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February 06, 2005
clo Project interests revisited
My primary interest in this class is the issue of how we understand the methodologies of other disciplines from which comp research methods are borrowed, and if/how those understandings do or don't lead to an organized way of doing and evaluating the research that results.
Our earliest reading and discussion addresses the question of how research is done in comp, and two things are clear from that opening:
1) The framework within which research is conducted can be organically developed within the discipline or adapted from the accepted approaches to problems in other disciplines, and
2) logically, the strongest approach to research includes a thorough understanding of the field in which data resides combined with a rich research programme: a fully articulated theory, coherent and usable methodology, and a range of appropriate methods.
Among the project topics suggested for this course, the one that corresponds most closely to my interest is:
"Analyzing and synthesizing the methods and methodologies of selected composition historians. In addition to textual analysis, this might (in the case of living historians) involve conducting interviews."
In answer to Becky's question about how this would be historical, rather than merely (!) methodological, here's one possibility:
I was thinking that a combination of timeline and textual analysis might yield some interesting information. Iow, some number of composition studies would be coded for descriptions of method, methodology, and underlying assumptions, as well as for citations of methodological antecedents,
then sorted by authorial disciplinary training, writing/publication dates, and perhaps theoretical stances. The goal would be to look for trends in methodological choices (including methods):
Would the disciplinary antecedents of those methods and methodologies, if any, shift over time?
Would the theoretical/narrative explanations that might constitute epistemological justifications of the methodologies be altered as critiques of certain disciplines, theories, and methodologies make them less attractive as "proof"?.
I'm thinking of coding only certain portions of the texts - say, prefatory/introductory kinds of remarks, and sections that specifically discuss methods, rather than whole texts, because of the time constraints in a 1 semester course.
As for the list of works to be analyzed, I could look at only a few authors who are considered seminal or prototypical in the field (or some other subset - say, first and last books by a few authors who wrote about composition over a long span of time), or at those published in a specific discipline related journal, as a test of the project's viability and value.
clo
Posted by clostran at February 6, 2005 06:34 PM
Comments
As you might expect, I feel a certain enthusiasm for your topic :)
But how, concretely, do you propose to do it? And how, specifically, will it be historical rather than purely methodological?
Posted by: senioritis at February 6, 2005 07:25 PM
Um, Here's on possibility (more sciency than my normal approach, but interesting as one piece of the larger project, possibly?):
I was thinking that
"Analyzing and synthesizing the methods and methodologies of selected composition historians"
might yield some interesting information under a combination of timeline and textual analysis.
Iow, the writings of comp historians would be coded for descriptions of method, methodology, and underlying assumptions, as well as for citations of methodological antecedents,
then sorted by authorial disciplinary training and writing/publication dates to look for trends in methodological choices, and so on.
Not ruling out interviews, of course, as a source of information about authorial preferences and antecedents and so on.
I'm thinking of coding only certain portions of the texts - say, prefatory/introductory kinds of remarks, and sections that specifically discuss methods, more than whole texts, because of the time constraints for me in a semester-long course.
Or I could look at only a few who are considered seminal or prototypical in the field (or some other subset - say, first and last books by an author or a few authors), or at those published in a specific discipline related journal,
as a test of the project's viability and value.
clo
Posted by: clo at February 6, 2005 07:56 PM
The last four ¶s of your revised version fascinate me, and I think you should do this. Make your 2/10 proposal as specific as possible re methods. I can help you pick out texts to analyze.
Posted by: senioritis at February 8, 2005 07:45 PM
Candidates:
The Crowley you've already read, + Connors from this semester.
And any of the books in the extra-texts list for this course.
Also:
Berlin, James A. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.
Berlin, James A. Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1984.
If you decide you want to hit the major biggies, I'd pick (in addition to Crowley & Connors) Kitzhaber, North, Ohmann, Russell, and Berlin.
Posted by: senioritis at February 8, 2005 08:28 PM
thank you ma'am!
clo
Posted by: Carolyn Ostrander at February 8, 2005 10:51 PM
Posted as a comment due to technical difficulties
(go figure):
I probably won't get my assignments up on the blog (rewritten book summary/emplotment and revised project proposal) before class, due to the fact that
my computer here at home keeps crashing when I try to bring MOVE up, for some
reason.
Here's my proposed list of texts for analysis:
(and yes, titles will be italicized on the blog)
Berlin, James A. Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges, 1900-1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.
Berlin, James A. Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1984.
Crowley, Sharon. Composition in the University: Historical and Polemical Essays. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.
Crowley, Sharon The Methodical Memory: Invention in Current-Traditional Rhetoric
Kitzhaber, Rhetoric in American Colleges, 1850-1900 (Smu Studies in Composition and Rhetoric), SMU 1990
Murphy, ed. A Short History of Writing Instruction: From Ancient Greece to Modern America. 2nd ed. 2001.
North, The Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field:
Ohmann, English in America: A Radical View of the Profession, with a New Introduction. 1996.
Russell, David R. Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990: A Curricular History. 2nd ed.
My plan is to do a pilot assessment, as you suggest, of Crowley's Composition in the University, to estimate time and feasability, and test coding strategies.
Planned method, pilot project:
1) Propose coding system to be used on texts
2) Scan text to identify portions which reference method, methodology, epistemology.
3) Research background of author to identify disciplinary antecedents, timeline of publications, and theoretical assumptions
4) Apply proposed coding system, using a database to capture codes and text excerpts on which coding is based
5) Determine length and scope of project (how many authors)
6) After data collection, analyze for clues about sources of and shifts in methodology.
7) Project the number of texts to be analyzed, lather, rinse, and repeat.
clo
Posted by: Carolyn Ostrander at February 10, 2005 08:32 AM