CLA: Department of Writing Studies

Patient Tales: Case Histories and the Uses of Narrative in Psychiatry

In this engrossing study of tales of mental illness, Carol Berkenkotter examines the evolving role of case history narratives in the growth of psychiatry as a medical profession. Patient Tales follows the development of psychiatric case histories from their origins at Edinburgh Medical School and the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary in the mid-eighteenth century to the medical records of contemporary American mental health clinics. Spanning two centuries and several disciplines, Berkenkotter's investigation illustrates how discursive changes in this genre mirrored evolving assumptions and epistemological commitments among those who cared for the mentally ill.

During the asylum era, case histories were a means by which practitioners organized and disseminated local knowledge through professional societies, affiliations, and journals. The way in which these histories were recorded was subsequently codified, giving rise to a genre. In her thorough reading of Sigmund Freud's Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria, Berkenkotter shows how this account of Freud's famous patient "Dora" led to technical innovation in the genre through the incorporation of literary devices. In the volume's final section, Berkenkotter carries the discussion forward to the present in her examination of the turn from psychoanalysis to a research-based and medically oriented classification system now utilized by the American Psychiatric Association. Throughout her work Berkenkotter stresses the value of reading case histories as an interdisciplinary bridge between the humanities and sciences.

University of South Carolina Press | Amazon

Posted by Shannon at 8:26 AM | Permalink

Jeff Ward has had an essay published in Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age.

From the University of Michigan Press:
This collection is a timely intervention in national debates about what constitutes original or plagiarized writing in the digital age. Somewhat ironically, the Internet makes it both easier to copy and easier to detect copying. The essays in this volume explore the complex issues of originality, imitation, and plagiarism, particularly as they concern students, scholars, professional writers, and readers, while also addressing a range of related issues, including copyright conventions and the ownership of original work, the appropriate dissemination of innovative ideas, and the authority and role of the writer/author. Throughout these essays, the contributors grapple with their desire to encourage and maintain free access to copyrighted material for noncommercial purposes while also respecting the reasonable desires of authors to maintain control over their own work.

Both novice and experienced teachers of writing will learn from the contributors' practical suggestions about how to fashion unique assignments, teach about proper attribution, and increase students' involvement in their own writing. This is an anthology for anyone interested in how scholars and students can navigate the sea of intellectual information that characterizes the digital/information age.

Greg Schneider and Dr. Matthew P. Meyer co-authored "Being-in-The Office: Sartre, the Look, and the Viewer" in The Office and Philosophy: Scenes from the Unexamined Life (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series).

From Blackwell:
Just when you thought paper couldn't be more exciting, this book comes your way! This book - jammed full of paper - unites philosophy with one of the best shows ever: The Office. Addressing both the current American incarnation and the original British version, The Office and Philosophy brings these two wonders of civilization together for a frolic through the mundane yet curiously edifying worlds of Scranton's Dunder-Mifflin and Slough's Wernham-Hogg.

Is Michael Scott in denial about death? Are Pam and Jim ever going to figure things out? Is David Brent an essentialist? Surprisingly, The Office can teach us about the mind, Aristotle, and humiliation. Even more surprisingly, paper companies can allow us to better understand business ethics. Don't believe it? Open this book, and behold its beautiful paper…

Join the philosophical fray as we explore the abstract world of philosophy through concrete scenes of the unexamined life in The Office. You may discover that Gareth Keenan is secretly a brilliant logician, that Dwight Schrute is better off deceiving himself, that David Brent is an example of hyperreality, and that Michael Scott is hopelessly lost (but you probably already knew that!).

Posted by Shannon at 4:36 PM | Permalink

Reyman, J. (2008). Rethinking plagiarism for technical communication. Technical Communication, 55(1): 61-67.

Abstract:
This article proposes that technical and professional communication instructors reconsider the treatment of the concept of plagiarism in current curriculum. I begin by examining existing approaches to teaching technical communication students about plagiarism and explaining the need for rethinking plagiarism in light of contemporary technical communication practices. The second section suggests several preliminary steps for addressing these issues, including revisions to plagiarism policies, classroom practices, and the treatment of plagiarism in textbooks. I conclude with a call for increased industry-academic dialog on the dissonance between the treatment of plagiarism in the classroom and in workplace practices.

Posted by Shannon at 4:38 PM | Permalink

The edited collection Critical Power Tools: Technical Communication and Cultural Studies (ed. Blake Scott, Bernadette Longo, and Katherine Wills) has just been announced as the the winner of the 2007 NCTE Award in Technical and Scientific Communications for the Best Collection of Essays on Technical and Scientific Communication. The award will be presented at the ATTW Conference (part of CCCC) on April 2, 2008 in New Orleans. Congratulations to Bernadette and her co-editors on this important recognition.

Posted by Shannon at 10:41 AM | Permalink

McDowell, E. E. (2007). America’s great gun game : gun ownership vs. Americans’ safety : an outline of the need for increased federal gun legislation. New York : iUniverse.

More than 30,000 American deaths are caused each year by firearms, and more than 230,000,000 guns exist in the United States today. America's Great Gun Game: Gun Ownership vs. Americans' Safety presents two sides of the gun issue- the gun control advocates, the silent majority; and the gun rights supporters, the vocal minority. Author Earl E. McDowell urges the silent majority to become the vocal majority as he tackles the controversial topics of gun control and concealed carry laws.

Unlike other volumes on the gun issue, America's Great Gun Game challenges the National Rifle Association's interpretation of the Second Amendment by citing the opinions of Supreme Court justices, the president of the American Bar Association, state and federal legislators, and former U.S. presidents. McDowell traces attempted presidential assassinations and presents a detailed account of the gun movements from 1922 through 2000, assessing which side won the gun game for each movement. Gun Game is unique, as it also reports statistics on how guns affect women and children and which women's and children's organizations support gun control.

America's Great Gun Game presents McDowell's thoroughly researched argument in favor of stopping the proliferation of guns throughout the United States and the increasing need for federal gun control legislation.

Profits from the book will be contributed to women’s and children’s pro-gun control organizations.

Earl E. McDowell, Ph.D., is a professor of scientific and technical communication and was the director of graduate studies for the MS program in Scientific and Technical Communication from 1991 to 2005 at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of the awarding winning textbook: Interviewing Practices for Technical Writers, Baywood Press. His book Research Methods in Scientific and Technical Communication, Burgess Publishing, focuses on experimental and survey research. He also has published over 50 articles in communication journals.

Posted by Shannon at 4:13 PM | Permalink

Harmon, J. E., & Gross, A. G. (2007). The scientific literature a guided tour. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

The scientific article has been a hallmark of the career of every important western scientist since the seventeenth century. Yet its role in the history of science has not been fully explored. Joseph E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross remedy this oversight with The Scientific Literature, a collection of writings—excerpts from scientific articles, letters, memoirs, proceedings, transactions, and magazines—that illustrates the origin of the scientific article in 1665 and its evolution over the next three and a half centuries.

Featuring articles—as well as sixty tables and illustrations, tools vital to scientific communication—that represent the broad sweep of modern science, The Scientific Literature is a historical tour through both the rhetorical strategies that scientists employ to share their discoveries and the methods that scientists use to argue claims of new knowledge. Commentaries that explain each excerpt’s scientific and historical context and analyze its communication strategy accompany each entry.

A unique anthology, The Scientific Literature will allow both the scholar and the general reader to experience first hand the development of modern science.

[From the University of Chicago Press]

Posted by Shannon at 3:57 PM | Permalink

The University of South Carolina Press has accepted for publication Professor Berkenkotter's book, Patient Tales: Cases Histories and the Uses of Narrative in Psychiatry.

Patient Tales is a study of the evolution of psychiatry's case histories from their first mid- 18th century appearance in medical records in the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary to the published case narratives in the American Journal of Psychiatry between 1968-2002.

Posted by Shannon at 1:44 PM | Permalink

Capper Nichols published an article in a book now available from University of Nebraska Press.

"Backpacking and the Ultralight Solution." Postwestern Cultures: Literature, Theory, Space. ed. Susan Kollin. University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

From the University of Nebraska Press

"Postwestern Cultures synthesizes the most critical topics of contemporary scholarship of the American West within a single volume. This interdisciplinary anthology features leading scholars in the varied fields of western American literary studies and includes new regional studies, global studies, studies of popular culture, environmental criticism, gender and queer theory, and multiculturalism. Postwestern Cultures, like all successful studies of western American literature, is necessarily diverse and wide-ranging; it grasps the multifaceted quality of the landscape, literature, and critical analysis by engaging postmodern theory, spatial theory, cultural studies, and transnational and transcultural understandings of the local.

"This collection emphasizes the importance of understanding the region not as a confined or static space but as a constantly changing entity in both substance and form. It examines subjects ranging from the use of frontier rhetoric in Japanese American internment camp narratives to the emergence of agricultural tourism in the New West to the application of geographer J. B. Jackson's theories to abandoned western landscapes."

Posted by Shannon at 2:52 PM | Permalink

An essay by Art Walzer was published in the most recent issue of Rhetorica, the journal of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (ISHR). Title: "Blair's Ideal Orator: Civic Rhetoric and Christian Politeness in Lectures 25-34," Rhetorica 25 (Summer 2007):269-295. Art presented a version of the paper at the ISHR conference in Strasbourg in July 2007.

Posted by Department of Writing Studies at 8:48 AM | Permalink

The Viability of the Rhetorical Tradition reconsiders the relationship between rhetorical theory, practice, and pedagogy. Continuing the line of questioning begun in the 1980s, contributors examine the duality of a rhetorical canon in determining if past practice can make us more (or less) able to address contemporary concerns. Also examined is the role of tradition as a limiting or inspiring force, rhetoric as a discipline, rhetoric's contribution to interest in civic education and citizenship, and the possibilities digital media offer to scholars of rhetoric.

--From SUNY Press

Richard Graff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing Studies.
Arthur Walzer is a Professor in the Department of Writing Studies.

This book is available on Amazon.com and from other retailers.

Posted by Department of Writing Studies at 3:05 PM | Permalink

Offers a thorough look at peer review in virtual environments.

In a reassessment of peer review practices, Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch explores how computer technology changes our understanding of this activity. She defines "virtual peer review" as the use of computer technology to exchange and respond to one another's writing in order to improve it. Arguing that peer review goes through a remediation when conducted in virtual environments, the author suggests that virtual peer review highlights a unique intersection of social theories of language and technological literacy.

--From SUNY Press

Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing Studies.

Dr. Kastman Breuch's book is available on Amazon.com and from other retailers.

Posted by Department of Writing Studies at 2:53 PM | Permalink

Starring the Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies firmly establishes the rhetorical analysis of science as a respected field of study. Alan G. Gross, one of rhetoric’s foremost authorities, summarizes the state of the field and demonstrates the role of rhetorical analysis in the sciences. He documents the limits of such analyses with examples from biology and physics, explores their range of application, and sheds light on the tangled relationships between science and society. In this deep revision of his important Rhetoric of Science, Gross examines how rhetorical analyses have a wide range of application, effectively exploring the generation, spread, certification, and closure that characterize scientific knowledge. Gross anchors his position in philosophical rather than in rhetorical arguments and maintains there is rhetorical criticism from which the sciences cannot be excluded.

Gross employs a variety of case studies and examples to assess the limits of the rhetorical analysis of science. For example, in examining avian taxonomy, he demonstrates that both taxonomical and evolutionary species are the product of rhetorical interactions. A review of Newton’s two formulations of optical research illustrates that their only significant difference is rhetorical, a difference in patterns of style, arrangement, and argument. Gross also explores the range of rhetorical analysis in his consideration of the "evolution of evolution" of Darwin’s notebooks. In his analysis of science and society, he explains the limits of citizen action in executive, judicial, and legislative democratic realms in the struggle to prevent, ameliorate, and provide adequate compensation for occupational disease. By using philosophical, historical, and psychological perspectives, Gross concludes, rhetorical analysis can also supplement other viewpoints in resolving intellectual problems.

Starring the Text, which includes fourteen illustrations, is an updated, readable study geared to rhetoricians, historians, philosophers, and sociologists interested in science. The volume effectively demonstrates that the rhetoric of science is a natural extension of rhetorical theory and criticism.

--From Southern Illinois University Press

Alan Gross is a Professor in the Department of Writing Studies.

Dr. Gross' book is for sale on Amazon.com and from other retailers.

Posted by Department of Writing Studies at 2:37 PM | Permalink

John Logie, Associate Professor in the Department of Writing Studies, has recently published his book, Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion: Rhetoric in the Peer-to-Peer Debates.

"Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion: Rhetoric in the Peer-to-Peer Debates investigates the role of rhetoric in shaping public perceptions about a novel technology: peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. While broadband Internet services now allow speedy transfers of complex media files, Americans face real uncertainty about whether peer-to-peer file sharing is or should be legal. John Logie analyzes the public arguments growing out of more than five years of debate sparked by the advent of Napster, the first widely adopted peer-to-peer technology. The debate continues with the second wave of peer-to-peer file transfer utilities like Limewire, KaZaA, and BitTorrent. With Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion, Logie joins the likes of Lawrence Lessig, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Jessica Litman, and James Boyle in the ongoing effort to challenge and change current copyright law so that it fulfills its purpose of fostering creativity and innovation while protecting the rights of artists in an attention economy.

"Logie examines metaphoric frames—warfare, theft, piracy, sharing, and hacking, for example—that dominate the peer-to-peer debates and demonstrably shape public policy on the use and exchange of digital media. Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion identifies the Napster case as a failed opportunity for a productive national discussion on intellectual property rights and responsibilities in digital environments. Logie closes by examining the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the “Grokster� case, in which leading peer-to-peer companies were found to be actively inducing copyright infringement. The Grokster case, Logie contends, has already produced the chilling effects that will stifle the innovative spirit at the heart of the Internet and networked communities."

--from Parlor Press

John Logie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Writing Studies.

Dr. Logie's book is for sale on Amazon.com and from other book retailers.

Posted by Department of Writing Studies at 9:06 AM | Permalink