NOTE: Cross-talk in Comp Theory is sold out at the bookstore. If you are waiting for a book you ordered online and would like to read the assigned essays, they were all published in journals available on the Kean database. The references are:
James A Berlin's "Contemporary Compostion: The Major Pedagogical Theories" was published in College English 44.8 (December 1982): 765-77.
Gesa Kirsch and Joy Ritchie's "Beyond the Personal: Theorizing a Politics of Location in Composition Research" was published in College Composition and Communication 46.1 (february 1995): 7-29.
and Patricia Bizzell's "William Perry and Liberal Education" was published in College English 46.5 (September 1984): 447-54.
Class January 23 set up the course. We talked through the syllabus, calendar & major assignments and got started on a discussion of terminology for talking about research in writing studies.
You also did some writing meant to help you think about your identity as a researcher. Careful attention to the values, assumptions, and interests implied in the answers to the research interests survey, and in the fast-writing where you designed a study, can help you identify gaps or tensions between your research goals - and the tools/ideas/and experiences you have to "draw from" to do that research.
This course will be a "research resource": a place where you can explore (with me, classmates = and the writers in our textbooks) models and concepts for research. Our discussions will be places for you to imagine, re-think, and plan both your thesis - and your identity within the community of researchers who both participate in and study discourse, writing, and the teaching of writing.
Reaction papers:
We spent some time discussing the reaction paper assignment. This discussion was to "set you up." No reaction paper assignments are actually due until February 6 (see Reaction Paper sign-up sheet in your google.docs).
You will have various models, both for the reaction paper, and for the "presentation," in the reading assignments and in class next week. For now, read the assignments (listed at the end of this post), and look through the essays listed on the Sign-up sheet. Think about which essays make the best connection to your research interests. Pay attention to which essays are associated with which methods - or skim some of the essays - to get a feel for which essays use methods that you might want to use.
We agreed in class that you would not actually choose essays until we got together as a class and talked through the line up. So look through and pick 4 or 5 that might interest you.
Research paradigms and research language
We talked through the 4 x 4 matrix posed by Mertens: postpositivist, constructivist, transformative and pragmatic research paradigm characterized in terms of their ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methods. A chart summarizing our discussion is posted to the right. It is important for you to get comfortable with the language used for this discussion, and language to name important features of research (the list that includes the terms subjects/participants/stakeholders; independent/dependent variables, etc). As we consider each method - we will think about how it plays out within the different paradigms, and we will use the language used to describe features of research.
For next class:
Read: Mertens, Ch 3: Literature Review; Berlin (1982), 235; Bizzell (1984), 299 (this is a sample reaction paper); Kirsch & Ritchie (1995), 485. student reaction paper (and the essay he "reacted" to) = posted to the right
Write: NIH training (due February 6)
What we will do January 30
In class we will begin with a discussion/some interactive writing to answer any questions you might have about literature reviews. Of the research methods we will study, this may be the approach you are most familiar with, as it can be similar to the kind of writing produced for English classes.
We will then spend some time looking at the "model" literature review essays = particularly Berlin (1982) + Kirsch & Ritchie (1995). We will use these essays both to think about what kind of "research" unfolds within literature reviews = and to begin to map the history of composition as a discipline as it unfolded within larger cultural trends in the United States.
We will also have an "overview" discussion of the essays for the course that will set you up to choose the essays you want to take the lead on (write reaction papers for) during class discussion.
Thanks for a great first class, and see you next week!
James A Berlin's "Contemporary Compostion: The Major Pedagogical Theories" was published in College English 44.8 (December 1982): 765-77.
Gesa Kirsch and Joy Ritchie's "Beyond the Personal: Theorizing a Politics of Location in Composition Research" was published in College Composition and Communication 46.1 (february 1995): 7-29.
and Patricia Bizzell's "William Perry and Liberal Education" was published in College English 46.5 (September 1984): 447-54.
Class January 23 set up the course. We talked through the syllabus, calendar & major assignments and got started on a discussion of terminology for talking about research in writing studies.
You also did some writing meant to help you think about your identity as a researcher. Careful attention to the values, assumptions, and interests implied in the answers to the research interests survey, and in the fast-writing where you designed a study, can help you identify gaps or tensions between your research goals - and the tools/ideas/and experiences you have to "draw from" to do that research.
This course will be a "research resource": a place where you can explore (with me, classmates = and the writers in our textbooks) models and concepts for research. Our discussions will be places for you to imagine, re-think, and plan both your thesis - and your identity within the community of researchers who both participate in and study discourse, writing, and the teaching of writing.
Reaction papers:
We spent some time discussing the reaction paper assignment. This discussion was to "set you up." No reaction paper assignments are actually due until February 6 (see Reaction Paper sign-up sheet in your google.docs).
You will have various models, both for the reaction paper, and for the "presentation," in the reading assignments and in class next week. For now, read the assignments (listed at the end of this post), and look through the essays listed on the Sign-up sheet. Think about which essays make the best connection to your research interests. Pay attention to which essays are associated with which methods - or skim some of the essays - to get a feel for which essays use methods that you might want to use.
We agreed in class that you would not actually choose essays until we got together as a class and talked through the line up. So look through and pick 4 or 5 that might interest you.
Research paradigms and research language
We talked through the 4 x 4 matrix posed by Mertens: postpositivist, constructivist, transformative and pragmatic research paradigm characterized in terms of their ontology, epistemology, axiology, and methods. A chart summarizing our discussion is posted to the right. It is important for you to get comfortable with the language used for this discussion, and language to name important features of research (the list that includes the terms subjects/participants/stakeholders; independent/dependent variables, etc). As we consider each method - we will think about how it plays out within the different paradigms, and we will use the language used to describe features of research.
For next class:
Read: Mertens, Ch 3: Literature Review; Berlin (1982), 235; Bizzell (1984), 299 (this is a sample reaction paper); Kirsch & Ritchie (1995), 485. student reaction paper (and the essay he "reacted" to) = posted to the right
Write: NIH training (due February 6)
What we will do January 30
In class we will begin with a discussion/some interactive writing to answer any questions you might have about literature reviews. Of the research methods we will study, this may be the approach you are most familiar with, as it can be similar to the kind of writing produced for English classes.
We will then spend some time looking at the "model" literature review essays = particularly Berlin (1982) + Kirsch & Ritchie (1995). We will use these essays both to think about what kind of "research" unfolds within literature reviews = and to begin to map the history of composition as a discipline as it unfolded within larger cultural trends in the United States.
We will also have an "overview" discussion of the essays for the course that will set you up to choose the essays you want to take the lead on (write reaction papers for) during class discussion.
Thanks for a great first class, and see you next week!
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