Spinuzzi, Hart-Davidson, and Zachry – Chains and Ecologies: Methodological Notes toward a Communicative-Mediational Model of Technologically Mediated Writing

Spinuzzi, Clay, William Hart-Davidson and Mark Zachry.  “Chains and Ecologies: Methodological Notes toward a Communicative-Mediational Model of Technologically Mediated Writing. Abstract:  Studies of knowledge work tend to take one of two research foci: either on communication (the transactional,  intersubjective exchange of information, thoughts, writing, or speech among participants, performed in serial chains) or mediation (the nonsequential,... Read More

Winsor – Writing Like an Engineer: A Rhetorical Education

Winsor, Dorothy A. Writing Like an Engineer : A Rhetorical Education. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Print Preface W. provides some interesting methodological points in her preface.  She notes that, paradoxically, when we research we often make objects out of our subjects (while calling them subjects).  To address this univocal representation of infinitely complex human beings she provides a section called “backtalk”... Read More

Edbauer – Unframing Models of Public Distribution: From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies

Edbauer, Jennifer.  “Unframing Models of Public Distribution: From Rhetorical Situation to Rhetorical Ecologies.”  Rhetoric Society Quarterly.  35 4 (2008): 5-24.  Print. Edbauer begins by acknowledging that public spaces and the broader public sphere are constituted by a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. Following Bitzer, Edbauer locates exigency in the material life world – “the external conditions of material and social... Read More

Russell – Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis

Russell, David.  “Rethinking Genre in School and Society:  An Activity Theory Analysis.”  Written Communication 14 (1997).  504-554.  Print. Abstract:  The relation between writing in formal schooling and writing in other social practicesis a central problem in writing research (e.g., critical pedagogy, writing in nonacademic settings, cognition in variable social contexts). How do macro-level social and political structures (forces) affect... Read More

Bakhtin – Towards a Methodology for the Human Sciences

The New Rhetorics:  Overview and Theory – Mikhail Bakhtin (Possible!!!) “Towards a Methodology for the Human Sciences” Bakhtin’s theory of language is arbitrary and dialogic.  By setting up language in such a way he can trace the historical and social contexts that generate meaning. The empirical process of constructing meaning: o    Psychophysiologically perceiving a physical sign (word, color, spatial form) o    Recognizing... Read More