Writing process

Abstract: PART ONE: TAKING THE LEAP INTO THE RESEARCH WORLD The challenge of tackling a research project So what is this thing called research and why do it? The need for research knowledge The potential of research knowledge Delving into the 'construct' of research Ontology and epistemology Competing positions The position of the reflexive researcher Getting help along the way The structure of the book How to get the most out of the book PART TWO: GETTING STARTED On your mark, get set, go! Navigating the process Understanding your programme Getting set up Getting the right advice Managing the workload Staying on course Finding a balance Dealing with 'crisis' PART THREE: STRIVING FOR INTEGRITY IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS Power, politics, ethics and research integrity Understanding the power game Credibility: Integrity in the production of knowledge Working with appropriate indicators Managing subjectivities Capturing 'truth' Approaching methods with consistency Making relevant and appropriate arguments Providing accurate and verifiable research accounts Ethics: Integrity and the 'researched' Legal obligations Moral obligations Ethical obligations Ethics approval processes Integrity indicators and checklist PART FOUR: DEVELOPING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION The importance of good questions Defining your topic Curiosity and creativity Looking for inspiration Practicalities From interesting topics to researchable questions Narrowing in The need to redefine The hypothesis dilemma Hypothesis defined Appropriateness Characteristics of good questions PART FIVE: CRAFTING A RESEARCH PROPOSAL The role of the proposal Demonstrating merits of the research question Demonstrating merits of the proposed methods Demonstrating merits of the researcher Elements of the proposal Writing a winning proposal Following guidelines Writing purposively Drafting and redrafting Obstacles and challenges When your design doesn't fit proposal requirements When your design is emergent When want to or need to change direction/method PART SIX: WORKING WITH LITERATURE The importance of literature The role of literature Sourcing relevant literature Types of literature Calling on 'experts' Honing your search skills Managing the literature Assessing relevance Being systematic Annotating references Writing a the formal 'literature review' Purpose Coverage The writing process PART SEVEN: DESIGNING A RESEARCH PLAN Methodology, methods and tools The relationship between methodology and methods Moving from questions to answers Finding a path Hitting the target Getting down to the nitty gritty Fundamental questions Emergent methodological design PART EIGHT: UNDERSTANDING METHODOLOGIES: QUANTITATIVE, QUALITATIVE AND 'MIXED' APPROACHES Understanding the quantitative/ qualitative divide The quantitative tradition Scientific/ hypothetico-deductive methods Experimental design Exploring a population The qualitative tradition Credibility in qualitative studies Ethnography Phenomenology Ethnomethodology Understanding feminist approaches Mixed methodology Arguments for mixed methodology Perspectives and strategies Challenges and obstacles PART NINE: UNDERSTANDING METHODOLOGIES: EVALUATIVE, ACTION-ORIENTED AND EMANCIPATORY STRATEGIES Research that attempts to drive change Evaluation research Summative/outcome evaluation Formative/process evaluation The politics of evaluative research Negotiating real-world challenges of evaluative research Action research The scope of action research Key elements of action research Challenges associated with action research Emancipatory research Participatory action research Critical ethnography Issues in emancipatory research PART TEN: SEEKING 'RESPONDENTS' Who holds the answer? Samples: Selecting elements of a population Opportunities in working with a 'sample' Sample selection Random samples Non-random samples Key informants: Working with experts and insiders Opportunities in working with key informants Informant selection Cases: Delving into detail Opportunities in working with cases Case selection PART ELEVEN: DIRECT DATA COLLECTION - SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS The challenge of getting data directly from the source Surveying Options and possibilities Issues and complexities The survey process The survey instrument Interviewing Options and possibilities Issues and complexities The interview process Conducting your interview PART TWELVE: INDIRECT DATA COLLECTION: WORKING WITH OBSERVATIONS AND EXISTING TEXT The challenge of gathering indirect data Observation Options and possibilities Issues and complexities The observation process Receiving, reflecting, recording, authenticating Working with existing 'text' Options and possibilities Issues and complexities The process of textual analysis Delving into documents, history, artefacts, and secondary data PART THIRTEEN: ANALYSING QUANTITATIVE DATA Moving from raw data to significant findings Keeping a sense of the overall project Doing statistical analysis Managing data and defining variables Data management Understanding variables - cause and effect Understanding variables - measurements scales Descriptive statistics Measuring central tendency Measuring dispersion Measuring the shape of the data Inferential statistics Questions suitable to inferential statistics Statistical significance Understanding and selecting the right statistical test Presenting quantitative data PART FOURTEEN: ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA The promise of qualitative analysis Keeping the bigger picture in focus From raw data to significant findings QDA software The logic of QDA Balancing creativity and focus Moving between inductive and deductive reasoning The methods of QDA Identifying biases/ noting impressions Reducing and coding into themes Looking for patterns and interconnections Mapping and building themes Developing theory Drawing conclusions Specific QDA strategies Presenting quantitative data PART FIFTEEN: THE CHALLENGE OF WRITING UP The writing challenge Research as communication Knowing and engaging your audience Finding an appropriate structure and style The writing process Writing as analysis Constructing your 'story' Developing each section/ chapter From first to final draft The need for exposure Attending conferences Giving presentations Writing and submitting articles The final word

Abstract: Foreword by Maryellen Weimer vii Preface to the Second Edition xi About the Author xxi 1 Using Writing to Promote Thinking: A Busy Professor s Guide to the Whole Book 1 PART 1 UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THINKING AND WRITING 2 How Writing Is Related to Critical Thinking 17 3 Helping Writers Think Rhetorically 39 4 Using a Range of Genres to Extend Critical Thinking and Deepen Learning 52 5 Dealing with Issues of Grammar and Correctness 66 PART 2 DESIGNING PROBLEM-BASED ASSIGNMENTS 6 Formal Writing Assignments 89 7 Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities 120 PART 3 COACHING STUDENTS AS LEARNERS, THINKERS, AND WRITERS 8 Designing Tasks to Promote Active Thinking and Learning 149 9 Helping Students Read Difficult Texts 161 10 Using Small Groups to Coach Thinking and Teach Disciplinary Argument 183 11 Bringing More Critical Thinking into Lectures and Discussions 202 12 Enhancing Learning and Critical Thinking in Essay Exams 211 13 Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research 224 PART 4 READING, COMMENTING ON, AND GRADING STUDENT WRITING 14 Using Rubrics to Develop and Apply Grading Criteria 267 15 Coaching the Writing Process and Handling the Paper Load 290 16 Writing Comments on Students Papers 317 References 337 Index 353

Abstract: How do the specific circumstances in which we write affect what we write? How does what we write affect who we become? How can we maintain professsional and personal integrity in today's university? In a series of traditional and experimental writings, a culmination of ten years of works-in-progress, Laurel Richardson records an intellectual journey, displacing boundaries and creating new ways of reading and writing. Applying the sociological imagination to the writing process, she connects her life to her work. Deeply engaging, movingly written with grace, elegance, and clarity, the book stimulates readers to situate their own writing in personal, social, and political contexts. Laurel Richardson is a professor of sociology, graduate faculty in women's studies, and visiting professor in the College of Education at the Ohio State University.

Abstract: Although various aspects of the writing process have been studied extensively of late, research on revision has been notably absent. The reason for this, I suspect, is that current models of the writing process have directed attention away from revision. With few exceptions, these models are linear; they separate the writing process into discrete stages. Two representative models are Gordon Rohman's suggestion that the composing process moves from prewriting to writing to rewriting and James Britton's model of the writing process as a series of stages described in metaphors of linear growth, conception-incubation-production.1 What is striking about these theories of writing is that they model themselves on speech: Rohman defines the writer in a way that cannot distinguish him from a speaker ("A writer is a man who ... puts [his] experience into words in his own mind"-p. 15); and Britton bases his theory of writing on what he calls (following Jakobson) the "expressiveness" of speech.2 Moreover, Britton's study itself follows the "linear model" of the relation of thought and language in speech proposed by Vygotsky, a relationship embodied in the linear movement "from the motive which engenders a thought to the shaping of the thought, first in inner speech, then in meanings of words, and finally in words" (quoted in Britton, p. 40). What this movement fails to take into account in its linear structure"first ... then . . . finally"-is the recursive shaping of thought by language; what it fails to take into account is revision. In these linear conceptions of the writing process revision is understood as a separate stage at the end of the process-a stage that comes after the completion of a first or second draft and one that is temporally distinct from the prewriting and writing stages of the process.3 The linear model bases itself on speech in two specific ways. First of all, it is based on traditional rhetorical models, models that were created to serve the spoken art of oratory. In whatever ways the parts of classical rhetoric are