9.25 more analysis and thinking about your research projec ts

More Analysis.  You are making great progress on developing the basic moves and terminology you will use in writing analytic research for writing studies!   Good work.  The first part of today's class was about reviewing the moves for categorizing and coding the data in the shaggy dog stories - and then applying the language we developed in a systematic way to "proove" our conclusions about what makes shaggy dog jokes funny. That part went pretty well. While length (associated with strong development) seemed to be an important factor (we ranked development as most important), it was clear that audience connection to the punchline, development and surprise (our 3 categories) was probably the most important.  An audience will NOT think a joke is funny if it doesn't get the punchline, understand the development, or care about the material.  So in some sense - we can't come up with a theory for what makes shaggy dog stories funny that gets too specific.  Rather = it has to stick to certain kinds of moves or features (as the class list of categories did).  

Literacy narratives. We spent the next part of class looking at a "post" for Blog 6 - the analysis of one or  more literacy narrative (sorry).. We began by identifying what the Blog post required the writer to do, then you analyzed the post for whether and how it met the requests  made by the prompt. You wrote/talked about the strengths and weaknesses of the post.   You did a great job on this.  I copied our lists from the board into this post (see below).

Strengths

identifies categories/themes

categories themes are in the data and fit together

includes interpretations (like assigning emotions to particular actions)

very detailed

makes interconnections (with parenthetical labels) among different parts of the story

identifies the overall story arc

accounts for the breadth of the data (labels many things - even irrelevant things)

the questions at the end connect to multiple issues

identifies themes that connect patterns

patterns identify relationships in data that are not obvious

named elements in the overall patterns

Work on

organization

questions should frame the presentation

needs  to be a more writerly text

too stream of consciousness

too few clues for readers

needs more explanation of patterns + connections between data & patterns

give the reader more clear ground for where they are ( numbering of pages)

use color coding                                                     

identify codes that fit into particular categories

So good job on this.  You asked if you could go back and re-do/add to your last blog - and the answer is of course.  I will be looking at blogs after Thursday - and have feedback for you before the end of the weekend.  You can re-write & re-post; add to the original; add comments about what you would do differently in a different colored font, or just leave it.  I will give points for the revised version.  Also - if there are parts of analytic process that you are still not understanding - write some questions - and I will give you answers as part of your blog feedback.

Ideas for your research projects.  Our class has been approved by the Kean University IRB - so you can more forward with your research projects after we go over how to recruit subjects, gather informed consent, ensure an ethical project design, and debrief subjects.  As I was listening to your ides for what you might work on I was thinking about what kind of field research you might participate in - and ways to design your projects so that they are writing studies projects (have a focus on language).  There were some great ideas - and I am looking forward to reading your blog posts where you work through some writing to develop a research question.

Overiview of form for research essays:  Very brief presentation of sample form for a research paper.  We used Robin Martin's essay as a model for the form of a research paper.  Introduction (statement/justification of focus, brief review of connection to other research, brief statement of what the present essay does differently/adds to schollarship); review of literature; description of the present study (context, subject, methods), presentation of data, discussion of findings, conclusions.  This is a general form - and like our theory of what makes jokes funny it applies in a general way.  In face - just as for any other piece of writing - the audience and purpose for your essay will determine the form.  At the same time - like with the theory of what makes jokes funny - there are certain moves you need to make (and pretty much those are the moves we listed in class) - what those moves are and the precise placement of them will depend on the audience +purpose.

Narrowing your focus: The very end of class was spent going over the worksheet for developing a research plan (posted to the right).  Right now - you have a broad focus or a general idea of what you might study.  The first three steps on the worksheet are designed to help you come up with a project that is both deep enough to allow for the kind of analysis and thinking required by this assignment, and well defined enough and "do-able" enough that you can do a decent job on your focus in approximately 7 pages.  

Some final thoughts: The research project for this class may be different from the research papers you have written for many classes => because you are going to use analytic process to discover or create new knowledge and ideas.  This project is not a report, or even an interpretation.  It is an analysis that considers data in combinations, or from perspectives that are fundamentally different from other studies.  A successful project will be created through a process that draws on collaboration, close analysis of data and reflection as ways to re-imagine your material.   

For next class:

re-read: Rhetoric of Teacher Comments on Student Writing  Robin Martin

Bring an essay with teacher comments (preferably the essay will be electronic and the comments will be in MS word's commenting function).  If you have several essays that you think show different commenting styles - please bring more than one.  If you have an assignment sheet for the essay - bring that too.

Blog 7: Post (or edit and post if you choose) the writing you did in class to think about ideas you might be interested in for your research project.  This list should go wide - rather than present a single idea.  This is your fall-back space and a place to look for connections.  It should include ideas/areas of focus that are INTERESTING to you.  This writing will give me a way to have input - to suggest possibilities and readings that connect to material you are curious about.  

Blog 8: Work through the first 3 sections of the worksheet on developing a research plan. You will be focus on finding your research question.  You don't need to write to every prompt.  Post what you come up with.  

We are early enough in the process that if you discover that the idea you develop in Blog 8 won't pan out - you can go back to the big, messy, everything but the kitchen sink list of ideas for Blog 7 and look for something else.  The point is to do some invested writing here and see where it takes you.  

What we will do in class next week:

We will begin by looking at your blog posts, signing you up for conferences on your projects, and talking about the next step for setting up a research plan.

For the second half of class we will look at Martin's essay to 1) discuss & critique its content; and  2) assess its possibilities for as a project for this class.. We will use the essays you bring to class as a data set for designing a study on student response to teacher comments.