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January 23, 2005

Brainstorming an outline for the book

Just some preliminary thoughts, expanded from our 1/20 meeting:

PART I: METHODOLOGIES FOR COMPOSITION HISTORY
• Synthesis of comp/rhet historiographic sources
• Synthesis of historiographic sources from ancillary disciplines (communications, rhetoric) that might be imported to the writing of composition history
• Analysis of methodologies in leading comp histories

PART II: METHODS FOR COMPOSITION HISTORY
• Coding data (Chris Carrick)
• Interview methods
• Archival methods
• Review of methods textbooks in ancillary disciplines (rhetoric, communications)
• Analysis of methods in leading comp histories

PART III
• Chapters in composition history, w/ reflections and/or analyses of methods & methodologies. Examples of possible topics: SU WP; plagiarism history; Perrin dissertation

It's too early to know what among the preceding will be discrete chapters and what will be contributions to chapters. Rather, what I have here is a list of discrete tasks that will need (I think) to be done for the book. What other tasks can you think of? What tasks are you interested in?

Posted by senioritis at January 23, 2005 11:30 PM

Comments

Becky -
I think that this list overlooks our opening discussion re: epistomology driving methodology which analyzes method. If we don't
have an agreed on set of beliefs about methodology (something that lets us know, for example, whether all methodologies are equally valid in any discipline, or whether the discussion about the nature of the discipline drives the discussion about the methodology and therefore the method), or can't articulate that set,
then we are effectively offering a primer/
smorgasboard of methods and methodologies we have picked up, and offloading that decision onto
the readers - but ought to do so knowingly.
We wouldn't even be able to call it "best practices", because we'd have no way to evaluate one over the other.
clo

Posted by: Carolyn Ostrander at January 24, 2005 08:10 AM