The purposes of this research is to explore the effects of cynical and optimistic outlooks on effective communication between Western Washington University students. A student’s identification as a cynic, an optimist, or somewhere in between can reflect their development and sense of personal rhetoric, as well as its correlation to the effectiveness of their communication methods. If willing to participate, your role will be to fill out a reflective lengthy survey or a condensed survey and share your personal experiences of communication at Western, your favored methods of communication, and the individual rhetoric you employ to express yourself to others. Your results will be synthesized with the responses from other Western Washington University students and analyzed for this English 101 research project.
Looking for any and all WWU students. If interested, please contact me at libmanc@wwu.edu and/or complete the following survey. Thank you!
Some more background detail on this research proposal:
I intend to study the internal and personal factors contributing to Western Washington University students’ classification of themselves as a cynic or an optimist. Furthermore, I will focus on the implications of cynicism on these students’ large and small scale communication experiences to determine their personal rhetoric and methods of communication. Why does negativity spread, and what is the explanation for how a cynical outlook can take a toll on how students perceive communicating with others? Therefore my research can potentially determine how the extent of cynicism in a college student’s life is reflective of their personal rhetoric in expressing themselves and communicating. Has society really evolved to a point where donning the negative attitude, outlook, and/or mental state of another is more appealing than taking the time and effort to develop a progressive and self-motivated perspective? Not necessarily; thus leading to my overall research question, how and why do Western Washington University students classify themselves as either cynic or an optimist, and how does that perspective affect the effectiveness of their personal rhetoric development and communication methods?