[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-599329-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-599329-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","tracing-ableisms-rhetorical-circulation-through-an-analysis-of-composition-mission-statements","Tracing Ableism’s Rhetorical Circulation through an Analysis of Composition Mission Statements","","Universities use mission statements to standardize language and promote inclusion, yet such documentation can exclude disabled students and instructors by advancing normative assimilation. This study draws on disability studies and technical/professional communication theory to model corpus linguistic analysis of mission statements from thirty-two research-1 institutions. Using WordSmith Tools to examine frequency, concordances, and collocations, it finds that efforts to universalize experience can normalize structures that circulate ableism.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/tracing-ableisms-rhetorical-circulation-through-an-analysis-of-composition-mission-statements/599329/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/tracing-ableisms-rhetorical-circulation-through-an-analysis-of-composition-mission-statements/599329.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"WPS_1790064749","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",8,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why do mission statements in universities sometimes fail to achieve true inclusion?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"They often use standardizing language that disregards embodied differences like disability, producing conditional inclusion. By aligning individuals with normative expectations, the documents can exclude disabled identities.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the study trace the circulation of ableism through documents?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It treats ableism as rhetorical circulation linked to neoliberal rhetoric and analyzes mission statements for discursive constructions. The study uses corpus linguistic techniques to track how ableist meanings appear across seemingly neutral spaces.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What method and evidence does the study use?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The study uses WordSmith Tools to perform corpus linguistic analysis on mission statements from thirty-two Research-1 institutions. It examines frequency, concordances, and collocations to identify how student and faculty identities are constructed.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},599329,1792164984,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,106,111,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":102,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":103,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":105},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":107,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":108,"show_sort_weight":109,"slug":110},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":55,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},3985747859154,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Tracing Ableism’s Rhetorical Circulation through an Analysis of Composition Mission Statements  \nKristin C. Bennett  \nCirculated documents, like mission statements, demarcate normative boundaries related to student and instructor identities, behaviors, and experiences. In attempting to create inclusive documentation, universities frequently use standardizing language. While promoting standardization, however, such documents may prove exclusive by disregarding a range of student and instructor identities and abilities. Grounded in insights from disability studies and technical and professional communication theory, this study models the use of corpus linguistic analysis for analyzing mission statements, thereby providing interdisciplinary methods for writing programs to evaluate the documents they create and circulate. The findings show that by attempting to universalize experience, composition programs may contribute to normalizing structures that circulate ableism. These findings help programs recognize the discursive impact that mission statements may have by illustrating how ableism may move across even seemingly neutral spaces. In turn, the article calls for composition studies to consider critical documentation practices that prioritize disability and offers data-driven guidelines for revising mission statements.  \nIntroduction  \nUniversities frequently turn to universal standards to promote inclusion and transcend student and faculty difference. However, the field of technical and professional communication (TPC) argues that when relying upon“normative commonplaces,” institutions may, in fact, dictate “rigid ideals”that contribute to the ongoing exclusion of disabled individuals by confusing inclusion with normative assimilation (Konrad 135).1 When using standardizing language across their documentation practices, university professionals do not account for uniquely embodied differences like those represented by disability. Furthermore, such practices may contribute to the circulation of ableism, which positions particular individuals as disabled, or “lacking” when they do not meet standard embodied norms (Cherney 8) . Standardized documentation practices may thus communicate conditional notions of inclusion that contribute to ableism’s movement across university spaces by endorsing individual alignment with the status quo.  \nComposition Studies 49.3 (2021): 74-100  \nTo understand the circulation of ableism, one must first understand neoliberalism, which denotes “a set of economic principles and cultural politics that positions the free market as a guide for all human action”(Stenberg 4-6) . Striving for “profit, control, and efficiency,” neoliberal standards frame certain bodyminds and behaviors as more productive and, consequently, more able than others (Giroux 434).2 Neoliberalism normalizes such productive, ableist standards by endorsing them as natural and encouraging individuals to align with them. When university professionals rely on seemingly neutral standards of productivity across classroom and departmental documentation practices, they may thus be circulating ableist ideals.  \nAs the field ofTPC has recognized, institutional documentation practices directly impact individual understandings of identity by framing certain behaviors, values, and standards as normal (Slack et al. 28). Specifically, technical and professional communicators have identified how reliance on seemingly neutral, universal norms across institutional documentation practices may exclude disabled identities. As mission statement documents articulate departmental values and behavioral standards, it is critical that composition programs and independent writing departments better understand if and how such documents may disregard disabled bodyminds and contribute to institutional ableism.  \nResponding to Tara Wood et al.’s 2014 call to integrate disability as “central” to composition, this article recommends an epistemic shift to composition d","cbCaillzlEgm5sH0","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaillzlEgm5sH0","pdf",226029,27,"English","# Introduction\n## The Ableism of Neoliberal Documentation\n## Method and Corpus Analysis\n## Guidelines for Revising Mission Statements","[{\"question\":\"Why do mission statements in universities sometimes fail to achieve true inclusion?\",\"answer\":\"They often use standardizing language that disregards embodied differences like disability, producing conditional inclusion. By aligning individuals with normative expectations, the documents can exclude disabled identities.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study trace the circulation of ableism through documents?\",\"answer\":\"It treats ableism as rhetorical circulation linked to neoliberal rhetoric and analyzes mission statements for discursive constructions. The study uses corpus linguistic techniques to track how ableist meanings appear across seemingly neutral spaces.\"},{\"question\":\"What method and evidence does the study use?\",\"answer\":\"The study uses WordSmith Tools to perform corpus linguistic analysis on mission statements from thirty-two Research-1 institutions. It examines frequency, concordances, and collocations to identify how student and faculty identities are constructed.\"}]","Tracing Ableism’s Rhetorical Circulation through an Analysis of Composition Mission Statements | PDF",1792088571,68]