Megan McIntyre

Assistant Professor
https://www.meganmmcintyre.com
University of Arkansas

Megan McIntyre is an Advanced Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition and Director of the Program in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Arkansas. She has previously held similar positions at Sonoma State University (2018-2022) Dartmouth College (2015-2018), where she worked as Assistant Director of Program Development. She received her PhD from the University of South Florida in 2015, and her research interests include digital rhetoric and writing, antiracist pedagogy and writing program administration, and postpedagogy. You can find her most recent work in Present Tense, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, Academic Labor, Prompt, Composition Forum and WPA: Writing Program Administration.

  1. Establishing Your Professional Self: Résumé Writing

    Compiling a résumé can feel like a daunting task. Just like essay writing, résumé creation works well as a process. Before worrying about the format of the résumé and where to place everything in a document, consider beginning by compiling an informal list of past and present work experience and education. Once you have a first draft, look at résumés...

    Published on May 26th 2015

  2. Ethos

    I've always wondered why candidates have to "approve this message"; I mean, if President Obama is on camera talking about himself, then can't I assume he approves the message? Why does he have to state that he approves it at the end? There's certainly a law that governs what must be said at the end of a political advertisement, or...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  3. Fallacious Ethos

    Ad Hominem (Argument to the Person): Attacking the person instead of the argument. For example, "You say I shouldn't drink so much, but you drink every day." The validity of the argument (drink less) can't be based on the behavior of the person making the argument. Instead, the validity of the argument should be evaluated on its own terms—separate from...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  4. Fallacious Kairos

    Red Herring: Introducing irrelevant facts or claims to detract from the actual argument. For instance, our invasion of Iraq was predicated, in part, upon the connection between the attacks of 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. The war was described by some as an appropriate response to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, but in reality, the connection between Iraq and Saddam Hussein was...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  5. Fallacious Logos

    Appeal to Nature: Suggesting a certain behavior or action is normal/right because it is "natural." This is a fallacious argument for two reasons: first, there are multiple, and often competing, ways to define "nature" and "natural." Because there is no one way to define these terms, a writer cannot assume his or her reader thinks of "nature" in the same way...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  6. Fallacious Pathos

    Argument by Dismissal: Rejecting an idea without providing a reason or explanation for its dismissal. For instance, there is a tendency to cry "socialism" when faced with calls for a single-payer system in the ongoing health care debate. Such a dismissal of the single-payer system may include the observations, "This is America!," or, "You are free to live elsewhere if...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  7. Intrinsic Authority

    Intrinsic Authority refers to the authority that comes from the rhetor herself. It might come from her work experience or college degrees or generally good morality, or it might come from how well she demonstrates that she can speak or write about her topic. Related Concepts: Appeals to Authority; Authority (in Writing & Speech); Critical Literacy; Ethos; Fallacious Ethos; Interpretation,...

    Published on Dec 17th 2019

  8. Logical Fallacies

    Logical Fallacies refers to errors in reasoning that lead to faulty conclusions. In classical logic, an argument is sound only if all of its premises are true and the argument is valid. And an argument is valid only if its conclusion follows logically from the combination of its premises. For example, Plato’s classic syllogism, “All men are mortal; Socrates is...

    Published on Apr 16th 2012

  9. The Thesis

    The main idea. The argument of an essay. The thesis. It’s a tricky thing to define “thesis” because theses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. A thesis can be a sentence, two sentences, perhaps even an entire paragraph. Every thesis, though, regardless of where in an essay it appears, does a few important things: A thesis acts as...

    Published on May 31st 2012

  10. Tips for Writing a Cover Letter

    When applying for jobs, a well-written cover letter is just as important as a well-written resume. While the resume is designed to provide an overview of your relevant skills and qualifications, the cover letter is your opportunity to discuss relevant experiences, connect those experience to qualities and qualifications from the job ad, and to display your personality to your reader....

    Published on Oct 30th 2014

  11. Working Through Revision: Rethink, Revise, Reflect

    Revision is what happens after you’ve written something; this might mean you have a full draft or a paragraph or two. It’s an opportunity for you to revisit your work, rethink your approach, and make changes to your text so that your work better fits the task you were given or your goals for writing in the first place. In...

    Published on Aug 12th 2021