Emily Mildenhall Research Methods/ENGL 6401

Choice Paralysis in Action Topic Discussion: Alas, we're in week 4 of the semester, and I'm still refining my topic. The good (and bad) news is that I have so many research interests! I've been digging through databases for the past week and skimming lots of articles, but keeping in mind that we're writing literature reviews before we write our proposals, I'm trying to stick to something that already has a developed body of research that I could synthesize and build onto. Since I'd like to create lesson plans for some sort of composition course, whether that be English 1010, English 2010, or a new Prof/Tech course, I looked into a number of sources regarding technical writing pedagogy. This bled into a few different possible research questions, all of which I've narrowed down to the themes of usability, accessibility, and universal design in the writing classroom. Possible research questions (I did admittedly get some help from Chat GPT for these): What role...

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 write...