Blog Post #1: Topic Interests

Getting Started

While I have a general idea for what I want my research topic to be, I still have some fine tuning to do. The one thing I know for sure is that I want my final project to be redesigned curriculum for English 1010 and English 2010 that I can call my own. I've found teaching to be incredibly fulfilling, and I think that using my technical writing background to develop lesson plans and signature assignments would be an appropriate culmination of my time in this program. 

I brainstormed a few research subtopics with Dr. Joy several months ago, and a few of the ones she mentioned were instructional design, visual rhetoric, and user experience (the students would be the users). I've conducted a couple of usability tests as well, so that might be something worth looking into. The two courses I took last semester also piqued my research interests considering ethics; for one, it was algorithms and terms of service agreements, and for the other, it was how technical writers can facilitate social justice and advocate for users.

In essence, I have a lot of chunked up ideas right now and not so much any consolidated plans, but I'm optimistic about the options I have to work with.

Comments

  1. KerriAugust 28, 2023 at 11:08 AM

    I feel you on the desire to redesign your courses! I'm doing that for the English 2010 courses I'm doing right now. Seems like we're doing some of that evaluative and developmental research we're learning about!

    I'm interested in the same instructional and visual research areas. Maybe we can share our findings and sources as we come across different materials. I'll be doing my directed readings next semester.

    It's fun to learn in the classes we take and apply the principles to the ones we teach!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog Post #4: Plans on Revision

Blog Post #4: Revising I've fallen some behind in this class because of an unexpected illness (autoimmune encephalitis, the doctors think; being in the hospital for 2.5 weeks was an experience!), but I'm finally on the mend and am working to get everything edited and submitted. I have a few citations I have to fix because I got the capitalization and page number formatting wrong, so that'll be my first task. Next I'll flesh out some of the areas that need a bit more context and cohesion for better flow. Finally, I'll finish my research proposal with either a usability test design and/or some sort of interviews. I'm reading chapter 7 today, so I should have a better idea of what I'd like to do after I play a bit of catch-up.  These past few weeks have been challenging, but I'm optimistic that I can make something out of this still. :)
Read more

Blog Post #5: What I've Learned This Semester

Research: No Easy Task! One of the main things I've learned about research designs this semester is how rigorous they really need to be in order to be sound. I always kind of knew that there needed to be checks and balances for testing different things, but there are so many different ways to do it! I've gotten a little bit more comfortable with quantitative research, although qualitative is still admittedly more my jam. Additionally, my role as a technical communicator is even more broad than I thought. I'm getting more into the ideas of accessibility and usability because they ultimately help people while allowing a larger population of people use tools and accomplish goals, and that's really what it's all about for me. :)
Read more