citation
Designer/Editor. (2005–06). Synopsis. Utah State University. [2006 Winner of STC Newsletter competition].
abstract
Synopsis is the print newsletter for Utah State University’s student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. I edited and directed the newsletter design as interim faculty advisor for the group.
accompanying materials
Tags: award, closed-access, collaborative, mentor, print, published, service-learning, undergraduates
citation
Designer/Producer. (2006). Sound in/as compositional space [Video + website]. Computers and Composition Online. http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/sound
abstract 
I designed this website and introductory video for the Sound special issue in C&C Online, which I guest-edited (with Byron Hawk). The video is a 2-minute mash-up/remix of the webtexts contained in the special issue and serves as our “letter from the guest editors” in a multimedia format. (Note: The video is hosted on my server because of space issues on the C&C Online server.)
accompanying materials
see also
Tags: cross-listed, DV, editorial column, multimedia, online, open-access, published, webtext
citation
Designer. (2007). For Allison Warner [Author], Constructing a tool for assessing scholarly webtexts. Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, Pedagogy, 12(1).
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.1/binder.html?topoi/warner/index.html
abstract
This webtext presents a tool for assessing the scholarly value of online journal publications. It is part of a larger study that uses Kairos webtexts to investigate the scholarly nature of online texts. The goal of this larger study is to deliver a rubric as an instrument to facilitate the acceptance of online texts within English Studies as evidence of scholarship for professional advancement. In order to understand more fully how an online text can be recognized and valued for its scholarly legitimacy, it is crucial to explore the nature of successful (published) online scholarship. The assessment tool presented in this webtext is comprised of questions that help to reveal commonalities and deviations in the function and value of traditional (print) scholarly conventions toward defining an emerging genre of online scholarship. This webtext is designed using a web browser interface that should be familiar to many web readers. Web browsers enable readers to view web pages and provide a gateway to finding information online. This webtext was intentionally designed to draw attention to the interactive ways in which readers can approach texts that are created in or remediated for the Web. This design is mimetic to my thesis, that scholarly webtexts need both familiar and new assessment tools in order to be valued by academic stakeholders.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, multimedia, online, open-access, peer-reviewed, published, webtext
citation
Ball, Cheryl E. (2002). Review of NMEDIAC: The Journal of New Media & Culture. In Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, Pedagogy, 7(3).
http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/7.3/binder.html?reviews/ball/index.html
abstract
NMEDIAC: The Journal of New Media and Culture is an online, peer-reviewed journal housed on the ibiblio server. The site is “a collaboration between the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill’s MetaLab, formerly known as SunSITE, and the Center for the Public Domain” (“about ibiblio“). The premise of NMEDIAC (pronounced inmediacy) is to publish “papers and audiovisual pieces which contextualize encoding/decoding environments and the discourses, ideologies, and human experiences/uses of new media apparatuses.” It is the journal’s intention to approach writing about new media through a “Cultural Studies and ‘critical Internet Studies’” lenses. When the inaugural issue hit the Web, I hoped the journal would fill a gap in scholarly new media studies. It does prove to do so — if in fits and starts — based on the first two issues.
accompanying materials
Tags: editorially-reviewed, online, open-access, pre-tenure track, published, webtext
citation
Ball, Cheryl E. (2003). Review of Inside the communication revolution: Evolving patterns of social & technical interaction, Robin Mansell (Ed.). Journal of Business & Technical Communication, 18, 248–251.
accompanying materials
Tags: closed-access, editorially-reviewed, pre-tenure track, print, published
citation
Ilyasova, Ksenia, & Ball, Cheryl E. (2004). Review of Writing spaces, 2nd ed., by Jay David Bolter. Technical Communication Quarterly, 13, 135–138.
abstract
self-explanatory
accompanying materials
Tags: closed-access, collaborative, editorially-reviewed, print, published
citation
Ball, Cheryl E. (2005). Trans-cultural multimedia production in an English classroom. Proceedings for Advancing the Effectiveness and Sustainability of Open Education Conference. Utah State University, Logan, UT.
abstract
In English studies, the past decade has seen a dramatic shift toward analysis and production of multimedia texts (c.f. Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Wysocki, Selfe, Johnson-Eilola, & Sirc, 2004). This shift is informed by the study of rhetoric, which we defi ne as reading and composing texts with an understanding of a specifi c audience, purpose, and context. In Dr. Ball’s Perspectives on Writing and Rhetoric class, students analyze creative multimodal texts using multiple reading strategies, and then compose their own texts. Although this generation of students is typically well-informed about technology, most of them have never encountered a digital, multimodal text whose purpose is primarily aesthetic. Studying the rhetorical situation in what literary theorists such as Eco and Rosenblatt would call an “open,” readerdriven, adaptable text provides a rich learning experience for students.In this class, students read several examples of open texts including “Murmuring Insects” (Ankerson, 2001), which successfully uses Eastern and Western multimodal elements—including written, aural, visual, animated, and other modes of communication—to juxtapose calm with fear while honoring the events of September 11, 2001. In this presentation, we show this piece in contrast to student-produced multimodal texts that attempt to adopt cultural contexts of other writers, often unsuccessfully. We conclude by suggesting why some students’ attempts at adaptation in these creative and social media are hindered by localized contexts. In addition, we demonstrate how students who don’t attempt to adapt their creative work to other’s contexts often make stronger rhetorical choices in their multimodal texts while still meeting the needs of various audiences.
see also
Tags: closed-access, peer-reviewed, print, published
citation
Council of Editors of Learned Journals. [Co-author on subcommittee for electronic journal guidelines]. (2008, May). Best Practices for Online Journal Editors. http://www.celj.org/downloads/CELJEjournalEditorsGuidelines.pdf
abstract
The Council of Editors of Learned Journals promotes electronic publishing as a legitimate method of disseminating creative and scholarly work in the humanities. The following compilation—representing the best current advice and practices of CELJ members—is intended to support editors of new and existing online journals in their efforts to produce publications whose value to the academy and to broader intellectual and artistic communities will be recognized. Online publication, for the purposes of these guidelines, includes serial journals and magazines that are specifically designed for digital access and that circulate on the World Wide Web, in library indexes, or in some other digital medium. Fundamentally, editors of online journals should uphold the highest standards of craft and/or scholarly thoroughness, accountability and fairness, as do editors of traditional print journals. However, there are additional dimensions to electronic publishing. The advice that follows takes into account concerns shared by all scholarly journals, regardless of medium, as well as concerns specific to online publication.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, non-refereed, online, open-access, print, published, white paper
citation
Ball, Cheryl E.; Ferraro, Lora; Rossi, Rebecca; & Schulz, Christina; et al. (16 authors). (2008, August 22). Who is the future employer? New Leadership Board of the Economic Development Council, Bloomington-Normal, IL.
abstract
Since the start of the decade, Bloomington‐Normal has watched neighboring downstate communities, including Decatur and Galesburg, respond to de‐industrialization, unemployment, and heightened anxiety about long‐term employment and quality of life for residents. We have been impacted far less
than these neighbors. However, Bloomington‐Normal residents, employers, and employees—including
this New Leadership Board and the Economic Development Council—must keep an eye on the national
trends affecting our economy, as well as steward a customized plan that maintains existing employers
while also attracting new ones to our region. We’re glad to be part of what promises to be an ongoing conversation within the Bloomington‐Normal
community and offer the EDC this report comprised of the following sections:
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, community, non-refereed, print, published, white paper
citation
Johnson, Matt; Ball, Cheryl E.; et al. (13 authors). (2008, November 14). Who’s the boss? New Leadership Board of the Economic Development Council, Bloomington-Normal, IL.
abstract
In “Future of the Workplace,” The New Leadership Board uncovered the quintessence of younger generational workers and its effects on the workforce: what motivates employees, the future employer, and what the future workplace will be. By addressing the conceptual aspects of how and where these generations work, it opens the discussion for more concrete recommendations, specifically, what can be done, and under what structure would they best work. That which motivates or deters an employee will most certainly affect what management structure they perform best within. Therefore, it is imperative that we acknowledge those characteristics to determine the foundation of our recommendations. In Management Structures, we look first to examine the history and nature of current structures. We will propose our insight and opinions as to the most effective model, and present recommendations, both to the EDC, as well as the general business populace, as to what forms of management structure and what other measures will help guide our economy in the future to greater prosperity.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, community, non-refereed, print, published, white paper
citation
DeWitt, Scott Lloyd, & Ball, Cheryl E. (2008, May). Manifestos! [Special issue]. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, 12(3). http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/12.3/
abstract
Wrought with connotation, politically and emotionally charged, manifestos call us to action and demand change—in the streets, in the workplace, in our classrooms, in our minds, and in the virtual spaces we inhabit. Put the manifesto in a mediated space that typically features scholarly work, and it provokes different change-actions. The form of a manifesto seeks sizeable response and has the ability to move an argument quickly to the forefront of a conversation (and keep it there). The manifesto’s typical dense state and its sometimes confrontational approach make it easily susceptible to critique yet can quickly facilitate invention for new scholarly conversations and directions. If our scholarship seems too cutting-edge, too in-your-face, despite its having been deeply considered, then it is reserved for discussing around conference-hotel bars, on listservs and blogs, or over dinner and wine in the backyard patio. We don’t often make the leap to publishing it in scholarly journals. Why? Because these ideas often don’t take the shape of traditional scholarship—even with respect to the different traditions of scholarship in a journal like Kairos. The Manifesto Issue is our answer to these questions.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, online, open-access, peer-reviewed, published, webtext
citation
Anderson, Daniel; Anthony Atkins, Cheryl Ball, Krista Homicz Millar, Cynthia Selfe, Dickie Selfe [Writers], & Matt Bemer [Designer]. (2006). Data from a CCCC research grant survey on teaching multimodal composition. Composition Studies 34(2). http://www.compositionstudies.tcu.edu/archives/342/cccc-data/
abstract
This website accompanies an article appearing in the print version of Composition Studies entitled “Integrating Multimodality in Composition Curricula: Survey Methodology and Results from a CCCC Research Initiative Grant.” In that article the authors provided methodologies and outcomes of a national survey conducted in 2005 to discover how instructors use multimodal composition practices in their writing classrooms and research. Supported by a research initiative of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the survey was designed to identify instruction in which students and faculty members produce (not just analyze) multimodal texts. The aim of that article is to present a snapshot of instructors working to integrate these new semiotic forms into writing classes. The data in this report includes the questions from and responses to the 141-question survey.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, data, grant outcome, online, open-access, published, undergraduate, webtext
citation
Ball, Cheryl E., & Hewett, Beth L. (2004). The rhetoric and pedagogy of portable technologies [column + graphic]. Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, Pedagogy, 9(1). http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/9.1
description
Issue art designed by Cheryl E. Ball
This editorial column introduced four webtexts on wireless technologies, focusing on the rhetoric and pedagogy of wireless labs and writing classrooms, but also on whether these technologies actually help or hinder our teaching.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, editorial column, graphic, multimedia, online, open-access, published
citation
Ball, Cheryl E., & Hewett, Beth L. (2006). Computers & Writing 2005: New writing and computer technologies. Kairos: Rhetoric, Technology, Pedagogy, 10(2). http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/10.2/binder2.html?coverweb/bridge.htm
description
Issue art designed by Leah Cassorla
This editorial column focuses on webtexts that originated as presentations at the 2005 Computers and Writing conference. This CoverWeb (themed) section contained six webtexts on a range of topics related to technology and writing studies.
accompanying materials
Tags: collaborative, editorial column, multimedia, online, open-access, published
citation
Ball, Cheryl E., & Hawk, Byron. (2006). Letter from the guest editors. Computers and Composition, 23(3), 263–265.
abstract
Because of the rise in multiliteracies scholarship since 1999, and with it a dramatic increase in the kinds of texts students read and compose in writing classrooms, this special issue hopes to introduce readers to a next step in multiliteracies composition. That is, we’ve moved—as a field—from linguistic to visual meaning-making, all in digital environments; so, a logical progression is to include other modes of meaning including audio. In doing so, we hope to provide readers with an overview of how a multiliteracies approach that incorporates attention to audio is possible within composition studies. The seven articles in this issue explore forms of audio from several theoretical, historical, and musical perspectives, adding a breadth and richness to current scholarship that uses sound in compositional practices. The authors discuss a range of sonic genres including opera, hip-hop, rock-n-roll, as well as voiceovers and soundtracks. The timeline of these genres covers centuries, from Wagner to digital multimodality (if not virtual reality, although that’s mentioned along the way). The authors connect their discussion of audio—from sampling, sound effects, professional and amateur recordings, and hypermediation—to composition and knowledge-making methods as diverse as using citation systems and teaching sonic literacies.
accompanying materials
Tags: closed-access, collaborative, editorial column, print, published
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