I came to the K-State M.A. program in English not knowing what to expect or what my future held. My drive as a lifelong learner led me here, but as a first-generation student, I had no idea what it meant to be in a Master’s program or if I deserved my spot here.
My worries were quickly evaporated through the support and encouragement from the faculty in this program. After listening to my career interests, my advisor suggested I pursue the Composition/Rhetoric track. The next step was to figure out what it meant to study composition and rhetoric and what a final project in that field would look like.
My M.A. project, “Listening to Link: The Rhetorical Effects of Sound in a Digital Space,” derived from Abby Knoblauch’s rhetoric class titled “On the Edge of Rhetoric” in which we studied rhetorics beyond what we think of as traditional rhetoric to include disability rhetoric, fat rhetoric, and sensory rhetoric. When reading more about sound rhetoric, I was very interested in how sound not only functions rhetorically within our actual work but in digital projects such as video games. What began as an experiential project to discuss how sound is used in video games turned into my M.A. project in which I explore the rhetorical effects of sound in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to communicate with and persuade players into decision making. I used a digital format to write an analysis of these sounds while incorporating videos of gameplay to show how sound creates an immersive experience, communicates important information for players, and serves as a reward for players’ actions.
I never would have thought that one of my newly-found passions would be my emphasis of study in an academic setting but I have had full support from the K-State faculty to pursue topics that interest me. This has made all the difference when it comes to developing and completing my M.A. project.
Hannah Rollison (MA ’22)
K-State English 
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