Methods for Researching Writing and Writing Processes
Winter 2004 Thursday 9-12 Phelps
Professor Charles Bazerman
Phelps 2313 Office Hours: by appt.
(805) 893-7543
bazerman@education.ucsb.edu
This course examines, develops principles, and provides practice in methods of investigating writing in and out of the classroom. This course will consider standard techniques of qualitative and quantitative research in their applicability to questions of writing and writing process such as quantitative classroom intervention studies, survey research, case studies, ethnographies, small and large sample longitudinal studies, and talk aloud protocols. Special adaptations of standard techniques, such as the text-based interview, comparative studies of drafts, and text circulation network studies, will also be examined. Problems of assessing writing skills and quality will be considered in relation to research questions. Finally the use of writing research as a means of increasing reflectivity in the practice of teachers and students will be considered.
At Campus Store: Charles Cooper and Lee Odell. Evaluating Writing. NCTE, 1999.
Nancy Welch et al. The Dissertation and The Discipline. Boynton/Cook, 2002.
At Associated Students Printing: Reader
Distributed: MacNealy, Mary Sue. Empirical Research in Writing. Allyn & Bacon, 1999
224C Research Methods for Writing and Writing Processes
Week 1. 1/8 What makes studying writing different than studying other aspects of teaching and learning?
All: MacNealy Chapters 3, 4, 6
Reports: Michael Palmquist & Richard Young. "The Notion of Giftedness and Student Expectations about Writing." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 513-549.
Week 2. 1/15 Experiments: Reading and Writing under Special Conditions
All: MacNealy Chapter 5
Heidi Swarts, Linda Flower, and John Hayes. "Designing Protocol Studies of the Writing Process: An Introduction." New Directions in Composition Research. Ed. Richard Beach and Lillian Bridwell. Guilford, 1984. pp. 53-71.
Reports: George Hillocks. The Effects of Observational Activities on Student Writing. ." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 409-431.
Gary Schumacher et al. "Expertise in News Writing." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 247-286.
Nancy Spivey. Discourse Synthesis." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 467-512.
Presentation: Karen Lunsford 9am
Week 3. 1/22 Evaluating Writing and Writing Skill for Research
Reports: Cooper & O'Dell chapters
All: Burstein, Chodorow& Leacock "Criterion Online Essay Evaluation:
Donald Powers et al "Stumping E-Rater."
Rhetorical Structure Theory website http://www.sil.org/~mannb/rst/index.htm
E-rater research website http://www.ets.org/erater/research.html
Presentation: Lynn Koegel 10:45
All: MacNealy Chapters 8 & 9
Reports: Robert K. Merton. The Focused Interview. Free Press, 1956. Pp. 3-20.
Lee Odell, Dixie Goswami, & Anne Herrington. "The Discourse Based Interview." In Mosenthal et al (eds). Research on Writing. Longmans, 1983. Pp. 221-236.
Presentation: Sue McLeod 11am
All: Anne Herrington and Marcia Curtis. Persons in Process . Urbana Il: NCTE, 2000. Pp. 1-53; 399-407.
Marilyn Sternglass. Time to Know Them. Mahwah NJ; Erlbaum, 1997. 1-27.
Presentation: Janis Forman, Anderson School of Business, 9am
Week 7. 2/19 Getting Close to the Subject: Anecdote, Case Study, and Ethnography
All : MacNealy Chapters 10, 11 & 12
Reports: Lucille McCarthy & Stephen Fishman . John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice. Teachers College Press, 199X, pp. 131-151.
Presentation: Michelle Woodbridge, Rosemarie Cabe 9 am
Week 8. 2/26 Putting Forms and Practices in Cultural Historical Context: Agency within Activity Systems Genre Formation and Change
All: Charles Bazerman. Shaping Written Knowledge . Wisconsin, 1988. Assorted pages
Charles Bazerman. The Languages of Edison's Light. MIT Press, 1999. Pp. 111-140
Charles Bazerman. "Nuclear Information: One Rhetorical Moment in the Construction of the Information Age." Written Communication 18:3 (July 2001): 259-295.
Week 9. 3/4 projects
All: Dissertation and Discipline
Week 10 3/11 projects
Reading Reports
Sign up for reading reports. These will be short 3-5 minute summaries and comment on the additional readings.
Weekly Comments
Each week, following the class discussion of a method, approach, or issue, there will be a short follow-up assignment asking you to try out the relevant methods, discuss a related issue, critique an article using the method, etc. These should be posted to the class list by Friday.
Define an empirical research question about writing or writing processes, situate it briefly in the literature to help define and focus the issue, then propose, justify, and spell out in detail a method for investigating that question.
Major Project
Michael Palmquist & Richard Young. "The Notion of Giftedness and Student Expectations about Writing." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 513-549.
Heidi Swarts, Linda Flower, and John Hayes. "Designing Protocol Studies of the Writing Process: An Introduction." New Directions in Composition Research. Ed. Richard Beach and Lillian Bridwell. Guilford, 1984. pp. 53-71.
Gary Schumacher et al. "Expertise in News Writing." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 247-286.
George Hillocks. The Effects of Observational Activities on Student Writing. ." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 409-431.
Nancy Spivey. Discourse Synthesis." In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, 1992. Pp. 467-512.
Burstein, Chodorow& Leacock "Criterion Online Essay Evaluation:
Donald Powers et al "Stumping E-Rater."
Robert K. Merton. The Focused Interview. Free Press, 1956. Pp. 3-20.
Lee Odell, Dixie Goswami, & Anne Herrington. "The Discourse Based Interview." In Mosenthal et al (eds). Research on Writing. Longmans, 1983. Pp. 221-236.
Richard Hasswell. "Documenting Improvement in College Writing." Written Communication 17:3 (2000): 307-352.
Anne Herrington and Marcia Curtis. Persons in Process . Urbana Il: NCTE, 2000. Pp. 1-53; 399-407.
Marilyn Sternglass. Time to Know Them. Mahwah NJ; Erlbaum, 1997. 1-27.
Lucille McCarthy & Stephen Fishman . John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice. Teachers College Press, 1998, pp. 131-151.
Charles Bazerman. Shaping Written Knowledge . Wisconsin, 1988. Asstd pp.
Charles Bazerman. The Languages of Edison's Light. MIT Press, 1999. Pp. 111-140
Charles Bazerman. "Nuclear Information: One Rhetorical Moment in the Construction of the Information Age." Written Communication 18:3 (July 2001): 259-295.