Methods for Researching Writing and Writing Processes
Spring 2006 Thursday 9-12 Phelps 2532
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.
Almost all of the required reading for the term will be from a reader to be available from Associated. However, I would recommend highly that if you are interested in pursuing writing research you get your own copies of two new books. We will not be doing many assigned readings from them, but they will prove invaluable references--so even though they are not required, you should think about getting them.
Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, & Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research. Guilford, 2006. Available at Amazon for $65
Peter Smagorinsky (Editor). Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. Teachers College, 2006. Available at Amazon for $46
The third major book is the Handbook of Writing Research that I am editing for Erlbaum that should be out in about a year.
At Associated Students Printing: Reader
224C Research Methods for Writing and Writing Processes
What makes studying writing different than studying other aspects of teaching and learning?
Week 1. 4/ 6 Writing Research: Humanities and Social Science Tensions
ALL: Richard Hasswell (2005). "NCTE/CCC's Recent War on Scholarship" Written Communication. 22: 198-223.
Institutionally Important Questions: program descriptions, class size, teacher experience, workload, training-- Handouts
Week 2. 4/13 Curriculum, Learning, and Achievement
REPORTS: George Hillocks (1981). The Responses of College Freshmen to Three Modes of Instruction. American Journal of Education, 89: 4, pp. 373-395.
George Hillocks (1984) What Works in Teaching Composition: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Treatment Studies. American Journal of Education, 93:1, pp. 133-170.
Robert D. Abbott, Dagmar Amtmann, & Jeff Munson (2006). Statistical Analysis for Field Experiments and Longitudinal Data in Writing Research. Ch. 25 in Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, & Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research. Guilford, Pp. 374-385.
ALL: MacNealy, Mary Sue (1999). 8. Surveys. Empirical Research in Writing. Allyn & Bacon.
REPORTS: Michael Palmquist & Richard Young (1992.) “The Notion of Giftedness and Student Expectations about Writing.” In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, Pp. 513-549.
Suzanne Hidi & Pietro Boscolo. (2006). Motivation and Writing. Ch. 10 in Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research. Guilford. Pp. 144-157.
Frank Pajares & Gio Valante. (2006). Self-efficacy Beliefs and Motivation in Writing Development. Ch. 11 in Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research. Guilford. Pp. 158-170.
Week 4. 4/27 Writing Processes in vitro
ALL: 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.
Deborah McCutchen (2006). Cognitive Factors in the Development of Children’s Writing. Ch. 8 in Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald (Eds). Handbook of Writing Research. Guilford. Pp. 115-130.
REPORTS: George Hillocks (1992). The Effects of Observational Activities on Student Writing.” In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum. Pp. 409-431.
Gary Schumacher et al. (1992) Expertise in News Writing. In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum,. Pp. 247-286.
Nancy Spivey (1992). Discourse Synthesis.” In John Hayes et al. eds. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research. Erlbaum, Pp. 467-512.
Week 5. 5/4 Writing and Classroom Processes in vivo: Case Study, Ethnography, and Teacher Research
ALL: Anne Haas Dyson & Celia Genishi (2005). Ch 5. Constructing Assertions. Data Analysis. On the Case. Teachers College Press. Pp. 79-111.
Bob Fecho et al. (2006). Teacher Research in Writing Classrooms. In Peter Smagorinsky (Editor). Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. Teachers College. Pp. 108-140.
REPORTS: Lucille McCarthy & Stephen Fishman. John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice. Teachers College Press, 1998, pp. 131-151.
Anne Haas Dyson & Celia Genishi (2005). Rest of book. On the Case. Teachers College Press.
ALL: MacNealy, Mary Sue (1999). 9. Focus Groups. Empirical Research in Writing. Allyn & Bacon.
Lee Odell, Dixie Goswami, & Anne Herrington. “The Discourse Based Interview.” In Mosenthal et al (eds). Research on Writing. Longmans, 1983. Pp. 221-236.
REPORTS: Robert K. Merton. The Focused Interview. Free Press, 1956. Pp. 3-20, 65-93.
Deb Brandt (2001). Literacy in American Lives. Cambridge. Introduction and Appendix. Pp. 1-24 +
ALL: Nancy Sommers & Laura Saltz (2004). The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year. College Composition and Communication 56: 1. 124-149.
Jenn Fishman, Andrea Lunsford, Beth McGregor, and Mark Otuteye. (2005) Performing Writing, Performing Literacy. College Composition and Communication 57:2. 224-352.
REPORTS: 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.
Week 8. 5/25 investigating texts within Cultures and Societies.
Ellen Cushman et al. (2006), Family and Community Literacies. In Peter Smagorinsky (Editor). Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. Teachers College.
REPORTS: Marie Campbell & Frances Gregor (2002). Mapping Social Relations. Garamond.
Smart, Graham (1999). Storytelling in a central bank: The role of narrative in the creation and use of specialized economic language. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 13.3, pp. 249-273
Week 9. 6/1 Histories of Writing Cultures
ALL: Charles Bazerman (1988). Shaping Written Knowledge. Wisconsin, 1988. Assorted pages
David Russell (2006), Historical Studies of Composition. In Peter Smagorinsky (Editor). Research on Composition: Multiple Perspectives on Two Decades of Change. Teachers College. Pp. 243-275.
REPORTS: 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.
Reading Reports
Sign up for two reading reports in the course of the term. 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.
Major Project
Define an empirical research question about writing or writing processes, situate it briefly in the literature to help define and focus the issue, identify a research site, then propose, justify, and spell out in detail a method for investigating that question at that site. Individually negotiated topics. Also be prepared for a short presentation to the class at the final meeting.