Insignificant Wranglings

Today’s Plan:

• Outline
• Primary Research Check
• Homework: Researching, Drafting

Outline Assignment

Before the break, I asked you to brainstorm a quick outline in class. I want you to return to that outline today and flush it out a bit more, creating what we might call a “sentence outline.” I have an example here. The sentence outline does a few things:

• It is written in complete sentences
• The main points (roman numerals) are claims, attempts at topic sentences
• The subpoints (letters) are evidence
• The outline is broken into section headings

My paper has the following section headings:

• Introduction
• This section lays out our problem: that many writing courses eschew “creativity” because they either think teaching creativity is impossible or simply too difficult. We acknowledge that teaching creativity is painful, but necessary
• Section 1: Postpedagogy, Creativity, and/as Disequilibrium
  • These sections provide more theoretical background–what is postpedagogy? in what ways is it a creative practice? in what ways does it “hurt” (via disequilibrium, confusion, stress) students? why is disequilibrium essential to learning?
• Section 2: Ambiguous Constraints: Moving Towards a Postpedagogical Creative Practice
  • This section is almost like a pre-methodology section, since it describes where we did our experiment and gives an overview of our experiment
• Section 3: Methods
  • Notice that it takes us 3 paragraphs to explain that we did a survey. And, truth be told, we could have done a better job, since we do not address the rationale behind the survey questions
• Section 4: Findings
  • Here’s where we synthesize what we learned from our student surveys
• Section 5: Discussion / Toward a Productive Anxiety
  • In this section we discuss how we integrate what we learned in the surveys into our ideas on creativity etc
• Section 6: Creativity, Disequilibrium, and Assessment
  • During our review process, we were instructed to address how we grade creative projects. It was a useful request! But this section didn’t appear in our first, second, or third draft. It came later
• Conclusion

I am not expecting your paper will have the exact same layout as mine. But I do expect that your paper can be divided into sections that roughly follow the typical expectations for a research paper:

• Intro
• Section 1: Background lit
• Section 2: Methods
• Section 3: Findings
• Section 4: Discussion
• Conclusion

Primary Research Check

It is time to start drafting your papers–and that means it is time to complete your primary research projects. So, if you are working on a survey, then get that thing created. I recommend using Google Forms so that we can distribute the survey electronically. You are also welcome to do paper surveys. If you are doing interviews or focus groups, then make sure you have a date set and have confirmed participants. Also, make sure your questions are ready to go. If you are analyzing other materials (textbooks, websites, etc), then get your hands on those materials and get that shit done. IT IS GO TIME PEOPLE.

Canvas Today

I’ve made an assignment in Canvas for today. Put in there whatever you work on. If you have a survey that you want me to distribute to this class and my 329 class, then submit the link. If you need help with Google Forms, let me know. If you simply spend class working on the outline above, that’s fine too!

Homework

Get researching, get writing. I am hoping that you can have a draft of your paper by Monday April 2nd. That’s a little under 2 weeks. We will do the first paper peer review session next Wednesday, and I expect everyone to have five pages in class. I want a sentence outline similar to the one above by Monday. GO TIME.

Today’s Plan:

• Extra Credit Opportunities
• Revising Primary Materials
• Writing Minor

Extra Credit Opportunities

I’ve put together a Google Doc. Let’s watch some videos.

Note: if you want to do the Social Event group, then consider attending the Rosenberry Writer’s Conference tonight to hear poet Khadijah Queen as your first event.

Revising Primary Materials

With the time remaining in class, I would like you to continue working on the primary research materials you started last week.

Note: if you are doing a survey or an interview, you might want to draft the email you plan on sending or the introduction to the survey. Let’s look at a study I am working on.

Note: if you are not planning on using these materials, then spend the time today reading a new research article and submit a brief annotation of the article to Canvas in place of primary research materials.

Police people–let’s talk/share.

Writing Minor

I want to encourage all of you to minor in writing! The minor is 6 courses, including at least one creative writing course and one professional writing course. We also have an internship program. Fall 2018 classes include:

• ENG 220 Writing as Change
• ENG 243 CW: Screen Writing
• ENG 244 CW: Poetry
• ENG 319: Writing and Rhetorical Theory (Art of Persuasion)

Homework

In Friday’s class we will work on outlining your paper.

Today’s Plan:

• Attendance
• A Few Missing Proposals
• Primary Research
• Homework

Primary Research Materials

I want you to take some time in class today to work on developing primary research materials. So, if you are planning an interview, survey, or focus group, then start drafting specific questions. For focus groups, start identifying potential locations–where can you hold your session? Identify who you can interview. Draft the “invitation” or contact email. If you need to interview an expert, then find one who is locally available. Etc. I want to review materials before you hit “send.”

I want you to begin by reviewing:

• Class notes on Surveys
  • Think about having a survey of 8=10 questions. Think if you need demographic data to narrow your research focus. Do not include more than one open-ended free write question
• Class notes on Interviews
  • Scroll down. This includes a template for emailing a faculty member to request an interview
• Class notes on Focus Groups

I’ll give you 8 minutes to read, and then 10 minutes to write. Then you will peer review each other’s materials, focusing on question quality. Remember that, regardless of research method, we are looking to avoid bias, avoid leading questions, avoid double-barreled questions, and compose clear, accessible questions. I’ll give you about 8 minutes to peer review, and then 8 minutes to revise materials and submit them to Canvas (Primary Resource Materials Drafting March 2nd).

Homework

Remember that the annotated bibliography is due on Monday.

Today’s Plan:

• Focus Groups
• Homework

Focus Groups

Today I want to spend some time exploring focus groups. Focus groups can come in one of two generic flavors–either simple question/response (more common) or activity-based (less common). The value of a focus group lies in collecting a variety of perspectives *and* recording how people react to the ideas/opinions/experiences of other people. There is something unpredictably inventive, or choric, about the kind of dynamic conversations that focus groups can prompt.

• Group size: 3-5, 6-8
• Record discussion, assistant moderator takes notes
• Generate an outline and a “script” of questions
  • Welcome
  • Overview of Topic
  • Ground Rules
  • First Question
• Sample questions / activities
• How to synthesize data

Let’s start by walking through this guide to focus groups by Richard Krueger.

Outside of academia, focus groups are generally used by marketing researchers.

You will also encounter focus groups in local journalism and political research

Homework

Your next research article.