I'm Matt, and I'm pursuing a PhD in Writing and Rhetoric at George Mason University. I also happen to work here as an advisor in the School of Policy, Government and International Affairs. I have a Masters degree in Social Work and a Bachelor's degree in English (Creative Writing) and Psychology.
For all intents and purposes I want to be a wizard and/or Indiana Jones. Writing and Rhetoric is close enough.
My primary object of inquiry is the field of tabletop roleplaying games (TRPGs). There's a fair amount of fascinating scholarship in this area by a number of different disciplines, making an interdisciplinary program like Writing and Rhetoric an extremely compelling method of pursuing scholarship into both dragons and dungeons.
I also plan to study the rhetorics of video games. There's a fair amount of scholarly and practical overlap with TRPGs, but let's face it: I'm basically choosing my lines of inquiry based on the presumption that the literature might benefit from the fact that I am a huge nerd. I'm also very fortunate that my program has not one, but two scholars specializing in this area: Dr. Eyman and Dr. Holmes.
The primary purpose of this blog is a tool for me to help organize and focus the work I have done and will be doing. The secondary purpose is to make resources I find easily available to others who want to do something similar. The tertiary purpose is to use this blog to appear like a real adult human scholar who can do real scholarly things like research blogs and networks and citing Clay Spinuzzi.
Below, you'll find a corpus of sources that I've organized based on my ongoing research, as well as my notes on what is interesting and fun about them. This post will be edited with updates as I move along.
Last Update: June 1st, 2015
If you use any of this for some of your own work, please let me know so I can get all giddy and excited that somebody actually cited something I did!
Glossary of Jargon
Genre: A pattern of socially-shaped and agreed upon communication. A genre is something like a memo or a meeting that follows particular rules within a given setting. It is shaped by and in returns shapes the organization that it 'originates' from (though 'origin' might not be the right word, given that something like a memo has been passed down from generation to generation and between institutions for most of recorded history).Genre System: A genre system is a bunch of genres working together to produce a thing. Bazerman (1994) uses the excellent example of patents! A patent is a whole collection of different kinds of discourses bundled together (like plans, judicial proceedings, etc.) to produce a new thing. It is also worth noting that these systems are often very dependent on sequencing and timing. Coupling the concept of genre systems with other paradigms of information systems might prove fruitful.
Reflexivity: When you apply the models you use on the subjects for your research on your study (or field of study) itself. It's basically a form of introspection. The term is also occasionally used for any form of introspection the research authors undertake.
Scholarly Sources: TRPGs and Video Games
Immersive Gameplay
Torner, Evan, and William J. White. Immersive Gameplay Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing. Jefferson: McFarland, 2012.
Foundational to my start as a scholar in this field. Also very useful if one is tackling the idea of 'immersion' in gaming, which is often one of the goals of TRPGs and video games (I'm guessing because the general idea is escapism). Has some good TRPG scholarly jargon to throw around. Also advocates for reflexivity in TRPG research, which is a principle I like. For my purposes, this work is also super exciting in the fact that it has a specific call to action for research involving the organizational characteristics and discourses involved in TRPG publication.
Scholarly Sources: Genres and Genre Systems
Bazerman, C. 1994. Systems of Genres and the enactment of social intentions. Genre and
the New Rhetoric, A. Freedman and P. Medway, Eds., Taylor & Francis, London 79-101.
Bazerman demonstrates the concept of genre systems through an investigation of late 19th century U.S. patent law and procedures. Many of the genres he presents are dependent upon others: laws are brought about through “proceedings, negotiations, letters, studies”. He demonstrates how a law or a patent is dependent not only on other genres, but on the sequence and timing with which those genres are employed. Patents are useful as the system that generates patents is made up of groups of supporting documents without which the patent itself could not exist. This article is particularly useful for reference as it is the origination of the genre system model. Also might be useful if I ever decide to do anything regarding patent reform.
Miller, Carolyn R. "Genre As Social Action." Quarterly Journal Of Speech 70.2 (1984): 151-167. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 27 May 2015.
Miller points out that "a genre is not just a pattern of forms or even a method of achieving our own ends", but is rather an always evolving method by which groups produce a pattern discourse and is distinct from form, at least in the way that Severus Snape is one specific expression of House Slytherin.
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| It's my research blog, so I get as much Alan Rickman as I want. |
She also points out it's "the rhetorical means for mediating private intentions and social exigence"; it's a vehicle of communication that the group has decided is appropriate for that particular kind of communication.
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