University Libraries

By Maureen Schlangen

Volume 7 of Line by Line, the University of Dayton’s open-access journal of beginning student writing, was published today, featuring nine works of research, creativity and reflection from students in the first- and second-year writing program in the Department of English.

The journal, available free worldwide on eCommons, UD’s institutional repository, provides students the opportunity to develop their writing for an audience far wider than faculty and classmates in composition courses. With the support of peers, faculty, Write Place consultants and the University Libraries, the students gather feedback, make improvements, submit their work and undergo peer and faculty review. Articles published in Line By Line have been downloaded more than 54,000 times since the journal’s launch in August 2014.

English professor Margaret M. Strain, director of writing programs and the journal’s editor since 2018, oversees the review and publication processes. The articles selected for publication are now undergoing adjudication for the Barbara Farrelly Award for Best Writing of the Issue and other prizes; honorees will be announced in June.

Submissions are now being accepted on the journal website.

Browse the latest articles

Below, each author provides a statement about the writing process. To read the full articles, use the links provided.

• Madeline Haara: “Cheating in the Digital Age of Art” (Fall 2019) — “I wrote this piece for my research assignment in English 198. The course topic was cheating, and my paper delves into the morality behind the reuse of artistic ideas. I use five scholarly articles to support my argument that artistic reproductions should be encouraged and the current legal systems require a change. My writing process included multiple drafts, peer review, and a review with my professor.” (Faculty: Ann Biswas)
• Amariá Jones: “The Moment in Which Time Took Over” (Fall 2019) — “While writing this paper, I felt that it was important for me to ‘let loose!’ I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to write about, but I knew that my abstract topic had to be time. There were so many stories that could’ve been shared, but I believe the appropriate ones made it into the final draft. The writing process concerning this assignment served to be challenging at times, but that was only due to the need of capturing time properly in order to convey the story I had been trying to tell. I enjoyed creating these pieces mainly because there were no restrictions. Writing has always proved to be friendly to me even when I do not display the same kindness back to it. When writing about time, I knew the ‘right things’ would be said because no one could experience those moments the way I had, not even the fictional ones. So, I’m glad to have gotten the opportunity to write these things down and to tell stories that have for so long been enclosed within my mind.” (Faculty: James Brooks)
• Timothy P. Roman: “Rotten in the State of Aragon: Possible Intrigue Under King James I” (Fall 2019) — “After analyzing a graphic novel tackling the Barcelona Disputation, I made an outline of the opposing arguments presented concerning the identity and legitimacy of the Abrahamic savior. I followed this with a rough draft, which I revised after a short conference with my professor.” (Faculty: Elizabeth Mackay)
• Daniel Sheldon: “Reading: The Starting Line of my Imagination” (Fall 2019) — “I asked my parents a few questions about how I learned to read. They started with my dad reading to me while my mom was still pregnant, so that is where I started. Between the questions my parents answered and my own memories, I was able to write about how reading was introduced into my life and what happened as a result.” (Faculty: Lori Phillips-Young)
• Melina A. Durham: “The Irony of the ‘God Fearing Man’” (Fall 2019) — “In this essay, my class was required to summarize Martin Luther's idea of justification by faith and then agree or disagree with his argument. I disagreed with Luther; then, I concluded my essay as to how his ideas still exist today in my hometown.” (Faculty: Elizabeth Mackay)
• Dorian A Miller: “The One, the Intellect, and the Soul … Oh My!” (Fall 2020) — “Outlining this essay required many steps between reconstruction and comparison among Plotinus’s Enneads, Plato’s Republic, and Genesis Chapters 1-3. First in the draft, I reconstructed Plotinus’s argument about the three hypostases and his cosmos. Next, I compared Plotinus’s theory of the Intellect to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and concluded with a comparison between Plotinus’s three hypostases and Genesis Chapters 1-3. I created my first full rough draft and attended a conference with Dr. [Elizabeth] Mackay; from there I used her provided revisions for a second rough draft. I then met with a Write Place consultant for a proofread and final edit to create the final draft.” (Faculty: Elizabeth Mackay)
• Grace Pierucci: “Modernity's Empty Symbols and Sequential Snobbery” (Fall 2020) — “We were assigned a paper in which we would reconstruct Orsi’s argument of the presence and demonstrate its prevalence in one of three options we read earlier that semester. I read some of Orsi’s work, focusing on breaking apart his arguments. I then made an outline for the paper, and Perpetua and Felicity's martyrdom fit the paper the best. I actually wrote the body first, adding an introduction and conclusion later in the process. I turned in one draft to Professor [William] Trollinger and met with the Core Write Place consultants twice before finishing the final draft.” (Faculty: William Trollinger)
• Emily Newcomer: “Tootsie Pop: Memorable Childhood Candy Commercial” (Fall 2020) — “Before I began writing the first draft I watched the Classic Tootsie Pop commercial multiple times and determined how the commercial effectively allured to the audience of both parents and their children. While I wrote my first draft, I continued to play the commercial and reminded myself of the lasting impact of this 1970s commercial as my classmates in elementary school conducted this licking experiment. After my first draft, I received feedback from a classmate and my professor. I took some of their advice, edited my paper, and turned it in.” (Faculty: Tereza Szeghi)
• Claire E. Snider: “Murder She Rewrote: Redefining the Female Presence in Crime Fiction” (Fall 2020) — “Brainstorming was first and foremost. Several ideas and possibilities for my final research paper came to me over a course of about a month before I finally settled on my topic. The next step was a brief outline that helped me visualize the setup for my final product. Formulating a list of unusual and powerful vocabulary was something that I sought out to do for this paper, so I ended up including a list at the end of my outline. My next step was to develop a research proposal, and this ended up being a condensed version of what ended up to be my paper. The next step, and what I saw as the most important step, was gathering scholarly articles as research sources. This took several days, and as I found articles, I took annotations and highlighted valuable quotes. Simultaneously, I drafted an annotated bibliography, something that I found extremely useful when constructing my final paper. After writing several drafts, I used peer edits and family recommendations to make revisions.” (Faculty: Lindsey Light)