| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77555 | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree. | en_US |
| dc.format | Monograph | |
| dc.format.medium | Electronic Resource | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | |
| dc.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dc.type | Dissertation | |
| dcterms.abstract | When mapped onto writing classrooms, improvisational acting provides students with an emphasis on communal ways of knowing that are not restricted to print alone. Improvisational theater promotes the use of multiple literacies, such as kinesthetic, visual, spatial, and aural intelligences, which supplement conventional print-based strategies in writing instruction. Through speaking, listening, and moving, students collectively produce a text--an improvised performance--that stems from the spontaneous interactions and multiple perspectives of an ensemble. In " Improvising in the Writing Classroom: How Improvisational Acting Transforms Invention in Social and Collaborative Contexts," I argue that employing improv techniques and principles in writing pedagogies advances a perspective of invention that more closely resembles ancient rhetorical theories, which underscored communal knowledge. By tapping into social and collaborative forms of invention, improvisational acting enhances students' abilities to generate ideas, investigate alternative viewpoints, and examine new arguments through dramatic enactment. In this project, I draw upon research in fields in and outside of Composition Studies as well as my own research study, approved by Stony Brook University's Institutional Review Board. In the fall of 2012, I conducted a classroom-sized study with undergraduates in Stony Brook's WRT 102 course. I adapted several improv exercises and a role-play to meet the objectives of a persuasive writing assignment. The results of my study offer a real-world illustration of how writing instructors might incorporate improvisation into composition classrooms to raise students' awareness of audience and their knowledge of rhetoric. I offer detailed findings from student interviews and a comparative analysis of students' texts, written before and after their participation in improvisation. Overall, I argue that students' revised writing reflects a heightened awareness of audience in the new rhetorical choices they made in their second drafts. While this study highlights one particular instance in which students employed improvisational acting, it suggests ways in which instructors might take greater advantage of this method to help students more effectively engage with invention. I offer recommendations for creating a classroom environment that engages students and teachers with improvisation and that provides various opportunities to integrate improv, including some that are linked to a specific writing assignment and others that are not. Constructing this type of space helps students and teachers practice the principles and structures of improv while fostering an openness to taking creative risks, experimenting with new ideas, and examining multiple perspectives in new ways. | |
| dcterms.available | 2017-09-20T16:52:54Z | |
| dcterms.contributor | Lindblom, Ken | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Dunn, Patricia A. | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Hammond, Eugene | en_US |
| dcterms.contributor | Halbritter, Bump. | en_US |
| dcterms.creator | Esposito, Lauren | |
| dcterms.dateAccepted | 2017-09-20T16:52:54Z | |
| dcterms.dateSubmitted | 2017-09-20T16:52:54Z | |
| dcterms.description | Department of English. | en_US |
| dcterms.extent | 255 pg. | en_US |
| dcterms.format | Monograph | |
| dcterms.format | Application/PDF | en_US |
| dcterms.identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77555 | |
| dcterms.issued | 2014-12-01 | |
| dcterms.language | en_US | |
| dcterms.provenance | Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-20T16:52:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1
Esposito_grad.sunysb_0771E_12169.pdf: 1113634 bytes, checksum: 2f85768274d1fb2c03ae0fd1d6ddce5c (MD5)
Previous issue date: 1 | en |
| dcterms.publisher | The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY. | |
| dcterms.subject | composition, drama, improvisation, performance, rhetoric, writing | |
| dcterms.subject | Rhetoric | |
| dcterms.title | Improvising in the Writing Classroom: How Improvisational Acting Transforms Invention in Social and Collaborative Contexts | |
| dcterms.type | Dissertation | |
