3.15 Workshop!

Tonight I handed out signed permission forms so you can get started on data collection - and we talked through how to ask research participants if they are interested in your study; how to introduce the permission forms, and how to set up initial interviews (including signing + keeping copies of permission forms).  After the study is complete you need to pass out debriefing forms.

Discourse analysis project
We reviewed the criteria for your discourse analysis essay (assignment sheet to the right).  They include statements of:
1. what  your analysis shows => focus for your essay
2. what lens/methodology  you use to examine your data (refer to the lenses in Bloome et al, and for methodologies refer to the 4 sample essays in chapter 3)
3. evidence to support each point to develop your focus

The rest of class was spent conferencing /discussing your research projects and DA papers.

For next class

Read: The Arrival, Farrell, Arizpe & McAdam (passed out in class); Rose in Griffin

Blog 7: Post draft DA project 

3.8 Discourse analysis

Tonight we talked through three of the methods for discourse analysis - led by EXCELLENT presentations from your classmates. I am hoping you paid close attention to the ways the researchers framed their focus (the research question) and how they used evidence from the transcript as evidence to support their answer to that question.

You spent the next section of class looking at one of the sample transcripts posted on the blog (to the right).  (There are 3 transcripts: adult learners, gamers, and chatrooms.)  These transcripts were produced by typing out a written representation of conversations from interviews conducted from 2005-2007.  You spent some time thinking about what was going on int he transcript about chatrooms, and identifying evidence to "prove" that was what going on.  We ran out of time - so there was not much chance to discuss your findings - but hopefully it gave you some experience looking at conversations representated on "paper" and analyzing features of the language, micro-macro relationships, context, and power relationships.  We also (briefly) looked at how to break up or re-organize transcripts into "story" units.  This visual re-organization can allow you to ask questions about what is going on in terms of the sequence of stories through looking at signals for the beginning and endings of stories, the ways the teller tells the story, differences among repeated tellings & similarities and differences in the ways the teller evaluates or represents the story (eg scary vs funny).

I introduced the Discourse Analysis assignment (posted to the right) and talked through the requirements.

For next week:

I hope to look over your blogs on your research projects and get back to you - hopefully with some indication about what the next step is.

Classtime will be spent doing group work, conferencing & writing for you DA projects (or to set up your research project if you need some help there).

Blog 6:  Choose a transcript for DA project & identify your approach for your DA project (methodology & methods =draw from sample essays in Chapter 3, and frames from Ch 1)

Specifically - give your best shot to

stating a research question (what does this transcript show about. . . how does it relate to larger cultural stories about. . . & what complications does it introduce with respect to. . .)

selecting an analytic or methodological frame (from among the 4 essays in Chapter 3, or some combination of the lenses from chapter 1)

List the points you will make to support your answer to the research question

list what you will use as evidence.

The more specific you are - the more you will have to work with next Thursday.  If you are stuck - schedule a conference.  My most open day is MONDAY.   and 

Conference schedule for the week of 3.5

All meetings are in my office:  CAS 324.


Monday
11:20 Svitlana
11:40  Michael Callahan
3:30  Lauren
4:00 Andre

Wednesday
10:20  Michael Vandenberg

Thursday
12:15  Alex
3:30 Sarah Brittain
3:50  Wyndesha
4:10  erin

7:30  Jen


Jill and Kristyna - if you send me some writing for your interview questions - maybe we can do part of this by email?

3.1 Introduction to discourse analyais + sign up for conferences

We defined discourse analysis + discussed the 4 different perspectives set forward by the authors as ways to see data within discourse analysis .  We pretty much talked straight through the book - but with lots of attention to putting the language into plain English.

You then worked on naming + classifying some of the "moves" in the transcript from the chapter - and then developed a theoretical story to describe relationships among the kinds of moves you identified.  For example = we named the different kinds of power moves.  Katie's "verbal authority" move by using the terms "we" and "need to"; Michelle's control of material resources = keeping possession of the crayons, and her challenge to Katie by asking pointed (irritated) questions.  We talked about these two different styles of  seeking authority and observed that while Michele's strategy may have worked in a grade school classroom - it wouldn't work when she got older, where as katie's might.  And so on.  You can re-read Bloome et al's analysis to get a fuller take on the micro-macro method (with a focus on language - so it is also social linguistic) and with some attention to power, and historical-social context => as we pointed out, the approaches overlap.

You also signed up for conferences - which I have posted as a separate blog.

For next class:
Read Chapter 3 and Alex, Michael, Erin, and Andre will talk us through the four different methodologies.