Emily Mildenhall Research Methods/ENGL 6401

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. :)

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. :)