At this point in the quarter, we’re really starting to look toward the major research project. With this in mind, your group discussion this week should be focused on both the readings and making sure everyone is making progress on the major research project.
This week we’re diving into Writing Center Research journals. I’m hoping this helps give everyone a sense of the wide variety of issues you can explore for the research paper as well as a chance to become familiar with the types sources you can use for your own research. As I explained in class, you’ll the ones choosing and contributing the readings to the dialectical journal this week, in that everyone should be picking whatever two articles from Praxis, The Peer Review, WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship, or The Dangling Modifier you find interesting and reflect on those with your peers.
Here are the tasks for this first week group discussion (follow the links for a more detailed explanation):
- Talk about the material
- Discuss Annotated Bib & Lit Review
- Discuss Major Research Project Progress
- Come up with a list of 3-4 articles to share
1. Talk about the material (readings)
In your groups, I encourage you to talk about the articles you find interesting–find connections, share your experiences with the concepts addressed in the readings, really think through the implications of it all… especially as they might relate to directions that you might got in for the final research project in the course.
I want to make sure you are getting a good start on the research project and that you have the opportunity to read and research concepts that are interesting to you. So, you’ll have some freedom here to find two articles from the digital journals that align with your interests, speak to you for some reason, or raise issues that you would like to explore further in either your group discussions or the dialectical journals for the week. For helpful context, these are some of the major open-access journals in the field. Praxis, The Peer Review , and WLN: A Journal for Writing Center Scholarship are well-established publications that influence Writing Center Studies as a whole, while The Dangling Modifier is/was a journal put together, edited by, and filled with articles from Writing Center tutors and consultants. It offers some really interesting perspectives on Writing Center work that I think you’ll really be able to connect to.
Possible Topics for Reading Discussion
- As I’m leaving the specific authors you’ll be reading up to you, I don’t have article specific questions. That said, there are guiding principles you can use to guide your discussion this week. With this in mind,
- Consider: What issues, practices, ideas do these articles address? How do they do so? Are they problematic in and of themselves? How do the different articles your group members read either support or inform one another? How might you use this to help think through what you believe about the way Writing Centers work? How do they blend theory and practice? (aka, how might these be especially helpful as you are thinking through ideas for the Major Research Project?)
2. Discuss Annotated Bib. & Lit Review
So, we’ve touched on this a bit, but I wanted to provide you more time to really dive into the Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review and ensure that you’re feeling comfortable moving forward.
Here are two examples of students’ drafts in progress of the major research paper that can demonstrate how the literature review can work within the larger discussion and what purpose it can serve:
Now, as a group, go through the article, “Responding to the Whole Person: Using Empathic Listening and Responding in the Writing Center” from The Peer Review. Read/skim up until the subheading, “Methods: Surveys & Observations” and talk about and take notes about how the literature review is working, how the sources are brought together, how it brings together two different concepts, questions you have, etc.
3. Discuss Major Research Project Progress
I also want to make some space for your group to help one another with your major project research process.
- For those who have a topic in mind, coming up with some search terms might be a good way to go. One approach to this is thinking of various elements from one (or both) of the two areas that you’re bringing together for your research paper. Here’s the activity we got started on in class on Monday. (As an example, if I was exploring how my experiences as a soccer player could help inform writing centers, I might look up terms from sports psychology like, “flow,” “performance,” and “goal setting.”) Really try to brainstorm here and help one another in their research process. (Even if you already have some sources, this will be a useful exercise to help generate ideas.)
- For those who are still unsure what direction they’re going, this is a great opportunity to narrow it down. Talk about what you’re interested in and/or what struggles you’re having along the way and help one another get there. If there’s time after you narrow it down, then you can also start thinking about key search terms.
- Remember, I am also here and happy to help with this process!
4. Come up with a list of 3-4 articles to share with the rest of the class
We’re going to reconvene as a class and talk (briefly) about what each group discussed. This week, since everyone will be reading different articles, you should come up with a list of 3-4 different ones you read and a few words about what they focused on. Be sure to write these down somewhere and be ready to share.
Access the collaborative List of Gathered Articles here.