Slides/notes from September 8 section of English 621 Fall 2011

1. Some Introductory
Terms and Such
English 621 | Fall 2011

2. Assumption #1:
Writing ≠ “you just can
or can’t do it”

3. Empirical Research
• Systematic research with a plan and a question
• Not the same as “looking stuff up” (see
McNealy pgs 6&7)
• Not “Lore”
• Not “faith” and/or “belief,” and that includes
grammar... (see McNealy pg 9)
• Data that others can/could see

4. A crooked chart from McNealy

5. Quantitative vs.
Qualitative
• Can be fuzzy, tricky, matter of definition
• Can be quite intellectually/politically
“loaded” terms (e.g., these two books)
• Quantitative = numbers,
qualitative ≠numbers (basically)

6. Quantitative vs.
Qualitative
• Quantitative methods include surveys,
some kinds of textual studies, etc.
• Qualitative methods include interviews,
observational designs, etc.
• (Most writing research nowadays is
qualitative)

7. A few other research
things....
• There are very few experimental research
designs in writing studies
• “Action” research is similar to Teacher
Research and/or the participatory research
model in Blakeslee and Fleischer
• All of these models are “Empirical”

8. A few other research
things....
• I’m not going to make you do the Blakeslee
Fleischer exercises, but they’re useful
• The references to MacLean and Mohr on
phrasing questions
• Think about some of the ethics early
• (And I like the appendixes in B&F)