ENG 500 Research Methods

ENG 500 Research Methods: Rhetoric and Composition
Course Description

Fall 2007

Knowledge separates the educated from the common people. Neither knows. But the common person claims to know, while the educated knows that he does not know. . . . In the society of men of letters, the most abundant fruit that we shall reap is modesty of spirit by which no one would presume to know beyond his measure (89-90). --Giovanni Battista Vico On Humanistic Education

Course Description: This course introduces graduate students to scholarly issues, designs and methods in rhetoric and composition. It focuses on ways of developing research problems and questions, designing studies, and conducting, reading and evaluating research. Some of the questions to be explored are:

What are the major paradigms of research in rhetoric and composition?
How are research problems and questions made operational and transformed into plans of action?
What is the relationship between research problems and research design?
What variety of scholarly reading and writing strategies operate within scholarship in rhetoric and composition?
What is the relationship between these diverse literate practices and the multiple modes of inquiry that comprise the complex arena of research?
What are the limitations of various research and scholarly methods?

This course provides an overview of various kinds of scholarship in the field (e.g., historical, feminist, theoretical, rhetorical) and introduces the broad, diverse range of methods that are employed (hermeneutical, naturalistic, philosophical, etc.), although emphasis will focus mostly on the empirical (observational). Even if you never plan to conduct an empirical study, critical awareness of empirically grounded research in rhetoric and composition is crucial because so much scholarship in the field rests on claims derived from empirical work even when that work is not referenced. Further, regardless of your professional path, you may often be asked to justify curricula, programmatic or other kinds of decisions on empirical research studies; thus, you need to be able to read these reports critically and argue about them from an informed position.

What we [rhetoric and composition scholars] need . . . is room for multiple research methods, for flexible paradigms and theories that can help researchers adapt to changing needs of participants and the research community.--Gesa Kirsch "Ethics and Future of Composition"

Course Goals:

to help you develop a breadth of knowledge about scholarship in rhetoric and composition
to help you become critical readers of research and scholar in the field
to help you become familiar with some of the major research and scholarly genres in the field
to help you gain experience in posing research questions and planning a research design
to give you experience in writing a research grant proposal
to contribute to your professionalization in rhetoric and composition

Textbooks:

Required Texts:

Bazerman, Charles. Handbook of Writing Research: History, Society, School, Individual, Text. New York: Erlbaum, 2008.
Johanek, Cindy. Composing Research: A Contextualist Paradigm for Rhetoric and Composition. Logan: Utah State UP, 2000.
Olson, Gary A., ed. Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition. Albany: SUNY P, 1997.
Porter, James, and Patricia Sullivan. Opening Spaces: Writing Technologies and Critical Research Practices . Greenwich , CT : Ablex, 1997.
Other selected readings

Recommended Texts:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . 4th ed. Washington , DC : American Psychological Association, 1994. (The style manual for APA.)
Gibaldi, J. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing . 2nd ed. New York : MLA, 1998.
Addison, Joanne and Sharon James McGee, eds. Feminist Empirical Research: Emerging Perspectives on Qualitative and Teacher Research. Portsmouth , NH : Boynton/Cook, 1999.
Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes . Chicago : U of Chicago P, 1995.
Hayes, John. et al. Reading Empirical Research Studies: The Rhetoric of Research . Hillsdale , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum, 1992.
Kirsch, Gesa, and Patricia A. Sullivan, eds. Methods and Methodology in Composition Research. Southern Illinois UP, 1992.
Mortensen, Peter and Gesa Kirsch, eds. Ethics and Representation in Qualitative Studies of Literacy. Urbana: NCTE, 1996.
Lauer, Janice M. and Asher, William. (1988). Composition Research: Empirical Designs . New York : Oxford University Press, 1988.
Weiss, Robert S. Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies . New York : Free P, 1994.

Requirements:

Assignments: Detailed descriptions of the following required assignments will be distributed:

Assignment Calendar

Attendance and Participation: Because so much of what is to be learned in this course occurs in class, regular attendance is expected. The course is so constructed that even a few absences will create serious problems. Be prepared each class to offer comments and pose questions on the day's assigned readings.

Late Assignments: Papers not turned in on the due date will be marked down a letter grade for each week the paper is late.

Incompletes: Please do not assume that an incomplete will be given upon request. University and departmental policy on the handling of incompletes will be followed; only in the case of verified emergencies and illnesses will an incomplete be given.

Important dates:
Oct. 1 preregistration for Spring '08
Oct. 28 last day course withdrawal
Nov 22 Thanksgiving - no classes
Dec. 4 last day complete withdrawal