This project is the result of a seminar in Computers, Language, and Rhetoric. While I began an essay on the intersection of technology and methodology in the summer of 2003, this site is a further exploration of that topic, with additional insight gained through my seminar.

I began the essay by examining the question: What do changes in technology mean for research methods used in professional writing? One of the most popular methods used in professional writing research is ethnography. I wondered what technological changes meant for how the workplace could/should be studied.

The essay itself was hard to pull together into one cohesive piece. The interplay of ideology, methodology, and technology do not lend themselves to a linear line of development or exploration. The nature of hypertext and websites lends itself to the display of information that leads to more questions than answers.

I have developed four sections for exploration in this site: method[ology], community, identity, and space. In method[ology] I discuss what I see as problematic in current professional writing research and what other scholars have also noted. This section also discusses the possibilities for methods that are opened by new technologies. In community, space, and identity I discuss these changing concepts in light of technology and their possible implications for the workplace and thus for professional writing research.

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created by: j. blankert
12 december 2003