Strategies for Writing Center Research

Jackie Grutsch Mckinney

Description

Strategies for Writing Center Research is a how-to guide for conducting writing center research introducing newcomers to the field to the methods for data collection, analysis, and reporting appropriate for writing center studies.

Sujets

• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Rhetoric

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 15 septembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781602357228
• Langue: English

Extrait

Strategies for Writing Center Research
Jackie Grutsch McKinney
Parlor Press
Anderson, South Carolina www.parlorpress.com


Parlor Press LLC, Anderson, South Carolina, USA
© 2016 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
Grutsch McKinney, Jackie.
Strategies for writing center research / Jackie Grutsch McKinney.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60235-719-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-720-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Writing centers--Research--Methodology. 2. English language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching--Research--Methodology. I. Title.
PE1404.G783 2016
808’.042072--dc23
2015034196
1 2 3 4 5
Cover design by David Blakesley.
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 paper, cloth and eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina, 29621, or email [e-mail].


Lenses on Composition Studies
Series Editors, Sheryl I. 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.
Other Books in the Series
Composition Studies Through a Feminist Lens , by Shari J. Stenberg (2013)
Critical Conversations Abo ut Plagiarism, edited by Michael Donnelly, Rebecca Ingalls, Tracy Ann Morse, Joanna Castner Post, and Anne Meade Stockdell-Giesler (2013)
Bibliographic Research in Composition Studies, by Vicki Byard (2009)


For Todd, Bennett, and Spencer


Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I
1 Getting Situated
2 Getting Started
Research Notebook #1: Planning
Nikki Caswell, Rebecca Jackson, and Jackie Grutsch McKinney
Part II
3 Studying Texts and Talk
After the Study: Laurel Raymond
4 Studying Individuals
After the Study: Emily Standridge
5 Studying Populations
After the Study: Karen Rowan
6 Studying Sites and Tools
After the Study: Amber M. Buck
7 Studying Possibilities: Action Research
Research Notebook #2: Collecting Data
Nikki Caswell, Rebecca Jackson, and Jackie Grutsch McKinney
Part III
8 Analyzing and Interpreting Your Data
9 Sharing Your Research
Research Notebook #3: Beginning Analysis
Nikki Caswell, Rebecca Jackson, and Jackie Grutsch McKinney
Glossary
Notes
Works Cited
Appendix A: Sample Informed Consent Form
Appendix B: Sample Release Form
Appendix C: Driscoll and Perdue’s RAD Rubric
Appendix D: Transcriptions
About the Author
Index


Acknowledgments
It wouldn’t be wrong to say this is a book of evangelism—research evangelism, that is. I’m so thankful for all of those who inspired and enabled me to spread the word.
The seed was planted by by Becky Jackson and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater who introduced me to qualitative inquiry and methods. Their classes, mentorship, and friendship opened new worlds of inquiry for me; I learned how to ask different questions, design studies, and how to listen closely to data for answers.
A big thanks is due to the awesome scholars who contributed to this book: Amber Buck, Nikki Caswell, Becky Jackson, Laurel Raymond, Karen Rowan, and Emily Standridge. Thank you for saying yes and pulling back the curtain on your research process.
At Ball State University, I get the privilege to work with many students on their theses, dissertations, and other research projects. I’ve learned immensely from sitting shotgun as students confront issues of study design, data collection, analysis, and representation. I thank all of the students over the years who have invited me along on the ride; I would not have had the confidence to write this book without the insights gained from observing your work.
I’m very glad that this book found a home at Parlor Press under the thoughtful direction of David Blakesley and the Lenses on Composition Studies series editors, Sheryl Fontaine and Steve Westbrook, who provided enthusiasm and spot-on revision suggestions throughout the process. Likewise, appreciation goes to colleagues and friends, near and far, who read chapters along the way and were faithful cheerleaders for the project from the start.
Finally, I thank my little family—Todd, Bennett, and Spencer—who don’t care a lot about writing center research methods (yet!) but love me in a way that inspires me to do my thing.


Introduction
At the ripe age of twenty-two and a half as I entered my master’s program in Rhetoric and Composition, I was awarded a graduate assistantship, which required me to teach a section of first-year writing and to work in the campus writing center. Being twenty-two and a half, I had no idea what I was doing but also, luckily, little frame of reference to understand how underprepared I was. I did not know, for instance, what rhetoric was, really, beyond the dictionary definition that I looked up before I packed my bags and drove my little Ford Escort across the country with my cat to start grad school. I honestly didn’t know anything about Rhetoric and Composition as a field—I had no prior introduction into its history, its origins, its political struggles, its key figures or theories, or its particular ways of making knowledge.
The shame of my ignorance was intense in the beginning. I remember meeting a good-looking graduate student in my first week I wanted to impress. He asked me who my favorite rhetorician was, and I had to change the subject because I was pretty sure I didn’t know any. That same week, my graduate class on liberatory pedagogy began with the professor asking us to say why we signed up for the course as we introduced ourselves. I sank deeper and deeper in my seat as my fellow classmates revealed that they knew both what liberatory and pedagogy meant; I knew neither and was only enrolled in the class because my advisor said I should take it and there were open spots. I was anxious teaching in my first-year writing classroom, too; I followed the prescribed syllabus and hoped no one asked questions.
In this tense transitional semester, I questioned my decision to go to graduate school, to specialize in Rhetoric and Composition, and to teach at all. I wasn’t sure what role or what purpose I had in any context. It wasn’t until a month or two later when I gradually found a place to belong and a reason to stay: the writing center. In the writing center, I could see I was making a difference. When I talked to student writers, I could see how their writing would transform. On the writing center couches, I could lounge about and talk with colleagues about how to do things differently, how to do things better. In the writing center, tutors and students alike admitted what they didn’t know. They admitted that they made mistakes. I was able to let go of my shame and begin to teach and learn in earnest.
For these reasons, even as I’ve since found many ways to belong to the field of Rhetoric and Composition and many ways in which I can see that my work matters, I’ve remained committed to writing center work. Over the years, I’ve met many others who are drawn to writing center work because, like me, it was an entry point into the field that welcomed them as full participants even though they were absolute beginners. I’ve also come to see that many—if not most—people who work in writing centers begin their work unfamiliar with the larger discipline of Rhetoric and Composition. Many may work in a center for several years while pursuing an entirely different field of study and career path; others find themselves in writing center work after completing degrees in other fields. As a result, writing centers are full of tutors and administrators with practical experience tutoring and doing writing center work, but many do not, just like I did not, know the ways of participating in Rhetoric and Composition research.
This book was written for me, the writing center tutor and graduate student at age twenty-two and a half, who was desperate to become a member of the field but not sure how to do that. This book was also written for my undergraduate and graduate tutors over the years who are students in philosophy, journalism, math, Japanese, linguistics, education, audiology, and so on who want to engage in writing center research during their time as tutors, even if their career paths won’t necessarily follow mine. Likewise, this book is for my graduate students working on conference presentations, seminar papers, theses, and dissertations and needing an introduction (quickly!) into writing center research. Writing center administrators, too, who may or may not have a b