Young Scholars in Writing https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">MISSION STATEMENT</span></p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is a refereed journal dedicated to publishing research articles written by undergraduates in a wide variety of disciplines associated with rhetoric and writing. It is guided by these central beliefs: 1) That research can and should be a crucial component of rhetorical education; 2) that undergraduates engaged in research about writing and rhetoric should have opportunities to share their work with a broader audience of students, scholars, and teachers through national and international publication; and 3) that the fuller the range of voices, rhetorics, and subjects the research of our field includes, the more we learn and the stronger we become. </span><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Young Scholars in Writing</span></em><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is intended to be a resource for students engaged in undergraduate research and for scholars who are interested in new advances or theories relating to language, composition, rhetoric, and related fields.&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Focus and Scope</strong> <br><em>Young Scholars in Writing: Undergraduate Research in Writing and Rhetoric</em> is an international peer-reviewed journal. It publishes research and theoretical articles by undergraduates of all majors and years on the subjects of rhetoric, writing, writers, discourse, language, and related topics.</span></p> en-US <p>Individual authors retain the copyright of their work published in <em>Young Scholars in Writing</em>.</p> youngscholars.editor@gmail.com (Drs. Cope, Cutrufello & Peck) gcutrufe@ycp.edu (Gabriel Cutrufello) Wed, 20 Mar 2024 05:05:03 -0700 OJS 3.1.2.4 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 YSW V21 Front Matter and Masthead https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/387 Copyright (c) 2024 Young Scholars in Writing https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/387 Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 -0700 YSW V21 Editors' Introduction https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/379 Copyright (c) 2024 Peck, Cope, & Cutrufello https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/379 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700 Transforming Taboo: Discursive and Generic Uptake in South Asian Mental Health Recovery Narratives https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/380 <p>The mental health crisis in South Asian communities is blatantly real and needs further study. However, developing a culturally relevant approach requires understanding the lived experiences of members of that culture. The mental health recovery narrative genre provides one record of these lived experiences. Although mental health rhetorical research is growing, there has been little research employing rhetoric to understand the specific ways in which the written form of mental health recovery narratives, and by extension, mental illness experiences, are culturally shaped. Thus, this paper investigates the South Asian mental health crisis by utilizing concepts from Rhetorical Genre Studies to analyze samples of the South Asian mental health recovery narrative genre from the online platform Mann Mukti. This paper interprets rhetorical patterns through the South Asian cultural context and argues that the genre transforms the personal need to be heard empathetically and uninterruptedly into a recurrent and shared social exigence.</p> Anusha Kothari Copyright (c) 2024 Anusha Kothari https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/380 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 09:50:26 -0700 Linguistic Inclinations in Query Letters https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/381 <p>In traditional publishing, a writer sends out query letters in order to seek representation. Though previous query letter research has examined this document’s function when submitted to editors of magazines and journals, query letters submitted to agents for novels have only received attention from within the industry rather than as an object of academic inquiry. This study uses a corpus of query letters for fiction manuscripts to explore whether or not language proficiency and linguistic components bear weight on the success of querying authors. Ultimately, these findings stand as evidence of the empirical impact of language on acquisition odds and encourage further study on the matter.</p> Karen Quick Copyright (c) 2024 Karen Quick https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/381 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:03:32 -0700 Reframing Writing, Rhetoric, and Literary Studies: A Mixed Method Approach to Interrogating Intersections https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/382 <p>Since the inception of literary studies in English Departments in American colleges and universities over a century ago, literature and composition have been pursued as largely separate fields of study. Many studies have looked at how they differ, but few have looked at how their similarities might benefit students. This study compares the underlying values of Writing and Literary Studies through conceptual metaphors (Lakoff and Johnson 2003). A mixed-method procedure of classroom observations, faculty and department chair interviews, student surveys, and textual analysis was employed to ascertain what conceptual metaphors are used in Writing and Literary Studies to determine where their values overlap and where they diverge as a first step in determining if those overlaps could be beneficial to students. Concurrent results of each method were used to triangulate overlap and/or divergence in values. Results show that there are 4 dominant metaphor groups that occur across both Writing and Literary Studies, with a special group emerging called “pseudo-metaphors,” which at first glance demonstrate overlap in values but differ in context, demonstrating that while there may be overlap in values, the context of those values matter. Furthermore, overlap in values suggests that complementary instruction could be of benefit to students in both fields.</p> Gabby Bunko Copyright (c) 2024 Gabby Bunko https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/382 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:12:16 -0700 Making Confident Changes: Using Metacognitive Revision as a Pedagogical Tool https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/383 <p>In the field of writing studies, many scholars agree that metacognitive reflection activities can impact the quality of students’ text and have also been correlated with increased writing self-efficacy. To expand on this preexisting relationship between metacognition and writing self-efficacy, my study explored the impacts of metacognitive reflection, specifically during the revisions stage of the writing process. I used two qualitative research methods to observe the effects of this intervention: field observations of peer review sessions and thematic, deductive coding of participants’ responses to an open-ended questionnaire. I found that the metacognitive revision questionnaire encouraged participants to consider revision choices that linked their purpose for writing to their identities and to the ways they appealed to their audience. Making linkages between purpose, identity, and audience through revision choices has implications for fostering writing self-efficacy.</p> Isabelle Lundin Copyright (c) 2024 Isabelle Lundin https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/383 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 10:20:52 -0700 Is the Pen Mightier than the Laptop? Digital Natives and Their Preferred Writing Tools https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/384 <p>Students in a course on the History of Writing investigated traditional, college-aged students and their preferred writing implements. Digital Natives—people born after 1980 who grew up with technology—are assumed to prefer digital writing implements such as computers, tablets, and Smartphones. We recognize that the term “digital native” may be outdated, but we chose to include it in our research because it was a central term in the questions asked to participants. Do they really tend to use digital implements, or do they use analog instruments such as pens and pencils? To find out, the researchers designed a Qualtrics survey to ask students about their use of digital and analog writing tools. A second data source were essays on the topic “My Favorite Writing Implement,” which were analyzed on a spreadsheet, counting each instance of tools noted, ranging from digital to analog, from tablets to gel pens. Participants were enrolled in two university classes: one lower-division and one upper-division. Their majors ranged across all colleges. Through a review of the literature, the researchers found that a trend exists toward Gen-Z using analog writing tools. Some steer clear of digital altogether. David Sax notes in <em>The Revenge of Analog</em> that analog offers “real and tangible experiences” that are tactile.</p> Joyce Kinkead (Preface), Avery Truman (Corresponding Author), Dylan Ash, Mason Bodell, Jane Harvey, Clarissa Lloyd, Ellie Miller, Lauren Myers, Hannah Potter, William Spence, Anna Tuite, Isabelle Vasquez, Nevaeh Villastrigo, Landon Corbett Copyright (c) 2024 Avery Truman et al https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/384 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700 “Proud to be Autistic”: Greta Thunberg’s Queering Rhetorical Genre in Climate Change Advocacy https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/385 <p>Greta Thunberg, a young, autistic climate change activist from Sweden, has generated mixed opinions about her rhetoric since her #FridaysForFuture climate movement that started in 2018. Many people have found her inspiring, leading youth around the world to protest political inaction about climate change. Many autistic people have also found power in Thunberg’s fearless identification as an autistic person. However, there are people who stand strongly against her rhetoric and her autistic identity. Michael Knowles, podcast host from the <em>Daily News</em>, commented that Thunberg is “mentally ill,” and former U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that Thunberg should enhance her “Anger Management.” Previous studies have analyzed Thunberg’s rhetoric, partially explaining the controversy and power of her rhetoric. Nevertheless, they don’t pay sustained attention to the role of Thunberg’s autistic identity in choosing her rhetorical strategies. My research focuses on the role of Thunberg’s autistic identity in making her rhetoric controversial yet powerful. I base my research on the framework of genre as social action pioneered by Carolyn Miller and queering rhetoric pioneered by Remi Yergeau. I have found that by both conforming to and queering, which is exploring untraditional possibilities, expectations for the genre of epideictic political speeches, Thunberg redefines the exigence of immediate climate change action for the audience. In her political speeches, Thunberg distances herself from her immediate audience instead of creating identifications with them to create the exigence of immediate climate change action instead of submitting to political inaction. My findings also raise future research questions about how to accommodate neurodivergent students in classroom settings, how to better teach the concept of rhetorical genre, and how neurodivergent rhetors can explore more rhetorical possibilities.</p> Amiee Zhao Copyright (c) 2024 Amiee Zhao https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/385 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 11:26:07 -0700 Volume 21 Contributors https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/386 Copyright (c) 2024 Young Scholars in Writing https://youngscholarsinwriting.org/index.php/ysiw/article/view/386 Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0700