Spring 2008 courses
It is about mid-way through the Spring 2008 semester at ODU. I am taking three courses: Authorship & Discourse, Empirical Research Methods, and Major Debates in English Studies. I have my research topic nailed down for 2 of the 3 classes. In Authorship & Discourse I hope to use Foucault’s author-function theory and Francis Bourdieu’s field of cultural production and apply it to the field and profession of technical writing. Are technical writers authors? If so, what is this role? What are the functions of authorship for technical writers? What are the competing positions and position takers?
For the Empirical Research class, I will be conducting a usability study of Macromedia Breeze as a synchronous collaboration product for use in OWL (online writing labs) specifically for distance learning students as they are tutored through Old Dominion University’s WTS (writing tutorial services). Specifically, I am interested in the usefulness of the product for both tutors and tutees. In what ways does the product compare to F2F communication? How usable is the interface? Does it hinder or assist the collaboration process? I will observe the two groups using the software as well as conduct open-ended interviews with both parties; finally, I will conduct an analysis of the recorded chat transcript to further determine the usefulness of the application and to see if the coded transcript results corresponds to the interview data.
For the Major Debates class, I am leaning towards conducting a historical overview of the enforcement of plagiarism in the composition and writing classroom. Should plagiarism be enforced? If so, to what extent (and should it be done to the detriment of the creativity of the author)? Specifically, I am interested in new forms of creativity through the use of remix or collage work to confirm or reject existing theories of authorship, creativity, and originality; as a result, should plagiarism be enforced according to new standards (looser standards, no standards, etc.)?
The problem, however, is that I find myself with three very distinct and different arguments to “flesh out” by the end of this semester (although the authorship topic is something that could be turned into a dissertation topic and even a book at a later date modeled after Marchand’s literary work of Advertising the American Dream). It is because of this that I am considering re-thinking the topic for Major Debates to coincide or inform one of the other topics related to Technical Writing or OWL (just so that I can share sources and otherwise save some research time). With spring break rapidly approaching, I will need to make up my mind within the next week or so anyhow. Wish me luck!
