Short analysis projectI started class today by providing an
overview of feedback to the short analysis project. The short version is = you
are AWESOME!!!! As I said in class, almost everyone is analyzing language (using
discourse anlaysis = the WAY people say things as opposed to just what they
say), you have the right general idea about how to organize a research essay,
you mostly posed very excellent or at least a pretty good research question, and
you used particular pieces of language as "examples" for what you were showing
with respect to your focus. This is a HUGE accomplishment on your part and I
can't tell you how delighted I am with your hard work and your good writing.
Keep working on your set-ups/introductions. Some of you needed
some additional information in there. Remember that you are writing to a reader
(not me) who is not familiar with your project. There is a lot of info to set
up. The exact order for what to introduce first will vary by the focus of your
work, but in general => you will need to set up any general background so the
reader will be able to understand your research question, why that question is
important, and a clear well-developed statement of your
question.
Think about your organization. Go back to the sample
research papers. Remember what we said about what worked and what didn't.
Keep working on using bigger (but not too big) sections of data
(so your reader can get the big picture of what you are analyzing). Set up what
you will show, present the block quotation, = then analyze piece by piece
(pointing back to the block quote).
Grades for short analysis
project: I also pointed out that if any of you felt you could do better on
your short anlaysis and wanted to revise - I will talk through your your essay
and look over any revisions, but I am not going to re-grade the essay. Rather,
if you get a higher grade on the reserach essay section of your Research project
- I will raise the grade for the Short Analysis to match that grade.
What we will be doing for the rest of the term
We
took a minute to review the syllabus and check out how you were getting your
grades (and I explained that you could raise your grade for the short anlaysis
project), and we spent some time looking at the calendar and noting the due
dates for turning in permission forms and beginning data collection (by the end
of this week), posting your data (April 16), and for working out draft writing
for different sections of your research essay. As mapped out on the calendar,
most of the rest of the term is about group work, conferences, and in-class
writing on your projects. Come to class prepared so you can make the most of
your time.
Research Project
Assignment sheet.
We next talked through the draft assignment sheet
for the research project, and talked about how you wanted to the work to
be graded. We noted that there are three different parts to this project: the
essay, the data, the writing process (successive drafts/work on different
sections of text) that will be evaluated. The class spent some time decided how
much credit we wanted to allocate for each task and agreed on the following
scale:
essay: 150 points
data + analysis: 200 points (with check point grades for data + analysis)
writing process: 150 points
We will check in on this again as we
get closer to the point where you are graded, but listening to you talk, I think
you have made a fair/well thought-out decision in choosing
these figures.
Presentations
We noticed on the
calendar, that you would be making presentations on your research projects from
April 30 - May 7. I let you know that these presentations are meant to be
works-in-progress presentations, where we work as a group to help the presenter
figure out how to write the best paper s/he can write.
Presenters will
post their work on their blogs two days before their presentation along with
requests for feedback, and we will all come to class prepared to give the kinds
of comments that will allow that writer to succeed.
We will work out
guidelines for the presentations as the date gets closer. In the past, these
presentations have been importantin helping writers do there
best.
Planning your research:
You spent the last 15
minutes of class reviewing your blog posts so far on your project to check your
research plan, the references you plan to use in your literature review, your
research tools (the interview/observation protocols) and so on. I suggested you
made a list of what you needed to do to finish your project, and that you mapped
out a rough timeline that corresponded to the due dates on your
calendar.
For next class:
Class Thursday will be a workshop (with in-class conferences) on your research project. We will make sure you have your research question down - and I will go over how to do a literature review.
Read:
Review the essays you will use for your literature review. Make sure they:
give you authority to write about what other research has been done in
writing studies with respect to your research question;
provide background
so you can say "where your project fits";
If you aren't sure whether your
articles are the right ones - check with me.
Blog 17: Post
the list you worked on at the end of class with any additions you thought of
later
I will get back to you on your blogs as fast as I can (certainly
by Friday). I know many of your are looking for feedback on your interview
protocols. If you are panicked and want feedback earlier -send me an email and
I will work in a conference somehow.
Thanks for the good class (and your
great essays). See you Thursday
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
3.28 Informed Consent and Designing interviews
Informed Consent materials. The previous post has a pdf for the
signature page of the
informed consent form (with my signature). You will need to sign this page and
get your participants to sign it as well. It should be presented as the last
page of the Informed Consent Form . You will need to
print the first two pages of the Informed Consent Form , and then attach a copy
of the signature page for the informed
consent.
At your preliminary meeting with your participants, talk through the purpose of the study, information about being a subject, and procedures sections, and all that follows, making sure to answer any questions your participants might have. After you have made your presentation on your project = get 2 signed copies. One for your participant, one for you (that you will then turn in to me).
If you are doing interviews, you will use this preliminary meeting to provide a copy of the interview protocol, to arrange a time for the interview, to make sure your participant knows the interview will be recorded, and to answer any other questions your participant might have. Be sure to make clear that participating in the study is voluntary.
Developing the interview protocol: We spent a good chunk of class talking about how interviews are organized. Interviews are conversations - and they work like conversations. Like conversations, it takes people a while to "warm up" to a subject and generally they will have lots to say if you provide lots of chances to follow up on the ideas and language they have associated with the topic of conversation. Your primary role as an interviewer is to keep the participant focused on the topic of conversation. If they go "off-topic", listen carefully to make sure it isn't really "on topic" but just somethng you weren't thinking of - and if you need to re-direct the talk - do it generously (Wow, that was interesting) and tactfully bring the focus back (could you tell me some more about what you said earlier about. . .).
Your interview should be no longer than 30 minutes. You will need a good, rich body of talk to have enough material for your project, but transcribing is time consuming so you don't want to bury yourself.
1.Lead (short - less than a minute). Begin with your "lead" = write a statement of the project's focus as part of your interview protocol (like on the sample). When you actually DO the interview, be sure to state your name, get your participant to state his/her name, state the focus of your project, where you are, and the date.
2. Set up questions. (2-5 minutes) These should be short, factual, easy to answer questions. (Think back to the examples we gave in class). They might be information about the participant's background, identity, training or memberships assoicated with your focus.
3. Orienting question (5-7 minutes). Often, the first story will give you a preview/foreshadowing of where the interview will go. This question gives your participant a chance to let you know how they see your focus. Pay attention to this answer and as you talk, pick up on your participant's language and ways of seeing things and work those words/views into the questions the form the body of your interview.
4. The main section of the interview (about 15-20 minutes)
We noticed in the Literacy narrative interview protocol that the questions were organized chronologically and by setting = and that some of the same questions were asked about experiences from different times and places. Give some thought about how you organize your questions. Choose about 2-4 big categories or subjects/focuses for your questions. Spend about 5 minutes on each set and cycle through and back through a related point of view. Think of the examples from class.
5. Closing (2-3 minutes). Your last question should again invite your participant to open up your focus in any way they want - check to see if there is anything that you might have forgotten to ask that they feel is important.
I'm afraid I didn't leave you much time to work on your interview protocols in class - but if you post them on your blog I will give you lots of feedback - and we can talk about them in class.
For Tuesday:
Blog 16:
If you are doing an interview as part of your research project => post your draft interview protocol.
If you are not doing an interview, look back through your research plan, and write up any data collection tools: you might need. These might include surveys, plans for making your observations (what, where, who, how long etc you will observe), timelines for completing your data collection, ideas about how you might focus and analyze your data = the more writing you get up on your blog the more I can help you with your project.
I will return your short analysis essays and give you some general feedback on what we need to work on in terms of analysis.
Research paper grading criteria. We will review/write up the specific criteria for the research paper and negotiate how we will assign the grade. To do this we will take into account what we learned about the form for research papers (reading the model essays) =what information needs to be included in what order, what we learned about doing analysis (the rubric + what we learned from doing the short analysis papers), how much credit you want for your research process (collecting + analyzing your data) versus how much you credit you want for the paper itself, and anything else you think should be counted for your grade. We will also set up a timeline for completing the project + doing your presentations.
We are definitely getting to the fun part of this course! Have a great weekend and see you on Tuesday.
At your preliminary meeting with your participants, talk through the purpose of the study, information about being a subject, and procedures sections, and all that follows, making sure to answer any questions your participants might have. After you have made your presentation on your project = get 2 signed copies. One for your participant, one for you (that you will then turn in to me).
If you are doing interviews, you will use this preliminary meeting to provide a copy of the interview protocol, to arrange a time for the interview, to make sure your participant knows the interview will be recorded, and to answer any other questions your participant might have. Be sure to make clear that participating in the study is voluntary.
Developing the interview protocol: We spent a good chunk of class talking about how interviews are organized. Interviews are conversations - and they work like conversations. Like conversations, it takes people a while to "warm up" to a subject and generally they will have lots to say if you provide lots of chances to follow up on the ideas and language they have associated with the topic of conversation. Your primary role as an interviewer is to keep the participant focused on the topic of conversation. If they go "off-topic", listen carefully to make sure it isn't really "on topic" but just somethng you weren't thinking of - and if you need to re-direct the talk - do it generously (Wow, that was interesting) and tactfully bring the focus back (could you tell me some more about what you said earlier about. . .).
Your interview should be no longer than 30 minutes. You will need a good, rich body of talk to have enough material for your project, but transcribing is time consuming so you don't want to bury yourself.
To make sure you have the kinds of questions that will "work" for
you:
- Design them carefully using the "pointers" we discussed in class
- Test/time/voice record your interview questions with a "practice" participant
- Listen to your recording for your "test" and think about what worked and what you can do better
- Remember that each interview will depend on your participant - and be prepared to be flexible,
1.Lead (short - less than a minute). Begin with your "lead" = write a statement of the project's focus as part of your interview protocol (like on the sample). When you actually DO the interview, be sure to state your name, get your participant to state his/her name, state the focus of your project, where you are, and the date.
2. Set up questions. (2-5 minutes) These should be short, factual, easy to answer questions. (Think back to the examples we gave in class). They might be information about the participant's background, identity, training or memberships assoicated with your focus.
3. Orienting question (5-7 minutes). Often, the first story will give you a preview/foreshadowing of where the interview will go. This question gives your participant a chance to let you know how they see your focus. Pay attention to this answer and as you talk, pick up on your participant's language and ways of seeing things and work those words/views into the questions the form the body of your interview.
4. The main section of the interview (about 15-20 minutes)
We noticed in the Literacy narrative interview protocol that the questions were organized chronologically and by setting = and that some of the same questions were asked about experiences from different times and places. Give some thought about how you organize your questions. Choose about 2-4 big categories or subjects/focuses for your questions. Spend about 5 minutes on each set and cycle through and back through a related point of view. Think of the examples from class.
5. Closing (2-3 minutes). Your last question should again invite your participant to open up your focus in any way they want - check to see if there is anything that you might have forgotten to ask that they feel is important.
I'm afraid I didn't leave you much time to work on your interview protocols in class - but if you post them on your blog I will give you lots of feedback - and we can talk about them in class.
For Tuesday:
Blog 16:
If you are doing an interview as part of your research project => post your draft interview protocol.
If you are not doing an interview, look back through your research plan, and write up any data collection tools: you might need. These might include surveys, plans for making your observations (what, where, who, how long etc you will observe), timelines for completing your data collection, ideas about how you might focus and analyze your data = the more writing you get up on your blog the more I can help you with your project.
I will return your short analysis essays and give you some general feedback on what we need to work on in terms of analysis.
Research paper grading criteria. We will review/write up the specific criteria for the research paper and negotiate how we will assign the grade. To do this we will take into account what we learned about the form for research papers (reading the model essays) =what information needs to be included in what order, what we learned about doing analysis (the rubric + what we learned from doing the short analysis papers), how much credit you want for your research process (collecting + analyzing your data) versus how much you credit you want for the paper itself, and anything else you think should be counted for your grade. We will also set up a timeline for completing the project + doing your presentations.
We are definitely getting to the fun part of this course! Have a great weekend and see you on Tuesday.
3.28 Signature page for informed consent
This is the link for the signature page for the informed consent form.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
3.26 Oral history, interviews, and finishing up the Short Analysis paper
We started class by talking about how to include references to the texts you are analyzing. If you are going to refer to a "quote" that is more than two lines long - you should include it as a block quote. Conventions for putting quotations into the flow of an essay, both for short quotes and block quotes are at the Purdue OWL = a great place to look up how to do most anything related to writing. Set up your quote by introducing what it will show, insert the quote (as described at the OWL) and then develop your discussion and state the point that you make regarding what the quote SHOWS with respect to your focus.
Oral History
We reviewed the introduction to oral history at the link (posted to the right). We talked about how oral histories can open up mainstream ideas of "what happened" in the past - or what counts as history. We noted that all history is written from the perspective of whoever is writing the history - and that oral histories represent a move to include more and different voices in accounts of "what happened" in the past.
We talked through, step by step, what to do if you are going to collect an oral history from your pre-interview preparations (researching the historical period - what was going on in the time/place you want to talk about); finding a suitable archive/repository => some place where you can "file" your oral history so people can read it, identifying who you want to talk to, and designing a set of questions. At this point you will want to contact your participants to set up a time and place to meet, give them about how long the interview will take and let them know you will be using a voice recorder, and to send them a copy of the informed consent forms (see forms under course documents).
During the interview - you need to find a quiet place (recorders pick up EVERYTHING), and as you begin your recording - set it up with a "lead" = a short statement that identifies you and your participant, the focus of your conversation, and the date when you talked.
Then talk through your questions in a conversational manner (you might want to review the suggestions listed at the Oral History link posted to the right).
After the interview, provide your participant with a debriefing form (posted to the right), and answer any questions. Make any notes you may need to help transcribe your interview, and label or tag your interview so that you will be certain about what it contains.
After this introduction you talked with a partner about your experience of 911. We then came back together as a group and we talked (briefly) about some of what yout
Great class!
For Thursday:
Due: Short analysis. I know I said to post your paper in my last blog - but I meant to say to send it to the course email as an attachment. I will grade your papers over the weekend and hope to return them with comments by April 2.
Blog 15: post your sound file/notes from your oral history interview - along with your observations about what you learned about doing oral history
Come to class prepared to learn about writing interview protocols. After we go over interviews - you will have a chance to set up the details for your research projects (check in with me on how you will collect data + what data collection tools you will use, who your research subjects will be). We will also go over the protocols for getting imformed consent - so you should be ready to go on your research projects by the beginning of next week.
Oral History
We reviewed the introduction to oral history at the link (posted to the right). We talked about how oral histories can open up mainstream ideas of "what happened" in the past - or what counts as history. We noted that all history is written from the perspective of whoever is writing the history - and that oral histories represent a move to include more and different voices in accounts of "what happened" in the past.
We talked through, step by step, what to do if you are going to collect an oral history from your pre-interview preparations (researching the historical period - what was going on in the time/place you want to talk about); finding a suitable archive/repository => some place where you can "file" your oral history so people can read it, identifying who you want to talk to, and designing a set of questions. At this point you will want to contact your participants to set up a time and place to meet, give them about how long the interview will take and let them know you will be using a voice recorder, and to send them a copy of the informed consent forms (see forms under course documents).
During the interview - you need to find a quiet place (recorders pick up EVERYTHING), and as you begin your recording - set it up with a "lead" = a short statement that identifies you and your participant, the focus of your conversation, and the date when you talked.
Then talk through your questions in a conversational manner (you might want to review the suggestions listed at the Oral History link posted to the right).
After the interview, provide your participant with a debriefing form (posted to the right), and answer any questions. Make any notes you may need to help transcribe your interview, and label or tag your interview so that you will be certain about what it contains.
After this introduction you talked with a partner about your experience of 911. We then came back together as a group and we talked (briefly) about some of what yout
Great class!
For Thursday:
Due: Short analysis. I know I said to post your paper in my last blog - but I meant to say to send it to the course email as an attachment. I will grade your papers over the weekend and hope to return them with comments by April 2.
Blog 15: post your sound file/notes from your oral history interview - along with your observations about what you learned about doing oral history
Come to class prepared to learn about writing interview protocols. After we go over interviews - you will have a chance to set up the details for your research projects (check in with me on how you will collect data + what data collection tools you will use, who your research subjects will be). We will also go over the protocols for getting imformed consent - so you should be ready to go on your research projects by the beginning of next week.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
3.21 Another workshop for the Short Analysis project
You did a great job working on your papers today. You worked in pairs using the workshop sheet to guide your talk. We focused on identifying:
a research question => this question needed to make a point about what the data shows or how it works for some purpose or with respect to a larger context. For example, while you might analyze your data in terms of how often and in what contexts speakers use hedges (like, I guess, maybe, should. . .) => your research question needs to ask what it means when speakers use hedges in terms of comfort (for example) and why it is important that the speakers were comfortable or uncomfortable at a particular point.
the language features you will analyze (these are your categories) = they might be any of the features on the language handout posted to the right, or they might be some other language move you named/noticed in the data
patterns in the features you analyze
what those patterns show about your research question
For Tuesday:
If you want written comments => post your draft paper by Sunday night - and send a request for comments to the course email. Otherwise the paper will be due posted on the blog on Thursday, March 28 before class.
Read: Oral Histories => In class we will be starting on creating, conducting + analyzing interviews.
If you want to schedule another conference - anytime before next Thursday - you are also welcome to do so.
So far I have:
Monday: 1:00 =Derrick,
Tuesday: 12:45 Rikki; 3:30 Mike
In class we will be getting started on planning interviews. We will check in on your projects - and hopefully everyone can get started collecting data on or before April 2.
Great class today!
a research question => this question needed to make a point about what the data shows or how it works for some purpose or with respect to a larger context. For example, while you might analyze your data in terms of how often and in what contexts speakers use hedges (like, I guess, maybe, should. . .) => your research question needs to ask what it means when speakers use hedges in terms of comfort (for example) and why it is important that the speakers were comfortable or uncomfortable at a particular point.
the language features you will analyze (these are your categories) = they might be any of the features on the language handout posted to the right, or they might be some other language move you named/noticed in the data
patterns in the features you analyze
what those patterns show about your research question
For Tuesday:
If you want written comments => post your draft paper by Sunday night - and send a request for comments to the course email. Otherwise the paper will be due posted on the blog on Thursday, March 28 before class.
Read: Oral Histories => In class we will be starting on creating, conducting + analyzing interviews.
If you want to schedule another conference - anytime before next Thursday - you are also welcome to do so.
So far I have:
Monday: 1:00 =Derrick,
Tuesday: 12:45 Rikki; 3:30 Mike
In class we will be getting started on planning interviews. We will check in on your projects - and hopefully everyone can get started collecting data on or before April 2.
Great class today!
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
3.19 Workshop for Short Analysis Project
In class today we reviewed the criteria for the Short analysis project and
created a rubric (pasted in below) for evaluating drafts for this project. We
then used the rubric to evaluatea sample draft (posted to the right) and to come up with some
clear specific statements of what the writers needed to work on in order to
produce a stronger essay.
Short analysis evaluation rubric:
Focus - 40 points: should be set up in the beginning and pulled together in the end. Focus credit also counts statements within the data presentation and analysis that "refer back to" or explain the relevance of a discussion to the focus. The introductory focus may include a statement of the research questions + explanation of language features (categories/codes) relevant to the focus, identification of the data that will be analyzed, any relevant definitions, an overview of important categories/findings, etc. The introductory statement of focus, including set up, may take more than one paragraph.
In short: the focus helps the reader to know what the analysis is 'about'.
Development - 30 points: should provide evidence (detailed examples) of the categories + relationships that connect to the focus; it should also provide evidence of the patterns that "prove" the relationships relevant to the focus. Development should also include detailed discussion where the writer identifies multiple patterns and explains how they work together - or what they show - with respect to the focus of the paper.
Examples should be used to identify categories and patterns and to explain/discuss the connection of the patterns to the research question. Use of examples is evaluated based on whether the writer has chosen an appropriate example, whether it fully illustrates the point s/he is making, and whether it fits within the focus of the overall papers.
Organization - 30 points: introduces information in the order the reader needs it so s/he can follow the logic of the discussion. For example, definitions need to come before discussion of relationships that use the terms that need to be defined; categories need to be set up before statements of patterns that refer to those categories, and so on.
For next class:
Blog 14 post a complete draft suitable for workshopping in class
Attend your conference if you have one.
The final paper is tentatively schedule as due on Tuesday, March 26.
Short analysis evaluation rubric:
Focus - 40 points: should be set up in the beginning and pulled together in the end. Focus credit also counts statements within the data presentation and analysis that "refer back to" or explain the relevance of a discussion to the focus. The introductory focus may include a statement of the research questions + explanation of language features (categories/codes) relevant to the focus, identification of the data that will be analyzed, any relevant definitions, an overview of important categories/findings, etc. The introductory statement of focus, including set up, may take more than one paragraph.
In short: the focus helps the reader to know what the analysis is 'about'.
Development - 30 points: should provide evidence (detailed examples) of the categories + relationships that connect to the focus; it should also provide evidence of the patterns that "prove" the relationships relevant to the focus. Development should also include detailed discussion where the writer identifies multiple patterns and explains how they work together - or what they show - with respect to the focus of the paper.
Examples should be used to identify categories and patterns and to explain/discuss the connection of the patterns to the research question. Use of examples is evaluated based on whether the writer has chosen an appropriate example, whether it fully illustrates the point s/he is making, and whether it fits within the focus of the overall papers.
Organization - 30 points: introduces information in the order the reader needs it so s/he can follow the logic of the discussion. For example, definitions need to come before discussion of relationships that use the terms that need to be defined; categories need to be set up before statements of patterns that refer to those categories, and so on.
For next class:
Blog 14 post a complete draft suitable for workshopping in class
Attend your conference if you have one.
The final paper is tentatively schedule as due on Tuesday, March 26.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
3.7 Short analysis project
We spent today's class tying up loose ends so you are ready to work on your
short analysis project.
1.We talked through the list of language features
you might want to look at as you work on the language in your data
set.
2. We looked at the assignment sheet for the short analysis
project
3. And we talked about how you might want to choose a data set
for "practice" on your short anlysis project => the idea is to choose a data
set that is similar to the data you will be analyzing for your research
project. One purpose of this project is for you to PRACTICE analysis language
data (and get some feedback on how to do it better), so you will have that part
down for your research project.
NOTE: If you are doing the interview transcripts, unless you are going to make a point that is VERY different from what we already discussed with respect to the Chat room transcript, I strongly suggest that you choose a different transcript.
NOTE: If you are doing the interview transcripts, unless you are going to make a point that is VERY different from what we already discussed with respect to the Chat room transcript, I strongly suggest that you choose a different transcript.
For next
class:
Blog 13 (I fixued this - it was 14 but should be 13): develop writing for your short
analysis project. This should include:
- your research question
- your analysis of your data
- what every writing you have developed to discuss that patterns you see in your data that provide an "answer" or ideas about your research question.
If you want written feedback on your "draft" =>
send me an email by Saturday, March 16 telling my your work is posted on your
blog.
On Tuesday, March 19 we will workshop what you have written so
far, and you will schedule conferences (if you want to) on what to do
next.
Have a great break!
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