Biography
I research the ways that writers contend with interactive and participatory audiences on the Internet, including via user design. I teach technical writing, including search engine optimization, data visualization, visual rhetoric, interviewing techniques, document design, and digital rhetoric. I value students as holistic people and not a set of skills.
Research Interests
I study the way writers contend with participatory audiences in the context of Web 2.0. I specialize in qualitative research methods; in particular, case study methodologies. I also draw on quantitative methods, such as web-scraping and computational analysis, to study online comments and participatory audiences.
- Writing Studies
- Audience Theory
- Web 2.0
- New Media
- Online Participatory Cultures
- User design
- Online ethics
- Search Engine Optimization
Courses Taught
- BTW 250
- BTW 490
- ENGL 582
- ENGL 380
- ENGL 482
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Director, Center for Writing Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Gallagher, J. R. (2020). Update Culture and the Afterlife of Digital Writing. Utah State University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvvh85pr
Gallagher, J. R., & DeVoss, D. N. (Eds.) (2019). Explanation Points: Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition. Utah State University Press.
Recent Publications
Zhu, J., Wickes, E., & Gallagher, J. R. (Accepted/In press). A Machine Learning Algorithm for Sorting Online Comments via Topic Modeling. Communication Design Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.1145/3453460.3453462
Gallagher, J., Turnipseed, N., Yoritomo, J. Y., Elliott, C. M., Cooper, S. L., Popovics, J. S., Prior, P. A., & Zilles, J. (2020). A collaborative longitudinal design for supporting writing pedagogies of STEM faculty. Technical Communication Quarterly, 29(4), 411-426. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2020.1713405
Gallagher, J. R., & DeVoss, D. N. (Eds.) (2020). Data Visualization in Composition Studies. Kairos, 25(1).
Gallagher, J. R. (2020). Machine Time: Unifying Chronos and Kairos in an Era of Ubiquitous Technologies. Rhetoric Review, 39(4), 522-535. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2020.1805573
Gallagher, J. R., Chen, Y., Wagner, K., Wang, X., Zeng, J., & Kong, A. L. (2020). Peering into the Internet Abyss: Using Big Data Audience Analysis to Understand Online Comments. Technical Communication Quarterly, 29(2), 155-173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2019.1634766