12.18 Thanks & Grades

What a great semester this has been for me.  And thank you so much for your constructive comments about how to present the material in this course in a way that might work a little better for the next group of students.  I took good notes and will be looking through them carefully.

As stated in class, I will be reviewing your work over the next couple of days.  I hope to send you a gradesheet with comments on your final project, and your scores for all the categories listed below.
At that point, if you are OK with the grade, that's the grade you will get.

If you do not agree with the grade - or if I made a mistake adding things up or if you don't agree with the score - send me an email and explain and we will see if we can work things out.  I may or may not revise the score (I am really obligated to evaluate the writing  that is turned in, and cannot grade on effort) but at that point we will know where we stand.  If you remain convinced that the grade is not calculated in line with the terms we agreed upon in the syllabus and in the revisions/discussions through out the course, the process for making a grade appeal is described in the Undergraduate Student Catalog under Grade Grievances.

I expect to send grade sheets by Saturday, and to post your grades on Keanwise by Monday.


Thanks again for being such a great class and Happy New Year!

1.  Blog + comments (response to readings; practice analysis, drafts, reflections, etc)     250 points   

          
2.  Class presentations + group work + participation + homework                                  150 points

3.  Short analysis project                                                                                             100 points

4.  Research project                                                                                                    500 points

200 points =  Creation of  data collection tools, presentation and preliminary analysis of data

150 points= Writing for project planning, evidence of writing process including invention writing, successive drafts, and writing to critique and plan revisions to successive drafts

150= final research essay

Total points for course                                                                                                           1000 points

12.12 Final presentations - turning in your work

In class, we finished in-class presentations for your final projects and talked about final grades and how to turn in your final work.

Your final projects are due at the end of class on Tuesday, December 17.  We re-visited the scoring, listed on the assignment sheet and decided to keep the points the same.  They are as follows.

Data
200 points:  Writing for project planning, Creation of  data collection tools, presentation and preliminarly analysis of data

Writing process
150 points: Writing for project planning, evidence of writing process including invention writing, successive drafts, and writing to critique and plan revisions to successive drafts

Final project
150 final research essay

For criteria for final project see assignment sheet.

You will turn in your work by posting it as Blog 26, AND as an attachment to an email. In this email you will paste in links to blogs which provide evidence of your Data and Writing process.

What we will be doing in next class:
Composing the email you will use to turn in your final project (pasting in the links).
Talking over changes we (I) might want to make to this course the next time it is taught.

Good luck on finishing your projects, and see you Tuesday!

12.10 Presentations

We had a small but excellent class - Debra, Liz, and Fil gave their presentations, so on Thursday we will be looking for Mark, Emily, Caitlin and Jayme to be giving their presentations.

Meanwhile - I will be working through your blogs and providing written feedback to whatever you have posted.  Hopefully - I will have replied to each of you before class Thursday.  This will be my last round of feedback to blogs - so make sure to post anything you want written feedback on.  If you are a little behind - I will be in my office most of the day today, tomorrow, and Monday and Tuesday.  Send a email to schedule a time.

On Thursday we will finish the rest of the presentations.

We will also revisit the scoring for the final project.  Think about how many points you think should be allotted to each portion - and we will talk as a class about whether/how you want the scoring to be set up. Also - I will review what you will do in our last class (Tuesday, 12.17) and how to turn in your work.

For next class:
No additional blog assignment : continue posting and numbering whatever materials you will want to reference for the writing process + data & analysis portions of the writing project.

See you Thursday.

12.6 Follow up post on comments to Blog 24

I thought I was doing you a good turn by looking at your analytic post (due by the end of class yesterday) so that you could have feedback before you started work on posting your drafts for Tuesday.  As it turns out, most of you did not do a lot of analytic writing.  I won't have time to check in on blog posts again until Tuesday, and at that time I will be giving you feedback on your drafts as far as you have written.  If your analytic writing is posted = I will check in on it again then, and give you pointers on how to use that writing (or to do more of it) as you continue to work on your draft.

Good luck writing your papers - and see you on Tuesday.

12.5 More Presentations!

Good presentations today!  Next week we will hear from the rest of you. This week we were working on analyzing data, doing the kind of analytic writing described under "what to do next' on the 11.26 post.  Next week, you will be presenting drafty writing - as much as you have posted, hoopefully pretty much the whole way through.  

12.10  Jayme, Filip, Emily, Caitlin

12.12  Mark, Debra, Liz

For presentations this week, use the following format.

1. State your research question.
2. Provide an overview of the research paper you have chosen to reply to/set up your research.
3. Describe the organization of  your paper.
4. Draw classmates attention to the particular writing issues/sections of your paper you want support on.



Read: Classmates' blogs so you are ready to provide feedback.
Blog 25: Draft research project (as far as you have gotten with it_

12.3 Presentations!

Angie, Courtney and Marc gave presentations today - and you all provided great feedback in terms of clarifying questions, pointing out patterns, and helping pull out relevant data.  Good work!

The presentation schedule for the next 3 classes is as follows:

12.5 Ashley, Dina, Megan, [Caitlin - or 12.12]

12.10  Jayme, Filip, Emily, Kristina

12.12  Mark, Debra, Liz

For your presentation, use the format posted earlier.  You should present from where ever you are in the anaylsis/writing process.  Make sure to have a question posed for your classmates.  Give us a task to help you with!

Blog 24: Analytic memos or sections of draft= whatever you want feedback on.

Presentations on Research Projects

As discussed in class, these presentations are about making a clear statement of what you are working on, and framing a question so the class can provide constructive feedback to help you work on your project.

Format for presentations:
The blog post with your work will be on the classroom screen, and individual students will be asked to look at your blog so they can follow your points.  Standing at the front of the class is optional - though you might want to come up front so you can scroll to the parts of your blog you want to talk about.

In your conversation with the class, you should be prepared to:
1. State your research question;
2. Give a brief summary of the research that your project responds to/comments on/is based on;
3. Direct classmates to the section of your work you want feedback on;
4. Give your classmates some indication of what you want help with (e.g. you might ask for help relating the categories you have marked in your transcript to your research question, or for help with the organization /development of a posted draft, and so on).

11.26 Workshop

As we started class, I drew your attention to the connection between the blog posts and how you will earn credit for the data & analysis, and the writing process components of the research essay. 

Post your data and analysis to your blog:  When you turn in your final essay on the last day of class, you will post it on your blog, and send it to me as an attachment to an email sent to the course email.  In the body of the email with your essay, you will list blogs where you have posted data & analysis, and where you have posts that present evidence of your planning/writing process for this project.   Number your blogs.  If you have more posts for data than I have allowed for numbers, post them as 22 a, b, c etc.  Try to stay within the general  number system for the prompts listed on this blog.

What you did in class:  Today you worked on your research project.  Most of you were working  on analyzing data (marking up your transcripts in terms of categories and features, noticing re language moves associated with different features in your categories, thinking about points you might make as you develop your essay); some of you were working on transcribing, and some of you were working on writing sections of your essay.  Great!  That is exactly where you are supposed to be.

What to do for next week.
 1.  Keep working on transcribing and analyzing data and post it to your blog.

2.  Work on doing some analytic writing.  This is an important part of writing research essays.  In general, before you begin to write the analysis section of your essay, you should develop some analytic writing to explore the points you might make about your data.  In each piece of analytic writing you might list the following:

• A category you want to explore
• The features of that category
• Some examples (quotes) from your data which deal with/show features of this category
• What you notice in the transcript about where this category seems to appear (in relation to what topics? in response to which questions?  many times or just once? etc)
• The kinds of language moves associated with this category and its different features
• What you might say about this category with respect to your research question.

You might develop sections of writing for several or all of your categories.  The reason you would do this is to figure out what you have to say about your data in some detail BEFORE you try to write what you have in the form of a coherent essay.  This allows you to think through/develop your ideas without getting strangled by the pressure to put those ideas into coherent sentences.

This process of developing sections of analytic writing also allows you to identify the points you will make with respect to your research question BEFORE you try to put them in the best order.  It lets you focus on content without getting stuck in where it fits in your argument/discussion.

Another analytic approach to writing about your data (rather than by category) is to identify conflicts, and write into them.  You might write about:

• Conflicts within the data (where your participant does something and says something that don't fit, or where s/he says two different things)
• Conflicts between your data and what the research predicts
• Parts of your data which confuse you (which don't seem to make sense)
• Pieces of your data which contradict the points you "want" to make

You would write about these conflicts/confusions in a way similar to the ways you wrote about the categories: notice where they occur (what were  you talking about); the language moves they are associated with; how they connect to other parts of the data, and so on.

We will talk about this some more as you begin your presentations.

Marc has volunteered for Tuesday, so be sure to read his blog before you come to class
 
3.  Post Blog 23: more data, marked up data, or any section of your essay you want to work on in class

Have a great Thanksgiving - and see you next week.

11.21 Introductions workshop

Review of forms/"moves" for writing research essays (focus on set up) We reviewed the assignment sheet for the research essay and we came up with the following list of moves:

1. Set up the importance of your study
2. background: including review of the literature + definition of terms
3. present research question
4. methods
5. presentation and analysis of data (see requirements for Short Analysis essay)
6  discussion of findings
7. conclusions

We spent the rest of class examining the set up (the first four moves) in three sample essays (read earlier in the course = links at previous post).

You identified exactly WHERE and how each author made these moves, and noted some of the language author's used for each move.  I am hoping you took notes, or can go back to the essays because I was so involved in this discussions I did not write down all your good observations.

For next class: your data collection should be complete
Blog 22: more data, or any section of your essay you want to work on in class

In class, you will give short presentations on your data so far, and work on data analysis.

Have a good weekend.

Resources for modeling your introduction/literature review/methods

Rhetoric of Teacher Comments on Student Writing   Robin Martin

Texting and Writing  Michaela Cullington

Coaches Can Read, Too  Sean Brannick

11.19 Finishing up with the Short Analysis + setting up data collection/analysis

We started class with a discussion of where we are in terms of how you can apply what you learned from writing your short analysis as you begin to work on your research project.  Some of your observations were as follows.

1.  The research question drives the essay.  It determines the focus and your categories of analysis.  to present a research question, you do not need to write "my research question is. . ." - but you do need to make clear, in specific terms, the focus, categories of analysis, and the purpose of your study. 

2. Writing into what you know and getting your best approximation of what you are thinking puts you in a position for feedback.  Lots of you felt "fuzzy" about what you were expected to do - and writing this paper created an opportunity for you to receive feedback on what fit the assignment expectations, and what was not quite on the mark.

3. The essay needs to include lots of specific examples from the data to illustrate/"prove" the points you want to make regarding your research question.
The form for presenting examples is as follows.

• Set up a point relevant to your research question.
•  Present a chunk of data from your transcript, observations, or other source.  Use to format for block quotes (see Purdue OWL).
•  Discuss the transcript/data excerpt by making specific references to language in the quote.  Make statements about what the quote as a whole/and the particular language moves show with respect to your research question.

4.  Use writing studies discourse.  Use the language/ideas we have been discussing in this course.
Discourse= identity
discourse= the way a group of people use language
Discourse Community= a group of people who share an identity which includes the way they talk, their belief systems, and their literate practices.

This includes creating the right stance toward your research participants, data, and readers.  Writing studies tends to relate to participants from the ethnographic perspective, where the focus is on understanding their world view from their perspective (without judging it as correct/incorrect or as right/wrong). 

You did a GREAT job on this project, and I am well aware that it was challenging to write an essay were you were unsure of the discourse, the focus, and the content!   Good job turning in great essays, and I am hoping the feedback will allow you to continue to gather confidence and expertise which you can then apply to your research project.

GRADES FOR SHORT ANALYSIS PROJECTS:  As stated in class, if you receive a higher grade on your research project essay, you will receive that score for your short analysis.  My reasoning is that if you have learned more about writing research essays and are able to apply it in the research essay, I will give you credit for that learning.

Creating transcripts/analyzing data.
We spent the rest of class looking at some of the data you have collected (posted on your blogs), noting the forms in your transcripts, and talking through processes for coming up with categories for analysis or looking for features of the data.

As pointed out in this discussion, analyzing data I a cyclical process.  Researchers often begin by looking at their data in light of their research question, but then, once they have spent some time with the data and noticed patterns, they often modify their research question => which sends them back to their data with new perspectives, which may again lead to modifying the research question.

After your presentations, I directed you to the Sample transcript and the Edited transcript, and we talked through a process for analyzing your "raw" data by looking for (and analyzing) "stories".  We then noted how the form of the data's representation changes in terms of the researcher's interpretations for what the data "shows."  Good participation in this discussion!

For next class:
Bring your permission forms if you have not turned them in already

In-class workshop on writing the literature review and methods sections

Blog 21: Data (if you have not already posted it already); or any section of your essay you want feedback on.

11.14 Workshop

Workshop on  research projects

You are just about ready to start collecting data.  A number of you turned in the consent forms, and all of you spent class working on your research instruments (for example, the interview protocol, plan for observation,  reflective writing => what every you tool or material you will use to gather/create data), developing a more in-depth research question, planning for data collection (identifying what you will look for/notice/ask about).

 

I briefly reviewed the points for getting started on transcription:

• Mark speakers by initials NOT THEIR NAMES.  Do not transcribe an names. 
• Type quickly, if you get stuck on a particular passage mark it as [u] for unintelligible, note the time, and move on.
• You don't necessarily need to type long digressions (off topic talk) but note where it is (note the time) and perhaps an indication of the focus (e.g. long talk about buying a car).  There may be patterns in digressions that are meaningful - or you might realize that what you thought was a digression really was on-topic talk.
• You don't have to note silences, ah, um, and other markers for the flow in your first quick transcription, but you will want to go back and re-listen to the sections that seem "important" to your focus, and that you will use in your essay so that you can ADD these features as part of a more accurate representation.
• Be sure to include frequent notes of time elapsed.

 Good luck getting started, and have a good weekend.

 

For next class: Turn in signed consent forms.

Blog 20: Post your interview protocol

If you are not doing an interview, post whatever you worked on in class and during the week.  This is one place where you accumulate credit for writing process for your project.

 

We will get started on data analysis.  I will talk about how to create and analyze transcripts in some more detail, so bring any transcription you may have started + any other data you might have. 

 

11.12 Research project essay criteria

We looked at the assignment sheet for the research project with special attention to the criteria for the essay.  I talked a little about what I want to teach by assigning this project, and how it is those teaching goals that provide my basis for defining criteria and weighting different features that count toward the grade.  On the assignment sheet we note the following criteria, and discussed the moves the writer would need to make in the essay to meet those criteria.

25 points: background & relevance to WS

Presentation of relevant background + discussion of relevance of your project to writing studies

 

Include:1 or 2 writing studies references relevant to your research question; use those references to  define your niche and the categories of analysis.

20 points: research question

Clear statement of a research question to focus your analysis=what the analysis will show

A good research question is relevant to writing studies, is "doable" in terms of your data set

10 points: methods
Clear identification & explanation of methods to conduct your research

This should include discussion of how you will collect + analyze your data, and it should set up your categories of analysis and their connection to the research (if relevant)

20 points: presentation & analysis of data

Presentation and analysis of data or information (see requirements for short analysis essay)

 

This should include: identification of your analytic categories, examples to illustrate patterns from data; direct statements of what the analysis shows re the research question.

 

10 points: discussion 

Discussion should point out relationships between patterns in the data and findings from WS research, direct statements of what in particular your research adds to WS

10 points: conclusions
Sums up findings, indicates limitations, applications, possible new questions raised, etc

10 points: organization & correctness

 

We used this rubric to assess the two sample research projects and found that in general, the rubric posed grades that were slightly lower than the "wholistic" grades (gut grades) we would give to the essays. 

The most important outcomes of this discussion was to think about what common errors these (very good) writers made in their essays.  Both these papers were very strong in terms of exploring important questions in terms of questions raised in writing studies research, making particular references to that research, and using their data to add to (or raise more questions) for writing studies.  We noticed that the important areas to work on were:

stating the research question in enough detail;
announcing or setting up the categories for analysis somewhere BEFORE the actual analysis section; providing detailed discussions of the data examples (paper 1),
providing enough examples (paper 2)
organizational and development. 

So there you have it.

For next class:
Bring signed consent forms.
Next class will be a workshop on your research instrument and your discussion of the ws research.  Bring your research instruments (protocols, reflective writing, proposed categories for analysis).

Also, bring the research essay you will be referring to.

Blog 19: In light of today's class, what do think you need to work on for the workshop on Thursday?  Make a plan!

11.7 Criteria for grades, what to work on for the short analysis

NOTE:  Bring your signed consent forms to class!   You must turn in your consent form so you can begin colleting data.

Also: turn in your short analysis projects as an attachment sent to the course email.

Grade
We spent the first part of class reviewing how you will be graded for this course
Your syllabus (posted to the right) lists the following spread of points for the course.

1.  Blog + comments (response to readings; practice analysis, drafts, reflections, etc)         250 points            
2.  Class presentations + group work + participation + homework                                          150 points

3.  Short analysis project                                                                                            100 points

4.  Research project                                                                                                                 500 points

• 200 points = Writing for project planning, creation of  data collection tools, presentation and preliminary analysis of data
• 150 points=evidence of writing process including invention writing, successive drafts, and writing to critique and plan revisions to successive drafts
• 150= final research essay

Total points for course                                                                                                                        1000 points

As noted on they syllabus, we may re-negotiate how points are assigned for your research project, as a class.
In tonight's class we talked in some more detail about exactly how grades would be calculated.

For blogs, you receive 10 points per post.  We will probably have more than 25 posts, so you have a possibility of 10 points extra credit.

 For class presentations, group work, participation and homework, you earn 10 points per class (again,there may be more classes than 15 so there is a chance for extra credit).

 For the short analysis project, and the research essay, the discussion on the syllabus says we will develop specific criteria in class (see below).

Criteria for writing to develop the project and for evidence of the writing process are listed on the Research project assignment sheet.  Also, as we finish the term, you will have a series of blog posts where you will receive feedback on what you need to do to meet these requirements.

Grades for the course are assigned in keeping with the following scale:
91 and above = A, with 90% = A-
81 and above = B, with 80% = B-
71 and above = C, with 70% = C-
This means that to pass this course you will need to earn 701 points or above (out of the 1000 possible).

Criteria for Short Analysis project
We listed the criteria for the project on the board and had a discussion about how to "weight" the different features so they will add up to the total score, and so that the "value" or importance of each criterium corresponds to the number of points it is assigned.

I pointed out that in practice, assigning a grades is more whollistic, since the effectiveness of one component shapes and is dependent on the effectiveness of other components.  At the same time, our work to assign points to each feature can give students a realistic picture of what they need to work on and the relative importance (for their grade) of the different features of their composition.

We first assigned a "range" of scores for each component, and then "tweaked" our ranges so that the total score came out to 100 points (the total allocated to the project).  Our scoring was as follows.

20   quality of the research question
20   developed categories of analysis relevant to the data and to the research question
20   relevant, effective examples to demonstrate what the categories show with respect to the research question
10   clear, direct statements of what the examples show with respect to the research question
10   clear, logical organization appropriate for writing studies research esays
10   conclusion  sums up findings and reflects on limitations of the analysis and/or further possibilities for study
10    grammar/readability

We then tested our rubric on one of the sample essays. Our scores were in the same general "ballpark" - which suggests that we all had a similar understanding for the expectations for the essay. 

In general, my score was more demanding for the research question, the use of direct statements, the organization (because organization includes not just the order, but the details of what each section accomplishes), and the conclusion than most of the groups, and I was more satisfied with the essay's development of categories, its use of examples and the grammar than most other groups.  This is important for you to notice because I am the "audience" for your essays, the person who will be evaluating them, and you need to be aware of my expectations.  The rubric is about providing you with a basis for thinking about what you need to work on, and for estimating how well you are doing.  As noted above, grade assignments are somewhat more wholistci.


For next class:
Blog 18:  Post some reflective writing on your Short Analysis essay.  Use the rubric to estimate how well you did and what you need to work on.

Due: Final Short Analysis project.  If you are stumped, let me know so we can set up a conference.  I am not available for conferences on Friday.  I am in my office most of the day Wednesday and Thursday. 

Due: Signed consent forms (if possible).

11.5 Writing introductions for research papers

Note:  I will be providing feedback for blog 15 over the weekend, coupled with feedback for today's blog, blog 17.  My thinking is that in writing the introduction you may put yourself to revise, add to, deepen the research plan posted for 15. 


You read through John Swales' "Creating a Research Space" and noted the three moves he identifies within the introduction to writing studies essays.  We restated them as follows:

1. Establishing a Territory (or writing what your essay is about/identifying the focus/connecting to the writing studies' topic you will discuss)

2. Establishing a Niche (pointing out what your essay adds)

3. Occupying a Niche (writing what your essay will do/providing an overview of the essay's contents).

Swales listed sets of moves which researchers use in alone or in combination to make the above "moves."  We checked back to his essay to define Discourse communities, and noted that he did indeed make versions of all three of the "moves" he sets up here.

You spent the rest of class looking at the research essay you have identified for your project, and using a connection to/discussion of that essay to set up your research project. 

For next class:
Blog 17: Post a draft for your introduction to your research question.  This introduction does not need to be perfect language - but it does need to make all three moves set forward by Swales.  To do this you will necessarily need to refer to the research essay for your project.

Spend some time analyzing the transcript you have chosen for your Short Analysis.  Look for repetitions, changes in the ways language is used between the first & second sections, and think about the Discourses (identities), Conversations, and language patterns we have been talking about in class.

On Thursday we will begin by reviewing how grades are assigned for this course, and then spend the rest of class working out a rubric for assessing the Short Analysis project, and applying it to the two sample essays posted to the upper right.  These are not perfect essays.  The point of our assessment will be to decide what these students need to do to write stronger essays.

See you Thursday!

Re-visiting the literature review/introductions to research essays

"Swales: Concept of a Discourse Community

 

Coaches Can Read, Too

Texting and writing

Rhetoric of Teacher Comments on Student Writing

10.31 Oral histories on Halloween or memories of 9/11, overview of research methods

You spent the first part of class doing a short oral history about experiences with Halloween, or recollections about 9/11, your choice.  The purpose of this exercise was to give you some practices recording/conducting an interview.  After everyone collected his/her oral history, we re-convened as a class and talked over what you noticed about doing interviews.  Here is a list of your observations:

1. Interviews have a life of their own.  The conversation grows out of the interactions between individual participants, and even if you use the same protocol, every interview will be different.

2. Protocols are good things.  They keep you focused, provide relevant questions when things get quiet, and generally set up the shape of the interview.

3. Whether or not an interview will "flow" depends not just on your questions, but also on the participants.  If the conversation seems to just end, maybe it is just that your participant needs time to process.  As an interviewer in a "quiet" interview, try: waiting, encouraging, saying back what was just said, re-phrasing, nodding and saying mm-hm. 

4. Many of your best questions will arise in context - as follow-ups to what your participant has said.  Interviews are conversations.

5. Familiarity with your focus/material facilitates the interview.  Doing your homework on your topic will help the right questions (and the right replies to your participants talk) come out of your mouth.

6. You need to do your interview in a quiet place.  Other people, sounds and activity will not only distract you = they will make transcribing your recording almost impossible.


There weren't many comments about using your phones to record, so evidently that is easy and seamless.  Seems like you are ready to roll!

Summary of the methods we have worked on this semester:
discourse analysis
interviews
ethnography
case study
surveys
oral history

From your training as English majors, you are also experienced in library research and textual analysis.  Not bad.

For next week:
Blog 16: Write your reflections on what you learned from conducting your oral history interview, and how you are going to apply that knowledge in your research.
Read/bring to class: the essay you will use for the literature review in your project

Happy Halloween!  And see you next week.

10.29 Re-cap on short analysis questions & interview protocols, and intro to oral history

Note on blogs and short analysis drafts: Yes, it is the middle of the semester and I am a little overwhelmed just like everyone else.  I had some other work that came due the same time as advisement, and I just wasn't able to get finished.  It may be a couple of days before I get my head above water, but know that I have good intentions and I am working on getting back to you.  I hope to have everything back in order by the weekend.   Thanks for your patience - and if you need some immediate help (or to get the hold off your account so you can register) stop by my office.

I started by giving a general response to what I was seeing on your blogs.

Short analysis project
Setting up the short analysis project:  In general, you are doing a great job of attending to the language features (and that is the hard part!), and you are getting the idea about using the language moves as evidence to answer a larger question.  Also, you are doing a good job of asking questions that the data can answer. Very good!   All interview data can ever really indicate is how the speakers act/feel/think.  The reason that is important to writing studies is because those indications suggest larger patterns about cultural discourses, Conversations, forms and so on.  Writing studies are interested in these larger formations because they shape our writing, talk and behavior (whether we are aware of them or not) => and to REALLY understand communication, it is important to think about the role played by the cultural Discourses, Conversations and identities that are out there = ready-made, for us to step into.

So what you needed to work on was identifying how the features you were noticing were shaped by larger cultural identities, Conversations, and ways of thinking and being associated with particular Discourse communities. We talked about what kinds of formations were associated with each of the two transcripts you might choose for your short analysis project (listed below, sort of approximating what we said).
Chat transcript

• Conversations about "danger" "sex" "good parents" and the Internet
• Identities for "children" as vulnerable, impressionable, and in need of protection (this is a very American conception of childhood - other cultures think of children as resilient, capable of processing experience more or less on their own, and able to take the good and the bad)
• Discourses for "rebellious adolescent" and "good sister/daughter" and "vulnerable child" (for A) and as research interviewer and friend for S
• Reflective patterns for talk typical of female talk (sharing stories and reflecting on what they mean)

Adult learner

• Discourses associated with digital technologies and computers (newcomers v experts)
• age/generational Discourses
• Female reflective storytelling-talk
• nontraditional student identity for M, research interviewer identity for S, middle aged women Discourse for both (collaborative, reflective, not coming to closure too quickly, lots of connections to other people and groups)

We also reviewed the assignment sheet.  As you draft your project - check the assignment sheet to make sure you are meeting the expectations.

Interview protocols
I also talked briefly about what I saw on the posts for the interview protocols. You are doing a great job of starting with warm-up questions and moving to open-ended questions.  For the most part, you are also asking lots of "tell me about. . ." "Can you talk a little more about. . . " and "Tell me a story where. . . "  This is the best.
A few suggestions.
Set up a brief statement of your purpose at the beginning of your protocol (as on the sample).  In most cases you will send your protocol to your participants BEFORE you do the interview, so they can think over what they have to say.  The statement of purpose will help them frame their answers.
Use the categories of analysis from your research essay and your research question to decide what kinds of questions to ask in your interview. Categories of analysis are the general groups of ideas/information that you will analyze.  In the commenting essay, the categories for analyzing the comments were length, type, Positive/negative, etc.  Your categories of analysis need to connect to the research article because you are using your research article to help you frame your study.  For example, if your research article states that children learn x, y, and z about literacy from their "play" - you will look at your participants' learning to see whether x,y, and z are there (or not) - and whether they learn other things as well (or not).
Be sure to ask participants to DESCRIBE their experiences before you ask them to ANALYZE/EVALUATE them.  Ask a "tell me about" question before asking a "what was it like" or
"which is better" or "how do you use. . ." question.  Both kinds of answers are useful, but the "tell me about" questions may give you information about how your participant feels/thinks that s/he is not able to fully articulate.

So good work on this.  Before you do your interview: get the signed copy of your consent form and  send me a copy of your interview protocol as an attachment to an email with the subject line: YOUR LAST NAME, Interview Protocol.

Developing a Research Plan.  Somewhere in there, we also talked about planning your research project, and you did some writing to nail down (one more time) the purpose, research question, and process for your research project.  The more writing you do here, the more clear you will be on what you are doing. 

Oral history.
We spent the rest of class talking about Oral History, and doing some thinking about best practices for oral history interviews.
We talked about the kinds of background we would need to think about and the kinds of questions we would ask to collect an oral history on 9/11.

For next class:
Blog 15.  Write to the points on the Developing a Research Plan Handout (posted to the right) as discussed in class
Come to class prepared to do an oral history on 911

10.27 For Tuesday

We had an in-class workshop on Tuesday, and I talked with most of you about your projects.  It looks like most of you are ready to go on your research projects, and well set up to work on your short analysis.

We went over the assignment sheet for the research project (posted to the right).

For next class:

Read: Best Practices for Oral History

No Blog assignment.  If you choose to turn in a draft Short analysis project for feedback, send it to the course email as an attachment on or before class Thursday, 10.31. (You are not losing your mind - I put the wrong date up so  I changed it.  Drafts for comments are due Thursday.  Sorry for any confusion.)

 

Hope you had a great weekend and see you soon.

10:22 Research questions and doing interviews

We spent the first part of class reviewing questions you might ask of the transcripts for the short analysis project.  Two important features of a good research question for this project are:

1. it needs to be a question that is important to writing studies
2.  it needs to be "answerable" in terms of information in the transcript

With respect to the first feature, we worked on a list of the kinds of questions that writing studies researchers might be interested in.  This list included (but is not limited to) questions about:

how interviews work
features of different Discourse communities and how they influence the way we talk about particular topics
how identities (Discourses) shape the communication dynamics in conversations (and interviews)
how Discourse affects literacy learning
attitudes about literacy, writing, school and just about anything else that will influence literacy learning
how Discourses/identities/past literacy experiences affect student attitudes toward writing/literacy
connections between literacy learning and other attitudes, activities, and identities

As you can see, this is a pretty broad list. 

Some other observations we made about how to phrase a "good" research question for this project were that the questions would  need to be asked in terms of what the transcript can show. For example, the gaming transcript cannot support an answer to questions about whether or not gaming experience helps students learn software for school=> it can only show what the participants in this interview say about their perspective on that question. 

The rest of class was spent talking about how to design interviews.  We looked at the handout on doing interviews, and we looked at a sample interview protocol. 

We noted the following.

• The beginning of the interview is a place for participants to warm up.  Ask questions that are easy to answer.
•  An open-ended, general question about your focus at the end of the introductory material can give your participant a chance to talk about your topic in his/her own language, before you begin directing the conversation to specific features of your question.
• It is a good idea to organize your interview - either chronologically, by topic, or both.
• You will probably want to ask the same questions - related to different aspects of your topic - over and over again to give your participant multiple opportunities to call up information assosciated with your focus.
• Ask lots of descriptive, tell me about, do you have a story questions, rather than questions that demand direct information.
• As you come to the end of your interview make sure to give your participant an opportunity to raise anything they want to say that you might not have covered.

For next class:
Next class will be a workshop.  You can either work on your interview protocol, or your short analysis.  For those of you who are doing interviews for your project, I will need to read through your interview protocol before you use it with your participants.  This class will be a good chance to do some work, get some feedback, so you will be sure of your protocol before you turn it in.
Blog 14: Draft an interview protocol for your research project.  If you are not doing interviews, draft an interview protocol that you could use if you decided to do your project a different way.

10.17 Language analysis of transcripts

We spent class using the language features handout (see previous post) to characterize language use in the Gaming transcript.  This was to give you some practice naming and classifying what is going on in a transcript (one form of data) as a way to develop - and answer - research questions.

This work was to give you some practices doing the kind of thinking about, naming, and organizating you will need to do for your Short Analysis Project. 

For next class:
Blog 13: Choose the transcript you will analyze for your short analysis project.  Name some of the language moves you see as important to what seems to be going on in your transcript.  Identify the cultural discourses (Dominant Discourses - or other personal Discourses the participants might identify with) that seem to be shaping conversations in your transcript . Pose a research question.  Begin listing/describing what you will use as  evidence to support your discussion of your answer.

Read:  handout on interviews.

In class, we will talk about how to create interview protocols (sets of interview questions), and how to conduct interviews.  You will also spend some time workshopping your short analysis essays.

10.17 Handout on language features

language features and what they (might) mean

10.15 Discourse, discourse, Primary Discourse, Secondary Discourses, transcripts = and discourse analysis

We spent class talking over James Gee's introduction to Discourse.  These were your observations at the conclusion of our discussion.

Literacy is connected to Discourse

Little d discourse is language in use

Big D Discourse includes beliefs, ways of thinking = a pattern for performing an identity

Dominant Discourse is the identity/ways of being/language  that is "enforced" by culture

Primary Discourse = values beliefs ways of relating to the world we learn as children

Discourse is not just what you say but how you say it

We learn secondary Discourses from school, media, work peer groups etc

You need to understand Discourse before you can research it

Our interpretations derive from our Primary Discourse

Your own discourse will influence the way you “hear” and “say” things = consciously and unconsciously

There is translation (difference) between languages – and between Discourses

School teaches Dominant Discourse

Transcripts – we hear what we expect

A style and structure are part of Discourse

 

You nailed that discussion!

 

We also went over the assignment sheet for the short analysis project.  We will be working on discourse analysis (analyzing the way speakers/writers use language as a way to understand how their Discourse (assumptions, values, beliefs, ways of doing, being, saying) shapes and /or is shaped by Dominant Discourse. 

 

We ended class by listing some communities/groups which have Discourses. Here is the list.

School

Most sports/games have Discourse communities (football, baseball, soccer, scrabble. . .)

Churches

Nationalities

Ethnicities

Professions (Doctors, lawyers, accountants, teachers, steel workers, farmers. . .)

Politicians – by party & positions within parties

Students

Gamers (online/game systems) by game genre or gaming group 

Music communities

Fan communities, including different fan fiction groups

Interviewers (for the news, for celebrities, for research, for jobs = all different discourses)

So, with all that in mind, this is what to do for next class.

Read: look through the three transcripts (posted to the right).  Pay special attention to the Gaming transcript, as it is the one we will analyze as an example, in class. 

Blog 12: Write about some of the interesting "moves" or language features you notice in the Gaming transcript.  What Discourses do Ch and B seem to belong to?  What evidence do you have that they belong to those Discourses?  What research questions might you ask about what is going on in this transcript?  (One important criterion for a good question for a set of data is that  there is evidence in the data to support an answer.)

 

10.10 Informed consent!

You spent class today planning and practicing how to get informed consent from your project participants. 

I passed out:
a signed (by me) informed consent form
a signed (by me) A-V consent form
a debriefing form.

You wrote a paragraph to cover the specifics of your project so you could talk your participants about your study,  your processes for subject selection, the purpose of your study, and you data collection methods. 

After watching several of your classmates talk through the process for getting informed consent, you practiced with a partner. 

In addition to covering all the points pertaining to your study, make sure to:
point out the contact information
inform participants that they can withdraw with no penalty/consequence at any time
make clear the steps you will take to preserve confidentiality
ask if your participant has any questions
get a copy of the signed forms for you, and give one to the participant

You also practiced presenting, talking through, and signing the A-V forms.  Make clear that participants can request that the recording equipment be turned off, and that the A-V form only pertains to data recording.  Again, draw paricipants' attention to the contact numbers, and create wo sets of forms.

At the end of your data collection you will provide participants with a debriefing form.  Thank your participant, explain how their participation was important, point out the contact numbers, and thank them again.

For next class:
Blog 11: Post the material you will use to describe your project when you present your informed consent materials.
Read: Gee, Introduction to Discourse Analysis
In this reading, pay attention to the way he talks about Discourse communities, identity, and his discussion of how to analyze talk (transcripts).

Have a great weekend and see you next week!

10.8 Research essays: Form and content

NOTE:  Class on 10/10 will meet in CAS 304.

We spent class discussing Martin's essay on the rhetoric of teachers comments on student writing.  I didn't write down my notes for this class, so this is an approximation of what we talked about.

Overall organization of this essay
Introduction
Literature review
Current study

                Methods

                Results
Discussion
Conclusions

In our discussion of the overall analysis, we noted that some authors merge some of these sections (for instance, the lit review + the introduction, or the results and discussion, or the discussion & the conclusions), but that this list represents the general order for the "moves" research writers make when presenting their work.
 Categories of analysis for Martin’s paperLength
Type of comment
Use of hedges
Text specificity

As we discussed these categories for Martin's analysis, we noted that the paper might have been stronger if these categories were defined more directly, and earlier in the essay.  We figured out what she meant by these categories by looking at the appendix, and the discussion of teacher tendencies in the literature review.

 What should a literature review do
1. tell what has been found relevant to your question
2. establish your authority/credibility
3. evidence of the importance for your research

What to include in the methods section

Identify your research subjects
Describe the context for the study
Describe how you collected your data
Present your research instrument (survey, interview protocol, etc)Findings for this research
Students did not revise in response to positive comments
Did correct grammar comments
Type was the strongest predictor (more so than features) for student revision

(4 most likely to respond to = list on last page)

This essay also noted a long list of similarities and differences between the present study's findings and Ferris' work.  We observed that the presentation of findings was hard to follow, and made the following observations about different ways to present them.

• don't try to present everything, just points relevant to the focus
• use visuals
• make better use of categories/other organizing ideas to present data (more, larger groupings)

 Suggestions for strengthening this essay

Organization= present definitions/focus before discussing
Create a focused summary of the literature review=> only summarize/discuss points relevant to your focus
Work on the data presentation: don’t present ALL the results, only results relevant to the research question; use visuals; organize data by points about what the data mean

Throughout this discussion, you did some talking/thinking about how to organize/present your research essay.

I really can't remember what I  said to do for Blog 10 when we were in class. I remember that we started to look at Data Set 4 during the last 15 minutes and that we talked about creating research questions that we might ask of this data set. 

For next class:
Blog 10: Name and classify some of the important features of the comments in Data Sets 4.1, 4.2, 4.3 & 4.4 (look through all for essays with comments).  What patterns do you see? What research questions might you ask of this data set?

During net class we will talk some more about analyzing Data Set 4, and I will set you up for collecting data for your research project.

10.03 Research Plan and Evaluating Surveys

We started class with some writing to develop your research projects. You wrote some drafty writing to answer the 5 prompts in the previous post. (See: Developing a Research Plan).

You shared your ideas for your projects and got started on your blog post for next Tuesday (listed at the end of this post).

Evaluating model research studiesDuring the second part of class we evaluated the study on texting.  We noticed that the beginning of the essay defines the problem.  The author's next move was to present the "pro" and "con" research on the effects of texting on writing.  The following section set up her methods: her overall approach to collecting and analyzing data.  The final section presented findings.

Our evaluation of her essay's form: In our discussion we pointed out that the paper would have been stronger with a more detailed presentation of her data (results) followed by a conclusion which discusses her answer to her research question in light of her data.

The study used three approaches for data collection: interviews with teachers, interviews with students, and analysis of written texts by students. 

Content of surveys for students and teachers

Students
How long have you been texting?

How often do you text?

 Do you notice yourself using textspeak in your texting/formal writing?

(suggestion = forward some texts)

 What types of abbreviations/how often

What do they think should be done to prevent textspeak in writing?

 

Teachers
Are you a texter?

Do you believe texting is impairing student writing?

Do teachers notice the effects of texting in student writing?

Is texting positive or negative?

What do you think should be done to keep students from using textspeak in writing?

 

Analysis of student writing
essays were analyzed for common acronyms used in texting

**essays were not analyzed for any of the positive effects of texting noted by researchers

 

Class assessment of this study:

We raised questions about the subject selection (is choosing friends the best idea?); the quality of the surveys (some questions were leading, needed more questions); the surveys should have been included in the study as appendices; the student writing might have been analyzed for more than just the presence of acronyms. 

Good work on this!

For next week:

Read: Rhetoric of Teacher Comments on Student Writing  Robin Martin

Blog 9: Develop your research plan.  Write into each of the 5 prompts.  At the end of your plan: list what you need to do to get started on your project;  list of what you need from me, let me know if you want another conference.

Good class & see you next week.