You will design and complete your own writing studies research project

Purpose:

You will design and complete your own writing studies research project. In completing this project, you will develop and practice skills in research methods, critical reading, writing in several genres, finding and ethically using sources, and many other areas.

The Project:

In your introduction to writing studies assignment, you established some scholarly territory in writing studies that you might want to explore. To design and complete your own writing studies research project, you will enter a territory with a question or problem in writing studies that you want to investigate. Projects on school writing are certainly welcome, but as Kinkead notes, writing studies is a “big tent” and covers much more than school writing (69). Be creative and consider the sweeping landscape of writing studies. Research something that interests you and that you think is important. Your finished product should resemble the exemplary essays in Research Writing: An Introduction to Research Methods or the essays published in Young Scholars in Writing.

Authentic research includes both primary and secondary research. You will select the primary research method that is best suited for the question or problem you are investigating:

• Analysis of text and discourse
• A case-study
• Ethnography
• Archival research
• Mixed methods