1.30 Introduction to discourse analysis

Today worked on analyzing how language is used.  The writing studies word for how language is used is "discourse", and studies which look at how the different parts and systems associated with language work together to make meanings within particular contexts is (often) named discourse analysis.

Our class work to day was to analyze a set of shaggy dog stories, which are essentially story jokes. In our analysis we looked at features of the jokes within four categories: overall organization; features of language use; the kinds of cultural knowledge the demanded of their audience; and how these jokes connect to other genres.  Below is a general description of what these jokes "did" in terms of each of the categories.

Overall organization (where 'things' occur): The jokes were organized as stories (see connections to other genres) = long-winded stories where seemingly meaningless details came together at the end for a punchline.  More specifically we noticed that the terms for the punchline were introduced (sometimes in sequence) early in the story, though (sometimes) not using the exact word that would "reveal" the punchline.  All stories had a beginning which set the scene (a dramatic context) and established characters (though some characters, such as Hugh McTaggart, were introduced later as the 'plot' developed); a middle which developed the story's conflict (the need to: stop the florist friars, discover why the panda did what he did; make a decision about which bear to shoot, etc), and a conclusion where a set of quirky elements from the development are resolved in a pun/punchline which can be interpreted multiple ways. Some stories included repetitions (rule of 3, see genres) as a mechanism for development. Dialog was used frequently in the development, and sometimes for the punchline.

Language use:  The presentations of elements in the punchline were the most important features of language use.  The punchline terms were often presented in a "disguised" form - often as proper names(Czechoslovakian for 'check'; Hugh for 'you') - always in some form which allowed for a "double" interpretation.  Sometimes the pun rested on transliteration (as in 'friars' /'fiars'); sometimes the use of words that sounded the same but had different meanings (male/mail; a frayed/afraid) and sometimes on having the words transposed (Thank Friday it's God => Thank God it's Friday).  Often language required specialized knowledge/associations (connotations) on the part of the listener in order to get the joke.

Cultural knowledge:  We identified a wide range of assumptions, values and beliefs that listeners would need to be familiar with in order to "get" these jokes.  These included knowledge of: the "scene" for getting denied a "beer" either because of dress or identity (no ID); stereotypes for lawyers; the weirdness of who might walk into a restaurant in NYC; etc.  Belonging to an identity/group where members have the knowledge assumed for the joke (someone who has been denied a drink; someone who tells lawyer jokes/'hates' lawyers; someone who has spent time in NYC) - identifies you as someone who will (might) "get" this the joke.  Being a member of a group with a particular set of assumptions, values, and beliefs - necessarily connect to particular ways of talking/representing yourself - and may (or may not) identify you as belonging to a Discourse community (according to Swales).
Perhaps the most important discourse (way of using language) this joke needed you to know about - was shaggy dog story discourse => what we are describing here.  If you didn't understand how the jokes "work" (how they use language and for what purposes) they may just seem bizarre.

Connections to other genres: Their form draws from multiple genres (groups of language forms which have a core set of similar features).  Some of the genres they draw from are:
oral story telling: they rely on puns/sound differences for their meaning
folkstories - they have a beginning, middle and end; they often include "fantastic" or "typical" characters; the often use repetition/the rule of 3, they draw from plots found in these stories such as the "swallowed whole" motif),
jokes - they have a punchline, they use wordplay, they are often passive-agressive (someone is "put down, or made to look less-than-upstanding) - or knowledge of a whole genre of jokes => such as lawyer jokes
print texts/famous books - the "Thank Friday, it's God" joke used characters from Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, a classic from the British literary canon (one of the first novels); the Panda joke may have derived from the writing handbook Eats, Shoots & Leaves (or it may be the other way around).



So, read back through your notes, and see what you can do in terms of identifying the "features" of shaggy dog joke discourse.

For next class:
If you have not turned in both the print copy, or the link=> make sure I get them.  You need NIH documentation of triaing to begin your research.

As I mentioned in class, we will be catching up on our missed day - and hopefully will be back in sync with the calendar by the end of next week.  Keep thinking about what you might like to do for a research project.  I will set up conferences with each of you with a sign-up list next week.  Your blog posts sound like you have lots of awesome ideas.

Read: Swales
Blog 3:  Identify and define (in your own words)  any the terms we have been developing for use in   language analysis.  The point here is not necessarily to be correct (this is not a test), rather it is to give me a chance to see what you are thinking/learning and supply language/direction if you want/need it.

Great class today!



 

1.28 Analysis!

Reminders:  NIH training certificates are due by the beginning of class Thursday.
Also= I will get back to you on your first blog posts before class Thursday.

Observation: Yes, this is a very long blog. 

Analysis.  
Today's class focused on analysis. We started by observing that everyone knows how to do analysis - that we do it automatically (and successfully) every day.  One of the important things we will do in this class is learn to slow down, write about, and reflect on what we do when we do analysis.  

Everyday language for talking about analysis.  We made a list on the board of some of the words and phrases you use to talk about analysis.  This language included:
review
thorough breakdown
picking apart into pieces and making meaning
interpreting deeper
detailed summary
pose theories that connect what we are analyzing to something we already know about (I added that one)

Specialized language for talking about analytic process. 
We spent the rest of class doing a logic problem as a way to "watch" what we do when we analyze it.  My idea is that we need at least one experience where we have observed (with great attention!) what we do when we analyze, before naming the different steps will mean anything.  

So you worked on the logic problem - and noticed what you did.  What I have listed below is a composite overview of analytic process.  In fact, these steps did not exactly take place in order.  Rather they were jumbled and repeated.  Still, this gives you the NAMES used by researchers for the moves you made.

 1. DEFINE the problem/question you are solving (identify the problem/question)

This step included deciding what your task was (what you had to do)  and ORIENTING to the data (deciding the perspective or focus for your analysis).  In this case  - looking at the picture with the question right side up, and reading right to left, and down the page, was the easiest orientation.

   

2. Name/identify FEATURES within data = deciding which FEATURES in your data are significant to your problem

You noticed that there were different shapes,

That some of the shapes were oriented differently

That the shapes were different colors

Before you could talk in your group about patterns or how the problem worked you needed to NAME the features of your data.  You then could have a discussion about whether or not those features were relevant to the puzzle's solution.  In this case, shape and orientation were important within the global pattern, but color was only important in that it was fixed for particular shapes.

3. CATEGORIZE= put ELEMENTS with similar FEATURES  into groups

Categories = groups of things with shared features

This was a beginning step for looking for patterns

This step sometimes included counting the elements within a category (how many of each kind of shape/color/orientation) and it sometimes included noticing LOCAL groups or clusters (like the groups of two symbols of the same kind) and counting that as a category.

Looking at a LOCAL group (just part of the problem) is called BRACKETING = like putting [around part of the problem] so you can concentrate on a smaller, more manageable piece of data.  I think every group made important progress through looking at small, local groupings as a way to predict what other local groupings would be. 

4. Look for patterns

 In this step you looked at the features, categories and local groups you identified as ways to talk about repetitions, cycles and larger sequences. 

You identified lots of different local patterns = which shapes ALWAYS went together, or the order in which shapes followed one another.  

To develop different patterns - your looked at the puzzle from different ORIENTATIONS, and you also BRACKETED off sections so you could just look at part of the puzzle at a time

5. Pose local theories (drawn from patterns that are "out there" in the world).

Once you noticed a pattern in color, or sequence, or grouping  - you formed an idea of what that pattern might look like if it were true for the whole puzzle.  The idea of what a pattern would look like when it applies to ALL your data is a theory.

Theories often are connected to patterns that you already know.  For example, you "read" the puzzle from right to left (for different reasons) and from top to bottom, some of you connected to the 3X3 matrices of sudokus, and some of you tried columns).  Each of these decisions represents a "theory" about how the puzzle was oriented/organized.

Others noticed that there was a black shape in every row but the last one, and guessed the club (which is the right answer) => but the wrong reason.  There is also a diamond in every row but the last one => the REAL answer is about the sequence of the shapes (a  GLOBAL theory). Some of you theorized that the club occurred next because of the sequence (which shapes were always on either side of the upside down club)=> this was the right LOCAL theory, but it was not a GLOBAL theory (one that could account for all the data - and predict what would happen with additional data.

6. Test your theories!

 Once you had a local theory (about two shapes always following each other, or being above each other, or about the color distribution, or about symmetry) you tested your theory by checking to see if the pattern you identified applied to the WHOLE puzzle. 

If the theory didn't FIT (explain what you could see) and WORK (allow you to generate or extend the data further by predicting the pattern) - you decided the theory was wrong - and cycled back through the steps - re-thinking the names and groupings and patterns that you had already tried. You might even need to go back and re-define the problem.

7. Use local theory to pose GLOBAL theory (to explain the whole system)

Once you found a theory that seemed to fit and work for part of the puzzle - the next step is to see if you can use your theory to predict what would happen in new situations.  For this puzzle - the correct answer allows you to name the right "shape" at any point in the series.

Reflections on our work together:  In addition to observing these steps (and writing them down -good work!), we noticed that this process was not linear. As we pointed out at the beginning of the exercise - thinking is messy, it doesn't go in a straight line. You cycled through these processes, sometimes jumping from one to another. For example, you might have posed a local theory, found that it didn't "work" and then gone back to identifying features to figure out why the theory didn't work. This new consideration of features then might lead you to different categories. And so on.

The purpose of doing this exercise was for us to analyze(!) analytic process => and you certainly did that.  You now have language (and a process)

• to identify and name the "features" of analytic process,
• to put those features into categories,
• and to pose a theory about relationships among those categories that can "explain" how analysis works. 

So that's what we did.

WHY SLOWING DOWN AND NAMING ANALYTIC PROCESS IS IMPORTANT.

1. Researchers need names and categories to communicate about analysis so that they can share their thinking/analyses to others.  This is important both in talking and in writing.  This exercise drew your attention to some of the names researchers use as they talk about analysis (DATA, NAMING, ELEMENT, FEATURES, CATEGORIZING, LOCAL THEORY, FIT & WORK, etc).  

2. Awareness of research process allows us to "prove" our answers.  Without conscious awareness of how to do analysis, we tend to fall back on "intuitive" patterns for thinking.  These ways of thinking  are generally "quick & dirty" = meaning they give you a rapid insight with a usable answer. This thinking takes place rapidly - and you often don't know how you got your answer - so you won't be able to "prove" it.

3. Complex research problems/questions can feel overwhelming if you do not consciously "know the moves" to work through analysis.  Because our analytic process is mostly "automatic" - when we are faced with a problem we aren't familiar with, or a question that has many, many different ways to think about answers - our automatic approaches don't have something familiar (from our experience) to latch onto.

Some further observations:

•  people do analysis differently - they bring different backgrounds and talents to the problem and have different experiences to draw from
• much of problem solving is working backward
• doing something and reflecting on it at the same time is hard
• group members have different takes - and in that way group work allows for more powerful problem solving.

If we focus on the effects of working with a group, we notice that it was probably more interesting, less frustrating, and easier to work on the problem for a longer period of time because you were working with a team.  So = we are going to be a team this semester.  It is the BEST way to do research.

For next class:
Read: Data Set 1: Shaggy Dog Stories

Blog 2:  (and please label this post as Blog 2)

List (name and give an example)

1. some of the language features or "moves" you notice in the shaggy dog storie

2. some of the knowledge or beliefs a listener would need to be aware of to "get" the joke.

3. ways which shaggy dog stories connect to other spoken or written forms

4. patterns in the way these stories are told - either in terms of word choices, the organization of the stories, or relationships between the joke-teller & the audience

Great class today!   See you Thursday.

1.23 Second first day of class

So we (finally) had class.  We talked through (kind of randomly) the syllabus and the calendar, and hopefully you have an overall picture of where the class is going, what is expected, and when.  While the calendar is obviously not "correct" (as of now we are one class behind it), it IS a good estimate of the overall sequence of our investigations and writing, and it can help you plan/estimate your time.

This blog is the place for the details of what we plan to do in class and what we actually did.  You should check it after every class.

What you will do this term:  We spent the rest of class talking about what you will be doing in this class: primary research.  You will be collecting and analyzing information/observations from the 'real world' as a way to figure something out about/contemplate some topic relevant to writing studies. While you will be required to read other research on your topic, your primary task is to collect data on your topic, analyze it, and produce writing where you describe what your data (and the relationships you describe within them) mean.

Chosing a topic:  Thanks for sharing your ideas as part of your introductions, and I am excited about the list of ideas for projects that you created.  As you can see from the calendar - we will be doing some more talking/brainstorming to come up with a focus for your research.  For now, try to keep an open mind.

Some features of topics which  might mark it as a good idea:

• a topic you are especially interested in (no matter what it is, there is a way to make it a "writing studies" project - trust me).
• a project which might allow you to explore a topic you have not yet been able to study/research in your course work - but which you are very interested in
• a topic which will help you understand/deepen your knowledge of an idea/group/ practice associated with your chose profession
• a topic which will let you write a research paper which you might include as a writing sample for future job applications 
• a topic you have "connections" for studying because of your interests, living situation, etc (one student researcher traced the evolution of a series of slang terms within a video gaming community)

Topics which are considered writing studies research

• pretty much anything about teaching, assessing, or producing writing/texts (in or out of school and using just about any kind of technology)
• analysis of the way language is used in talk and in "writing" to create and maintain identities, to create and maintain power
• analysis of language forms associated with particular groups, occasions (like introductions in college classes), identities, ideologies, relationships, and so on
• how changing technologies affect "writing" and social practices which surround writing
• lots of other things

Spend some time on this.  The more excited you are about your research topic - the easier/more engaging it should be to do the project.

For next class:
Read:  Browse through the links to the research papers on the left.  I don't expect you to read all these essays, just notice their focus and how they are written.  This overview will give you an idea of the kinds of projects other student researchers have done.

Blog 1:  Post some writing which will give me an idea of what you are interested in researching.  You do not need to have everything worked out.  The more information you give me about what you want to do, what resources you have for doing it, and so on = the more useful feedback I can provide.

If you are wondering how long the post has to be - it's in the syllabus.

Also. work on the NIH training.  Send me a link to the certificate, and bring in a copy (print) of the certificate.  It is listed on the syllabus as due next class, but I will give you until Thursday since we missed our real first class.

Good class today - and see you next week!

1.21 First Day of Class!

Welcome to ENG 3029, and I am excited about doing some research with you!

This is the course blog.  I will use the blog as a place to sum up concepts and activities covered in class, store readings and course documents, post assignments for the next class.

The course syllabus and calendar (posted to the right) are an approximation of what will actually happen in class.  Both the syllabus and the calendar are subject to renegotiation in light of what we do in class. Revisions to all course documents will be posted here, on the course blog.  This means, to make sure you are up to date on what we are doing in class = you should read the course blog after every class.  

You can use the course blog to: review what we did in class; link to classmates blogs to see what they are doing; and connect to course readings, related sites, and sample papers.