Bibliographic Research in Composition Studies

Vicki Byard

Description

Bibliographic Research in Composition Studies is a student-friendly guide to how knowledge is constructed and disseminated in composition studies, as well as a thorough handbook on how to conduct bibliographic research in the discipline. Student readers are taught Stephen North's taxonomy of scholarship, empirical research, and practice so that they can better contextualize the sources they read, and they learn the unique ways that some genres of publication function in composition studies. The book also leads students through the entire process of completing a bibliographic assignment.

Sujets

• EDUCATION
• Scholarship
• General officer
• Writing
• Rhetoric
• Library
• Higher education
• Database
• General
• Research
• Composition

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 02 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9781602357938
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lenses on Composition Studies
Series Editors, Sheryl Fontaine and Steve Westbrook
Lenses on Composition Studies offers authors the unique opportunity to write for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students who are new to the discipline of Composition Studies. While the series aims to maintain the rigor and depth of contemporary composition scholarship, it seeks to offer this particular group of students an introduction to key disciplinary issues in accessible prose that does not assume prior advanced knowledge of scholars and theoretical debates. The series provides instructors of advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students texts that are both appropriate and inviting for this fresh but professionally directed audience.


Bibliographic Research in Composition Studies
Vicki Byard
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina
www.parlorpress.com


Parlor Press LLC, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906
© 2009 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Byard, Vicki, 1961-
Bibliographic research in composition studies / Vicki Byard.
p. cm. -- (Lenses on composition studies)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-1-60235-131-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-132-5 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-133-2 (adobe ebook : alk. paper)
1. English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching. 2. English language--Rhetoric--Research--Methodology. I. Title.
PE1404.B93 2009
808’.04207--dc22
2009036437
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paperback, cloth, and Adobe eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com . For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 816 Robinson St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, or e-mail [e-mail].


Contents
1 Directions to the Parlor: The Need for a Guide to Scholarship in Composition Studies
The Need for Student-Centered Introductions to Composition Studies
The Need for Bibliographic Instruction in Academia
The Need for Bibliographic Instruction in Composition Studies
Suggestions for Using This Book
Some Cautions about This Book
Works Cited
For Further Reading
2 Voices in the Parlor: The Construction of Knowledge in Composition Studies
Scholarship
Definition of Scholarship
Examples of Scholarship
Advice for Locating Scholarship
Empirical Research
Definition of Empirical Research
Examples of Empirical Research
Advice for Locating Empirical Research
Practice
Definition of Practice
Examples of Practice
Advice for Locating Practice
Hybrid Knowledge
Works Cited
For Further Reading
3 Genres in the Parlor: The Dissemination of Knowledge in Composition Studies
Books and Edited Collections
Print and Electronic Journals
Theses and Dissertations
Professional Organizations’ Websites, Position Statements, and Conventions
Mailing Lists and Their Archives
Works Cited
For Further Reading
4 Approaching the Parlor’s Threshold: Preparing for Your Bibliographic Search in Composition Studies
Assessing Your Library’s Resources
Identifying Your Search Terms
Keywords
Controlled Vocabulary
Understanding Web Search Options
Boolean Operators
Advanced Search Options
Search Histories
Establishing Your Criteria for Sources
Quantity
Credibility
Relevance
Timeliness
Cumulative Merit
Choosing a Documentation Style
MLA
APA
Reference Management Software
Works Cited
For Further Reading
5 Your Hosts for the Parlor Conversation: Major Databases and Bibliographies in Composition Studies
Five Databases Essential to Composition Studies
CompPile
WorldCat
MLA International Bibliography
ERIC
JSTOR
Additional Bibliographic Resources
Dissertation Indexes
Journals’ Websites
Other Online Bibliographies
Print Bibliographies
Works Cited
6 Synthesizing the Parlor Conversation: Completing Bibliographic Assignments in Composition Studies
The Bibliographic Search Process
Identifying Your Citations
Evaluating and Refining Your Bibliography Draft
Obtaining Hard Copies of Your Sources
Writing Bibliographic Assignments
Writing an Annotated Bibliography
Writing a Literature Review
Joining the Scholarly Conversation
Works Cited
For Further Reading
Appendix A: Assessing Your Library Resources
Questions About Your University’s Library
Questions About Other Academic Libraries
Questions About Public Libraries
Appendix B: Scholarly Journals in Composition
Appendix C: Inclusion of Composition Journals in Periodical Indexes
Appendix D: Journals Holdings in Nearby Libraries
Index to Print Version
About the Author


1 Directions to the Parlor: The Need for a Guide to Scholarship in Composition Studies
The publisher of this book, Parlor Press, derives its name from a frequently quoted passage by theorist Kenneth Burke, a passage especially relevant to this text’s mission of guiding readers to a discipline’s scholarship:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (110–11)
Although Burke used this metaphor to describe the drama of human existence—you enter the parlor at your birth, mature to participate in the “unending conversation” of civilization, and then exit the parlor upon your death—the passage is sometimes quoted in composition scholarship as an apt description of how knowledge is constructed in an academic discipline. When a student or other newcomer first encounters a discipline, she finds its scholars engaged in an intense conversation that has been evolving since the discipline’s inception. If the student is intrigued by the conversation taking place, she listens—she studies it—until she is informed enough to join the conversation herself as a publishing scholar. Consistent with Burke’s metaphor, the conversation of a discipline—its scholarship—continues beyond any one individual’s participation.
Gary Olson is one composition specialist who has written explicitly about the correlation between an ongoing conversation and scholarship in composition studies. In his essay “Publishing Scholarship in Rhetoric and Composition: Joining the Conversation,” Olson depicts a scene quite similar to Burke’s metaphor of a parlor conversation:
[I]magine a faculty cocktail party in which various colleagues and their spouses are standing in groups sipping cocktails and engaging in intimate, sometimes passionate discussions. After freshening your cocktail, you approach several people discussing the influence of postmodern theory on composition pedagogy. Obviously, it would be considered rude to jump immediately into the conversation that had been going on before you arrived. Basic etiquette dictates that you join the group, quietly listen to what is being said, and develop a sense of the larger conversation—both its tone and content—before you begin to make a contribution. The same kind of dynamics attend to the scholarly conversation. Before rushing into print about this or that subject, it is imperative that you read what is currently being said about the subject, discover what the positions are and who is taking what position, and in general, acquire a sense of the larger conversation. (21)
In quoting both Burke and Olson at length, I invite you to imagine the scholarship of composition studies as a lively conversation that is well underway. Is this a conversation you would like to listen to and perhaps eventually join? If so, this book will aid you by providing directions for finding the composition studies’ parlor, that is, the books, journals, and other sites where the scholarly conversations of this discipline are taking place. In writing this guide, I hope to both ease and speed your entry into this scholarly conversation.
For Writing and Discussion
1. If the scholarship of composition studies can be aptly described as a conversation taking place in a parlor, what experiences have led you to the doorway of this parlor? Why are you interested in stepping inside to hear the conversation?
2. Suppose that you are interested in reading more about composition s