This dissertation was developed in response to a long-standing imperative for teachers and scholars of writing: the need to meet students where they are (technologically) and keep up with emerging writing technologies. Said differently, when an emerging writing technology comes on the scene, teachers of writing tend to develop theoretical and pedagogical approaches for students' use of that technology in the writing classroom. While the imperative to keep up is well-meaning, the attempt can feel futile or, at the very least, pedagogically frustrating. This frustration is often fueled by permanent innovation, or when a culture’s technological innovation outpaces its ability to adapt to and for those technologies. To address the ever-evolving difficulties inherent within the relationship between writing, developing technologies, and teaching writing, this dissertation offers the field of Composition a path through the futility and frustration represented by keeping up. I call this intervention Composition’s “Technological Boneyard,” or more simply, “the boneyard.” The boneyard is first and foremost a metaphor, an imagined dumping ground that contains the obsolete, trashed, and forgotten technologies of writing that Composition has used and discarded in its move toward its raison d'être: the study and teaching of writing. Brimming with obsolete and discarded technologies of writing—like the first personal computers, floppy and hard disks, keyboards, and early mobile devices—the boneyard allows Composition to (re)investigate its technological and techno-pedagogical history, as well as its current relationships with developing technologies and writing. Through two qualitative case studies, this dissertation investigates the technologies in the boneyard and considers how abandoned, obsolete, and forgotten writing tools have shaped (and continue to shape) the teaching of writing in higher education, as well as Composition’s own history.

This thesis examines the rhetoric that binds the Grateful Dead Community, a collective of millions who participate in the musical rituals surrounding the San Francisco-based band. The study analyzes multiple rhetorical spaces found within the Grateful Dead Community, the way in which the community hierarchy influences discourse, and the patterns in rhetoric found within the discourse in the community’s spaces. Through analysis of the lyrics, interviews with community leaders, and interactions among community members, the thesis uses the Grateful Dead Community as a foundation for exploring the function of rhetoric in community building and how different, sometimes contradictory types of rhetoric can bind communities—especially communities that exist without geographically-defined territory. This essay aims to fill a research gap by taking already existing theories on conflicting forms of rhetoric within communities and fortifying them by applying them to a modern context, specifically with the Grateful Dead Community.

The study aims to explore the use of L1 Bahasa Indonesia in the L2 English writing process specifically within the demographic of Indonesian students currently studying in U.S universities. In the second language writing field research related to L1 in L2, even though there have been studies with many Asian demographics like Chinese, Korean, and Japan. However, there seems to be little studies have been conducted with Indonesian demographics. Moreover, research within this particular topic is mostly conducted quantitatively by looking at how much L1 is used during the L2 composing process by incorporating Think-Aloud protocols. In addition to that, it can be seen that Think Aloud Protocols have also predominantly been used to investigate the issue of L1 in L2. Even though Think-Aloud as a method has been proven to be useful, it can also be argued that such a method is too intrusive for the participants. Therefore, this current study is conducted with qualitative descriptive without Think-Aloud Protocols looking at ten participants from ten different universities in the U.S. studying non-English majors. The data were gathered from questionnaires, writing tasks that occur simultaneously with writing observation, as well as stimulated recall interviews to enable triangulation. The findings from the data analysis suggest there are similar patterns that can be found on participants with some unique difference. For example, the instruction to think aloud is not given by the researcher yet some participants practiced thinking aloud naturally during their writing process. Furthermore, L1 use are found to be a complex as accessing linguistics repertoire, recalling memory or start the first sentence/paragraph. While some L1 use effects include sense making, looking for ideas and time efficiency. Therefore, each participant's interaction with their L1 and the effects of L1 use in L2 are discussed.