YSW was straightforward and recommends it to others passionate about undergraduate research.

This post was written by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Yizhuo Yang, Author of “Cinematizing Immunity: The Rhetorical Effects Of Science Fiction In The Public Communication Of Science”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-14

Yizhuo Yang wrote about the rhetorical effects of CGI and Artificial Intelligence.

His article analyzes a BBC documentary that entailed a journey of research on his topic. According to Yizhuo, his research made him become interested in CGI and artificial intelligence along the way. This work inspired the continuation of his research of the brand-new technologies of the world and the effects they can have on society.

He supports new undergraduate scholars, telling them to write about something that intrigues them and inspires them. He also wants YSW writers to address their strengths and weaknesses to effectively make their personal work, whether published or not, much more well-rounded. Finally, he tells writers to use their confidence to their advantage.

Yizhuo’s favorite aspect of writing a piece of work to be published was synthesizing the information he consumed in the research portion of his publishing. He plans on continuing his research throughout the course of his college career.

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Mercedes Sarah, Author of “Covert Resistance to #MeToo: The Uptake of Social Change and Public Anxiety in the Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Cover Genre”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-08

Mercedes Sarah is a sophomore at Oxford College of Emory University majoring in History and Creative Writing. Mercedes is the author of “Covert resistance to #MeToo: The Uptake of Social Change and Public Anxiety in the Men's Lifestyle Magazine Cover Genre.”

She was drawn to the topic because of its focus on social movements and change. She feels “[you] get to measure the impact of those movements and be able to see it in our everyday life.” Being her first extensive research article, Mercedes found it fun to apply specific rhetorical genres to something “really relatable to other people [and] to something we see in our everyday lives.” Before writing her article, she never considered applying these skills to other aspects of life. Her primary motivator was the goal for her article to better shape people’s lives by taking abstract ideas held by college students and making them relatable and understandable.

Although the topic does not directly impact her college experience, writing it helped Mercedes become aware of social interactions and ideology and furthered her knowledge on a subject of interest that is also discussed in many of her classes. In addition, she thinks ideology can often be abstract, so publishing her work in YSW helps her see her ideas and research tangibly.

Mercedes is considering a career in academics as a professor, and “this project played a role in that.” She loved the research process and culminating her data into a written piece with the help of YSW. It allowed her to realize her skills in critical analysis, and she is looking forward to applying this to other places in her life.

For others interested in submitting to Young Scholars in Writing, Mercedes explains that the most significant incentive is that “It’s extremely gratifying to see your ideas come into a big piece that you've worked on, and your work becoming whole is really nice. You feel like you really accomplished something, and you’re part of this meaningful network of thinkers.”

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Ashlyn Bellman, Co-Author of “Supporting Business Students in the Writing Center”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-06

Ashlyn Bellman is a York College of Pennsylvania senior studying Entrepreneurship and Innovation with a minor in Professional Writing. Her piece, “Supporting Business Students in the Writing Center,” was co-written with Marilyn Damord.

Ashlyn enjoyed her experience writing for Young Scholars in Writing and found it helpful in other writing courses. She particularly enjoyed the process of writing this piece because of the opportunity to interview two of her professors. Hearing their perspective about what they expect from their students was a unique experience.

Interviewing her professors helped Ashlyn realize how significant this piece is. She also feels it’s important as a college student, specifically a business and writing student.

She tells writers who may not have the confidence to submit their work to YSW, “It’s another way to show your credibility while freely writing. Don’t doubt your work, the editing process will get you there.” Ashlyn is grateful for her experience with Young Scholars in Writing and feels that more opportunities have been opened up for her future career combining business and writing.

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Dana Diab, Author of “Bridging the Gap: Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement” and winner of the Penn State Center for Democratic Deliberation’s National Undergraduate Essay Contest

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-03-03

Dana Diab graduated in May 2022 with her bachelor’s in International Affairs and a minor in Linguistics from Emory University. Dana is currently a paralegal at an in-house council. She is hoping to go to law school in the next two years.

She advises curious writers looking to be published in YSW to enter writing competitions. She entered a competition called The Rhetorics of The Civil Rights Movement. As a result of the partnership between YSW and the Center for Democratic Deliberation, Dana was given the opportunity to publish her work after winning the national undergraduate essay contest. She was inspired to use her resources, get guidance when submitting to YSW, and participate in future competitions.

For Dana, the most exciting part of researching her topic was digging deeper into the history of Black women in politics, which aligned with a course she took on the same subject. She loved learning what strategies Black women used in the civil rights movement. This topic was significant to Dana because she realized there was a lack of awareness of what strategies Black women used in politics. Dana made the information more accessible to college students by writing her article. Since she was already on the legal track, YSW did not directly impact her future career. However, through her experience with YSW, Dana took away the enjoyment of writing and editing and the relationships built with the people she worked with at YSW.

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet the Co-Authors of “Why They Struggle: A Research - Teaching Project Highlighting Challenges Faced by Multilingual Students in U.S. Universities”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-02-28

Panathip Chimrak

Nadiah binti Mohamed Hasnol

Juhua Huang

Apichaya Thaneerat

International Michigan State University students, Panathip (Ky) Chimrak, Juhua (Hayden) Huang, Apichaya Thaneerat, and Nadiah Binti Mohamed came together to research and write their piece on multilingual students.

Ky is a senior studying Supply Chain Management and Business. Hayden, originally from China, is a senior majoring in Mathematics. Nadiah is originally from Malaysia and is a sophomore Psychology major. Apichaya is a senior studying Geography and is originally from Thailand.

Finding a journal that would publish their article was a long and disappointing search for this ambitious group, as only a few accepted works from undergraduate students. The team felt lucky to come across Young Scholars in Writing and were thrilled to publish their work in academia.

Each co-author had a wonderful time working together throughout the research and writing process. They especially appreciated getting to brainstorm together and share their different perspectives. According to Ky, each student came from a different country and therefore learned English and other general studies in their unique ways. As a result, combining their backgrounds was a special opportunity for the team. The group also mentioned how much they enjoyed reading other scholarly articles. Regardless of their personal opinions within their research, they enjoyed hearing different perspectives and reading examples of similar work.

By voicing their opinions, perspectives, and experiences, the group hopes their piece will improve the education of international students at Michigan State University. They created a YouTube channel based on their research and experiences as international students called Multilingual Learner’s Team MSU. The channel consists of videos that answer questions held by domestic students and teachers for international students. It also serves as a platform for other international students to feel heard as they face similar situations.

Juhua is confident that their piece reflects an honest perspective because it is a result of their combined experience on the topic. To any future writer for YSW, he recommends writing about something that is a good fit for them. “It is us,” he said, “I mean, most of the article is really our thoughts as international students.” Apichaya values the importance of authors writing something that will benefit her audience and her as a writer. She found the process of researching and writing to be a very educational opportunity that even indicated whether or not she wanted to attend graduate school. As for Nadiah, who joined the group as a freshman, she had no idea what the professional writing field looked like in the English language in America. She found the idea of publishing journals and the new grammar and vocabulary required for the field challenging to learn at first. However, working with YSW influenced her interest in continuing to do research and scholarly writing, and she looks forward to it in the near future.

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Marilyn Damord, Co-Author of “Supporting Business Students in the Writing Center”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-02-24

Marilyn Damord is a Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania with a minor in Visual Communication. She is also a Presidential Research Fellow, allowing her to focus her writing on research initiatives. Her piece, “Supporting Business Students in the Writing Center,” was written with her cohort, Ashlyn Bellman.

The piece originated as an assignment for the two authors while they were tutoring in the Writing Center on campus. This project quickly turned into a fleshed-out idea for a publication piece. For Marilyn, the best part of writing her piece was getting to do interviews. She interviewed a business professor at York College, with whom she discussed what skills they brought to the college, the curriculum, and what they see students doing that can be better supported in the school’s Writing Center. She is hopeful that the work and research done in her piece will be built upon in the future as schools work to provide better resources for other college majors. More specifically, Marilyn found this piece important because she has always used the Writing Center and hopes it can be more widely known about and utilized.

When talking about her experience writing for Young Scholars in Writing, Marilyn said that she believes students should just “go for it!” She is excited about writing for YSW and is grateful for the experience:

“Keep an open mind, especially if you have a certain research interest that you really want to get out there. If you don’t think that it’s going to be published somewhere, but you just want to explore it more, there’s definitely resources at YSW that can help you with that”

Marilyn is hopeful about her future endeavors after having had an experience where she learned about and was exposed to the world of writing for an undergraduate research journal on her college campus. Marilyn would like to thank all those that helped her throughout the process of writing her piece, especially her co-author, Ashlyn; her faculty advisor, Kim; and the authors’ FAE, Jacob.

This post was originally drafted by students in Dr. Cope’s Fall 2022 WRT320: Digital Writing course and edited and updated by Alex Merritt.

Blog: Meet Maegen Sargent, author of “Analyzing Hedge Frequency of Art Historical Undergraduate Research Essays for Writer Development.”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-02-21

Maegen Sargent is from Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada. She recently graduated from the University of Fraser Valley with a BA and two minors in Art History and English. She is working on her MA in Art and Architectural History at Carleton University. Maegen published her research article, “Analyzing Hedge Frequency of Art Historical Undergraduate Research Essays for Writer Development,” in YSW Vol. 20.

The advice Maegen gives for curious participants who want to be published in YSW is to get to know the individual who guides you through your revision process. Maegen says it’s helpful because they gave her opportunities she would not have known. Maegen was mostly excited about gathering the data for her article because it showed her growth in academic writing. Her topic was significant to her because studying the use of hedges allowed her to apply these techniques in her current work as a TA. YSW helped Maegen with her headstart in the world of academic publishing. Maegen is grateful for the friendships she developed during her journey publishing in YSW and having an opportunity like this as an undergraduate student.

Blog: Introducing the YSW Spring 2023 Intern

Young Scholars in Writing — 2023-02-14

Hello! My name is Alex Merritt (they/them), and I am the new intern for Young Scholars in Writing. I am a junior Professional Writing major with Communications and Music minors at York College of Pennsylvania. I am very involved around campus as a Student Ambassador, Orientation Coordinator, Writing Tutor, and Underwriting Director for WVYC, our college radio station. When I’m not attending classes or work, I enjoy reading, listening to music in various languages, and playing with my cat.

I never planned to go into writing after high school and actually started at YCP as a Music Industry and Recording Technology major. I have always been passionate about music, so I assumed it would be my perfect career path. However, I found myself falling more in love with the classes that required me to write about composers, concerts, and music genres. I realized that my love for music would be better preserved as a hobby and that my skill and love for writing were the keys to a happy future, so I declared a major in Professional Writing.

With the primary goal of helping other writers, I have since been climbing through my degree, intending to become an editor. Many of the classes I’ve taken have introduced me to the diversity of writers, the ins and outs of the language, and the analytical skills necessary to understand various writing. One of my favorite and most memorable classes has been Professional Editing, where I learned the techniques and terminology of editors currently in the field. This class is also where I was introduced to Young Scholars in Writing when I helped edit one of the pieces in Volume 20 by Mercedes Sarah called “Covert Resistance To #Metoo: The Uptake Of Social Change And Public Anxiety In The Men’s Lifestyle Magazine Cover Genre.” The assignment not only brought joy for more editing experience but for the chance to intern in an editorial position with an academic journal.

I look forward to all of the experience and skills I will gain by working with YSW and am very grateful for this opportunity. Something I love most about the journal is its goal to allow undergraduate writers to publish their work and help writers by offering resources throughout the publication process and beyond. I am excited to be a part of the peer-review process for developing a new volume and hope that I can start helping writers as I would like to in the future.

After college, I plan to continue my education and get my masters in linguistics. I have always been interested in language and language learning and spend much of my free time exposing myself to new languages and cultures. A masters in linguistics will allow me to dive deeper into my English studies as well as other languages and will continue to prepare me for a career as an editor.

Blog: YSW Intern Lexi Stewart Reflects on Experience at CCCC Workshop

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-04-05

From March 9th to March 12th, the 2022 Conference on College Composition & Communication (CCCC) provided a valuable opportunity for professionals in the field to gather and discuss everything to do with writing. Various sessions were held online due to Covid restrictions, one of which was hosted by a group of undergraduate research journals, including Xchanges, Jump+, and Young Scholars in Writing. In this program, titled “Designing New Approaches to Teaching with Undergraduate Research Journals and Publications,” these journals held an “engaged learning experience” in which those attending the session collaborated with the publishers of these journals to discuss how such publications could be utilized in the classroom environment.

As the intern for Young Scholars in Writing, I was not involved in running this session but did have the privilege of attending it. The presenters began with a short bit of background knowledge and introductions, but the overall session was very engaging with those attending. Utilizing the breakout session feature in Zoom, we could join separate rooms concerning specific guiding questions. While the session was geared towards those in the position of teaching composition courses, I still found myself relating to a lot of the information discussed in the room I attended, which focused on the guiding question of how undergraduate research publications could be used to teach different research methods within undergraduate courses and mentoring situations. During much of the discussion, I was able to relate to my own experiences within courses that did happen to utilize undergraduate research journals in our projects. During the conversation, many of the points brought up by the attendees connected back to my experiences in the classroom. For instance, much of the discussion surrounding the potential use of undergraduate research journals in the classroom for research assignments could relate to instances where I have done exactly that in writing research courses. After about 30 minutes of discussion, the breakout rooms concluded, and the session met in whole once more to share what each group had discovered from their conversations. In some cases, this prompted more questions of interest on the topic, and we left the session with answers to some and more to consider. While this was the only live session I attended, it was a valuable opportunity and one I have gained a lot of insight from.

However, that was not the only extent of my participation in the conference. From registering for CCCC, I was also able to gain access to a variety of On-Demand resources that registrants have viewing access for 90 days following the conference. Some of these resources dealt specifically with undergraduate students, which I was very excited to watch. A particular On-Demand session that caught my attention, titled “‘Toward a Shift of Authorities and Truths’: Retrofitting Bridges to Consequential Publicness in Student Writing,” went along very nicely with my experience in the live session hosted by YSW and others. The speaker in this video, Dr. Judith Chriqui Benchimol from Marymount Manhattan College, discussed different ways institutions could help their students view themselves as public writers and specifically discussed how undergraduate research journals could be utilized for this purpose.

Overall, the experiences I gained from this conference were unique and a step outside of the typical experience I have as an undergraduate student. Getting a look into how higher-level education programs and professionals in the field work on developing curricula was very informative and enlightening, certainly providing an insider’s look into a topic typically not discussed by undergraduate students like myself.

For more information on the Conference on College Composition & Communication, go to: https://cccc.ncte.org/

Written by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Michael Rifenburg

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-25

Michael Rifenburg (he/him) is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Georgia. Outside of teaching, Rifenburg is one of the Faculty Advisory Editors for Young Scholars in Writing, working with Emily Lawrence to edit her article, “First Year-Writing Student Attitudes and Beliefs: The Potential for Writing-Related Transfer.”

Lawrence’s piece focused on transfer within first-year writing (FYW) courses, with her study gathering student opinions of the course before and after taking an FYW class. Rifenburg explains how his previous experiences “informed how [he] worked with [Emily Lawrence].” Previously a high school teacher, Rifenburg now works at the college level and has gained experience working with faculty and graduate students. “Most of my day is spent talking [and] writing with people from different backgrounds, different education levels, all around the world,” he explains. This experience in his career and the approach he’d gained from it allowed him to work similarly with Lawrence, as he explains how he’s always tried to “shut up, listen, and offer concrete steps forward for all the people I have the chance to work with.”

When working on her article, technology was a big challenge for Rifenburg and Lawrence. Rifenburg explains that he does his best work “off the screen and sitting side by side with someone.” When working with Lawrence, however, the two mostly communicated over e-mail and held one Zoom meeting. “Navigating Zoom” and “balancing all these apps,” such as the Google Suite applications, was challenging without that in-person experience.

Reflecting on the experience of being an FAE, Rifenburg says what he enjoys most about the experience is “watching writing click for another person.” Even if he wasn’t the one responsible for an “a-ha!” moment, he explains that being able to witness those moments “was rad.” Continuing, Rifenburg states that “it was a wonderful experience” and that “Emily is a focused and dedicated writer who pushed me with insightful questions about building academic arguments for publication.” He gives his thanks to Steve Price, a former FAE who passed Rifenburg’s name to the editors of YSW, leading to Rifenburg gaining this experience.

If you are interested in becoming an FAE for Young Scholars in Writing, please reach out to us at youngscholars.editor@gmail.com for more information.

Written by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet Abigail Kremer, Author of “Coding the Whiteboard Space: How a Pandemic Prompted a Project in Online Writing Center Research”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-22

Abigail Kremer is a graduate student currently attending the University of Southern California. She submitted her article “Coding the Whiteboard Space: How a Pandemic Prompted a Project in Online Writing Center Research” back when she was a senior at USC. Her article discusses how scholars have begun advocating for RAD (replicable, aggregable, and data-supported) research to inform peer tutoring practices in university writing centers. The majority of these instances have been done in person, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a new door had opened for online opportunities in peer tutoring. She states in her abstract, “The resultant study presented here, focused on creating a coding method for tutor feedback using the whiteboard space in WCOnline, aims to provide a starting point for research on online synchronous sessions, as well as some considerations for transitioning back into in-person tutoring” (Kremer 92).

When asked about what inspired her to do the research and ultimately make her project, Abigail explained that she had been granted a position as a research assistant through an award program. Due to the pandemic, however, the funding for the program had to be cut and eventually canceled. Despite this, Abigail remained passionate about the topic that she had been studying, so she spoke to her advisor from the research project about that area of study. From this talk, she managed to make her own separate research project from the one they were studying, turning it into an independent study that lasted the rest of that year.

Abigail then discussed her connection to her research point, speaking about her experience becoming a tutor. She explained how she signed up for tutoring “as soon as [she] could” due to a need for money, but she “fell in love with it” and is now very passionate about peer tutoring. When expanding upon this, Abigail said that “especially during the pandemic, it was a way to like, have that intimate personal connection, because sharing your writing is like such an intimate thing to do with someone and helping create a space digitally.” Further, she explains that the “safe and effective” nature of this form of tutoring when involving such personal pieces of writing is what excited her.

When asked about how she came to publish with Young Scholars in Writing, Abigail explained how her advisor had sent her a link to the YSW website on a whim, telling her to “give [herself] something to write for.” Abigail explains that because she and her advisor had already gotten all the research and data collected, all that was left was to figure out how to present it in an understandable and organized format. With that in mind, Abigail decided to submit her methodology for the methodology review portion of the journal. She admits that she had forgotten about her submission until she had gotten an email back from YSW asking her to revise and resubmit her paper, motivating her to continue writing about her research.

Abigail also described the challenges that she faced while writing and revising the paper, explaining how her way of writing tended to get in the way of adequately organizing her thoughts. She explains that she tends to write “everything in reverse,” so, during the process, she had to “totally invert the order” and “rewrite everything.” She also explains how “figuring out how to explain [her research] to her audience” was something else with which she struggled. This struggle was due to how her research focuses on writing centers, and “not everyone reading the journal does writing center research.” However, she comments that Young Scholars in Writing was “a good place to publish.”

When asked if she would recommend Young Scholars in Writing to any other undergraduate researchers, Abigail explained that she would recommend it for undergraduate students looking for an outlet to get their hard-earned research out there and into the world. “It's a really accessible journal. And it's, it's something that you can [submit to] and it's reputable. And like, you can say, I did this, and you can show people, and it's something that lasts.” She also expresses her appreciation to the faculty advisory editor YSW assigned to help her, stating that she was “absolutely wonderful” and that the process that YSW follows was “so wonderfully supportive.”

In the future, Abigail hopes to continue volunteer tutoring and has plans to begin teaching.

Kremer, A. “Coding the Whiteboard Space: How a Pandemic Prompted a Project in Online Writing Center Research”. Young Scholars in Writing, Vol. 19, Jan. 2022, pp. 92-102, https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/356.

Written by: Kaden Meredith, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet Jamie Smith, Co-Author of “A Mixed Methods Approach to Analyzing Writing Center Session Notes”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-18

Jamie Smith is a sophomore at Iowa State University, double majoring in communication studies and Spanish with a minor in linguistics. Jamie is the co-author along with fellow author Zoe Dekruif for their article “A Mixed Methods Approach to Analyzing Writing Center Session Notes.” This article is about the use of mixed analysis, in this case, Linguistic corpus and inductive coding, in order to explore the types of feedback that writing consultants provide to students during sessions at Iowa State University’s writing center.

Jamie first got into her field of study, linguistics, during her first year in college through a First-Year honors mentor program at Iowa State. It was there that she mentored under her professor and was introduced to Zoe Dekruif, the fellow author of their joint article. According to Jamie, the college that she went to was mainly a STEM-based institution. It didn’t provide many opportunities outside of those STEM-based fields for doing research, so the chance to perform research into linguistics was one that she gladly jumped on. Jamie has been able to stay on this research project as a paid research assistant and was able to receive a grant after her mentorship program was concluded. “I was just really excited to have a research opportunity that related to my major and that I have been able to stay on as a paid research assistant after my Mentor Program was up,” Jamie stated on the topic.

In discussing how she wound up publishing, Jamie explains that it was not a requirement of her project but had been recommended to her and Zoe. Jamie had first heard about Young Scholars In Writing through one of the professors who had been working on the linguistic research project. She explains how this professor was super excited about working with undergraduate students because he hadn't had the opportunity previously. He sought out any possible way to expand upon Jamie and Zoe’s research. Jamie explains that this is why he then sent the two co-authors a link to YSW. Further reflecting on the process, Jamie says, “we worked really closely with our graduate mentor, Emily Duke Speltz, with writing the paper, because we had really little knowledge in publishing and writing research since we have only been in college for a semester.” She further explains how the two co-authors had received help from Emily Speltz, Dr. Yevgeny, and her supervisor Steve Price on reviewing her and Zoe’s article before submitting it to Young Scholars In Writing.

Jamie's main challenge when writing this research assignment was time management. She explains how exciting it was to receive the email from Young Scholars in Writing for acceptance as long as the authors revised their paper, “but I was working full time at a summer camp.” Jamie’s summer camp had a rule in which technology was not allowed, so she had to meet at “really weird times” when she could be “hidden from [her] campers.” She also explains how her lack of experience with professional research papers made this editing difficult, but YSW assisted with editing that “was helpful” along with the other mentors she and Zoe already had.

When asked whether Jamie felt accomplished after turning in the article, she stated that she was “super excited” about her and Zoe's work. Jamie also explained that while her plans for the future aren't “one hundred percent sure,'' she and Zoe were still on the same linguistics research project as they were when writing their research paper. She adds that the project she is currently working on will more than likely be used for her graduate mentor's thesis.

Finally, when asked about whether or not she would recommend for undergraduates to go through Young Scholars in Writing, she explained that she and Zoe “kind of started the trend” and that “a lot of other communication and English based research projects at Iowa State have heard about it and are interested in it as well.” So, Zoe said, “I definitely would recommend it.”

Written by: Kaden Meredith, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Introducing Zoe DeKruif, Co-Author of “A Mixed Methods Approach to Analyzing Writing Center Session Notes”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-15

Zoe Dekruif is a sophomore at Iowa State University working on a major in linguistics and two minors in anthropology and classical studies. Zoe and co-author Jamie Smith recently published their article “A Mixed Methods Approach to Analyzing Writing Center Session Notes” with Young Scholars in Writing. Their piece discusses the use of mixed analysis, specifically linguistic corpus and inductive coding, to explore the types of feedback that writing consultants provide to students during sessions at Iowa State University’s writing center.

During the interview, Zoe was asked what inspired her to perform her research, specifically given that it was a collaborative piece. She explained that she and Jamie were part of the same honors group known as the First Year Honors Mentor Program. Through this program, Zoe and Jamie were paired up with their mentor, Dr. Yevgeny, the head of a project called ProWrite that aims to use biometric technology to improve the writing processes and essay writing skills within college students. The ProWrite project had a subproject, and Zoe explains that “this is where Jamie and [her] come into play.” This subproject was where they were initially introduced to and found interest in their research topic. Beyond this, Zoe had a personal interest in her research topic after joining the ProWrite project, leading to her decision to pursue her masters in linguistics through Iowa State's “Four Plus One” program.

Zoe had started their research project back in the fall of 2020, taking her time to understand their coding and analyzing the data they had collected over a few months. When asked about how she had gotten interested in publishing her studies, Zoe discussed how their graduate mentor pushed Zoe and Jamie to publish their research, soon sending them the link to Young Scholars in Writing. Thus, Zoe and Jamie decided to go through YSW to publish their research.

Zoe explained that YSW had told the two undergraduate researchers that they would be accepted for publication as long as they were willing to revise their submitted piece. When reflecting on the experience, Zoe said, “it was great,” and mentioned that they were paired with Dr. Steve Price, a faculty advisory editor, to help with the required revisions, which was “very helpful” to the process. “We had very conflicting schedules,” Zoe explained, “but he read through it and gave us a lot of revisions to start on via email.”

When asked about the challenges that she had faced writing the article, Zoe discussed how the focus of her and Jamie’s paper had to shift over the course of the revisions due to them submitting for methodological reflection. She explains how they “needed to have the methodology be centered, and then almost use our project as an example of the methodology. So that was sort of a challenge in, you know, reorganizing our paragraphs, and even down to you know, sentence structure.” Initially, Zoe’s paper was mainly focused on the project and its highlights, but this needed to be reworked due to the submission format. That being said, Zoe stated that she felt very accomplished to be able to get her and Jamie’s work published while in college, as she “never thought that publishing… was something I was going to do in college.”

When asked if she would recommend Young Scholars in Writing to any other undergraduate researchers, Zoe stated that she would “definitely recommend it” for others. “I think that being published while you're still in college is definitely a difficult thing,” she explained, “so having a publication that is specifically for young scholars is really important.” Referencing how she and Jamie were assigned a helper in the process, she explains that the experience at YSW isn’t one that “you can get in many places,” so she would certainly recommend publishing with YSW.

Written by: Kaden Meredith, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Introducing Haley Wellner, Author of “Genre Cross-Writing: A Methodology for Writing as Our Selves”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-11

Haley Wellner (she/her) is a graduate of Marquette University who received two degrees in accounting and writing-intensive English last May. Currently deployed in Poland, she has been a member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard for over seven and a half years. Haley’s article, “Genre Cross-Writing: A Methodology for Writing as Our Selves,” discusses how genre cross-writing can bring dynamic, unconventional thinking into writing research, including undergraduate research. Describing her piece, Haley explains that “This paper offers an example [of genre cross writing] based on my own work, which started with a class project that became the pilot for more formalized research. I feature genre cross-writing, a creative method that I first developed as an autoethnographic tool that I used to see how all of my identities worked together.”

When asked about why she was first interested in her research topic and what inspired her to do it, Haley discussed the various jobs she had done and subjects that she had learned from her courses. Haley wanted to see how her previous experiences from her job as a mechanic in the army, course content from her accounting and writing intensive English majors, and other jobs such as cake decorating, bartending, and towing could all fit together. Recalling, she explains that she “just had that moment of like, ‘I don't know who I am. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.’” At the time, Haley still had another year left of undergraduate school and called this line of thoughts a “senior moment” resulting from her approaching graduation. “I had all these weird identities,” she continued, “and I didn’t know how those pieces fit together. And that’s kind of what inspired the research.”

Haley explained that, before this piece, she had not had any experience with publishing. She first became interested in publishing her research after reviewing her findings and discussing her project with her mentor. Haley retold how, as her research continued to develop, her mentor for the project pointed out that she had “created something that didn't really exist.” She also explains that she was “using many creative research methods that were very underrated” in the rhetorical comprehension and writing studies fields. Haley thought that, because of this, her research would be important to share and would be useful to others due to the method’s various potential applications. She also comments how she “just thought it would be very cool to share with everybody” due to how unique her discoveries were.

When asked about the publication process itself, Haley described it as being “much smoother than expected,” explaining that “in [her] head she had expected what [she] had seen in movies,” which had given her the impression that the process would be much more difficult than her true experience. “I was thinking like publishing houses where it’s just kind of chaos,” she explains, “and fights between editors and authors.” Instead, she found her experience much easier and explained that “everybody was really great and easy to work with, and were really, really helpful.”

When asked about her process going through Young Scholars in Writing, Haley admitted that initially, Young Scholars in Writing was not her first choice to publish her research. Haley wished to present her research in an Interactive and Multimedia based presentation instead of a traditional article format and had compiled a list of journals to look into in order to find one that would best suit her research. After a few “meet and greets” with those from YSW, however, she was introduced to the methodological review portion of the journal and found another way she could present her research.

When discussing Young Scholars in Writing and whether or not she would recommend others with similar interests and research projects like hers to publish through it, Haley responded by saying she “absolutely” would. Expanding, she comments: “I think it's a great journal. And they cover a lot of different topics, which is awesome. And like I said, everything was so easy to work with, and really, really helpful.”

Written by: Kaden Meredith, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet Ashley Beresch, Author of “A Response to Gina Keplinger: Pursuing Evolution (and Revolution) Through Form”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-08

Ashley Beresch (she/her) is the author of the article “A Response to Gina Keplinger: Pursuing Evolution (and Revolution) Through Form.” Her article responds to Gina Keplinger's essay “Don’t Dismiss the List: The Value of Writing Extraordinary Issues Into Ordinary Forms.” Within that essay, Keplinger describes her list as an ”unconventional genre” and calls for more interactive academic writing. Ashley’s article discusses implementing rhetorical genre theory to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the list as a genre and its traditions.

When asked what inspired Ashley to write this piece, she first explained that it began as an assignment in an English 1101 course. She explains that she was “very much new to academic writing and research” at the time. The instructions for her assignment were to select a piece from Young Scholars in Writing and write a response to the selected piece. While searching for an article to write a response on, she found Keplinger’s article and found herself drawn to it. Ashley explains that “there was something about how Gina Keplinger had written her piece that was so, just unusual to me in an academic setting. She brought a lot of her background as I think a poet into it. And that made it really engaging. So that made it easy to, well, to engage with and to respond.”

When asked what inspired her to publish her piece, Ashley credits her professor, Drew Kane, who pushed her to submit her article. She further comments on how happy she was that she listened to her professor and submitted the piece. Ashley says that it was “very educational and a great experience.” Ashley then discussed the challenges she faced when working on and revising her piece, comparing her draft from her first year to the final product. At the time of her first draft, she was a first-year non-traditional student who had been away from college for “quite a while.” She explained how her time with Young Scholars in Writing had given her more experience in researching genre theory, and now that she has that experience, she can revise the piece and improve upon it. Ashley comments that academic writing is about “learning something new” and “finding more information and just adding those layers to things. And so, that [experience] definitely helped me do that. And just make it, I think, a deeper, better piece.”

When asked if she would recommend Young Scholars in Writing to any other undergraduate researchers, Ashley stated that she would recommend others submit their research to YSW. She explains that in observing the pieces written and published through the journal, “all the people that [she] read have, you know, been wonderful.” Continuing, Ashley explains how encouraging she feels that Young Scholars in Writing is to undergraduate researchers. They can see that YSW is “taking seriously the work that you’re doing,” and expresses her gratitude that the journal does this even though these researchers are undergraduate students. Finally, reflecting on the opportunity she had, Ashley comments on how valuable the process was to her, explaining that her experience working with her assigned advisor “was just so helpful” in the feedback she received on her piece.

In the future, Ashley plans on publishing more research articles. She states that she’d “love to do more [research],” continuing to explain that “there's always more research, there's always more to do, more to explore.”

Written by: Kaden Meredith, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Introducing Ally Roeker, Author of “To Be An Essential Worker: An Exploration of Rhetoric During COVID-19”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-04

Ally Roeker (She/Her) is a 21-year-old student at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She will graduate in the spring of 2022 and is triple majoring in English, Communication Studies, and Writing. During her college experience, Ally was tasked to write an article that would later become her published piece in Young Scholars in Writing titled “To Be An Essential Worker: An Exploration of Rhetoric During COVID-19.”

Ally started her article for an independent study class and was given free rein to research any topic she wanted for the assignment. She decided to focus on essential workers’ experiences during the pandemic; her interest in this choice stemming from her previous experience working in retail gave her some understanding of the struggles essential workers were facing. She also notes that having the freedom of topic selection ultimately helped her to feel proud of her writing and follow her preferred methods of working.

At the beginning of this class, Ally was asked if she would want to publish, beginning her publishing journey when she answered that she would. Her professor, who also worked at Young Scholars in Writing as an editor, helped her through submitting her piece. Ally’s professor encouraged her and thought the topic was a good fit for the journal, greatly influencing her to go through with her decision to submit. Reflecting on this time, she says that if it wasn’t for her professor, she might not have made the deadline.

Ally enjoys academia and explains that personal motivation was part of the challenge. However, encouragement from her professor continued to help her through the process. Roeker says it was an overall “intensive process” but that she didn’t experience any submission issues with Young Scholars in Writing, adding that the process for submitting her piece was actually quite easy. She had to turn in forms along with her article, and then she waited for an answer from YSW.

Reflecting on her experience, Roeker explains that most of the difficulty in the process stemmed from researching her topic, as retail work is often overlooked as “bad” or “inconsequential.” She also had to edit her article repeatedly and put a lot more effort, thought, and time into updating the piece during her revisions. Roeker ends the discussion of her experience by saying that Young Scholars in Writing enriched her life, and she has had a good experience working with the undergraduate journal.

Ally finishes with a piece of advice to students who want to contribute to the journal, urging undergraduate researchers to pick a good topic, go for it, and lay it all out there because it is free to submit, so you have nothing to lose.

Written by: Evie Giffin, Professional Writing and Literary and Textual Studies major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Introducing Olivia Rowland, Author of “The True Crisis is Neoliberalism: An Analysis of the Palestinian-Led BDS Movement’s Pandemic Rhetoric”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-03-01

Olivia Rowland (she/her) is a 22-year-old graduate student at Oregon State University studying Rhetoric and Writing Studies. Not long ago, she was an undergrad at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, working hard to obtain her Bachelor’s degrees in Rhetoric and Writing Studies and Women’s Studies. Early in her senior year, she completed a five-page assignment that would eventually evolve to become “The True Crisis is Neoliberalism: An Analysis of the Palestinian-Led BDS Movement’s Pandemic Rhetoric.”

For a rhetorical analysis class last fall, Rowland had to select a social movement or organization to analyze throughout the entire semester. She chose Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS), a non-profit which she’d read about in the work of political activist and scholar Angela Davis and was subsequently interested in but didn’t know much about it. She figured it was the perfect way to “learn more about it while also learning about rhetorical analysis.” Although the assignment required her to use feminist rhetorical analysis, it was already her preferred methodology due to her background in feminist studies. Rowland explains how this form of analysis “is about understanding how we can resist systems of domination and hegemony.” This interest in feminism and women’s studies drove her to continue expanding on the assignment. She describes how the initial five-page paper differed from the final product published in Young Scholars in Writing.

The piece changed from its original form into a more extended version at the end of the fall semester. or her senior seminar that spring, Rowland chose her five-page feminist analysis to prepare and submit for publication. As part of the class project, she also had to select where she’d try to be published. The idea of submitting to YSW was already on Rowland’s mind, as her professor at the time, impressed with her paper and research, had encouraged publication with the journal. But the suggestion alone did not lead to her choice; Rowland also researched YSW, reviewing previous issues, and when she saw the common focus on activism and related subjects, she knew Young Scholars in Writing would be a good fit for her article.

Rowland revised her piece several times over those months, explaining that she worked “sporadically,” first over winter break for use when applying to graduate programs and then rigorously during the final semester of her undergraduate degree. She explains that, at some point, she even turned to previously published YSW articles for help in guiding her editing. Rowland emphasized how this method taught her what the journal looked for and its standards, “like, oh, I need to add a literature review, and maybe I need some implications.” Once her article was accepted, revision became much easier with added guidance from the journal itself.

Rowland describes how working with Young Scholars in Writing was a supportive process. The FAE helped her improve the article by guiding her in how to “situate [her] research in the discipline and conversations that are happening in rhetoric and composition right now.” Although she was reluctant to revise again after doing it so many times already, Rowland explains that she’s ultimately glad that she did, as she believes the finished piece is a lot stronger due to the final revisions.

Now that graduate school has begun, Rowland is grateful for having a behind-the-scenes experience of the academic publication process so she can bring that better understanding with her as she moves forward in her scholarly career. To those considering submitting to Young Scholars in Writing, she advises to “just do it” and strongly encourages looking at previously accepted and published articles by YSW to help in the decision-making and editing process.

Written by: Catie Putnam, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Introducing Micah Williams, Author of “Anything But America: The Just and Unjust Recomposition of Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America’”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-02-25

Micah Williams (he/him) is a 21-year-old English and Philosophy major, with a minor in African American Studies, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During his first year of college, he had an assignment for an English class that would eventually turn into his piece “Anything But America: The Just and Unjust Recomposition of Childish Gambino’s ‘This Is America.’”

Early into his college career, Williams’s Honors English class taught the young scholar how rhetoric and discourses move throughout different ideas. Williams notes that he had always had special interests in African American literature and related topics. Still, this lesson sparked his interest in transformation and recomposition related to the 2018 hit song and social commentary “This Is America” by Childish Gambino. Williams’s research paper began with mere outlines and some drafting, but it quickly grew into a full-blown twelve-page article by the end of his first draft. He utilized what he calls “mixed media methods,” which combines rhetorical analysis and imagery with previous findings—and Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain”—to develop the research. Williams explains how, in his second draft for the paper, he had to highlight additions and other edits to track how his piece developed. He also notes that the original, pre-edited version for his class assignment involved mixed media such as photographs. In total, Williams says that he spent approximately two months on research, but his process was spaced out over more time rather than working consecutively.

Thanks to some encouragement from his professor to enter his work into a scholarship competition, Williams became the 2020 Peggy Jolly Award recipient for Excellence in Composition. He then decided to take the paper a step further and submit it to Young Scholars in Writing. After all, he had received praise from not only his professors in the field but from the competition judge, who especially recommended that his work reach a wider audience. Although Williams always knew that he would eventually want to become a published author, he was nervous that his article “wasn’t good enough.” However, he explains that the “push” from those around him encouraged his next steps towards publication.

Williams describes his experience with Young Scholars in Writing as “an awesome process.” From his first look into the undergraduate journal, he was impressed by past articles and the blog’s “legit” look. He notes that it was very easy to submit his work, especially expressing his gratitude towards Savannah Connor, his Faculty Advisory Editor (FAE), for the journal that worked closely with him throughout the editorial process. As a college student swarmed with school projects and a busy schedule, Micah expresses his appreciation of YSW’s flexibility and willingness to work around all of the craziness, and he could not be more pleased with the result.

For other aspiring undergraduates hoping to get their research published, Williams says to listen to encouragement from professors and “don’t let doubts stop you” from trying to publish. He’s glad that his research will now be able to reach a wider audience through Young Scholars in Writing. Though Williams hopes that the article’s meaning, especially the social justice elements, will speak for itself, he wants most of all for it to make people think twice about the implications of recomposition.

Written by: Marilyn Damord and Catie Putnam, Professional Writing majors at York College of Pennsylvania

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet Sarah Bach: Author of “‘Our house is on fire:’ Exploring the Rhetorical Significance of Youth Climate Activists, an Emerging Discourse Community”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-02-22

22-year-old Sarah Bach (she/her) is a recent graduate of Ohio State University, having majored in English Writing with three minors in Professional Writing, Education, and Spanish. Following the global climate strikes in 2019, Bach, then a college junior, became interested in how activism takes place worldwide through the lives of young people. Activists such as Greta Thunberg have gained a growing platform in previous years through the news and increased social awareness, which piqued Bach’s interest in investigating how young people position themselves as activists and lead changes. Specifically, she wanted to discover how younger generations are able to speak from a more sometimes disadvantaged position in politics, given that this group is unable to vote or be in office. This research ultimately led to Bach’s inspiration for her Young Scholars in Writing article “‘Our house is on fire:’ Exploring the Rhetorical Significance of Youth Climate Activists, an Emerging Discourse Community.”

Much of Bach’s background knowledge in rhetorical theory stemmed from previous classes she had taken at OSU—take Rhetoric in Social Action, for example, which revolved around rhetoric’s uses in mobilizing people within the fields of politics and activism. However, since 2019’s international protests, Bach found herself especially interested in young activists leading global change (ex. Greta Thunberg) and fascinated by their impact on the world from such young ages. This group’s lack of power that others, specifically older groups, hold from a political standpoint, quickly became the main focus of Bach’s composition, in which she discusses the theoretical and rhetorical significance of these leaders and the ways that they position themselves above such roadblocks in order to change the world.

It took Bach two and a half years to develop her research and mold it into her final article. For her, research methods presented a challenge—instead of using empirical data, she sought to apply rhetorical theory to real-life events mainly by studying observable phenomena and drawing inferences from them. Because of the more abductive nature of her research, Bach notes, her advisors at OSU had a huge hand in helping to put the pieces of her research together and leading her to methods that would work best for her. Namely, Sarah thanks Dr. Christa Teston, her original thesis advisor at Ohio State, who “led [her] to many scholarly sources in her article and helped [her] understand rhetorical theory.”

During her college days, Bach originally heard about YSW’s open call for articles through a campus email announcement. After the recommendation, she ultimately decided to submit her work to the journal—and she says that applying was quite easy! Not only was Young Scholars in Writing quick with their email communications, but Sarah was also paired with an advisor from YSW, Dr. Sweta Baniya, who helped “organize [her] research into a more organized and concise manner” and guided her in the right direction.

Bach explains how surreal it felt to be on the other side of the interview process as she conducted hers, adding how she has had projects in her own college courses in which the situation would typically be reversed. The interview she partook in with students for Young Scholars in Writing was, in her words, a “meta moment,” giving quite a different experience than what she knew.

Overall, Sarah Bach looks back fondly on her research and publication experience, advising those hesitant to submit to the journal (students in writing and rhetorical fields especially) to just go for it! Bach says that YSW is very “forgiving” and encouraging towards all (including newer writers and researchers) and that students ought to “put faith into their work.” She is “very grateful to [her advisors] for their guidance” and hopes more young researchers will take advantage of YSW’s opportunities.

Written by: Marilyn Damord, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania.

Edited by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania.

Blog: Meet Emily Lawrence: Author of “First Year-Writing Student Attitudes and Beliefs: The Potential for Writing-Related Transfer”

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-02-18

Emily Lawrence (she/her) is a 31-year-old graduate student currently attending Eastern Michigan University for their writing program. At the time of writing her article, “First Year-Writing Student Attitudes and Beliefs: The Potential for Writing-Related Transfer,” she was an undergraduate student at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, where she was a double major studying Writing and Rhetoric as well as Philosophy. Lawrence was also minoring in creative writing and had goals for being a writing teacher in the future. Now, Lawrence is studying in Eastern Michigan University’s Writing Studies program, intending to teach others.

In fact, Lawrence explains that the intent behind writing her article was to research first-year writing students to prepare herself to be a better instructor. “I chose the topic because my goal is to teach first-year writing courses,” she shared, explaining that the class in which she came up with her topic was a Teaching College Writing course. Lawrence’s piece started as an assignment for a Writing and Rhetoric course she took afterward, taught by the same professor as her teaching course from the semester prior. She worked closely with her instructor, who assisted Lawrence in drafting a proposal for an independent research project.

Lawrence explains that many articles influenced her choice of topic and ultimately led to her focus on student attitudes and beliefs. A few she noted were Amy Locklear’s “Redesigning the Research of First-Year Composition: Renegotiating and Remapping an Approach to Information Literacy,” James Purdy and Joyce Walker’s “Liminal Spaces and Research Identity: The Construction of Introductory Composition Students as Researchers,” and various pieces written by Dana Driscoll from 2011 to 2018. These pieces, alongside others, helped Lawrence narrow her focus on first-year writing down to those students’ specific feelings towards those courses.

Lawrence’s article started as a proposal, after which she submitted the Institutional Review Board (IRB) application to be able to conduct her research. Her instructor greatly helped navigate the application process, which “felt like a strange web of requirements” in Lawrence’s experience. She was given a full semester to conduct the research afterward; her instructor also helped determine what methods could be used during the process. Lawrence explains that she had limitations in her research due to the amount of time left in her undergraduate career and the COVID lockdown in March 2020.

Lawrence worked with many deadlines throughout the writing process, which she explains was “stressful” but mainly “incredibly interesting.” Due to the length limitations, she also found that she had to exclude certain findings, so she did not exceed the page limit. Had there been no limit, Lawrence is sure her paper would have been over forty pages “quite easily.” In the end, this article took Lawrence a year and a half from the start of the process to the very end.

The instructor who guided Lawrence helped her discover Young Scholars in Writing. She explains that she decided to submit to our publication because it was “best aligned with the kind of research and theoretical frameworks” she found interesting. In addition, Lawrence says the submission process for her article allowed her to learn a lot about the revision and editing processes for publishing a piece. “The most important part of submitting to a publication is to know what kind of goals that publication has for what they publish,” she explains to others considering publishing, and leaves one final piece of advice: “it’s good to read previous editions! I read through the last couple of publications [from Young Scholars in Writing] before deciding whether to publish here. It helps you get to know what they’re looking for, and you might find some good source material for your research.”

Written by: Lexi Stewart, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania

Blog: Meet the Spring 2022 YSW Intern: Lexi Stewart

Young Scholars in Writing — 2022-02-15

Hello there! My name is Lexi Stewart (she/her), and I am the new intern for Young Scholars in Writing. I am a junior student at York College of Pennsylvania, majoring in Professional Writing with a minor in Creative Writing. I am also a tutor for my college’s writing center and love being able to work with students on their papers.

Outside of college, I spend a lot of time on other creative projects. During the pandemic, I picked up a few new interests, and among them, crocheting has become a favorite. I also spend a lot of time creating digital art and, of course, reading as much as possible. I am also an avid listener to Taylor Swift and have been greatly spoiled with new music during the past two years.

While I’ve always loved writing, I wasn’t always sure what I wanted to do in college. I went back and forth between biology and writing before ultimately deciding on writing due to my personal interest in becoming a writer. When I was looking at potential colleges, I noticed the Professional Writing major at YCP and was instantly sold. I had already known I wanted to minor in Creative Writing but originally planned on going for a general English or Literature major. Once I had met a few professors in my program, I knew I’d made the right choice in picking Professional Writing. I’ve had the opportunity to take some incredibly helpful classes and even had the opportunity to help with our college’s student-run publication. In fact, it was through one of these classes that I learned about Young Scholars in Writing, in which I was able to interview a few authors from volume 19.

Of course, I’ve had plenty of fun in classes for my minor as well. From fiction to playwriting to nonfiction, I always found myself enjoying the pieces I created. In fact, one of my favorite stories written for a creative writing class wound up being accepted to YCP’s publication, and I’m very excited to see my writing published.

I am very grateful for this opportunity to work with YSW and look forward to the experience I will gain from it. In previous instances working with the journal, I have already gained a great deal of knowledge, and I expect to gain more throughout this time. I would say that I’m most excited to see the submission process and witness all the inner workings of starting up a new volume. This unique experience will hopefully help my future decision about which field I choose to pursue after graduation.

Overall, I am very thankful for this opportunity to work with Young Scholars in Writing, and look forward to my time here!

A Look Back at Almost 20 Years of the Journal

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-12-08

YSW has been publishing the research of undergraduate students for almost two decades now. In fact, later this month, the journal will start accepting submissions for its 20th volume. For the duration of its run, the journal has always put the undergraduates and their research first. While there are certain guidelines put in place, the goal of YSW has never been to try and stifle any type of research or topics undergraduates attempt to push forward. Ever since Volume 1, previous editors, such as Laurie Grobam and Candace Spigelman, have believed that “YSW is a place where undergraduates have the opportunity to publish their research.” This idea has not changed over the years, rather they have simply improved on that statement. What is amazing about YSW’s history is the undergraduates in the publication. Each year, the research undergraduates do are grounded in our society, and many use rhetoric to show and express some sort of social justice. Matthew Bunce, an undergraduate, wrote a research article in 2003’s publication of Volume 1, “Online Texts, Online Identities: Designated Free Space or a Space Constrained?” Within this research article, Bunce discusses the rhetoric of the usage bias of the internet. Bunce’s research focuses on an underlying concern in society that arose in 2003 and interestingly enough, looking back this has been a concern that has grown in prevalence over the years. Fast forward to today, in Volume 18 Megan Kelley wrote an article about the rhetoric of digital abortion storytelling and how this helps in pushing forward the feminist movement. YSW wishes to be a venue for undergraduates, like Bunce and Kelley, to share their research on topics that both matter to them and can make an impact in society.

Over the years, YSW has had several institutional homes with editorial teams that each had a specific vision for the journal. At the start back in 2003, Grobam and Spigelman of Penn State University - Berks believed “research can and should be a crucial component of rhetorical education” and “that undergraduates engaged in research about writing and rhetoric should have opportunities to publish their work.” In 2005’s publication of Volume 3, Grobam took over as lead editor, and in her Editor’s Introduction, she states “Continuing the Young Scholars in Writing tradition of excellent scholarship, the articles in Volume 3 offer significant insights while addressing a variety of issues.” In 2010’s publication of Volume 7, Jane Greer from the University of Missouri-Kansa City, found it fitting to start her Guest Editor’s Introduction with 3 stanzas from Marge Piercy’s poem titled To Be of Use as “a celebration of work.” In the poem, there is a metaphor between how a pitcher lives for water to carry, and alongside those same lines, a person lives for work that is real and that they can be proud of—on both sides, it’s their purpose. Greer uses this analogy in the context of YSW and how it proudly presents the work of its undergraduates who have undertaken “real” work and this is YSW’s way “To Be of Use.” Greer operated as the lead editor until 2016 when Volume 13 was published with Doug Downs from Montana State University as lead editor. Around this time was when the Young Scholars in Writing’s website began taking off and this volume is the first volume to feature a designed cover. Downs has worked and been a part of the YSW Editorial Board since 2005, but in his first volume as lead editor, he discusses how he’s writing it just a day after a Chicago rally for then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and how it was canceled in fear of a potentially “violent clash between his supporters and protesters.” He uses this tidbit to set up the scene for this volume as he states that “As it happens, not only does every article in this year’s volume carry on the tradition of scholarly troublemaking via critical inquiry and disputation, but our first three articles (as well as the closing First Year Spotlight article) commemorate and analyze public discourses of dissent specifically.” He is elaborating on an earlier point on how YSW wishes to be a venue for undergraduates to publish research on topics that matter to them, and in the world, and has the potential to instill change; Downs believes that that year’s publication was another example of the journal being packed with change-inducing articles.

Flash forward to today where Volume 19 is just months away from being published, and the editorial team of Emily Murphy Cope, Gabriel Cutrufello, and Kim Fahle Peck from York College of Pennsylvania continue to push forward and fulfill the mission of promoting the “Young Scholars.” Since their takeover for Volume 18 in 2020, they have articulated that their goals are to “demonstrate our commitment to achieving two goals in particular: 1) situating Young Scholars in Writing (YSW) as a teaching and learning resource to a wide range of students beyond just those who have the opportunity to publish in its pages, and 2) better representing the methodological diversity of writing studies in the articles we publish.” They continue to push forward and progress in the values established by previous editors through steps such as running social media accounts to reach out to undergraduates around the globe; operating a website that features both a blog and archives to previous volumes; engaging a number of students from a variety of institutions to help out with the journal; bringing in a production editor, Travis Kurowski, who works with students on the visual design or the journal and choosing appropropriate cover images; working to become more truly an “international” journal, and even interviewing incoming undergraduates who are set to be published to showcase who these researchers are.

The YSW journal has come a long way in these past 18 years, only one can imagine how far it will be in another 18 years!

Blog post by: Kameron Cherry and Jalil Dixon. Cherry is a YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2022, with a major in Professional Writing and Literary and Textual Studies. Dixon is a YSW Intern and junior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2023, with a major in Professional Writing.

Blog: Behind the Scenes of the YSW Editorial Process

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-11-16

After the YSW authors revise their manuscripts with their Faculty Advisory Editors (FAEs), their manuscripts undergo an editing process by the editorial team who check for citations and formatting, and conduct thorough line editing. This editing phase is yet another step in the long, yet important, process of preparing the manuscripts for publication.

In preparation for Volume 19 of YSW, this phase was taken on by the editorial team which consisted of editors Dr. Emily Murphy Cope, Dr. Gabriel Cutrufello, and Dr. Kim Fahle Peck, and editorial interns Kameron Cherry and Jalil Dixon. For Kameron and Jalil, this was their first experience being tasked with such a large share of the editing process for an international publication. They were tasked with editing 9 articles; Kameron was in charge of the first citation check, which was later followed upon and checked by Dr. Peck, and Jalil was in charge of the first formatting check, which was later followed upon and checked by Dr. Cutrufello. Dr. Cope then completed a final line edit of the entire manuscript. For the editorial team, this was roughly a 3-week process that included several stages of back-and-forth.

The citation checking process consists of checking if the works cited entries and in-text citations match and are formatted correctly following the current MLA guidelines. The format checking process includes making sure the manuscript is formatted following the guidelines for MLA throughout, for example ensuring page numbers are formatted properly, the title is centered, and headings are consistent throughout. We also check the image quality of any figures that will appear in the text to ensure they are not pixelated when printed. The line editing process includes checking on a line-to-line basis for grammatical errors that may have slipped through and adjusting sentence structure to ensure clarity.

Kameron describes his experience with editing for Volume 19 of the journal as “eye-opening.” He says this of his experience:

The editing process for YSW is very meticulous when it comes to structure and citation. The YSW editorial team works on different jobs when it comes to checking the manuscripts. I did the citation check for most of the journals, and it was a very rinse and repeat process. I made sure to check every source for accessibility and had to learn some new things about MLA citation. I can honestly say that the editorial process is a very long process, but thankfully we bounce knowledge off each other and we help each other out through the process as a team.

Jalil would describe the process first-and-foremost as “challenging but ultimately, a fulfilling experience.” He says this of his time working on the manuscripts:

It was certainly an interesting experience and though it wasn’t easy, it was good work that I’m glad I was able to be a part of. The formatting checking process for me was a multi-week process that began towards the midpoint of October and for the most part, concluded in early November. One of the biggest challenges for me was learning the exact formatting that needed to be done throughout, of course, but mainly being able to balance this increase of work alongside classes that are also picking up. It was a time commitment for sure that required me to stay focused throughout and keep a keen eye on anything format-related. For all 9 articles that we were responsible for, I had to make sure that the title and headings followed MLA guidelines to ensure that everything was consistent throughout the journal. I did those things while also keeping a check on footnotes, block quotes, and ensuring that the figures and tables would be inserted correctly. It sounds like a lot, which it certainly was, but I wasn’t alone as I always had the assistance of the editors to whom I could ask the trickier questions.

Once the editorial team finishes reviewing the manuscripts for these final technical details, drafts will be sent to authors for final approval. With that final check, the manuscripts will be sent to the publisher for final layout and publication. Volume 19 will be published and available in early 2022.

Blog: Students Undertake Project-Based Learning to Improve YSW Website

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-11-03

What makes an effective website for an undergraduate research journal? That’s a question both past and current editors of YSW have been considering as we work to improve the digital presence of the journal.

In his recent Computers and Composition article, “Spanning Student Networks: Designing Undergraduate Research Journal Websites to Foster Student–Student Mentoring,” former YSW editor Doug Downs studied the digital presence of YSW using social and actor-network theories. Downs talks about how undergraduate journals mainly should be for networking among undergraduate students. Downs argued that this networking was not really occurring through the website because it did not facilitate author interaction, or share author information like photos, biographies, or contact information. I had the pleasure to meet Doug Downs at the Naylor Workshop this year, and he recognized that YSW has made strides when it comes to our digital and social media presence, mainly through this blog and our more frequent use of social media.

Yet, the current editorial team is still trying to improve the way we promote and network the contributors to the journal. That is why recently we are focusing on revamping our website, and undergraduates at York College of Pennsylvania are helping with this project.

Some of this work is being done by students in a Publications Management course, taught by YSW Production Editor, Travis Kurowski. This course focuses on the publication process. Students in the class work on The York Review, which is a student-run literary publication that covers a ton of topics. Two students in this class, Eva Savill and Khiara Moore, are working to make specific recommendations to improve our website. Eva is an Assistant Editor for the print version of The York Review and is a Senior Professional Writing major with a Creative Writing minor. She works on promotion for The York Review while also managing and editing submissions. Khiara is a Literary And Textual Studies major. She is an assistant editor for the print of The York Review. They both believe that the undergraduate students should be the first thing you see on the Young Scholars in Writing website. They are working on a way to show who the undergraduates are when clicking on our website and their articles, so people can engage and get a sense of the journal with a focus on the undergraduate contributors.

Additionally, Emma Simpson and a group of other undergraduates are conducting a project for their Digital Writing Class where they are doing a project serving as digital content creators for different clients at the institution, and we are lucky to be one of the clients. Emma Simpson is majoring in Human resources and Professional Writing at York College of Pennsylvania. Emma's team is focusing on creating a template for social media to help create a more cohesive brand for YSW’s social media. Emma so far has made a couple of templates that can be filled in with information about authors and their photos. Emma has also created a couple of posts that can be filled in with information about the journal accepting submissions. Emma's team has also been working on making a link tree for social media bios so that the blog site and submission link is more accessible from platforms like Instagram and Facebook. We are excited to see Emma and her team's end results.

For Young Scholars in Writing, our mission is to promote undergraduates through our journal and website. Young Scholars in Writing wouldn't be here without undergraduates and their efforts, both in publishing research and in helping run the journal itself. We can’t wait to show more of the work of undergraduate students through a better and clearer lens.

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Blog post by: Kameron Cherry, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2022. Cherry has a major in Professional Writing and Literary and Textual Studies.

Blog: YSW Interns Reflect on Experience at Naylor Workshop

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-10-14

On the weekend of September 24th to September 26th, the 6th annual Naylor Workshop on Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies was hosted by York College of Pennsylvania (YCP). This workshop has hosted many researchers who would later be published in Young Scholars in Writing. After a year spent virtually, mentors and undergraduate researchers from all over the country, some as far as Montana or Texas—and some as close as York, PA—were able to come together and share their unique ideas. These undergraduate researchers were able to meet with fellow researchers and mentors to progress their research projects by exchanging ideas, discussing further avenues of research, and receiving feedback. Regardless of what stage researchers were in their research projects, they all were able to develop said projects and present them to each other by the end of the workshop. As interns for YSW, we—Jalil and Kameron—also had the opportunity to attend. All in all, it was a productive and memorable weekend for those involved, and certainly a re-welcoming to the in-person format of the Naylor Workshop.

On the first day of the workshop, that Friday, researchers and mentors traveled from all over the country to York, Pennsylvania, and settled into their hotel rooms at Wyndham Garden. From the get-go, YCP representatives were there to greet researchers and mentors as soon as 4 PM. That night’s event was held in the hotel’s outdoor courtyard where there was a vast selection of hors d’oeuvres before dinner was later served. At the event, Dominic DelliCarpini, the Naylor Workshop Founding Director and Dean of the Center of Community Engagement at YCP, started the night off with an introduction. The next speaker was Sheila Carter-Tod, the Plenary Speaker and Workshop Leader, who introduced and defined this year’s Workshop theme: “Embodied Social Justice Research.”

The second day was held at PeoplesBank Park, the home of the York Revolution baseball team. The event was all day but it was an action-packed day with provided meals and extensive hours dedicated to developing undergraduates’ research projects. It started at 8 AM and researchers and mentors alike were able to give introductions. For researchers, they were also able to describe their research project and what motivated them to devote their time to it. Everyone was soon sent off to work with their groups and discuss in detail their projects. This session helped researchers identify their projects’ strengths, weaknesses, potential directions, and key things to look at. In these small groups of approximately 6 to 8 people, everyone was able to discuss and exchange ideas. Throughout the day, researchers were able to meet individually with mentors who they felt had research focuses that aligned with their individual projects. After much time, dedicated to developing these projects, everyone was served dinner and was free to partake in the games at the stadium and overall have a fun time together.

The third day was held at Marketview Arts, a local art gallery owned by the college. This day was focused primarily on finishing the presentation aspect of the projects and then later presenting them to the workshop—science fair-style. Researchers and mentors alike were able to go around and look at the projects, ask questions, and leave notes. This worked to not only help researchers know additional steps pertaining to moving forward, but also to show the work they’ve spent the weekend working on: effectively serving as a conclusion to the workshop.

Undergraduate researcher, and YSW intern, Kameron Cherry shares his experience participating in this year’s Naylor Workshop:

The Naylor Workshop was focused on social justice and our role in research. The whole weekend we had to challenge ourselves and our research, whether that is through method, data, or relatedness. We met a lot of undergraduates and mentors that have been heavily involved in the sphere of some sort of research in their respective fields. For the undergraduates, we had to challenge ourselves to not just see our own research as something we create and are trying to prove true, but something that can change society itself. Throughout the whole workshop the mentors were pushing us to create and innovate the research we have because they knew soon we will be the ones who are finding new methods and research for society as a whole. The mentors were solely there for us and to enhance our understanding of our own research. This is one of the many reasons why the Naylor Workshop felt more than just a workshop, but rather a community to build ideas and get to know other researchers that can help our own research. Undergraduates from all over came together to share their research with others, which shows how impactful this workshop is. People's experience and other factors were not ignored because that experience helped drive you to your research and helped ask questions others were not answering. “Why research this?” That was the question every mentor asks to undergraduates and that is the point of research. Research never tends to stop. There will always be more questions they ask, but the fact these mentors trust undergraduates to answer them is such a powerful experience. The mentors, leaders, experts, professors, and everyone in Naylor knew that undergraduates are the future in any research field, and the world itself through social justice.

Jalil Dixon, another undergraduate researcher and YSW intern, also participated in this year’s workshop and would in short, describe the experience as “memorable”:

When I walked into the hotel that Friday night, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t have my own research project at this point in time and I wasn’t positive on what to expect, but I knew something was different, but a good sense of something being different. When I saw all of the researchers and mentors who were so eager, friendly, and knowledgeable, I felt that these were people who were going to change the world. Every person had some stake, their own personalized interest, in what made social justice important to them. I could feel that everyone was passionate about their research projects and that passion shined through over the course of the entire weekend. When I talked with fellow researchers, I could just see how much they cared about the projects and it really inspired me with the development of my own project. When I talked with the mentors, I just felt how passionate they were about the role and how much they enjoyed working with the researchers; they just had so much knowledge and it really enlightened me when it came to how I should shape my research project. Through these conversations with these amazing people who are just as passionate about these writing studies topics, social justice topics, as I am, I was able to not only come out with a research project that I feel passionate about and willing to develop further, but also a memorable experience that will last through the people I was able to make connections and contacts with.

For more information about the Naylor Workshop on Undergraduate Research in Writing studies, go to: https://www.ycp.edu/about-us/offices-and-departments/center-for-community-engagement/workshop-for-undergraduate-research-in-writing-studies/

Blog: Meet the Fall YSW Interns: Kameron Cherry

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-10-05

Hi. My name is Kameron Cherry (He/Him). I am excited to be one of the Fall 2021 Editorial Intern for Young Scholars in Writing.

I major in English Literature and Textual Studies, and Professional Writing. Funny enough, this program of study was not my first choice, but rather it was Criminal Justice. The reason for this change was that I was reading an English pamphlet from York, and it seemed very interesting. I tried the program, and I don’t regret it. Growing up writing and reading seemed like a chore, and my family didn’t really promote the notion of being a writer or reader. However, in my first year at York College of Pennsylvania, I studied multiple texts and wrote multiple papers and I appreciated every single one of them. I found a new love of writing, and I wish I would have figured that out early in life. I always had communication problems but writing opened up a new avenue of communication and language. Thanks to that, I also discovered rhetoric among the many techniques I learned.

I needed an internship for my senior year at York College. I came across Young Scholars in Writing and instantly knew that I wanted to do it. Young Scholars in Writing heavily focuses on undergraduate research in writing and rhetoric. I am glad that I am an editorial intern for YSW, because I get to review fantastic undergraduate works. Not only that, but I also get to promote their work as well. My hope for my internship is to learn more about the editorial process, while also learning to work with a team. I am excited to work alongside Dr. Cutrufello, Dr. Peck, Dr. Cope, and Dr. Kurowski.

I believe the opportunity Young Scholars in Writing is giving me will not only make me better in the professional world as an editor and team member but will also give me knowledge on what happens behind the scenes of publishing. I am excited to start working with YSW. Thanks!

Meet the Fall 2021 YSW Interns: Jalil Dixon

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-09-28

Hello! My name is Jalil Dixon and I am one of the new editorial interns for Young Scholars in Writing. I am in my third year as a student at York College of Pennsylvania. I am a Professional Writing Major with a double minor in Creative Writing and French. I am also becoming increasingly active on campus. This semester I am a second-year Resident Assistant, the treasurer of the Ski and Outdoor Club, and a member of the Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity.

My story of declaring as a Professional Writing major is a pretty funny story. When I was initially applying to colleges, I wasn’t very sure of which major and which educational direction I wanted to go. When I did eventually enroll at YCP, I enrolled as a Philosophy major and a Creative Writing minor but this didn’t last long. A few days later upon discovering that Professional Writing was a direction that I could legitimately go in, I quickly changed majors and began my studies in the field of Professional Writing. At first, I was glad to be part of a program where I can practice my passion for writing and crafting stories. Ever since, I’ve grown to cherish the writing program. I’ve taken cool courses that have allowed me to learn to write screenplays and stageplays, to experience the daily tasks of a literary publication, and even how to edit at a professional level. Through all of this, I’ve been able to discover my career goal of becoming an editor and eventually starting my own editing company.

As a writing student, perhaps one of the most challenging things I’ve had to work on, but also one of the most rewarding things, have been to be tasked with writing a full-length play during the Spring 2020 semester in my Advanced Playwriting course. My professor did an amazing job teaching the course; she gave me the confidence and additional tools to be able to write one and for that I’m grateful. As a result, I now have a full-length play in my portfolio and it’s something that I can proudly say that I’ve done.

It’s also an honor to be able to once again work on a notable publication such as Young Scholars in Writing which publishes some amazing and eye-catching pieces. Some of the pieces from Volume 18 that caught my attention were the articles written by authors Samantha J. Rae and Brittany Hailey. In my opinion, they were intriguing pieces that brought a new perspective on their respective topics and both authors did a terrific job of exploring those topics in-depth. I’ve also been able to work with Young Scholars in Writing in other capacities. I’ve had the opportunity to spend a few weeks copyediting for an article featured in Volume 18 and served as a peer reviewer for several articles for Volume 19. So while all of my experiences with Young Scholars in Writing so far have been different, they’ve all been memorable and it feels great to know that I’m working on material that can make a difference.

When I’m not working as an editorial intern for Young Scholars in Writing, or attending my writing classes, I spend a lot of my time playing basketball, writing my stories, and trying to get better at skateboarding and playing the piano. Outside of those activities, I spend plenty of time listening to music across a plethora of genres, starting and not finishing way too many shows, and reading my favorite book series, such as my childhood favorite, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

When my time as an editorial intern with Young Scholars in Writing is over and I finally walk across that stage, I plan to go right into a career in editing. With the help of the knowledge from the entrepreneurship and business courses that I plan on taking, I plan on starting my own editing company down the line while continuing my lifelong passion for writing stories.

Blog: Young Scholars in Writing Peer Review Process

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-05-07

As part of the application to publish articles in Young Scholars in Writing, undergraduate researchers are required to undergo a peer review process to ensure their research is a good fit for the journal. Peer reviewers come from many backgrounds, including students in writing related courses and previously published YSW authors. In total, almost 40 students from across the country served as peer reviewers for the first round of manuscript review for volume 19. Peer reviewers are asked to consider six criteria for publication: fit for YSW specifically, engagement in a conversation with writing studies scholarship, the presence of a clear focus and argument, inclusion of a clear explanation of choices or methods, logical organization, and the ability to make an impact.To find out how these peer reviewers felt about the process, we asked some of them about their experience reading and reviewing current manuscripts that were submitted for consideration

Catie Pfeiffer (she/her) first got involved with YSW via the writing center at Hofstra University. She noted that her director, Andrea Efthymiou, told her about the opportunity to be a peer reviewer at a staff meeting, which sounded interesting to her. While reading through the manuscripts she was assigned, Catie focused on “looking for current and/or cultural relevance from the research.” She read one manuscript about the COVID-19 pandemic, and another about social media use in school and the workplace. She explained, “I thought both of these topics seemed really relevant and interesting, and these were some of the main factors that I found to be important when reviewing.” After participating in the peer review process, Catie realized that undergraduate students’s work can be very impressive. She was surprised by the amount of thought and work put into each article, stating, “ I could never imagine myself being capable of putting together a 20+ page research paper like this, so I was really amazed by all of the good work that I got the opportunity to read. I also learned that maybe I am capable of writing a manuscript like these as long as I find a topic that interests me enough.”

Megan Kelley (she/her) had her article, “Use #YouKnowMe and share your truth”: Rhetoric of Digital Abortion Storytelling, published in volume 18 of YSW. She used her prior knowledge as a YSW author to inform her peer review process, noting “I used the comments I received [while writing my article] to help guide me in how to do peer-reviewing. When reading through the manuscripts, I focused on things that I knew were important to change as well as things that would be an interesting publication.” When deciding whether or not to recommend a manuscript to be published, Megan considered a few factors. “I was looking for the topic to be new/innovative/interesting and the methods to appropriately support the topic. I was also looking to make sure that there were no glaring grammatical errors or citation errors because that indicates that the author may not have done serious editing and revision before submitting.” Looking for these elements during the peer review process can help the journal editors decide which manuscripts will be published in the next volume of YSW. Reading through submitted manuscripts can be a learning experience, Megan noted. She said, “There are a lot of talented young writers! The manuscripts I read were incredibly interesting and I was glad I got the opportunity to read them, regardless of if they are published or not.”

Jalil Dixon (he/him) is a student at York College of Pennsylvania. During his peer review process, he focused on whether manuscript authors organized their ideas effectively. He also scanned the manuscripts for “how relevant and impactful their sources were, and how relevant the actual topic was.” He mentioned that it was important to match the topic of the manuscript to the goals of the journal, and look for “what it could bring to the next edition of YSW.” Jalil noted that participating in the peer review process helped him learn the value of the practice. He noted, “It's certainly an important aspect of the writing process because it's a chance to have your manuscript read and analyzed before it's actually released to the public. Without it, it could be very difficult to ensure that you are putting out your best work possible.”

It’s easy to see why potential YSW authors go through the peer review process. Having other undergraduate students and previous YSW authors read submitted manuscripts allows them to give valuable feedback that not only helps the manuscript authors, but also aids the journal editors in deciding which manuscripts to move forward to be reviewed by Faculty Advisory Editors. If you would like to learn more about how undergraduate researchers publish their work in Young Scholars in Writing, click this link to read our Information for Authors web page.

Blog post by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the Editorial Intern: Beck Liberatore

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-04-30

Hello! My name is Beck Liberatore (they/them) and I have been the Spring 2021 Editorial Intern for Young Scholars in Writing since February. I am writing this article to give a bit of insight into what it’s like to be an intern for the journal, and hopefully encourage some undergraduate students to apply for the position for the Fall 2021 Semester.

I became involved with YSW because my senior research class was cancelled due to low enrollment. Students who needed to take the required course were suggested to take either one of a few possible courses or an internship. The editors of YSW had been talking about the journal both in and out of classes, so I had heard the name quite a few times. When I got an email that they were looking for an intern, I rushed to update my resume and apply. A few days later, I received the news that I was selected to be the intern! I was so excited to work with the lovely team of people that I already knew from my previous years at York College of Pennsylvania.

As the Editorial Intern, my responsibilities included creating and posting images and captions on social media accounts, attending weekly meetings, interviewing student researchers and Faculty Advisory Editors, reading through the current volume of YSW, and writing, editing, and publishing blog posts for our website. I had a lot of fun working with others over email and Zoom during the past few months, as I was working remotely. Meeting with the editorial team every week helped me plan my workload and check in about current projects, and also allowed for a bit of socialization (which was greatly appreciated!)

One of my main responsibilities as the Editorial Intern is making posts on Instagram and Facebook. I created posts that aimed to spotlight the amazing individuals who were involved with the most recent volume, such as undergraduate student researchers and their Faculty Advisory Editors. I also made a few posts to remind followers about important upcoming dates, such as the day that Volume 18 went live on the website and the submission deadline for Volume 19.

I have enjoyed working with Drs. Cutrufello, Cope, and Peck over the past few months to promote the most recent volume of the journal and create more engagement on its social media accounts. We clearly saw the results of my efforts when we created a poster for the Student Research Showcase on April 19th. The Instagram and Facebook engagement had increased significantly over the course of just two and a half months, and posts were receiving more shares, comments, and likes than ever before. It was rewarding to see the numerical results, but what really surprised me was the large amount of positive comments I received from my peers, professors, and the Editors themselves. It made me feel proud of my hard work to hear what they had to say.

One of the challenges I faced during my time as the editorial intern for YSW was learning how to use the OSJ website software. I had some previous experience editing and posting on an existing website from a class I took last semester, Publications Management with Dr. Travis Kurowski. However, I experienced a few hiccups when first learning to use the interface and blog/announcement system. However, I got familiar with the website fairly quickly, and now I feel confident using the system.

Overall, I would highly recommend working as an editorial intern for Young Scholars in Writing. I have learned a lot and gained valuable experience from this internship, which I am sure will help me post-graduation in the working world. Now I just have to make it through the next two weeks and my graduation ceremony!

Blog: Meet the author: Nidhi Gandhi

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-04-20

Nidhi Gandhi (she/her) is an undergraduate student at Hofstra University She was one of the first undergraduate researchers to publish a methodological reflection in YSW. She noted that her article was “a first-hand reflection of conducting an empirical study as an undergraduate student[where] I talked about the challenges I faced during the drafting process of creating a survey, learning about Qualtrics and also recruiting faculty as well as needing their help to recruit students.”

Nidhi was introduced to Young Scholars in Writing by her mentor, Dr. Andrea Rosso Efthymiou. She recalled that they were at the Naylor Workshop where the YSW editors made an announcement about submitting an article to everyone who was there. For a while afterward, she didn’t think much about the journal. Later on, Nidhi and Dr. Efthymiou attended the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association (MAWCA) conference in Baltimore, Maryland in 2019, and decided to go to the Young Scholars in Writing pre-conference workshop. She recalled, “Andrea whispered to me that I should write a methodological reflection because I wasn't at the phase of writing any results (I hadn't even conducted my study yet). After I surveyed and interviewed my participants, I told Andrea about some of the responses I had gotten and she encouraged me to write my reflection.” Feeling grateful, she noted, “I owe Andrea a lot. She gave me a resume.”

Being one of the first to publish a methodological reflection in YSW meant that Nidhi had to make a few changes to her writing process. She noted that she experienced a bit of a learning curve when writing with a lot of Writing Studies jargon. She noted, “A lot of my writing, even the most academic writing, has some sort of personal element especially since I'm a big proponent of using the personal voice. Even when I use the third person, some level of first-person is in the writing.” This was also Nidhi’s first time being published, so she didn’t know much about the process. She learned a lot from the experience, and joked, “I think there should be a methodological reflection on writing a methodological reflection!”

Nidhi noted that her biggest challenge with publishing her article was trying to understand what the expectations were of both the editors and the publication itself, while still maintaining her own vision for the article. She noted, “I had never been published before so trying to navigate that process was difficult.” Additionally, since the Methodological Reflection category is new to the journal, she couldn’t “just read previously published works to get a sense of what should be in the reflection. I remember Dr. Peck and I talked about how I was helping her, Dr. Cutrufello and Dr. Cope visualize what this genre should be as well. So, all of that was cool. It was challenging but definitely rewarding!”

Another reward of publishing her work was seeing her name and her article finally published. Nidhi exclaimed that seeing her work in its final form “was magnificent!” She also said that “getting the ‘we are interested in publishing your piece’ letter last year” at the beginning of the process made her feel like a real researcher. She said, “In my reflection, I wrote about how I wanted to do something and prove my worth, so seeing this come to fruition was unbelievable!”

Nidhi said she would “absolutely recommend” other undergraduate researchers to work with Young Scholars in Writing. She mentioned “I just think it's so cool that the editors decided to create a whole new genre, because with traditional study-results articles, we're seeing the final product but never get to know about the painstaking labor that researchers go through just to conduct a study. So, having this space to talk about the messiness is really beneficial for researchers so they can just say, ‘yeah this was hard, but I also did it cuz I'm awesome!’” Nidhi noted the importance of this representation, stating, “those kinds of stories can really help people keep going, especially when they want to give up.”

Blog: Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Steven Price

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-04-08

Steven Price is a Professor in the Department of English and Philosophy at Mississippi College in Clinton, MS, teaching primarily in the Writing and English Secondary Education tracks. He is also one of the Faculty Advisory Editors for Volume 18 of Young Scholars in Writing. Price worked with Jessica Brown to edit her article, “Identifying and Categorizing Language Discrimination in the Legal Field.”

Brown, an undergraduate student from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, researched how attorneys recognized legal discrimination in their work. While Price has not done his own research into legal discourse, he was able to recognize some of the concepts as many students in his discourse classes chose to study legal topics. Though unfamiliar with the topic, Price was experienced with the methods that Brown chose. He stated, “I have background in Jessica’s interview methodology and experience in Critical Discourse Analysis. So, was I familiar with her topic?--not so much. But the background and methodology, yes.”

Price decided to become a Faculty Advisory Editor due to YSW’s reputation. He knew a few FAEs who spoke highly of the journal and their experience mentoring students. The FAEs were a close community of researchers and teachers, and these connections appealed to Price. Joe Janangelo, an FAE from Loyola University, had introduced Price to the editor of the journal at the time, Jane Greer, at the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Price noted that Greer “made a great pitch at CCCC,” which sold him on the idea and made him feel excited to join the other FAEs.

Time and motivation were the two big challenges that Price and Brown faced while working on her article. Price mentioned how potentially draining the process can be for students, “These are projects they've worked on for a long time, students put a lot of work into them and want to be done with them.” To combat this, he noted that FAEs are there to help students “strategize and prioritize to make their work more efficient.” Because many students adapt their articles from previous school projects, they may not initially fit the mold of the journal. Price stressed that “We don't want students to redo their projects, just reshape them for the context of a writing journal.” With the help of an FAE, students are able to fit their research into the genre of a scholarly article.

FAEs reap a lot of rewards from the process of mentoring undergraduate researchers. Price mentioned the value of learning about students' topics, their research experiences, and interacting with them and their advisors from their home schools. He noted that being an FAE “is a form of professional development in an enjoyable way.” He appreciates that he gets to collaborate with researchers and apply what he learns to his own courses.

Because they lived in different states, Price and Brown mainly communicated online while working on her article. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, both Price and Brown were used to using Zoom calls, so they used those as their main form of contact. Price noted that because of their familiarity with the program, the calls “went smoothly.” The two also used emails to communicate in between calls.

Price would advise faculty who are interested in mentoring undergraduate researchers to get involved with the journal. He stated, “Your own teaching and research grows from the collaborations with students and faculty.” He also suggested reading YSW, noting that “It’s a legitimate research journal. You can learn from it as faculty and your students can learn from it in your courses.” Because of the wide range of topics contained in the students’ research articles, the journal can be applied to many different types of courses. Price wanted to recognize Brown, saying “I’m proud of the impact of Jessica’s article. It was obvious from the first reading that her topic is timely and important.” Since George Floyd’s death there has been a lot of discussion about racial discrimination, including in courts and the rest of the legal system. “Jessica’s project shows how these were not just murders on the street, but there was racially driven discrimination in the courts as well,” he explained. “Jessica’s ability to communicate her research makes it digestible, so that everyday people are able to read it and become moved by it. It’s an important article to have out there.” Brown and other undergraduate researchers are clearly invested in changing the world, one article at a time.

If you are interested in becoming an FAE for Young Scholars in Writing, please reach out to us at youngscholars.editor@gmail.com for more information.

Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Sarah Singer

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-04-06

Sarah Singer (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Central Florida as well as one of the many Faculty Advisory Editors that worked with undergraduate researchers for Volume 18 of Young Scholars in Writing. Singer advised Samantha Rae, author of “Tales in Language, Confidence, and Learning Environments: Exploring Students’ Mental Health Through Literacy Narratives.” Samantha’s research focused on mental health rhetoric, which is part of the larger field of RHM- rhetoric of health and medicine. Singer has published several articles within this field, which are about Lyme disease, diabetes, and health and medical-related research and how it can intersect with English Studies. Because they were both interested in the field, Singer had a great time working with the “brilliant and fantastic” Rae.

Part of Singer’s great appraisal of Rae comes from the interesting perspective she took when conducting her research. “Many people look at the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives to better understand people’s literacy learning experiences, but Sam looked at DALN to see how mental health issues and rhetorics intersected with those experiences,” Singer noted. This unique perspective shows one of many possibilities for conducting research using DALN.

“I have a lot of experience working with narratives,” Singer noted. She continued, “Sam’s article focuses on literacy narratives, and much of my research focuses on illness narratives or stories about diagnosis, treatment, coping, and living with a chronic health condition or disability. Working with Sam prompted me to learn a lot more about mental health rhetoric. The new journal, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, had a number of articles that were useful for learning about this subfield.”

Singer is the author of “Beyond the Domestic Sphere: Home Economics and the Education of Women at Maryland State College, 1916–94” published in Volume 10 of YSW, which was very exciting as it was her first time publishing her work. Singer, as an undergraduate, had a positive experience working with her Faculty Advisory Editor, Paige Banaji. She noted, “Dr. Banaji sent me lengthy written feedback every two weeks, and I appreciated that she took my research so seriously. I used my YSW article as my writing sample for graduate school, and knowing that I’d worked so closely with Dr. Banaji on it made me feel confident. Through that experience, I learned a lot about giving and receiving feedback, asking questions, and writing clear prose.” So it was no surprise that when Editor Jane Greer offered Singer an FAE position, she “couldn’t say no.”

Singer explained, “Dr. Greer was the first person who made me feel like I was a ‘real’ scholar outside of my faculty mentors at University of Maryland. After I published in YSW, she sent me a very encouraging email that explained that my research was valuable and advanced the field of feminist rhetorical historiography. At the time, I was graduating from the University of Maryland and had just committed to the Ph.D. program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Greer’s email boosted my confidence so much. I saved her email and looked at it regularly during my first few years of graduate school, especially during moments when I wasn’t feeling as confident.” She inspired Singer, who said “I love working with undergraduate researchers because it makes me feel like I can invite people into the realm of scholarly research, which can feel very exclusive. I aim to open potential doors for them, or show them how to open them.”

One challenge that Singer and Sam faced during their editing process was scope. “Sam had a lot of potential things to investigate, and many potential narratives. We worked together to fit her project to a (necessarily) limited scope. Research can take you in many different directions, and quickly become a book length project. We needed to pick something that could be studied in the scope of an article.” The overall experience was enjoyable, though, as both parties got to interact with people from different universities, and “see the awesome work they're doing, in a way that isn’t connected to grade.” Singer also mentioned that YSW articles aren’t as limited by time as normal semester-long projects, which allows students to polish their research to present it to those outside of their own school.

Singer and Sam spoke on the phone every Monday for 20-30 minutes “to catch up on how her work was unfolding and so that [Singer] could answer any questions in real-time.” They also corresponded over email when Sam had questions between meetings, and to talk about Sam’s evolving draft. Singer noted, “I felt that it was important to be as encouraging as possible and to give Sam a lot of positive feedback—after all, she was taking on an ambitious scholarly project that required her to significantly revise her initial draft.” The two discussed the process of giving and receiving feedback, “which can be difficult for experienced scholars (myself included!),” she exclaimed.
Singer encourages faculty to assume the role of FAEs, stating “If you’re offered the opportunity, do it.” She loved supporting Sam and her work, and became inspired by all the undergraduates' research and all their new ideas. She noted, “As a faculty member, I sometimes get tunnel vision when it comes to research because I’ve been doing it for a while—even as a junior faculty member—and working with smart, engaged undergraduate students like Sam helps me remember to think outside the box.”

If you are interested in becoming an FAE for Young Scholars in Writing, please reach out to us at youngscholars.editor@gmail.com for more information.

Blog: Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Rebekah Sims

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-04-01

Rebekah Sims (she/her) is a current PhD candidate at Purdue University. This summer, she will join the School of Education faculty at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. For Volume 18, Sims worked as a Faculty Advisory Editor (FAE) and mentor to Gabriela Uribe, who wrote the article “¿Por Qué no Sabes Español?”: Pressured Monolingualism and Its Impacts on Mexican Americans. The two worked together via a combination of asynchronous emails, comments on drafts, and online exchanging of articles and resources.

Sims was already familiar with Gaby’s area of study when they started working together, as she specializes in empirical research methods and multilingual and intercultural pedagogy. Gaby’s article employed empirical research to the topics of multilingual development and public policy, so the two were able to work well together.

Sims had her article, “Discursive Agency and Collective Action among Lubavitch Hasidic Women,” published in YSW Volume 10. After publishing her own work, editor Jane Greer asked her to be a peer reviewer. Rebekah served in the role for two years, while teaching public high school.. Several years later, while at Purdue, Sims contacted the new editor of YSW and asked to be involved with the journal again. She noted, “I enjoy working with the journal because I think the mission of supporting excellent undergrad research in writing and rhetoric is so important. I became an FAE because I wanted to further this mission and mentor young researchers. I’ve also loved getting to experience YSW from every point of view: as an undergraduate who was mentored and published, a peer reviewer, and now a faculty advisor. I want to pass on to others what I experienced through the journal as an undergrad researcher myself.”

There are always some challenges when mentoring students. Sims noted, “One of the most challenging -- and enjoyable -- parts of mentoring students is creating highly individualized feedback that meets writers where they are in the research project. Sometimes, this has meant intensively assisting with research methods and data analysis. At other times, it has meant helping the student review relevant literature to more carefully anchor the research in writing and rhetoric, or helping students become clearer writers.” Sims is always eager to overcome the obstacles that arise during mentoring students, and help them gain more confidence in their work.

Sims finds being an FAE very rewarding. She explained, “I find seeing students grow as researchers in the field of rhetoric and build confidence in their research and writing skills the most rewarding part. I also find it rewarding to see how strong their contributions to our field are.” She truly believes that we should support young researchers in order to better the fields of writing and rhetoric.

When asked if she had any advice for faculty interested in mentoring undergraduate researchers, Sims encouraged them to support students in effective professionalization that prepares them for their desired career pathways. She insisted, “When we mentor students, we need to make sure that we don’t impose one narrow pathway (such as immediate entry to graduate school) on undergrad researchers. Instead, we should listen to students’ interests, and target our mentoring toward their goals, whether that is working in an industry, a public sector position such as public education, or eventual entry into a graduate program. Undergraduate research experiences build valuable skills for a wide variety of career pathways.” By focusing on each student’s individual goals, mentors can enrich their academic experience as well as equip young writers to contribute essential scholarship to the field of writing and rhetoric.

Finally, Sims would like to say that becoming an FAE is one of the most rewarding aspects of her professional life. She highly recommends the experience, particularly for experienced scholars who are vocationally committed to mentoring new scholars.

If you are interested in becoming an FAE for Young Scholars in Writing, please reach out to us at youngscholars.editor@gmail.com for more information.

Blog: Meet the Faculty Advisory Editor: Sarah Polo

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-30

Sarah Polo (she/her) is an Assistant Professor and First-Year Writing Program coordinator at Cottey College, a private women’s liberal arts college located in Nevada, Missouri. She is also one of the Faculty Advisory Editors (FAEs) of Volume 18 of the Young Scholars in Writing Journal. Polo worked with Anna Maltbie on her research project, “‘Stories for Reproductive Freedom’: A Rhetorical Analysis of Storytelling on NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Website.”

Though she was at first unfamiliar with Anna’s research topic, Polo realized the similarities between the two researchers’ work. She noted, “I look at women’s experiences in higher education, specifically women students attending college in the very early part of the 20th century, so I was able to help with the women & gender lens. But even more importantly, I think, is that my own research involves examining archives of women’s writings, and I think the work Anna was doing was very much about examining an archive of women’s stories and lived experiences.” Because they were both interested in womens’ experiences, the two worked well together.

Polo was first introduced to Young Scholars in Writing in 2014 by Professor Jane Greer, who was the sole editor of the journal at that time. Polo, a graduate student and research assistant for Greer, became familiar with YSW all those years ago. She said, “My initial introduction involved indexing back issues and copyediting the current volume of the journal. While I was doing that, I really loved getting to read the research of such smart, insightful undergraduate researchers.” After assisting Jane Greer, Polo used YSW to teach her own undergraduate students about research methods, conducting interviews, and the academic article genre. “I pull a lot of examples from the journal,” she stated. When Polo became an assistant professor, Greer mentioned the opportunity of becoming an FAE for the journal.

There are challenges that come with being an FAE, as with all things. Polo mentioned that effective time management was the biggest challenge that she and Anna faced. She noted that “Faculty and students all have busy lives, and so one of the initial challenges might just be figuring out a timeline and set of steps that is feasible for both parties.” However, overcoming this obstacle can lead to rewarding results. Polo noted that helping students take steps towards publishing their work is a cool process. She noted, “You get to watch them take a piece from something that’s perhaps just been seen by their professor and classmates to something that can circulate within the larger world and to a wider scholarly audience.” Students also benefit from this process, as they can apply their work to a larger scale than they would for a school project.

Polo and Anna initially met on a Zoom call, to help them see each other as real people, not just names on a screen. After that, they communicated via email, circulating drafts of Anna’s article and checking in on her progress. The communication was integral to improving Anna’s draft, and she “was very responsive to emails and receptive to feedback; I could tell that she genuinely wanted to make her piece better.”

Polo would like to encourage anyone thinking of becoming an FAE to do so. “It’s so worth the time,” she noted. She encouraged potential FAEs to have a good perspective of their role in the process: “You should be a mentor, and think of it as being a collaborator. It's the student’s research, so as their mentor you don’t want to try to remake the student in your own image as a scholar, or have them revise the article to be exactly what you would write.” She mentioned the transition of genres from essays to academic papers as the goal of the interaction. Mentors should help students “make their work fit the genre of an academic article.”

Polo would like to conclude by stating that she gets just as much benefit from the process as her students. She often takes what she learns from the students’ research and methods and applies it to her own work. She exclaimed, “working with undergraduate researchers makes me both a better researcher, writer, and mentor myself!” Polo noted that her experience helping students revise for YSW makes her think about ways to improve her own writing, for example, making her writing style as accessible as possible.

If you are interested in becoming an FAE for Young Scholars in Writing, please reach out to us at youngscholars.editor@gmail.com for more information.

What We Do and Don't Publish

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-25

According to our website, “Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric publishes research articles written by undergraduates on topics related to rhetoric and writing.” But what does that mean? This post will help prospective authors determine if YSW is the right venue to share their research.

YSW publishes four types of articles:

Research Articles integrate secondary sources and primary research to explore the subjects of rhetoric, writing, writers, discourse, language and related topics. These articles should make an original intellectual contribution to their respective fields. To support methodological diversity, YSW is especially interested in submissions that rely on primary research and/or empirical methods. These articles should be 10-25 double-spaced pages in length. Here are some examples of research articles from Volume 18:

“Use #YouKnowMe and share your truth”: Rhetoric of Digital Abortion Storytelling by Megan Kelley
Materiality Matters: How Human Bodies and Writing Technologies Impact the Composing Process by Brittany Halley

First-Year Spotlight articles are original research articles about writing and rhetoric written by first-year students. These articles should also present original and intellectual contributions to their respective fields. First-Year Spotlight articles should be 5-25 pages double spaced. For an example of this kind of article, check out Huy Gia Troung’s Visual Rhetoric in Medical Illustrations and the Implications in Medical Practices

Comment & Response articles provide commentary on an article from a previous volume of YSW. These articles should be 2-5 double-spaced pages, focus on presenting an argument in response to the previous article, and use new or additional sources to back up the argument. For an example of this kind of article, check out Noah Bolls’ “For all of us”: Feminine Style in the Rhetoric of Rosalynn Carter.

Methodological Reflection articles should include a detailed narrative of and reflect on empirical methods used in the process of a current research project. These articles should be 3-8 double-spaced pages long, and must use and cite literature focusing on research methods. For an example of this kind of article, read Angela Myers’ Creating Impact through User-Centered Research.

YSW does not publish:

Undergraduate research on topics not related to writing studies or rhetoric
Analysis of literature or literary criticism
Analysis of films, music, etc. that is not explicitly grounded in rhetorical scholarship
Opinion pieces on academic practices or culture, etc

There are lots of other great publication venues for undergraduate research. If your piece does not fit within the scope of what YSW publishes, you might consider the following journals that publish a wider range of undergraduate research topics: The Journal of Undergraduate Research, Queen City Writers, Apollon Undergraduate eJournal, or Inquiries.

If you are unsure whether your article is a good fit for YSW, please email youngscholars.editor@gmail.com with a summary of your article and any questions you may have.

Blog: Meet the author: Noah Bolls

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-18

“Write about something you are genuinely interested in. Don't be afraid to try it out. The process isn’t as scary as everyone thinks it is and rejection isn’t a big deal,” said Noah Bolls, sophomore and author of a review article Young Scholars in Writing (YSW) volume 18. In an interview with Noah about his comment and response essay “‘For all of us’: Feminine Style in the Rhetoric of Rosalynn Carter,” he explained the key to writing is in finding a topic you really enjoy. “It started as an assignment for a communications class,” Noah revealed, but it was a topic that he wanted to dig into more. His essay responds to Marie Whelan’s YSW article “A Woman of Power: Rosalynn Carter and the Mental Health Scene” (volume 12). Noah’s work is both a response to Whelan’s paper and an analysis of First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s language.

“The biggest challenge I faced was not having access to the original sources,” commented Noah, who struggled to find digital copies of documents and books during remote learning. He ended waiting until he was back on campus to get the hard copies from his school library. “I had to find other sources, dig for information,” Noah explained.

Noah’s YSW essay began as a college assignment and grew from there. “I was encouraged by my professors to submit [my work] to Young Scholars in Writing,” said Noah. At first, Noah didn’t think past the excitement of having his work accepted and published but soon found out there was more to it. After acceptance by YSW, there is an editing process to help the authors grow and strengthen their work. “The editing process helped me to focus on my own argument…. to not get stuck in what the original author said, and to focus more on my response to the work.”

One of Noah’s biggest surprises through the writing and revision process was how much his thinking changed about his subject. Although his essay uses the theory of “feminine style” to analyze Carter’s rhetoric, through revision he realized his framework was somewhat “reductive.” He believes the rhetorical theory he was using, one taught to him in the classroom, is somewhat outdated and may not be applicable in modern contexts.

The revision and editing process with YSW was not only helpful in streamlining his paper to make a stronger argument, but it also made him less nervous about publishing in general. He loved the experience and working with the people who helped him. “I think more people should try it.” In fact, Noah enjoyed the process so much that he said “I’m definitely going to do it again.” Noah’s overall career goals are uncertain. As a sophomore English major at Willamette University, his work with YSW has him rethinking his career goals. “I might stay in Academia,” he said, “maybe teach,” but he’s unsure. The base for his future, however, is his desire to keep writing.

Blog post by students in Dr. Emily Murphy Cope’s Fall 2020 Digital Writing course (WRT320 at York College of Pennsylvania).

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Meet the author: Angela Myers

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-13

Angela Myers is the author of “Creating Impact through User-Centered Research,” a methodological reflection published in the latest volume of Young Scholars in Writing. Myers is currently a senior Professional Writing and Rhetoric major at Elon University. After college, she hopes to teach English in Spain, but her long term goal is to earn a PhD in rhetoric or communications.

Myers’ YSW study grew from a gap she saw in the research on the rhetoric of sexual violence programs on college campuses. “There’s a lot of research on psychology and public health,” she said, “and that’s kind of how I came to the topic of researching the rhetoric of sexual violence prevention courses on college campuses.” Myers got the idea of a user-centered study from her faculty mentor, Dr. Jessie Moore (Elon University), who was a proponent of this approach to research. Myers explains the value of user-centered research: “I think especially for an issue that is so sensitive and is kind of related to social justice and society as a whole, it’s really important to be user-centered because you have to take into consideration what the user’s needs are when it comes to issues like this.”

Prior to her YSW article, Myers was already a published author, having published research on rhetoric in Spanish while studying abroad in Argentina. She first heard about Young Scholars in Writing when she attended the 2019 Naylor Workshop for Undergraduate Research in Writing Studies.

“With Young Scholars in Writing, I really liked how structured [the publication process] was,” Myers said. “I felt like I got a lot of mentorship from the editors.” In particular, Myers enjoyed working with her YSW Faculty Advisory Editor, Dr. Kim Fahle Peck, who directs the Writing Center at York College of Pennsylvania. Working with Dr. Peck “was a really great experience,” according to Myers. “We zoomed a couple of times about the research, and she gave a lot of really great feedback…. I liked how she not only told me what revisions to make, but also taught me how to go about making those revisions in the future, or why those revisions would be appropriate for the academic journal genre.”

The best thing Myers learned through the publication process was, in her opinion, how to revise a paper for an academic journal. “It’s one thing to read [an academic journal] and another thing to try and go through the process yourself,” she said. “So being able to go through that process and have [guidance] was really invaluable to my academic career.”

At the end of the interview, when asked what advice she would provide to others undergraduate researchers interested in publishing their research, Myers said that she would tell others to “just go for it.” “I think it’s really important to have some feedback from a faculty member at your university beforehand, to help get some feedback before you submit, especially on the abstract and things like that,” she said. “But I also think that a lot of times as undergraduates we feel like our research isn’t worth publishing, or that we’re not experienced enough to do that, so I think undergraduate research journals provide really great opportunities and I think students should really take that opportunity to realize that they do have the expertise to be published in these types of publications.”

Author of blog post: Sarah Smith, junior majoring in Professional Writing at York College of Pennsylvania.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Meet the author: Huy Truong

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-11

Huy Truong (he/him) is a 19-year-old biology major with an entrepreneurship minor at Penn State Berks. He emigrated to the United States from Vietnam when he was 11. Truong wrote his piece as a first-year student at Penn State - Berks.. Since he was intrigued by both art and science, he decided that a career in medical illustration would harmonize his interests.

Truong’s YSW article compares multiple examples of medical illustrations of the human body. He decided which illustrations to use based on time period and technology, as he wanted to showcase a little bit of everything in his piece. Truong explains, “The medieval period had a lot of inaccuracies, the Renaissance Period was when art and the human body was very appreciated, and the 21st century focuses on using technology.” Truong’s article explores the transformation of medical illustration over time. According to Truong, “these changes suggest that human anatomy illustrations adopted different rhetorical approaches as time progressed and technology became more advanced.”

Image citation: “The Wound Man” by Pseudo Galen, Fasticulus Medicinae; Welcome Collection, welcomecollection.org/works/tp6fppqz

The Wound Man (above) is one of the images included and analyzed in Truong’s paper.

Truong wrote this piece for scholars who are interested in medical illustrations. He wanted to help others see the connection between art, science, and rhetoric. Furthermore, Truong wanted to showcase how medical knowledge has advanced over time to those interested in the history of medicine and rhetoric.

When asked how his writing experience with Young Scholars in Writing was, Truong stated that he enjoyed the revision process and “learning about his future career in relation to medical illustrations and how it is greatly important to the medical field.” He said that writing his piece took a lot of time and adaptability: “The process wasn’t difficult, but it was a learning experience.” He explained, “It was hard changing the mindset from writing as a college student to a larger, scholarly audience.” Truong had to decide which images to include in his article based on those who would be reading it. He admitted making these types of decisions was a bit challenging as well, but that he was assisted with these types of choices by Dr. Gabriel Cutrufello, his YSW Faculty Advisory Editor.

If you are considering writing for Young Scholars in Writing, Truong has this advice: “Write geared towards something you are passionate about. That way research isn't boring and you learn about something you enjoy. Also, trust the revision process, and get help from your mentors.”

To see more of how Huy Truong is inspired through art or to check out some of his artwork follow his Instagram @briangtruong.

Author of Blog Post: Breanna Hoffner, Junior at York College of Pennsylvania.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Brittany Halley

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-09

When interviewed about her YSW article,“Materiality Matters: How Human Bodies and Writing Technologies Impact the Composing Process,” Brittany Halley (she/her) provided an informative, behind-the-scenes look at her writing process. Halley is an Ohio State English major, with a focus on Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy, as well as a minor in Scandanavian Studies.

She looked at the effects that different levels of comfort, distractions, and technology have on an author’s writing and writing process. “[It started as] a small assignment for a writing, rhetoric, and literacy class,” Halley explained, when asked how she came up with the project. From there, however, she was driven by her interest in humans and the human experience. Halley’s study used multiple empirical research methods for studying writing, including screen recording and retrospective “think-aloud”tactics, and inductive analysis methods, to compare the experience of writing with a tablet and stylus with the experience of writing on a computer.

Going into the study , Halley thought that a phone and stylus would be the best combination for writing because of its free flow nature, but she discovered that the computer provided the best experience. “It sounds obvious, but how often are you experiencing writer's block and you’re uncomfortable with the tech or your seat?” asked Halley, when explaining her most important findings from her research.

This article is Halley’s first publication. She hopes her study helps “fill in the gap in literature” about writing technologies and individuals’ experiences with those technologies. This is what inspired her to submit her paper to Young Scholars in Writing.

For Halley, “time” was one of the biggest challenges she faced when conducting research and publishing her study. She became very focused on coding her data and had to shift her focus to provide adequate time for all of her goals.

Halley’s work on her article didn’t end when she submitted it. Working with Young Scholars in Writing proved very beneficial to Halley. “I got a whole bunch out of that,” she said, when asked about her experience writing for the journal. “Being able to recognize the organization, make it flow, [having] the benefit of a second set of eyes, getting to work with people in the field to be able to fill in the gaps on the material.”

Halley offered some advice when asked what she would tell undergraduates interested in submitting to Young Scholars in Writing. “Find something that you’re interested in, and can be immersed in. If you’re not immersed in what you're researching, you won't enjoy it.” She went on to praise the experience of writing for the journal, which started as a simple assignment, but turned into a more substantial experience for her. “The Young Scholars in Writing process is super enjoyable and an enriching experience, if anyone can do it they totally should!”

Blog post by: Students in Dr. Emily Murphy Cope’s Fall 2020 Digital Writing course (WRT320 at York College of Pennsylvania).

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the YSW Faculty Advisory Editor: Zhaozhe Wang

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-06

There’s a whole team of people working behind the scenes at Young Scholars in Writing to support our undergraduate authors through the process of revising and publishing their research. YSW authors don’t work alone; each of our authors is paired with a Faculty Advisory Editor, an experienced rhetoric and writing studies scholar who mentors an author through the process of revising and editing their YSW manuscript before publication. Today, we’re introducing you to one of these important people: Zhaozhe Wang, a YSW Faculty Advisory Editor. Zhaozhe is an expert in translingualism and a doctoral candidate at Purdue University, where he teaches first-year writing in the Department of English. Zhaozhe was the Faculty Advisory Editor for Jacob Wilson, the author of “Best Practices for a Translingual Pedagogy: An Undergraduate Perspective,” featured in volume 18 of Young Scholars in Writing.

Zhaozhe approached mentoring Jacob as building “a give-and-take relationship,” where they had conversations mutually sharing what they knew about the topic they were both so passionate about. Zhaozhe considered working with Jacob an opportunity to learn about translingualism from an undergraduate scholar’s perspective, which was refreshing and eye-opening. Their mentoring relationship was mutually beneficial and a “delightful experience.” Initially, Zhaozhe thought he might need to help Jacob find his authorial voice in the community of rhetoric and writing scholars. But Zhaozhe was “impressed by how sophisticated and well-thought-out [Jacob’s] arguments were” and claimed that he is “talented, responsive, and hardworking.”

During our interview, Zhaozhe explained that Young Scholars in Writing serves the field of rhetoric and writing studies by creating a platform for undergraduate students to grow and share their research. He asked, “How ironic would it be if we build our reputation on researching about writing at the postsecondary level yet did not create a space for postsecondary writers to showcase their work?”

While it can be intimidating for writers to put their work out there for the whole world to see, Zhaozhe encourages undergraduate researchers to “just submit it. Be confident and take ownership of your writing. Do not wait until you write a perfect piece to submit it because you will never do [that]… you have to take the first step and learn the conventions of the process by trial and error.”

Zhaozhe discovered his own drive for writing when he was in middle school in China. He used a journal assignment of a weekly 800-character essay as a platform to share his thoughts on social issues from his perspective. He kept journal writing as a personal habit until college, where he could look back on all of his handwritten essays and reflect on his progress. Zhaozhe jokes that at one time he attempted to write a novel, eagerly awaiting weekends to have uninterrupted time to work on his “masterpiece.” Although the novel was shelved twenty-thousand words in due to mounting schoolwork, he looks back on the memory fondly.

When he began his graduate studies in the United States, he quickly learned that writing in genres other than novels, poems, or newspaper articles can also develop into a profession. He learned not only how to write in English, his second language, but dedicated himself to contributing as a researcher to the field of rhetoric and writing studies.

Author of blog post: Jena Bixler, senior at York College of Pennsylvania, expected to graduate in May 2021. Bixler has a major in Graphic Design and a minor in Art History.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Jacob Wilson

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-04

Jacob Wilson shows his passion for translingualism in his manuscript, “Best Practices for a Translingual Pedagogy: An Undergraduate Perspective.” Jacob, a recent graduate of Portland State University, spent many terms throughout his college career drafting and revising the research article in which he discusses the need for introducing more translingualism into composition studies. We interviewed Jacob to learn more about his experience researching this topic, writing his article, and submitting his work to Young Scholars in Writing.

As an undergraduate, Jacob double majored in Spanish and English; however, his love for languages began long before college. He remembers learning Spanish from a very early age and was enrolled in a dual-language curriculum up until the eighth grade. Jacob explained that he “developed a more nuanced understanding of language, but one that was still separated between English and Spanish, and there weren’t a lot of opportunities to mesh them together.” However, when he learned about translingualism in a composition theory course in college, he became interested in the idea of blending his love of Spanish and English in the context of writing pedagogy. Although Jacob originally intended to write his research paper for an undergraduate thesis, he decided to expand his writing after receiving guidance from his academic mentor, Dr. Kathryn Comer, who introduced him to academic journals focused on composition pedagogy Young Scholars in Writing. Since he planned to attend graduate school after graduation, he hoped writing a manuscript for publication would help him determine if this sort of work would interest him in the future.

Despite being intrigued by his research topic, Jacob Jacob struggled to remain focused on the same project for many academic terms. He explained that, unlike his writing assignments for school that only took one term to complete, his YSW manuscript required constant drafting and revision throughout multiple terms of his senior year.

His work didn’t end after Young Scholars in Writing accepted his article. Upon acceptance, Jacob was assigned a Faculty Advisory Editor who would serve as his mentor through the revision and editing process. Jacob’s Faculty Advisory Editor was Zhaozhe Wang, a graduate student in rhetoric and composition at Purdue University. Jacob explained that having Zhaozhe as a mentor was “a great way to talk to someone who was an expert in translingualism and second language writing.” Despite the distance between them, Jacob and Zhaozhe collaborated well online. The bond they formed helped Jacob connect to someone well-versed in his area of study, and he found someone he can refer to in graduate school and beyond.

Currently, Jacob attends the University of Washington, where he is still studying translingualism while working towards his Ph.D. He explained that writing for Young Scholars in Writing helped him “put on the shoes of a composition scholar, especially at such an early step in [his] career.” Because he chose to embark on this research rather than studying it for school, he had more room to make bold choices and write how he felt would best fit his study. This helped him develop “a more holistic view of writing,” not just for this manuscript but in general. This experience taught him that “writing is never finished, it’s only due,” and he stated that “even now, there are things [he] look[s] back on, and [he] would change now if [he] had more chances to revise.”

Author of blog post: Alana Gordon, junior at York College of Pennsylvania, expected to graduate in 2022. Gordon has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Advertising.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and senior at York College of Pennsylvania, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Gabriela Augustina Uribe

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-03-02

Gabriela Augustina Uribe (she/her) grew up in a Mexican American household that only spoke English, and she always “felt self conscious about not knowing Spanish.” Her personal experiences led to her interest in monolingualism in multicultural households--that is, the practice of teaching children in a family only one language that is not native to the parents. “Communicating with family members [was] very difficult and awkward” when she was young. Her experience led her to write her article, “¿Por Qué no Sabes Español?: Pressured Monolingualism and Its Impacts on Mexican Americans,” and publish it in YSW.

Gaby decided to research monolingualism from the perspective of Mexican Americans when she took a course about the rhetoric of language in her sophomore year. “I immediately thought [it] would be a great opportunity to explore [my] experiences more. [At] Stanford, I had conversations with friends/classmates about their similar experiences growing up monolingually, so I was really interested to see 1) the influences on parents to raise their children with only English and 2) how monolingualism impacts ethnic identity and connection to culture.”

One of the most enjoyable parts of the research was collecting primary data from her mom, dad, grandma, and close friend. Gaby notes, “It was really interesting learning more about the lives of my interviewees because I’m so close with all of them. I loved hearing about their very unique experiences with language, and then also finding the common themes and emotions that thread their stories together.”

It wasn’t all easy, though. Gaby found it difficult to create strong interview questions. “I needed to steer them towards the themes that I wanted them to address/speak on, but it was also important that the answers came from them, not from me. I also wanted the interviews to be casual and conversational, since I was talking with people I’m very close to,” she noted.Gaby explained how she overcame this challenge: “I worked with my professor to compile a list of questions that were really what I was trying to answer with my research. With these open-ended questions, my interviewees were able to elaborate as much as they wanted to.”

Gaby decided to submit her article to YSW because of the encouragement of her professor, Dr. Jennifer Johnson. Johnson taught the course, “The Rhetoric of Language, Identity, and Power,” that got Gaby thinking about her topic. As a Mechanical Engineering major, Gaby had never thought she might be recognized for her writing, since she usually deals in the quantitative fields of mathematics and science. “Dr. Johnson was so encouraging throughout the whole process of developing my research project while I was in her class,” and noted that she developed a newfound confidence that led her to submit her article to YSW.

Having her article printed in YSW was very exciting for Gaby. As a STEM student, she had “ never felt like writing was something for which [she] would be recognized, so finding out [her] article was accepted was a great feeling that filled [her] with a lot of pride.” Of course, she was not alone during the publishing process, she had support from her YSW Faculty Advisory Editor, Rebekah Sims, a graduate student at Purdue University. Gaby enjoyed working with Rebekah and the other YSW editors, noting that “they both had great suggestions in terms of restructuring/adding to my paper that I feel made it much stronger. It was so helpful discussing ideas with them, especially when it came to diving deeper into my primary research and utilizing the interviews to the best of my ability.” Gaby collaborated with the YSW team online, utilizing Google documents and email.

Gaby explains that her study is important “because everyone’s personal identity is important. Especially in the past few years when there has been more blatant anti-immigrant, anti-foreign language sentiment, it is important to recognize the pressures that parents feel to make sure their children know English perfectly. I think everyone should have the chance to feel truly connected to their culture and have a strong sense of identity, and for Mexican-Americans who grow up not knowing Spanish, this can sometimes be much more difficult.” Gaby hopes that her study will contribute to real-world changes, such as K-12 schools adjusting their teaching practices “to be more supportive of students who know other languages besides English, which higher education institutions have been encouraged to do for decades.”

Gaby encourages undergraduates who are considering submitting their research to YSW to find a project they are excited about. This will “make it so much easier to push through challenges and keep improving the article,” she said. She also wanted to note that articles don’t need to be perfect when submitted, “as long as you have a project that you’re passionate about, have worked hard to develop, and feel good about the paper itself, submit it to YSW. The editors will help you so much in refining what you already have.”

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Jessica Brown

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-27

Jessica Brown (she/her) began her journey of creating an article for Young Scholars in Writing when taking an undergraduate course at Marquette University that focused on the intersection of linguistics and social justice. Brown’s YSW article, “Identifying and Categorizing Language Discrimination in the Legal Field,” draws on interviews with attorneys to examine the language discrimination that non-standard English speakers face in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Her fascination with the concept of language discrimination as a legal issue combined with her drive to enter the legal profession was the origin of her writing on the topic. Brown is now a first-year law student at Marquette University Law School.

Brown believes her research on language discrimination is important because she can use what she has learned in her future legal career. Through the interviews she conducted with the three attorneys, she realized just how widespread the discrimination of non-standard English is. She said that “as a future lawyer, [she] was able to learn about how linguistic discrimination manifests and what it looks like.” She now feels more understanding of how to treat those who do not speak standard English and more confident that she could effectively defend them.

Convinced by her mentor Dr. Jenn Fishman to eventually share her work with YSW, Brown spent several years working on this project. While researching and writing this article, Brown built up her skills in research and expanded her knowledge. In addition to reading the existing scholarship on language discrimination, Brown conducted qualitative interviews with three attorneys. She then analyzed her transcripts of these interviews and learned how to use qualitative coding methods to identify patterns in the interviews.

Brown emphasized that writing for Young Scholars in Writing was notably different than previous projects in college. A few of these differences were being able to focus on a topic that she picked herself and organizing research in her own way. Working on the article for about a year, she was able to be more thoughtful in her research while also feeling more relaxed in her schedule. On the other hand, Brown experienced stress during the research and publication process, especially because she was simultaneously preparing for law school and dealing with the sudden COVID-19 pandemic. Brown explained that her mentor was important in helping her overcome these obstacles and learn new skills. “This was my first independent research project, so naturally there was a lot to learn…. my weekly meetings with my mentor helped me to stay on track,” she said of Dr. Fishman.

Initially, Brown was nervous about submitting her project for publication. However, by the time she finished her article, she only had positive things to say about everyone she had worked with at the journal. Brown discovered that the YSW staff was a group of kind people who were understanding towards her whenever she hit obstacles in the research or writing process. She and her YSW faculty advisory editor, Dr. Steve Price (Professor of Writing and English Secondary Education at Mississippi College), worked together to set goals that kept her motivated to move through her project. Brown wants other undergraduates to know, “Submitting your work [to Young Scholars in Writing] is a great and rewarding experience, and I promise you won’t regret it!”

Written by: Patrick Czawlytko, Public History major at York College of Pennsylvania.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Hannah Cox

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-25

Hannah Cox (she/her) is an undergraduate student at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. Cox’s YSW article “Language and Dehumanization in Alaskan Japanese Internment Documents” discusses governmental documents related to Japanese Alaskans in Alaska’s Digital Archives. Cox was initially interested in Alaska during World War II, which led to her digging through the archives and becoming interested in the internment of Japanese Alaskans.

In an interview, Hannah Cox was asked about the most important piece of information she found during her research. She said it was the comparison between the letter written by Michael Hagiwara, a Japanese Alaskan, and the governmental documents that she had studied for the article. The government documents disregarded the Japanese Alaskans as U.S citizens, and this comparison helped Hannah see the dehumanizing nature of the government. “[Hagiwara’s letter] suggests that Japanese Alaskans viewed themselves as citizens of Alaska and the US, worthy of rights and due process, while the other documents of the file rarely admit this,” says Hannah. This was important to Hannah’s study because it allowed her to grasp a better understanding of the documents as a whole and understand the contrast between the Japanese internment and government documents.

The most surprising finds during Hannah’s research were all of the examples of humanization of Japanese Alaskans by the government, and how they showed a problematic disconnect between the consciences of government officials and their actions in implementing the Japanese internment. She mentions that the officials see Japanese Alaskans as people with homes, families, and businesses, but this did not affect their politics or the internment. Hannah states, “this was surprising to me, but also helped me consider that dehumanizing language could be playing a role in helping officials justify the Japanese internment to themselves.”

Hannah felt this study was important because it ties back to a historical event that both Alaskan and broader US citizens forget about, or deliberately avoid. Hannah said that she had very little exposure to information about the Japanese internment before she started this project. She believed that it was important to make this piece of history visible so that the racist and inhuman acts will not be repeated. Hannah stated, “Illuminating the power of language in this instance may help with our understanding of how even the ways we name and categorize ourselves and other people can have a profound impact on human life.”

Hannah submitted her article to Young Scholars in Writing because the professor of the class that she originally wrote the article for, Dr. Stone, recommended it. She had never heard of Young Scholars in Writing until Dr. Stone brought it to her attention, which made her determined to publish her work and experience the process of publishing an academic paper. Hannah’s original article was much too long for Young Scholars in Writing, and she had to make some very drastic changes during the editing process. To help the focus of her argument and the length of the article, an entire section had to be cut, and other sections were trimmed and condensed. Hannah said that most of the feedback she received focused on helping her, rework, consolidate, and make the necessary cuts to sections of her paper to help clarify her argument.

Hannah noted the difference between college projects that she had worked on in the past versus the article she wrote for YSW. She says that it had the most versions any of her projects has ever had during the editing process. She made many heavy edits before submitting to Young Scholars in Writing, as well as afterward in order to make it clearer and more concise. She mentions how most college projects do not require heavy editing such as this, since the audience remains small and the writing is not being published.

Hannah advises students thinking about submitting their work to YSW to not “feel like the first draft you submit needs to be perfect. If you put in the work and have good content, that’s most important. It doesn’t hurt to submit something that’s too long, so long as you’re willing to cut – it’s a lot easier to cut content than to write new content.”

Written by: Taylor Groft, Professional Writing major at York College of Pennsylvania.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Samantha J. Rae

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-23

During an interview with Samantha Rae, published author of Young Scholars in Writing, we gained a behind-the-scenes look into the research and writing process for her article, “Tales in Language, Confidence, and Learning Environments: Exploring Students’ Mental Health Through Literacy Narratives.” Rae recently graduated with a BA in Rhetoric and Composition from Georgia State University. She is currently a first-year MA student in Rhetoric and Composition at Georgia State University, with a goal of teaching at the university level.

Rae’s initial interest in the topic of student mental health came from a personal perspective. “I heard my own opinions of the inefficiency of campus mental health resources echoed in several of my classmates,” she explained. From that point on, Rae considered her own previous work with the Digital Archives of Literacy Narratives (DALN) and the ways that narrative may or may not serve to help students create a more personal discourse through which mental health issues can be discussed.

Her article began as the final project for a rhetoric and composition course she took, which focused primarily on writing for community engagement. With the encouragement she got from her professor, Rae saw the submission as an opportunity to share her work with a broader audience and hopefully spark a conversation that continues to spread student mental health rhetoric and increase literacy. Throughout the editorial process, Rae’s faculty advisory editor was Dr. Sarah Singer, an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida. “We had the best communication and she helped me flesh out all of the ideas that I had for the revision of this article with such care and concern,” Samantha said.

The greatest joy that Rae had while conducting this research was learning to be open to findings that challenged her own assumptions. She learned to sit with the archives and allow the narratives to speak for themselves, instead of focusing primarily on her own preliminary goals for her project. The biggest challenge that Rae faced while working on her project was using search terms that were too narrow. “I initially considered only literacy narratives that explicitly or exclusively talked about depression,” she explained. But then, she “started to think of other factors that might affect issues with mental health [such as] fear, anxiety, anger, [and] addiction.”

The process of conducting research has helped Rae better define her scholarly areas of interest for her future career in the field of rhetoric and composition. The experience that she gained throughout the revision process of her paper was also a great way for her to prepare for writing and research as a graduate student. When asked if she had any advice for students who may be hesitant to submit their own work to Young Scholars in Writing, Rae said to just do it. “I remember feeling apprehensive (more so self-conscious) when my professor first introduced the idea to me,” Rae explained. “So my advice for other undergraduates is to be open to the experience of working with great mentors to revise their papers and prepare them for more work with their research interests.”

Rae believes that it is important to support research conducted by undergraduate students. After all, the next generation of research in the field of rhetoric and composition all comes from the concerns and interests of up-and-coming students.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Blog: Meet the author: Anna Maltbie

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-20

When interviewed about her YSW article “‘Stories for Reproductive Freedom:’ A Rhetorical Analysis of Storytelling on NARAL Pro-Choice America’s Website,” Anna Maltbie (she/her), took us behind-the-scenes of her writing process. When she submitted this article to YSW, Maltbie was an undergraduate at Miami University of Ohio, majoring in English Literature, Professional Writing, and Economics. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Business Management, hoping to enter the business side of publishing or work for a nonprofit organization.

For this YSW article, Maltbie researched thirty-three different stories about womens’ experiences with abortion access. She chose to research this topic for her paper because abortion rights are a “heavily discussed debate in American politics for years” and a social movement she is passionate about.Maltbie focused on the NARAL Pro Choice America website (https://www.prochoiceamerica.org) “because of its prominence in the movement.” The website also provided Maltbie with the thirty-three stories that she then analyzed.

When reflecting on her research process, she explained that it was a “difficult process to read about, because of the traumatic experiences the women had experienced.” But since her topic was about the effectiveness of storytelling to generate pathos in the pro-choice movement, she knew her emotional reaction was a sign that her article had merit and needed to be written. What Maltbie found most enjoyable about writing was creating her own explanatory scheme based on her dataset and color-coding for each article.

As an undergraduate, Maltbie wanted to feel “the joy of being published before [she] graduate[d].” One of her professors is currently a faculty advisory editor with Young Scholars in Writing and encouraged his students to submit their research to YSW. She explained, “I’ve been a reader, business manager, and editor-in-chief for an undergraduate literary magazine for four years, so I had a lot of experience on the other side of publishing but [have not had] any of my own work published. I was a Senior and figured since I spent four years writing in my literature and professional writing classes, I might as well try to get something I was proud of published.”

Maltbie’s faculty advisory editor, the person who coaches each author through the YSW revision process,was Dr. Sarah E. Polo, assistant professor of English at Cottey College. They collaborated through Google Docs and email. They also used a video call to introduce themselves and go through the initial edits of her article. “I appreciated her clear communication about what needed to be done and when as well as her quick responses,” Maltbie noted.

Maltbie advises undergraduate students who may be interested in submitting work to Young Scholars in Writing to “Just Do It [please don’t sue me, Nike]. The best outcome is you get your work published, and the worst is your article is rejected and you don’t need to do any extra work.”

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Volume 19: CFP

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-18

233

Blog: Meet the author: Megan Kelley

Young Scholars in Writing — 2021-02-18

#youknowme

“One out of four women in the United States has had an abortion...you can’t say you don’t know someone who has had an abortion because... you know me.” (Busy Phillips 2019)

Source: Sini, Rozina. “Alabama Abortion Bill Ignites Women’s Stories with #youknowme.” BBC News, 16 May 2019, www.bbc.com/news/48286795.

Megan Kelley (she/her) is a 22-year-old alumna from Miami University of Oxford, Ohio, who graduated in May 2020. Kelley majored in Public Health and double minored in Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Since she graduated, she has been working on her Master’s degree in Gerontology. Prior to her graduation, Kelley submitted her writing piece, "Use #youknowme and share your truth": Rhetoric of Digital Abortion Storytelling, emphasizing the reproductive rights movement to Young Scholars in Writing.

Kelley originally wrote this piece for a Rhetoric of Social Movement Class, and afterward, her professor suggested that she submit her paper to the journal. Kelley’s piece emphasizes the reproductive justice movement. She “wanted to do something more contemporary.” Kelley chose to write about #youknowme because (1) it wasn’t well-known, (2) it was on Twitter (where Kelley often spends her time), and (3) it was in the realm of what she was interested in.

“This paper looks at how the #YouKnowMe movement encouraged Twitter users to share their personal stories, experiences, and emotions associated with their abortions. Feminist movements have utilized consciousness-raising by relying on women to share their personal experiences to further support the efforts of the larger movement. The #YouKnowMe movement brings consciousness-raising into the digital sphere.” ~ Excerpt from Kelley’s Paper, "Use #youknowme and share your truth: Rhetoric of Digital Abortion Storytelling."

Kelley noted that the bulk of her time spent writing her piece was used during the process of compiling tweets. She also relied on news articles and prior knowledge from her minor in women’s studies. Kelley wrote this piece to emphasize the importance of reproductive rights. She said that “reproductive rights are very salient right now- and definitely important to people [considering] this political climate.” Kelley explained that her piece is meant for a younger audience. She admits that it is more for individuals who are interested in and open to abortion/ reproductive justice topics. She adds, “I doubt you would want to read my piece if you are super religious [or]pro-life.”

Kelley worked through the writing process of this piece with her classmates. Since this piece was originally for a class project, she received feedback from her classmates and her professor, Dr. Jason Palmeri, who helped her in class and as a mentor throughout the submission process. A challenge that Kelley faced was scaling down how many tweets she analyzed to choose which specific tweets she would be using. Another challenge Kelley faced was writing an abstract, since she had never written one before. She found this portion of the paper especially challenging. When asked what her least favorite parts of the writing process were, Kelley explained that writing the introduction was difficult, and scrolling through a large volume of tweets became monotonous. She continued to say that, although there were definitely challenges she had to face, there were also many inspiring parts to her writing. Kelley noted, “My favorite part was reading these women’s stories: some were so powerful, they had me crying.” When asked how difficult it was to submit through the Young Scholars in Writing Journal, Kelley explained that if she had to complete the paper from scratch, the difficulty level would be a 6 on a scale from one to ten. Kelley’s advice for anyone considering wanting to publish their piece through the Young Scholars in Writing Journal is to “Pick a topic that is relevant and popular but not overdone.” Then she added, “Also, just go for it. The worst they can say is no.”

Author of Blog Post: Madelina Marquez, Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Marquez has a major in Biology and a double minor in Chemistry and Professional Writing.

Edited by: Beck Liberatore, YSW Intern and Senior at York College of PA, expected to graduate in May 2021. Liberatore has a major in Professional Writing and a minor in Women's and Gender Studies.

Thanks to:

Megan Kelley's interview & paper: "Use #youknowme and share your truth: Rhetoric of Digital Abortion Storytelling"