Three OU students presented at national rhetoric conference

This spring, three Oakland University students had the distinct honor of presenting at the 2011 National Convention for the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Held in Atlanta, the event showcased the work of professional scholars from around the country.

“It is almost unheard of for undergraduates to present at this conference, as proposals are peer reviewed and competitive, with an acceptance rate of only about 30 percent,” said Dr. Greg Giberson, assistant professor in Oakland’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric.

OU students Amanda Deschamps, Jason Carabelli and Jake Matthews were part of a five-member panel that presented original research on the field of writing and rhetoric.

Prior to the conference, Dr. Giberson guided the trio through a year-long process of creating and refining their proposals.

“I helped each student researcher develop short descriptions of their individual projects and helped them make connections between all of them to provide a meaningful context for the panel as a whole,” Dr. Giberson explained.

Deschamps said that while sticking with a single topic for a year was difficult, the benefits of the conference were well worth the effort.

“This experience opened up an entirely different world of academia that I had previously only been told about,” she said. “Seeing and experiencing the conference first hand helped put into context the field of writing and rhetoric outside of my experiences at Oakland.”

Titled “Undergraduate Writing Majors: Opening Space for New Voices," Carabelli’s presentation examined how the growth of undergraduate writing programs nationally will influence the field of writing and rhetoric. His research focused on a survey he conducted among OU undergraduate writing and rhetoric majors.

“I asked questions about how students saw the major relating to the whole field and what they saw as the overall purpose of their degree,” Carabelli explained.

The research was especially relevant, he said, because of the rarity of undergraduate writing and rhetoric programs nationwide.

“Since undergraduate majors like OU's are very new and very rare, the field, which is comprised mostly of masters and Ph.D. programs, has little information about them,” Carabelli said. “Also, it is not typical for undergraduates to attend the conference, let alone present, so that was an interesting draw for the panel as well.”

For more information on OU’s Department of Writing and Rhetoric, visit the website at oakland.edu/wrt.