Irwin Weiser

Syllabus for English 625: Empirical Research in Writing

Spring 2003

Initial Syllabus[1]

Abbreviations:  LA:      Lauer and Asher, Composition Research: Empirical Methods

                   KS:      Kirsch and Sullivan, Methods and Methodology in Composition Research

CJ:       Johanek, Composing Research: A Contextualist Paradigm for Rhetoric and Composition

CP:      Course Pack

Jan 14:             Introduction and Course Overview

Jan 16:             Perspectives on Empirical Research: LA, Chapter 1; CJ, Chapters 1 & 2

Jan 21:             Broad Categories and Key Concepts KS, Chapter 12; CP, Lauer and Sullivan, “Validity and Reliability as Social Constructions”

Jan 23:             Class Project Discussion: Questions and Methods

Jan 28:             Human Research Subjects: http://www.irb.purdue.edu/; CP, Anderson, “Simple Gifts: Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Person-based Composition Research”; Shea, “Don’t Talk to the Humans”

Jan 30:             Surveys, Interviews, and Focus Groups: LA Chapter 4; KS Chapter 5; CP, MacNealy, Mary Sue. Strategies for Empirical Research in Writing. Chapter 8, “Surveys,” & Chapter 9, “Focus Groups,” Allyn & Bacon, 148-194. (Optional additional resources for focus group research: http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/sru/SRU19.html and http://www.unu.edu/unupress/food2/UIN03E/uin03e03.htm)

Feb 4:              Surveys and Interviews: Examples: CP, Straub, "Students' Reactions to Teacher Comments"; Hilgers, et al, "Doing More Than ‘Thinning Out the Herd’"

Feb 6:              Class Project Discussion and Progress Reports

Feb11:             Case Studies: LA, Chapter 2; KS, Chapter 6;

Feb 13:            Case Studies: Examples: CP: Greene, "Making Sense of My Own Ideas"; Nelson, "This Was an Easy Assignment"

Feb 18:            Ethnography: LA, Chapter 3; KS, Chapter 7; CP, Athanases and Heath, “Ethnography in the Study of Teaching and Learning English”

Feb 20:            Class Project Discussion and Progress Reports

Feb 25:            Ethnography: More Theory and Some Examples: CP, Cole, and Conefrey “Constructing Voices in Writing Research”;  Casanave, "Local Interactions”; Klem and Moran, "Teachers in a Strange LANd"

Feb 27:            Experimental Research: LA, Chapters 8 & 9; KS, Chapter 10

Mar 4:              Experimental Research: Examples: CP, Greene, “The Role of Task in the Development of Academic Thinking”; Cheng and Steffensen, "Metadiscourse: A Technique for Improving Student Writing"

Mar 6:              Class Project Discussion and Progress Reports:

Mar 11:            Meta-analysis: LA, Chapter 10; Example: CP, Hillocks, "What Works in Teaching Composition"

Mar 13:            Methodological Pluralism: KS, Chapter 11; CJ, Chapter 3

Mar 18:            Spring Break/CCCC

Mar 20:            Spring Break/CCCC (Purdue Reception this evening; location t.b.a.)

Mar 25:            Johanek’s Contextual Paradigm: CJ, Chapters 4 & 5

Mar 27:            Class Project Discussion and Progress Reports

April 1:             Johanek’s Contextual Paradigm Continued: CJ, Chapters 6-8

April 3:             Poster Session

April 8:             Feminism and Empirical Research: KS, Chapter 2, CP, Harding, “Is There a Feminist Method?”; Ray, “Theory and Practice from a Feminist Perspective”

April 10:           Class Project Discussion and Progress Reports

April 15:           Feminist Empirical Research: Examples: Bell, “Yes Virginia, There is a Feminist Ethnography”; Clark and Wiedenhaupt, “On Blocking and Unblocking Sonja”

April 17:           Teacher Research: KS, Chapter 8; CP, Ray, “The Argument for Teacher Research” Berlin, “The Teacher as Researcher: Democracy, Dialogue, and Power” 

April 22:           Class Project Due; Reflections on Program and Institutional Research

April 24:           Research Proposal Draft Workshop: Bring drafts

April 29:           Teacher Research: Example: Anderson, et al., “Cross-Curricular Underlife”

May 1:             Research Proposal Due/Final Exam Distributed/Course Evaluation

May 8: Final Exam Due 4:00 p.m.