‘In this post, I argue that…’: constructing argumentative discourse in scholarly law blog posts

Objective: Sexual assault victims often do not disclose their assaults or seek positive health outcomes. The RAINN Survivor Stories project shares testimonials in the form of online blogs from sexual assault survivors to motivate and encourage others to come forward and disclose their assaults. This study aimed to better understand the themes present in the survivor stories to motivate victims to disclose their assaults and seek positive health outcomes. Design: A theoretical thematic analysis was conducted on blog posts created for the project to identify (a) how the posts tell survivor stories and (b) how the posts model positive health outcomes using social cognitive theory and the disclosure processes model as a guide. Setting: Online setting linked to the rainn.org website. Method: Blog posts were collected for inductive thematic analysis. Themes were identified based on their prevalence in the data and their pertinence to the research questions. Results: Emerging themes included (a) overcoming initial disclosure, (b) overcoming the lasting effects of victimisation, (c) utilising support and (d) advocating for others after assault. Conclusion: Findings offer insight to researchers and practitioners creating media messages for sexual assault victims and other stigmatised groups by expanding understanding of modelled positive health outcomes in media and the disclosure process of victims.

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Reflective Writing about Near-Peer Blogs: A Novel Method for Introducing the Medical Humanities in Premedical Education

Journal of Medical Humanities ◽

10.1007/s10912-021-09693-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Rachel Conrad Bracken ◽

Ajay Major ◽

Aleena Paul ◽

Kirsten Ostherr

Keyword(s):

Medical Student ◽

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Narrative Analysis ◽

Academic Medicine ◽

Medical Humanities ◽

Peer Learning ◽

Peer To Peer ◽

Reflective Writing ◽

Premedical Students ◽

Blog Posts

AbstractNarrative analysis, creative writing, and interactive reflective writing have been identified as valuable for professional identity formation and resilience among medical and premedical students alike. This study proposes that medical student blogs are novel pedagogical tools for fostering peer-to-peer learning in academic medicine and are currently underutilized as a near-peer resource for premedical students to learn about the medical profession. To evaluate the pedagogical utility of medical student blogs for introducing core themes in the medical humanities, the authors conducted qualitative analysis of one hundred seventy-six reflective essays by baccalaureate premedical students written in response to medical student-authored narrative blog posts. Using an iterative thematic approach, the authors identified common patterns in the reflective essays, distilled major themes, coded the essays, and conducted narrative analysis through close reading. Qualitative analysis identified three core themes (empathic conflict, bias in healthcare, and the humanity of medicine) and one overarching theme (near-peer affinities). The premedical students’ essays demonstrated significant self-reflection in response to near-peer works, discussed their perceptions of medical professionalism, and expressed concerns about their future progress through the medical education system. The essays consistently attributed the impact of the medical student narratives to the authors’ status as near-peers. The authors conclude that reading and engaging in reflective writing about near-peer blog posts encourages premedical students to develop an understanding of core concepts in the medical humanities and promotes their reflection on the profession of medicine. Thus, incorporating online blogs written by medical trainees as narrative works in medical humanities classrooms is a novel pedagogical method for fostering peer-to-peer learning in academic medicine.

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Diversionary Comments under Blog Posts

ACM Transactions on the Web ◽

10.1145/2789211 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 1-34 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jing Wang ◽

Clement T. Yu ◽

Philip S. Yu ◽

Bing Liu ◽

Weiyi Meng

Keyword(s):

Blog Posts

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Reasoning and Appraisal in Multimodal Argumentation

Chinese Semiotic Studies ◽

10.1515/css-2020-0023 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (3) ◽

pp. 419-438

Author(s):

Ting Wu

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Appraisal Theory ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Argumentative Discourse ◽

Cultural Backgrounds ◽

Sound System ◽

Multimodal Discourse ◽

Semantic Resources ◽

Argumentative Reasoning

AbstractThe development of new media enlarges the repertoire of semantic resources in creating a discourse. Apart from language, visual and sound symbols can all become semantic sources, and a synergy of different modality and symbols can be used to complete argumentative reasoning and evaluation. In the framework of multimodal argumentation and appraisal theory, this study conducted quantitative and multimodal discourse analysis on a new media discourse Building a community of shared future for humankind and found that visual symbols can independently fulfill both reasoning and evaluation in the argumentative discourse. An interplay of multiple modalities constructs a multi-layered semantic source, with verbal subtitles as a frame and a sound system designed to reinforce the theme and mood. In addition, visual modality is implicit in constructing the stance and evaluation of the discourse, with the verbal mode playing the role of “anchoring,” i.e. providing explicit explanation. A synergy of visual, acoustic, and verbal modalities could effectively transmit conceptual, interpersonal, and discursive meanings, but the persuasive result with the audience from different cultural backgrounds might be mixed.

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Persistent argumentative discourse markers: The case of Hebrew rectification-marker be-ʕecem (‘actually’)

Journal of Pragmatics ◽

10.1016/j.pragma.2020.09.004 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 172 ◽

pp. 254-269

Author(s):

Ruti Bardenstein

Keyword(s):

Discourse Markers ◽

Argumentative Discourse

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Building a digital marketing internship program for technology-based start-ups: an exploratory study of student experiences

Higher Education Skills and Work-based Learning ◽

10.1108/heswbl-04-2021-0072 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

G. Russell Merz ◽

Jamie Ward ◽

Sufian Qrunfleh ◽

Bud Gibson

Keyword(s):

Factor Analysis ◽

Language Processing ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Study Data ◽

Student Experiences ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Content Type ◽

Student Interns ◽

Internship Programs ◽

Blog Posts

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the role and characteristics of the summer internship program (Digital Summer Clinic) delivered by Eastern Michigan University. The authors report the results of an exploratory study of interns participating in the Digital Summer Clinic over a five-year time period. The study captures and analyzes the experiences of interns as expressed in structured interviews and blog posts.Design/methodology/approachThe study data were text from structured interviews and blog posts capturing the “voice” of the interns. A natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text corpus, consisting of 43 interviews and blog posts, resulted in the identification of 242 unique stem-terms used by interns in describing the internship experiences. The authors used the JMP Pro 15.2 Text Explorer algorithm (It is defined as a suite of computer programs for statistical analysis developed by the JMP business unit of SAS Institute) to extract the terms that were subsequently transformed and analyzed with factor analysis and regression to address the research questions.FindingsThe factor analysis results found six dimensions or themes, defined by the stem-terms used by student interns, best described the internship experience. The authors then explored the relationship between the six themes and the umbrella term “internship” with multiple regression analysis. The regression findings suggest a hierarchy of effects with the theme “Introducing Professional Opportunities” being the theme most predictive of the umbrella term.Originality/valueThe methodology used within the paper is unique in several ways when compared to other research investigating internship programs. First, it uses NLP analysis for the qualitative analysis of text-based descriptions of student experiences over a five-year time horizon. Second, the data analysis uses transformed text to quantitatively determine the major dimensions or themes expressed by the interns about their experiences in the Summer Clinic program. Finally, the relative importance of the themes identified provided direction for future program development.

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