ENGL706 - Heuristic In The Mud

It's really hard to make the 706 titles fun. Also I totally forgot this prompt was due. Ack!

Heuristic

Iconic Language

This is an image of a tree painted on the wall leading up to a hidden nook with acrylics. The ladder leading up to the loft is made of wood, as is the toy box at the base. I see an homage to childhood image here- to the tree house and to warm spring days. There's snow in the outside window's views, so perhaps they live somewhere that gets less than its fair share of warm days. I also see an attempt at making an indoor space seem more like a natural outdoor space.

Cultural Language

I found this image on Tumblr, in a post about "great" home design ideas. Considering it was a part of that post at all, it's assumed to be "great". Additionally, this post, at present, has 7, 469 notes, which means it has either been liked or re-posted by that many blogs. That's fairly popular! The audience, in this context, is usually a range of ages crowded in the teens, to mid-twenties age, and heavier in girls than boys. These are people that either own a space of their own, or are of an age where they're old enough to imagine how they'd like to customize their space.

Theoretical Language

In this context, the tree is a symbol representing a child's tree house and bringing with it all the imaginary potential that comes with a creative change in environment. It is part of an upper-middle class home in a snowy area, showing the affluence to "afford" creative inside spaces. The wood of the ladder and toy box help to cement the attempted tie-in with nature that is not immediately present outside, as well as to imply that this set up is intended for a slightly older child (who can safely ascend and descend the ladder, but still needs a toy box). The surrounding yellows further set the scene as a bright, sunny day and mood brightener.

ENGL685 #9 - I Really Hate Methods Research

It is just plain ol' not interesting. Not even a little. Also it starts to all look the same after a while.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. SAGE.

George, D. (2002). From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing. College Composition and Communication, 54(1), 11–39. doi:10.2307/1512100

ENGL706 - It's Better If It's Documented Because Reasons

Did I somehow miss the first AB? I could have sworn I posted one, but now I don't see it. I'm going to do two here, just in case. Sorry!

Hocks, M. E. (2003). Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments. College Composition and Communication, 54(4), 629–656. doi:10.2307/3594188

Hocks' research question is, what visual rhetorical devices are in play behind digital writing that mixes passive and active participation in consumption and creation, and how do these function in different contexts? She defines three terms to conceptualize the visual rhetoric discussed in her evidence: Audience Stance, Transparency, and Hybridity. Audience Stance is how a document creates a feeling of camaraderie with the reader and encourages them to interact. Transparency is how a document sticks to preconceived notions of print layout, web layout, etc. that the user is already familiar with. Hybridity is how the visual and verbal are mixed. She then uses these terms to assess an essay posted on the Kairos journal website, a paper for an ethnographic study put online, and a William Shakespeare website created by students who aimed to make a resource helping other students. She concludes that, through making web content and having it assessed by users, students learn best how visual rhetoric functions (as well as what works and what doesn't). This is a point for the 'learn by doing' school of thought. For my own research, Hocks' three terms are definitely now in my database, and will definitely help me assess the usability in the layout of the syllabi I've collected. I think this piece could help the class in a similar way- it's a vocabulary expander. A lot of these concepts can be sort of "felt" just by looking at a document, so having the correct terminology when it comes to actually discussing it becomes very handy very quickly.

Sullivan, P. (2001). Practicing Safe Visual Rhetoric on the World Wide Web. Computers and Composition, 18(2), 103–21.

The question this piece attempts to tackle is, 'what appeal does "safe" visual design have to students and teachers?' A lot of the sections' beginnings chronicle Sullivan's personal experience, both as a professor, and as a colleague to those who write professionally for a living. She'll give a small story, follow it by explaining how a trend towards "safety" played a role in the design happening in the story, and after that, explain what rhetorically drives the trend while generously padding with the names of the researchers whose data confirms her observations and the data they published their work. Sullivan concludes that there is no accurate yardstick for what is "safe" or "good" design. Every situation is contextual and dependent on taste on the web, and quite often, most design principles that aren't explicitly based in rhetoric don't concern themselves with rhetoric. She advises that design and rhetoric come together more often, and believes that fruitful theories for how to write "Safely" on the well will emerge from there. A lot of my sources are digitally rendered, and so I was hoping this would be a little more relevant, but unless I pull multimedia syllabi (not unlike Shelley Roderigo's Google Doc "Schedule") into my thesis, I'm not sure I can use too much from this one. That said, I certainly hope someone from the class can used the contents of this article for their project!

ENGL685 #8 - Here's How It REALLY Happened

Methods methods methods methods.

Bloody Mary Bloody Mary Bloody Mary

• Jabareen, Y. R. (2009). Building a Conceptual Framework: Philosophy, Definitions, and Procedure. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(4), 49–62.

• I went about this methods-finding journey by thinking about what I was already trying to do any working backwards. It seems like constructing a conceptual/theoretical framework seems to fit best with how I'm trying to apply rhetoric to a syllabus, so this was a good source to start out with. Jabreen begins with defining a conceptual framework and then goes on to give a standard methodology in 8 phases. It'll be between this or a theoretical framework for how I go about creating the ideas that I'll apply to my syllabi. Even if I end up using the other method, some of the 8 phases my be excellent supplementary recommendations to help me understand the framework building process in general.

• Labaree, R. (n.d.). LibGuides. Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper. Theoretical Framework. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://libguides.usc.edu/content.php?pid=83009&sid=618409

• I actually like this Library Guide from the University of Southern Carolina a lot! The layout is fairly clear, and broken up a little better than Jabreen's work, making it less of an evil wall of text and more of a "chunked" step by step guide for crafting a theoretical framework. Where Jabreen's source assumes the work of why you want to build your theory is already done, this guide does not. It offers several helpful questions for picking out the "angle" of your theory. It also says that, until you do a good lit review, it's pretty much impossible to pick out what theory you want to use to build your framework, which is totally true!

Next time I go hunting, I want to find more sources about "Frankentheories". Goaru Getto!

ENGL706 - Survey Says?

WE'RE PLAYING THE FEUD

Between the four commenters on my blog (you all are lovely, thank you) every nuance of the argument I intended was caught. Impressive! I was trying to use my collage to depict something like 'fitness is mostly mental', with a focus on female fitness (since I've been getting into working out lately). I attempted to add the female slant by using bright colors, one whole square of pink (which has been a moniker for female ever since WWII), and a female model as the focus of the largest image. While one commenter mentioned that this /could/ be read as my arguing that /only/ women have to overcome their own mental weakness in pursuit of fitness, but that certainly wasn't the intention. I guess that's one of the dangers of pure image arguments- you can't always anticipate every single way someone may interpret your argument!

I am definitely in the 'images can make an argument' camp, and I define argument rather loosely. Maybe something like 'point'. They make a point, they clearly stand for an idea, or inspire a non-tangible emotional reaction. Even if you're not sure what a visual piece is trying to argue, so long as it has an effect, it is an argument.

ENGL685 #7 - Megapost! Transform and Roll Out!

I'm a bad so I'm rolling the last two annotated bibs into one because I'm still confused on what I'm doing


I owe you 7 entries the sadness abounds. This will be updated in the next few days to squeeze them all in. 

Deadline for this post's contents is 2/15. All subsequent ABs will have their own post.

• Silver, R., Hu, G., & Iino, M. (2002). English Language Education in China, Japan, and Singapore. Graduate Programmes and Research Office, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.

• In this work, Silver, Hu, and Iino write three pieces, each giving a detailed history of educational policy about teaching English has mutated since being included in the official government-recommended curriculum. In particular, Hu includes a timeline of government-recommended syllabus changes that took place in China from around the 60s to the 2000s. This is an excellent resource since it lets me look out how an Asian value system changed academic goals in one country. I still have to allow for cultural differences, but such changes may be trackable through Japan's academic history too.

• While mostly the outlining of Japan (located in the center of the book) will probably be useful to me, the other two papers book-ending it help to provide an overarching narrative for English language education in Japan, China, and Singapore. This contextual timeline building seats national goals in place with one another, as well as nicely contrasts the 3 education system styles of each country. While I feel that Japan's insistence on only using Ministry of Education approved textbooks (there are 5- 1 of them is used in over half of all secondary schools) and "teaching to the test" style English education policy could use more digging into, this is an excellent beginning resource for foundational intercultural knowledge.

• Baecker, D. L. (1998). Uncovering the Rhetoric of the Syllabus: The Case of the Missing I. College Teaching, 46(2), 58–62.

•  Baecker (not a typo) is (was) a Doctoral candidate in South Carolina at the time of writing this article. Considering that was years ago, I reckon she's graduated by now. The non-specific theory application of this article is definitely a point in its favor. It mostly discuses language use in the syllabus and how it communicates and distributes authority. For example, when a professor overwhelmingly uses 'you" (as most did) it can come off authoritarian and leave students feeling as if there is no sense of community. Additionally, the attempt to use the royal "we" (inclusive of the instructor) is just as dangerous. When syllabi claim "we" will learn new skills and strategies, the student can usually assume that, since the teacher is at the helm of the class, their development has finished in these areas. The false community created through this type of language use smacks of dishonesty and leads to a diminished sense of responsibility on the part of the professor.

• This will likely be folded into my 'Methods' section, where I evaluate language usage as a rhetorical tool trending towards an end goal of increased comprehension. It has been a challenge thusfar to find a wholesale analysis of 'good' syllabus rhetoric analysis, so I will have to assemble its working parts peacemeal. One of many.

• Parkes, J., & Harris, M. B. (2002). The Purposes of a Syllabus. College Teaching, 50(2), 55–61.

• My favorite of the Sunday roundup. This piece dictates the three types of syllabi (as recorded in the authors' study) as Contractual, Permanent Record, and Learning Tool. These three classifications give me a nice categorical starting place for looking into the differences in syllabi, and also a point of comparison, since it is yet to see whether a Japanese syllabus fits into any one of these three categories (or multiple categories). Additionally, this work is an absolute treasure trove of resources. They list several parenthetical sources related directly to syllabus research and state outright that, in 2002, they had been unable to locate /any/ studies done on syllabus composition and its effect on student comprehension. Coming from a Professor of Psychology and a Professor Emerita, that carries quite a bit of weight. It also says that I should be looking for resources post-2002 as I forge ahead.

• This will likely be another part of my methods, since I definitely need more ground to stand on before I pull naming categories and text-structure conventions out of thin air. Other sources I hope to investigate soon will probably have more to do with usability and the link between page layout and comprehension (since I know there's some data out there on that outside of an academic setting).

• Riches, D. (2006). Innovating English Language Education by Looking beyond the Syllabus of the Typical Japanese University English Program. Seijo University, Social Innovation Studies, 1(2), 75–92.

• An excellent look at /why/ Japanese ELE is the way it is. This source focuses a lot on the reason Japanese English classes are structured with such a limited focus on useful English (or, I guess, creating fluent English speakers) and more on a certain size vocabulary. The terribly difficult entrance examinations that stand between graduating High School students and their college education are the focus of most teaching, and every little attention is paid to whether or not the material is interesting to students, or even very practical outside of a test.

• This will be a part of my recommendations section in the end. Ideally, I will be able to hybridize US and JP syllabi with an equal focus in practicality and test-passing. If this seems impossible (whenever I get my hands on first-hand resources), then I can at least use this to recommend how to change the system towards a more student-friendly mode of learning.

• Kostelnick, C. (1990). The Rhetoric of Text Design in Professional Communication. Technical Writing Teacher, 17(3), 189–202.

• Finally, a source not about syllabi, or Japanese education, but pure, textual rhetoric RE: document design. This is an oldie but goodie. Although some syllabi are delivered digitally now (something which wasn't a thing in 1996), Dr. Kostelnick's theories on the rhetoric behind a coherent document do not suffer in meaning, whether viewed in print or on a screen. The best sections in this piece discuss how headings, bullets, and page design effect how the reader will understand and chunk page information, how bolding, italics, and underlining affect conveyed meaning, and how charts and their placement can vary greatly in meaning just depending on layout.

• This is in the set of sources I'm preparing to analyze US syllabi at the University level, but I also hope to use these to find commonality between JP/US. My sincere hope (and, I guess, hypothesis) is that, although the contents focus and intended use of the syllabus may vary highly between countries, their visual layout and use of spatial and intra/extra-textual rhetoric will be very similar. Fingers crossed- my contact contacted me yesterday with word that I should have a primary source or two soon.

• Kostelnick, C. (1996). Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents. Technical Communication Quarterly, 5(1), 9–33. doi:10.1207/s15427625tcq0501_2

• Another Kostelnick! What a rascal. This piece is a kind of continuation of the source above- a good deal of it goes back into spacial, textual, and graphic design and how this affects a created text. What makes this source better on that front is, since it doesn't spend as much time defining these things, it takes /extra/ time giving examples of how three different real-life documents go about performance in each category, and how to parse out the rhetorical intention of their design. There's also a section on Stylistic Functions, which is basically 'why presentation matters'. It ties nicely into the already defined categories, while providing a 'why do I care' (which, y'know, not all academic writers do).

• The examples in this piece actually helped solidify some of the things I read in his slightly smaller work. This one more explicitly talks about issues like page size, portability, tone, and  context, then gives good examples. One of the example works actually uses a brown recycled paper, which I would have assumed would be a no-go if you were trying to look professional. Kostelnick points out that, since /contextually/ the paper choice is relevant to the subject matter, it's a-ok. Because thematic matching. Mind. Blown.

ENGL706 - Best Guess?

Look forward to everyone's insightful comments!

Engl685 Redux

• Who 
• Who cam I gather information from about JP syllabi?
• Who can provide me with comparative materials?
• Who would be a good resource for rhetorical manuals based on syllabus composition?
• What
• What are some of the ethical concerns with this project?
• What are the questions I want to ask of the materials I'm assessing?
• What do I hope to prove/change through my research?
• Where
• Where in Japan would be best to focus my material studies?
• Where can I look for faculty with tangential research focuses?
• Where would I need to get permission from to publish my findings?
• When
• When do the "mass syllabi" get changed/updated in Japan?
• When do I have enough theory to start analyzing primary sources?
• When do I know I have enough data to begin drawing conclusions?
• Why
• Why Japan and not an English-speaking country?
• Why look at syllabi instead of lesson plans, or other course materials?
• Why?
• How
• How can I apply what this project will teach me to other projects in the future?
• How does syllabus rhetoric affect class understanding/productivity?
• How do syllabus structures function in relation to comprehension?

ENGL685 #6 - I Have Jitters, but It's Probably Fine

Seriously starting to feel overwhelmed yet AGAIN - does this terrible feeling ever go away?

Ask the journalistic questions on your focused research topic (at least 3 questions for each: who, what, where, why, and how). Identify top 2-3 questions. Briefly discuss what/how/why they are your favorite.

• Who 
• Who can my research potentially help?
• Who would be interested in helping me if I furthered this study?
• Who would I submit this project to if I wanted I published?
• What
• What are some of the ethical concerns with this project?
• What kid of person wouldn't want to be polled in such a study?
• What impact with this research have on my daily life?
• Where
• Where are the women I'm polling located geographically?
• Where would I get funding to do this project with a larger group?
• Where would I need to get permission from to publish my findings?
• When
• When would it be best to start making up questions for a poll?
• When is it acceptable to re-post, asking for more poll responses?
• When do I know I have enough data to begin drawing conclusions?
• Why
• Why did I choose this route for my research?
• Why didn't I stay with my older, broader thesis and work from there?
• Why?
• How
• How can I apply what this project will teach me to other projects in the future?
• How many women is enough when it comes to poll data?
• How can I apply my data in other fields?

SHORT LIST

• Where are the women I'm polling located geographically?
• This actually relates to if I chose to expand and re-do this project later on. Does their geo-location affect what they buy and when they buy it? This might just be one of those things that, in /real/ science, you'd have to control for, but I'd be interested to know if it tinges the results any.

• How can I apply what this project will teach me to other projects in the future?
• Well, in theory, the methodology I'm using right now will help me do better research in the future. Especially RE: coding and ethics, I definitely feel like I know more now than I did a few weeks ago. It's a more general kind of help, but I still feel it's totally valid.