English

625

Empirical Research in Writing

Instructor: office: office hours: Patricia Sullivan Heavilon 401 Friday 2:30-4 (office); most Thursday am (usually in Union across from Starbucks) home 497-1432 sullivanatpurdue@gmail.com http://patriciasullivan.org my website fridays 11:30 in Heavilon 206

phone: email: website: up-to-date syllabus: class meets:

Almost everyone who ponders empirical work in writing studies assumes that study is about texts; most will assume empirical studies of rhetoric also are about texts. Yet, when the vaguely labeled almost everyone or most are asked about what text means its boundaries will vary dramatically. It may include/exclude in varied ways paths to texts, or inquiries about the study of writing, the practice of writing/communication, the development of and/or the teaching of writing, and assessments of writing skills in Composition Studies and allied fields. It also may cover institutions, disciplines, habitats, ecologies, and culturestechnologically supported or notthat are crafted through writing. Because of these amorphous borders for texts and their study, empirical work invites inclusion of a wide variety of methods and an ecumenism about both the sorts of evidence accepted/prized and the kinds of knowledge-making enacted. The result is a complex of allegiances and methods that sometimes seem to require a scorecard. This course helps you respond to a complex of questions engendered by saying, I think this should be studied empirically, and I hope in a thoughtful way. The course does not aim to make you an empirical researcher; instead it aims to increase your abilities to responsibly read, discuss, critique, empathize with, and profit from the insights of empirical research. Its baseline goal, then, is to be empirical research literacy class that fosters both understanding arguments made through direct observation and/or numbers and also understanding how those arguments might have been fashioned for different (or even better) results. So, a prime concern of this course is the reading of empirical research. Rhetoric and Composition folk often come to composition studies from literature, and some are known to suffer from math anxiety attacks. Yet, those who are going to administer programs must be able to deal with empirical research because numbers arguments are the arguments that will be most successful with decision makers in a college/university. And, more generally, some types of questions and interests lend themselves most directly to empirical study. After (contemporaneously with, actually) its baseline goal, the course concerns itself with methodological allegiances and choices of method for the study of written discourse. Why do methodologies matter? Well, the controllers of the rulesfor (1) what counts as prime evidence, (2) who rates as an observer, and (3) what procedures are prioritized as preferred in the gathering and analyzing of dataare the groups who structurally are in charge of a discipline. Further, in the academy, you have trouble demonstrating that you have a discipline without methodologies you articulate, methods you deploy, and evidence you prize. Interestingly, in composition studies the discussions of methodology have taken place almost exclusively inside empirical venues. Thus, this course in its core takes up methodology, focusing more on an empirical take

on it. [Note: 626 provides a more philosophical take and 624 a more historiographical take.] A third course concern is the production of empirically-grounded academic discourse. Through its projects, the course aims to help you produce some materials suitable for public consumption (namely, a group project and poster session) and some for progress toward your degree (namely, a prelim style exam and research proposal).

Course Practices probe the paradigms, methods, and potential alternative methods of empirical research in composition studies practice critical reading of empirical research (gridding the studies in order to read from within paradigmatic frames and across the grain of those frames) investigate and share empirical work (extant and needed) on topics relevant to your interests practice presenting a study plan in poster session format successfully propose an empirical study

texts & other readings

Charles B. Teddlie and Abbas Tashakkori. Foundations of Mixed Methods Research: Integrating Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Sage, 2008. [you purchase] We will also read widely from published empirical studies, including excerpts from some book-length studies that are being distributed online. We will use texts such as: Judith A Langer and Arthur N Applebee. 1987. How Writing Shapes Thinking: A Study of Teaching and Learning http://wac.colostate.edu/books/langer_applebee/ Barbara E. Walvoord and Lucille Parkinson McCarthy. 1990. Thinking and Writing in College: A Naturalistic Study of Students in Four Disciplines http://wac.colostate.edu/books/thinkingwriting/ Bazerman, Charles, and Paradis, James. 1991. Textual Dynamics of the Professions: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Writing in Professional Communities. http://wac.colostate.edu/books/bazerman_dynamics/ Ito, Mizuko et al. 2009. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11889

work:

You are responsible for reading all material that is assigned. We will have a final exam on assigned reading: it is intended to help you prepare for the Rhetoric prelim. In preparation for that work, you will grid your reading of one study each week and for distribute this grid to the class periodically [With 13 people, it should work out that each person will distribute a grid 4 times during the gridding portion of the semester]. The exam and grids will account for ~ 30% of final grade. You are responsible for contributing to an ongoing project (datadatabase). ~15-20%

You are responsible for proposing a research study that would be suitable for dissertation work. ~ 30-35 % You are responsible for poster that presents the plan for research detailed in your project. All posters will be shown at the class poster session, and visitors will vote on awards. ~ 20 %

schedule overview:

week 2-- Frames Offered; Future Researchers Imagined weeks 3-5-- Macro Sortings of Empirical Work Small N Approaches or Qualitative Studies Larger N Approaches or Quantitative Studies Combinations or Mixed Methods Approaches Weeks 6-10-- Highlighting Methods in order to work on Sub areas Surveys, Interviews, and Cases Ethnographies Experiments and Correlational Studies Meta-analyses and Syntheses Week 11-- Exam Group Work Day Theme-based readings-TBA Week 15-- Poster Session Exam Week-- Project Due

Reading for the Next Month

1/18: Frames Offered/Contested Smagorinski (2008) -- The Method Section as Conceptual Epicenter in Constructing Social Science Research Reports [2008Wcissueonmethodology/ologysmagorinski.pdf] Bazerman (2008) -- Theories of the Middle Range in Historical Studies of Writing Practice [2008Wcissueonmethodology/ologybazerman.pdf] Haswell (2005) -- NCTE/CCCCs Recent War on Scholarship [framesoffered/haswell.pdf] Huckin (2009) On textual silences, large and small [framesoffered/huckinsilences.pdf] Hayes (2012) Modeling and remodeling of writing [framesoffered/hayes2012.pdf] Juzwik et al (2005) Writing into the 21st Century [framesoffered/juzwik.pdf] Leander/Phillips/Headrick (2010) The Changing Social Spaces of Learning: Mapping the New Mobilities [framesoffered/leanderRoR2010.pdf] CCC multiple reviews of Academically Adrift [framesoffered/CCC0633reviews.pdf] Articles that may interest some of you [not assigned reading]: Schwartz-Shea/Yanow (2002) Reading methods texts: How research methods texts construct political science [futureresearchers/schwartz.pdf] Sperling /DiPardo (2008)-- English Education Research and Classroom Practice: New Directions for New Times [framesoffered/sperling.pdf] Eisenhart/DeHaan (2005) -- Doctoral Preparation of Scientifically Based Education Researchers [futureresearchers/eisenhart.pdf] Capraro/Thompson (2008) -- The Educational Researcher Defined: What Will Future Researchers Be Trained to Do? [futureresearchers/capraro.pdf] see also the qual-quant debates in comp [subfolder in framesoffered] see also the CCC special issue on methodology [2012cccissueonmethodology] 1/25: In the Few We Trust? Yin (2003) Case study research, 3rd ed. chs 1 and 2 [cases/yin.pdf] Herndl/Nahrwold (2003) -- Research as Social Practice [cases/herndl.pdf] Hull (1999) -- Whats in a Label? [cases/hull.pdf] Leki (2003) -- Living through College Literacy [cases/leki.pdf]

Prior (1994) -- Response, Revision, Disciplinarity: A Microhistory of a Disseration Prospectus in Sociology [cases/prior.pdf] Laquintano (2010) Sustained authorship: Digital writing, self-publishing, and the ebook [cases/laquintano.pdf] Smagorinski/Pettis/Reed (2004) High school students compositions of ranch designs [cases/smagorinski]

read and grid one of the following studies. . . try to get each study gridded by at least one person [all are in the cases folder]: o Angelova/Riazantseva (1999) o Ashley (2001) o Bisaillon(2007) o Fishman/McCarthy (2001) o Foster (2004) o Greene (2001) o Kennedy (1985) o Lee (2007) o Winsor (2000) 2/1: OR is it in the Many we Trust? ch 7 and 8 from Langer and Appleby (at WAC Clearinghouse) http://wac.colostate.edu/books/langer_applebee/ Campbell and Stanley chapter describing designs [TBS] Saunders/Scialfa (2003) -- The Effects of Pre-Exam Instruction on Students Performance on an Effective Writing Exam [experimental/saunders.pdf] Cohen/White/Cohen (2011) == A Time Use Diary Study of Adult Everyday Writing Behavior [descriptive/cohen.pdf] Dryer (2013) Scaling Writing Ability: A Corpus-driven Inquiry Jones (2008) Patterns of Revision in Online Writing: A Study of Wikipedias Featured Articles [descriptive/jones.pdf] Haswell (1988) Error and Change in College Student Writing [descriptive/haswell1988.pdf] Schmitt et al Why Partisans See Mass Media as Biased [descriptive/study1.pdf] Hilgers et al (1999)As Youre Writing You Have These Epiphanies What College Students Say about Writing and Learning in Their Majors [descriptive/hilgers.pdf]

read and gird 1 of the following [in descriptive or experimental folder] . . try to get each study gridded by at least one person: Carter/Ferzli/Wiebe (2004) Hyland Janssen/Murachver (2004) Lang et al (2002) Lazar Leijten (2010) Penrose (2003) 2/8: Mixing Methods. . . as answer OR as an interim attempt at dtente Teddlie and Tashakkori, chapters 1, 2 and 5 Johnson/Onwuegbuzie (2004)Mixed Methods Research: A research paradigm whose time has come [mixed/Johnson] Onwuebbuzie et al. (2007). Students perceptions of characteristics of effective college teachers [mixed/onwuegbuzie.pdf] Haswell, etal. (1999). Context and rhetorical reading strategies: Haas and Flower (1988) revisited [mixed/haswell.pdf] McDonald and Hannafin (2003) [mixed/mcdonald.pdf] Applebee et al (2003) Discussion based Approaches to Developing Understanding [mixed/applebee03.pdf]

Read and grid:

Nicolson, Knapp, Gardner, & Ranor (2011) Combining concurrent and sequential methods to examine usability and readability of websites with information about medicines Wall, Higgisn, Remedios, Rafferty + Tiplady (2012) Comparing analysis frames for visual data sets: Using pupil views templates to explore perspectives on learning Kington, Sammons, Day and Regan (2011) Stories and statistics: Describing a mixed methods study of effective classroom practice Igo, Kiewra + Bruning (2008) Individual differences and intervention flaws: A sequential explanatory study of college students copy-and-paste notetaking

625s Detailed Reading 2/18 to 3/18

2/15 Surveys and Sampling

Teddlie and Tashakkori, ch 8 Ganassali, Stephane. (2008). The Influence of the Design of Web Survey Questionnaires on the Quality of Responses. Survey Research Methods 2.1: 21-32. tech involvement surveys. . . read a or b a) Zickuhr, Kathryn. Generations and their gadgets. Pew Report 2011 http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Generations-and-gadgets.aspx OR b) Generation M2: Media Lives of 8- to 18- year olds, (2010 Kaiser Report) http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm Projections for Education Statistics to 2021. National Center for Education Statistics (2013). http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2013008 read parts relating to postsecondary education and the methodology in appendix a studies to grid: [read 1, grid 1] Carswell et al (2000) Distance education via the internet: The student experience BJET 31.1: 29-46. Kells, Michelle Hall. (2002) Linguistic contact zones in the college writing classroom: An Examination of Ethnolinguistic Identity and Language Attitudes WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, Vol. 19 No. 1, January 2002 5-43 Christine M. Tardy and Paul Kei Matsuda, (2009) The Construction of Author Voice by Editorial Board Members, Written Communication 26.1: 32-52 Verhoeven et al. First year university students self-perception of ICT skills: Do learning styles matter? Educ Inf Technol DOI 10.1007/s10639-010-9149-1

Mazzola, Walker, Shockley, Spector (2011) Examining stress in graduate assistants: Combining qualitative and quantitative survey methods jmmr


2/22 In-depth Cases and Ethnographies
finish exercise on proposing a study Ito et al. Hanging Out (MIT Press, 2010)introduction, ch 1, ch 6, conclusion, appendix 1 and appendix 2. . . + one other chapter of your choice http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11889 Odell, Lee, and Dixie Goswami. (1982). Writing in Non-academic Settings. RTE 16.3: 201-223. Flower, Linda S. and John R. Hayes. (1981) The Pregnant Pause: An Inquiry into the Nature of Planning. RTE 15.3: 229- 243. studies to grid: [read 2, grid 1] Beaufort, Anne (2000). Learning the trade. A social apprenticeship model for gaining writing expertise. Written Communication 17.2: 185-223. Brandt, Deborah. (1999). Literacy learning and economic change. Harvard Educational Review 69.4: 373-394.

North, Stephen M. (1986). Writing in a Philosophy Class: Three Case Studies. RTE 20, 3: 225-262.

Randy Stoecker (2009) Are we talking the walk of community-based research? Action Research 7: 385-404.

3/1 Studies Based on Interviews and Focus Groups [no gridding; work on instrument exercise]
Agar, Professional Stranger Ill put up the chapter Read A or B (or both if you have time): A) Breen, Rosanna L.(2006) 'A Practical Guide to Focus-Group Research', Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 30: 3, 463 475 B) Montell. (1999). Focus group interviews: A new feminist method. NWSA Journal 11, 1: 44-71. Walvoord and McCarthy. Thinking and Writing in College. Glean the research questions from ch 1; read all of ch 2, and select one of the classes to followShermans Business Course, Breihans History, Robisons Human Sexuality, or Andersons Biology http://wac.colostate.edu/books/thinkingwriting/ Accounting for Conflicting Mental Models of Communication in Student-Teacher Interaction: An Activity Theory Analysis1 Kathryn Evans (2003) In Bazerman and Russell, Writing selves, writing societies (pp. 393-427) http://wac.colostate.edu/books/selves_societies/evans/evans.pdf Petrelli and Whittaker. (2010). Family memories in the home: Contrasting physical and digital mementos. Ubiquitous Computing 14: 153-169 Kreth et al. (2010) Situated assessment: Limitations and Promise. Assessing Writing 15: 40-59.

3.8 Work on group project review part 1 of course

finish part 1 of group project and prepare for part 2 also due: 1-2 page proposal for final project

3.15 spring break

3.22 experiments and mixed methods

Teddlie and Tashakkori, ch 7 return to the following studies from weeks 4 & 5: Langer and Applebee; Saunders and Scialfa (2003); Onwuegbuzie et al. (2007) read two studies and grid 1: Morenberg, Max, Daiker, Donald, and Kerek, Andrew. (1978). Sentence combining at the college level. Research in the Teaching of English, 12, 3, 245-256. Wolfe, J. (2002). Marginal pedagogy: How annotated texts affect a writing-from-sources task. Written Communication, 19 (2), 297-333. Christ, T.W. (2009). Designing, teaching, and evaluating two complementary mixed methods research courses. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 3 (4), 292-325. Grammatopolis et al (2008). Applying a mixed method design to evaluate training seminars within an early childhood education project. Evaluation and Research in Education, 21 (1), 4-17.

3.29 meta-analysis and/or synthesis

Chambers, E. (2004). An introduction to meta-analysis with articles from The Journal of Educational Research (1992-2002). Journal of Educational Research, 98 (1), 35-44. Slavin, R. E. (1986). Best-evidence synthesis: An alternative to meta-analysis and traditional reviews. Educational Researcher, 15 (9), 5-11. Read 2 of 3 studies and grid 1: Bernard et al. (2009) A meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education. Review of Educational Research, 79 (3), 1243-1289 Bangert-Drowns, R. L., Hurley, M.M., and Wilkinson, B. (2004). The effects of school-based writing-to-learn interventions on academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 74 (1), 29-58. Hillocks, G., Jr. (1984). What works in teaching composition: A meta-analysis of experimental treatment studies. American Journal of Education, 93 (1): 133-170.

4.5 CCCC exam due this week. . . no class

 4.12 fun themes: (1) Scholarship of Teaching and (2) digital storytelling (1) Scholarship of Teaching
Greenhow, C., Robelia, B., & Hughes, J.E. (2009). Learning, teaching, and scholarship in a digital age. Educational Researcher 38: 246. Defazio, J. et al. (2010). Academic literacy: The importance and impact of writing across the curriculum a case study. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10 (2), 34-47.

How to Do the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Author(s): Liz Grauerholz and John F. Zipp Source: Teaching Sociology, Vol. 36, No. 1, Lessons Learned at the 2007 ASA Annual Meetings: Insights from the Teaching-Related Workshops (Jan., 2008), pp. 87-94

(2) Digital Storytelling

Hull, G. A., & Katz, M-L. (2006). Crafting an agentive self: Case studies of digital storytelling. Research in the Teaching of English, 41 (1), 43-81. Sadik, A. (2008). Digital storytelling: a meaningful technology-integrated approach for engaged student learning. Educational Technology, Research and Development, 56 (4), 487-506.

4.19 poster session 4.26 last classwrap up group project; course review 5.1 study proposal due