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Infusing Dysfluency into Rhetoric and Composition: Overcoming the Stutter

Meyer, Craig A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1374080750

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, English (Arts and Sciences).
This dissertation considers verbal dysfluencies, such as stuttering, as generative to writing and its complex process through the various techniques and strategies that derive from verbal dysfluency. Very little work in the field of Rhetoric and Composition has been undertaken to further understand what might occur, and how writing teachers can help, during moments of writing dysfluency or moments in the process that are not necessarily generating text. Writing dysfluencies include a range of things from a hyper- attention to the generalized rules of writing to various avoidance behaviors that inhibit the composition of prose, all of which slow or disrupt the process of writing. I argue that techniques such as circumlocution offer a new way to conceptualize the dysfluencies that student writers may encounter and offer possibilities to better manage or adapt to these dysfluencies. I also argue that the field has too long neglected Demosthenes, famed stutterer, and I suggest that his fabled dysfluency created some of the rhetorical strategies we now rely on. This work posits that Demosthenes's life story may also be considered one of the first "overcoming narratives," a narrative form common in Disability literature. While Disability Studies has recently quite firmly disavowed the overcoming narrative, I suggest that the "overcoming narrative" may provide an avenue for dysfluent speakers and student writers to voice their apprehensions, moments of uncertainty, and misunderstandings about the writing process. Moreover, I assert that dysfluency and its related narratives have been neglected in Disability Studies and suggest that their inclusion would strengthen the field's awareness of other lesser known (dis)abilities. Finally, I argue that an infusion of dysfluency into Composition theory and pedagogy would provide student writers and writing teachers with new, unexplored techniques and strategies for overcoming the moments when students find themselves unable to compose in the ways they may wish. Thus, dysfluency offers a unique way to study writing processes that could better provide guidance to student writers when they may need writing instructors the most--in times of dysfluency.
Sherrie Gradin (Committee Chair)
Mara Holt (Committee Member)
Eric LeMay (Committee Member)
Janis Holm (Committee Member)
David Descutner (Committee Member)
157 p.
Composition; Higher Education; Language Arts; Linguistics; Pedagogy; Rhetoric; Sociolinguistics; Speech Therapy; Teacher Education
Rhetoric; Composition; Disability; Dysfluency; Disfluency; Writing; Teaching; Stuttering; Writing Pedagogy; Speech; Speech dysfunction; Circumlocution; Process Pedagogy; Individualized Learning

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Meyer, C. A. (2013). Infusing Dysfluency into Rhetoric and Composition: Overcoming the Stutter [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1374080750

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Meyer, Craig. Infusing Dysfluency into Rhetoric and Composition: Overcoming the Stutter. 2013. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1374080750.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Meyer, Craig. "Infusing Dysfluency into Rhetoric and Composition: Overcoming the Stutter." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1374080750

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1374080750
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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.