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English 5363:  Introduction to Research Methods in Technical Communication and Composition (Fall 2009)

English 5363, Research Methods in TC and Composition, will introduce you to a variety of research methods and methodologies used in Composition and Technical Communication and Rhetoric research. While this course does serve as an overview, we will concentrate primarily on work that has influenced our broad field for the past ten years. The work you do in this course will give you an orientation which will prove to be valuable as you select further research courses from which you will ground your dissertation research. In subsequent, more focused research courses, you'll build upon the overview knowledge base you'll get in 5363.

The course builds on the assumption that research is intimately related to context, theory, and practice, and that all research—quantitative, qualitative, or mixed—is an act of selecting and interpreting information. Throughout the course, we will explore the implications of these assumptions, test their applicability to specific research methodologies, and look for common ways in which they shape the work of researchers using different research methods and approaches. Our central questions for this course will be "what constitutes a good, workable research question?" and "how do I select the best method to answer that question?". As a participant in this class, you will read critically texts on conducting research as well as evaluate existing research, and this experience will enable you to address the central questions from an informed perspective.

This course will be held ONSITE every T/TH from 3:30-4:50 in room 358.  The ONLINE version will meet every T at 6:00 in the TTU MOO in Rickly's Virtual Place.

Learning Objectives

Objectives	Methods of Assessment
Students will develop a working knowledge of the research methodologies used in technical communication and rhetoric.	Students will demonstrate a working knowledge through class critiques of existing studies, through their journal review, and on their final exam.
Students will be able to choose an appropriate research question and the methodology to begin to answer it.	Students’ microstudies and final exams will show their ability to choose research questions and methodologies to begin to answer them.
Students will become familiar with a portion of the research that has been conducted in technical communication and rhetoric.	Students will complete the Journal Review and Article Critiques, which will enable them to become familiar with existing research.
Students will refine their own research interests and methodologies.	Students will demonstrate their research interests through their two microstudies.
Students will be able to critique existing studies.	Students will be evaluated through critiques posted to the web board and on the final exam.

Contact Information
I can be reached through rebecca.rickly@ttu.edu,  rebecca.rickly@gmail.com (for files over 2 megs), kairoshorses (YahooIM), or 806.742.2500 x287. Office hours are T/TH 2:00-3:30 pm f2f (room 489), TH 2-4 pm online, or by appointment.

Class Meetings
The online section will be held Tuesday evenings from 6:00-7:30 central (Texas) time in the TTU MOO (in Rickly's Virtual Place).  The f2f section will meet T/TH from 3:30-4:50 in room 358.

Requirements
You are expected to participate as a professional in the intellectual community of the seminar. To do so, you'll need to come to class, keep up with the readings, turn in work on time, and demonstrate your familiarity with the readings via your questions, comments, and writing. The ultimate goal for this course is the evolution of your own critical awareness and your own emerging skills as a researcher, a process that depends entirely on your active commitment to the class.

Assignment	Percentage of Final Grade
Journal Review	15
IRB Proposal	10
Proposal for Replication Study	5
Replication Study	10
Proposal for Microstudy	5
Microstudy	10
Article Critiques	15
Class Participation	10
Final Exam	20

Readings
In addition to readings that will be provided when needed, we will work extensively out of these two texts:

Hughes, Michael A. and George F. Hayhoe.  A Research Primer for Technical Communication. LEA (http://www.routledge.com/books/A-Research-Primer-for-Technical-Communication-isbn9780805863352)

 

McNealy, Mary Sue.  Strategies for Empirical Research in Writing.  Longman.  (http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0205272533,00.html)

Also, the following are books that I've found very helpful in this subject:

• Creswell, John W.  Research Design:  Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. Second Edition.  Sage Publications,  2003.
• Johanek, Cindy.  Composing Research:  A Contextualist Paradigm for Rhetoric and Composition.  Utah State UP, 2000.
• Law, John.  After Method:  Mess in Social Science Research
• Gurak, Laura, and Mary Lay, eds.  Research in Technical Communication
• Kirsch, Gesa, and Patricia A. Sullivan, eds. Methods and Methodology in Composition Research. Carbondale, IL:Southern Illinois UP, 1992.
• Lauer, Janice M., & Asher, J. William. Composition Research: Empirical Designs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
• Miles, Matthew B., & Huberman, A. Michael. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Sourcebook of New Methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1994.
• North, Stephen M. The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field. Upper Montclair, NJ: Boynton-Cook, 1987.
• Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods (rev. ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1994.
• Fowler, Floyd J.  Survey Research Methods. Sage Publications.
• For an extended bibliography taken from similar courses, click here.

Schedule If reading selections are not available in your texts, they're in PDF through the schedule. Readings are due the day they are listed Day   topic (1)8/27 A Practitioner's Guide to Doing Research in TC Patricia Goubril-Gambrell. McNealy Article on State of Research Read Spilka and Blakeslee's State of Technical Communication Research.  Compare and contrast with above. Claim journal issue to review on course webboard. Research and Teaching. Today we will examine the syllabus, the books, and answer any questions you may have. Readings to the right should be read before class. Once a week for the first ten weeks you'll have a Web board post due. Respond to at least two other students' Web board posts each week as well. Go over syllabus Why does research matter? Learn about research interests of class. Discuss logins to webboard. Assign Journal Review Sample Journal Review 1 and Journal Review 2 (2)9/3   Work on journal review; post 2 journal article reviews to web board. Read Dr. Eaton's IRB Handout Listen to her accompanying sound file. Read example IRB, Ryan Boettger's study and  you-attitude. Also, you-attitude amendment example. Read Chapters 1 Empirical Research in the Humanities, and 3 Overview of Empirical Methodology in McNealy. Read Chapters 1-3 in Hughes and Hayhoe Wollman-Bonilla article. Post remaining journal article reviews to webboard, completing journal review. IRBs, Ethics, and Conducting Research in TC. Again, please read the bulleted readings to the right before class. If you have any trouble reading any PDFs, please let me know. IRB day. Generic or specific IRB, student's choice. Homepage for the Office of Research Services. Click on "Human Subjects" on the navigation bar on the left, and then "TTU Human Subjects." All the forms on that page are necessary to accompany the discussion. Federal Guidelines guiding the IRB process. Discuss chapters. Read Hayhoe's short editorial piece in the May 2006 issue of Technical Communication. Read and discuss "What constitutes research?" and research priorities from the Guidelines for STC Research Grants. Look at Schriver's and Swarts' dissertation abstracts for differences in empiricism. Discuss Clever Hans example of conflation of variables. Do online quiz from quant about critiquing research designs for validity. Discuss what we found in the journal review Look at examples of previous successful proposals and microstudies: Joel Kline Proposal Joel Kline Microstudy D'Angelo proposal D'Angelo Microstudy IRB proposal assigned Journal review due (3)9/10 Read Chapter 4 in McNealy. Read Chapters 4 and 5 in Hughes and Hayhoe. Read "On Theory, Practice, and Method" by Sullivan and Porter. Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. How is doing research in TC similar to what Locke Carter would call "frontier epistemology"? What are the benefits of this system? What are the limitations? Discuss readings. Begin basic quantitative concepts. IRB  Draft due Chapter 3 from Haas     (4)9/17   Start article critique. Read Chapters 10 Case Study Research and 11 Ethnography in McNealy. Beaufort, Anne. "Operationalizing the Concept of Discourse Community: A Case Study of One Institutional Site of Composing." Research in the Teaching of English 31 (1997): 486-529. Porter and Sullivan Case Study Case Study Research. By the end of the day email me the ideas you have for your first microstudy. Case study introduction Case study limitations Case study applications Try to finish journal review             (5)9/24 Find, critique, and summarize article on case study research Internet Research and Case Studies Case Studies and Organizational Behavior Clarke article For additional reading (not required) Better Case Studies Philosophies of Case Study Research.  Ethical dilemmas Share articles, grouped by topic Article critique due               (6)10/1   Read Dillman's chapter. Read David Dayton's Survey article and be prepared for group critique Read chapter 6 and 10 in Hughes and Hayhoe Read Chapter 8 in McNealy Prepare article critique and summary for webboard/discussion next week. Survey Research. Introduce Survey research. Look for sample surveys to bring to class. Microstudy proposal due, posted online.             (7)10/8 Find, critique, and summarize article on survey study research Group critique of SDS survey. Ethical considerations: look at Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research. Read Plumb and Spyridakis article on Surveys in Technical Communication. More on Surveys. Survey Article critique due.   Respond to sample survey.         (8)10/15   Start article critique. Read Chapter 7 in McNealy, Discourse or Text analysis. Critique at least two MS I proposals Read Faber Read Barton Content Analysis Discourse Analysis Rhetorical Analysis Textual Analysis. Look at Textual Analysis. Discuss first microstudy proposal. Discuss textual analysis example         (9)10/22 Find, critique, and summarize article on textual analysis research   What Counts as a Textual Analysis?  Textual Analysis Article critique due Discuss articles and critiques         (10)10/29   Read Chapter 5, Experimental Research, in McNealy Read Charney's Chapter 6 because it helps explain what experimental research is good for plus gives a review of validity, etc. (You may need to right click on the link and choose "open in new window.) Read Brumberger's award winning article Prepare your article for article critique. Read information about experimental designs.   Quasi-Experiment. Quasi-experiments/experiments. Critique Brumberger's and Charney's articles. Microstudy I Due Great resource on research terminology from Colorado State University, compliments of Cynthia.             (11)11/5 Read Chapter 19 on choosing statistics from Watt and van den Berg. Read article using modified Solomon's 4 groups. Read "Empiricism is Not a Four Letter Word" by Charney (You may need to right click on the link and choose "open in new window.) Haswell's empiricism piece. Quasi-Experiment. Quasi-Experiment Article critique due Discuss readings Post second Microstudy proposal to webboard           (12)11/12   Respond to assigned microstudy proposals (one that hasn't been responded to yet). Grounded Theory Overview Grounded Theory Example FOR FURTHER READING--a really fine example of Grounded Theory Research Other Methods:  Grounded Theory. Panel discussion about Grounded Theory on the MOO. Tentative panelists: Amy Koerber Rich Rice Derek Ross You might glance at Rich Rice's Dissertation, which uses Grounded Theory       (13)11/19   Read Sandra Harding's "Is There a Feminist Method?" Read an example of research using feminist methods. Feel free to skim this--also skim PAR example Read Spinuzzi's Comparison of three methods Read Gurak and Lay's chapter on Internet Research Other Methods:  Feminist Methods, PAR, Internet, and UCD.               (14)11/26   12/3   Read Chapters 7-9 in Hughes and Hayhoe   Analyzing Research. (The readings from today will be covered on 12/3)       (15)12/3 Post to community study sheet. Read Research Methods Coursework article by Kim Sydow Campbell. NOT REQUIRED:  Read Researching Rhetorically, an earlier draft of THIS article which will be coming out in CCC December 2008.   Study for Exam.  Brief presentations highlighting salient findings.   Microstudy II Due         12/10  Final examination:  Backwards Reading Article 7:30-10 PM Academic Honesty and Appropriate Behavior We are committed to academic integrity in all its practices. The faculty value intellectual integrity and a high standard of academic conduct. Activities that violate academic integrity undermine the quality and diminish the value of educational achievement. Cheating on papers tests or other academic works is a violation of College rules. No student shall engage in behavior that, in the judgment of the instructor of the class, may be construed as cheating. This may include, but is not limited to, plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty such as the acquisition without permission of tests or other academic materials and/or distribution of these materials and other academic work. This includes students who aid and abet as well as those who attempt such behavior. Further, you are expected to follow "netiquette." See, also, the WPA's statement about plagiarism. Assignment Expectations Grade Range A: 92.5-100% A-: 89.5-92.4 B+: 86.5-89.4 B: 83.5-86.4 B-: 79.5-82.4 C+: 76.5-79.4 C: 73.5-76.4 C-: 69.5-72.4 D+: 66.5-69.4 D: 63.5-66.4 D-: 59.5-62.4 F: 59.4-0.0 The following is a general description of expectations for assignments: A. Your project is of impeccable (or almost impeccable) quality in both content and format design, with no major weaknesses in any area. It provides adequate information that users need and effectively fulfills the intended purposes. Presentation is of professional quality. There are few if any mechanical errors.   B. Your project is of high quality in most of the major areas. It fulfills the user's needs and your intended purposes quite effectively. Presentation is quite professional. There are only a few mechanical errors.   C. Your project is of reasonable quality in most areas. It fulfills the user's needs and your intended purposes to a large extent, although major deficiencies are observable. Presentation is of semi-professional quality. There are some mechanical errors, but not to the extent of seriously affecting readers' comprehension.   D. Your project is of acceptable quality in most areas. It fulfills the user's needs and your intended purposes to some extent, but major deficiencies exist in several areas. Presentation quality is acceptable but low. There are a significant number of mechanical errors.   F. Your project is unacceptable in quality. It does not fulfill the user's needs or your intended purposes. Major deficiencies are observed in most areas. Presentation quality is poor, and there are too many mechanical errors. Advice Be reflective in peer response and the revising process (be wholehearted, sincere, and responsible), and think in terms of process as opposed to product. That is, instead of dictating an authoritative "answer" or "solution" to a peer's particular point (or lack thereof), suggest a useful question that will allow for an opportunity to think beyond the immediate example or problem or issue. Tutors are available in the writing center, and I am often available to work with you on anything course-related. Some Policy Clarifications Special needs. We seek to provide effective services and accommodations for qualified individuals with documented disabilities. If you need an accommodation because of a documented disability, you are required to register with Disability Support Services at the beginning of the semester. If you will require assistance during an emergency evacuation, notify your instructor immediately. Late work. Late work may be penalized one letter grade per day. Know that assignments are subject to change. Attendance. 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