Introductions: The class began with introductions and getting to know each other. As I pointed out - it is usual at Kean to be "familiar" with a few faces - but in this class we are going to get to know one another - and to work together. Your classmates and I are your team. We are going to discover new ideas and information about writing studies research - together - this term.
Syllabus and course communications: I introduced you to this blog. The syllabus and calendar are posted to the right. As many of you noticed I didn't update all the links (oh well - so much for me producing perfect documents). Obviously, if you are here you have the right link for the course blog, but just in case you want to write it down it is http://eng3029section03.blogspot.com/. We talked about how you will earn your grades. We will be developing assignment sheets together, and you as you work on analyzing the data sets + developing your short analysis project you will get feedback and chances to revise your work. Hopefully each revision will help you better understand how to do research - and allow you to earn the grade you want. If at any time you have questions, send me an email ENG3029@gmail.com - or stop by my office CAS 324 (it is best to set up a time with me to make sure I will be there - email works best).
NIH Training: The NIH training assignment sheet is posted to the right. Because you will be doing field research for this class - you will be working with other people - or research subjects. And because people have rights, researchers have responsibilities toward their subjects. As described on the assignment sheet - all researchers associated with government agencies (and this is a state school, so you are) much take NIH training. You must email the certificate you receive for completing training to me by September 18. I suggest that you get started - that way we can deal with whatever difficulties you encounter in Sept 11, and you will then have another week to finish.
Blogs: You successfully created your blogs during class, sent me your addresses (a list of the links to your blogs is posted to the right under Class Blogs), and got started on the first blog post. As requested = title your posts blogs by the numbers listed on the calendar (Blog 1, Blog 2, etc) => that way I will know what prompt you are working on. You may add a more meaningful or entertaining title after the number. For example: Blog 1: My ideas about writing studies research (not very creative but you get the idea). Your blog does not need to be "correct" or "right" = it is a place to TRY OUT IDEAS. Have fun with it.
Analysis: During the last section of class you worked on solving a logic problem. You were asked to figure out what symbol would occur in a blanks space within a grid of symbols. You worked in groups and you did an amazing job. I was impressed by how well you worked together, by the wide range of analytic moves that you already know, and by the number of "theories" you came up with. As I said in class - this exercise was not so much about solving the problem - as about becoming conscious of HOW you (already) do analysis - and learning to do it more intentionally and with more focused direction.
What we learned from the class exercise.
This is a list of some of the many "moves" (ways of thinking about, classifying, or explaining) you made as you worked on the problem.
- named the symbols (square, diamond, club, heart. . .)
- noticed the layout of the drawing (6x6 grid)
- noticed/named the colors
- noticed the orientation (some hearts & clubs were both upside down & right side up; you also decided on the orientation of the grid as a whole - with the directions at the bottom)
- counted how many of each symbols were on the grid
- tried out different groupings for the symbols (3x3 grids like a sudoku, columns, rows, as a "design" made by the black figures if you move from one to the next from left to right. . .)
- looked for doubles by symbol
- looked for patterns by color, by shape, and by orientation
As we thought about the different kinds of moves you made - we came up with the following "classification" of the different kinds of moves you made - and the general order in which you made them.
1. Identified and named the elements of what you are analyzing- where "elements" are the features that define or present what you are analyzing. For this logic problem you identified named the different symbols, the layout of the grid (columns, rows, etc), color. You identified and named elements by looking at what was there - and attaching labels or names to what you saw. In writing studies analysis - this move is often called "coding" = where you develop names or "codes" for what you see in a particular situation.
2. Categorized or grouped together elements on the basis of similar features. For this move you noticed what all the hearts, or all the diamonds were doing, and you described those features with a name or category. Counting and classifying the kinds of locations and orientations for each symbol is categorizing. It makes larger groupings and descriptions for what happens to individual named elements - or what those elements do. This is the beginning of posing a "pattern" = your next step.
3. Look for patterns. At the looking for patterns stage, you looked hard at the data and noticed repetitions, sequences, symmetry, etc. Looking for patterns requires you to make a connection between a structure you know and recognize - and some structure within the problem you are looking at. So in some sense you are looking for something you already know - but within a new situation or context.
4. Pose a hypothesis. After you found a small or large pattern, you pose a larger, more general explanation for how that pattern can explain the whole problem or situation. This step is about figuring out how the little pattern you saw in one part of the problem would look if it were applied to the whole problem in a general way - and making a statement to describe what that large patter would look like.
5. Testing the hypothesis. After making a general statement of the "story" or "explanation" suggested by the small pattern that you noticed - you then checked to see if this story or explanation "fit" or "worked" within the whole problem (all of your data, where data is the information you have about the problem). A strong hypotheses, or the "answer" to your problem, will fit and work with ALL of the data.
6. Cycling through the process. Most of the time, our first hypothesis only explain parts of the data or small pieces of the problem. This means we need to go back to the beginning and make sure we have noticed/named the central elements of the problem, and that we have put them in useful - rather than irrelevant or misleading - categories. We also have to decide whether the patterns we connected to are "working". If they aren't we need to come up with additional patterns - new patterns we haven't tried before - and organize them into another hypothesis (each group did this several times).
Where researchers get stuck: Your experience with this problem was similar to researchers in that you got stuck in the same places that most thinkers/researchers get stuck. Identifying and applying MANY possible patters (and letting go of the first couple that you found) is often the hardest part.
For next class:
Blogs will be due by the beginning of class 9/11 - and I will give you some feedback on how you are doing with your posts, probably by 9/14.. If you are having trouble with the technology - let me know and I can walk you through it.
We will be pretty much on schedule with the calendar for next week, which means we will get started on oral history and interviewing - and you will get a chance to apply what you learned about analysis to the data we will create in class.
Thanks for your good work tonight, and I am looking for reading your blogs!
1. Identified and named the elements of what you are analyzing- where "elements" are the features that define or present what you are analyzing. For this logic problem you identified named the different symbols, the layout of the grid (columns, rows, etc), color. You identified and named elements by looking at what was there - and attaching labels or names to what you saw. In writing studies analysis - this move is often called "coding" = where you develop names or "codes" for what you see in a particular situation.
2. Categorized or grouped together elements on the basis of similar features. For this move you noticed what all the hearts, or all the diamonds were doing, and you described those features with a name or category. Counting and classifying the kinds of locations and orientations for each symbol is categorizing. It makes larger groupings and descriptions for what happens to individual named elements - or what those elements do. This is the beginning of posing a "pattern" = your next step.
3. Look for patterns. At the looking for patterns stage, you looked hard at the data and noticed repetitions, sequences, symmetry, etc. Looking for patterns requires you to make a connection between a structure you know and recognize - and some structure within the problem you are looking at. So in some sense you are looking for something you already know - but within a new situation or context.
4. Pose a hypothesis. After you found a small or large pattern, you pose a larger, more general explanation for how that pattern can explain the whole problem or situation. This step is about figuring out how the little pattern you saw in one part of the problem would look if it were applied to the whole problem in a general way - and making a statement to describe what that large patter would look like.
5. Testing the hypothesis. After making a general statement of the "story" or "explanation" suggested by the small pattern that you noticed - you then checked to see if this story or explanation "fit" or "worked" within the whole problem (all of your data, where data is the information you have about the problem). A strong hypotheses, or the "answer" to your problem, will fit and work with ALL of the data.
6. Cycling through the process. Most of the time, our first hypothesis only explain parts of the data or small pieces of the problem. This means we need to go back to the beginning and make sure we have noticed/named the central elements of the problem, and that we have put them in useful - rather than irrelevant or misleading - categories. We also have to decide whether the patterns we connected to are "working". If they aren't we need to come up with additional patterns - new patterns we haven't tried before - and organize them into another hypothesis (each group did this several times).
Where researchers get stuck: Your experience with this problem was similar to researchers in that you got stuck in the same places that most thinkers/researchers get stuck. Identifying and applying MANY possible patters (and letting go of the first couple that you found) is often the hardest part.
For next class:
- Get started on the NIH training (email me the certificate of completion by Sept 18)
- Keep looking through the course readings => identify topics that interest you
- Blog 1: From class discussion and course readings, what kind of research does it look like people do in English and writing studies? What kind of research are you interested in doing?:
- Blog 2: 1) in your own words => define analysis. What is it? How does it work? Describe how you would use analysis to study one of the areas of interest you mentioned in your first blog.
Blogs will be due by the beginning of class 9/11 - and I will give you some feedback on how you are doing with your posts, probably by 9/14.. If you are having trouble with the technology - let me know and I can walk you through it.
We will be pretty much on schedule with the calendar for next week, which means we will get started on oral history and interviewing - and you will get a chance to apply what you learned about analysis to the data we will create in class.
Thanks for your good work tonight, and I am looking for reading your blogs!
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