Two Feet In | Writing and the Institution

30 January 2011 Dr. Lindahl writes in reference to my concerns about being perceived as an outside when interviewing Freshmen: CL: that’s technically not a problem for this course, but I think that the basic thrust is as folkloric as it is educational, in the sense that a good deal of what you are hoping to achieve is to discover the community factors, the unofficial-cultural factors influencing how students learn and to bring those factors to bear upon their learning process. One possibility is to have freshmen students interview other students. This would be ideal, as it would have the insiders talking to the insiders, using their language, empathizing because of share background and experiences. However, this would take time – I would need to either a) train new students in interviewing technique, or b) retrain my freshmen from last semester to do this. I likely could get a few of my former students to work with me, but their time is in just as much demand as I am, and they woul...

24 January 2011 So, my concern is that I am unsure of what would be best as a project, or for my own purposes of developing my documenting skills/strategies as a professional researcher. I'm thinking that this semester project will not only be useful in developing my research and analysis strategies but also in preliminary data for a PhD project of some relevance (though that is cloudy as well). Possible projects include: Freshmen composition students; though I am not interested in their cognitive strategies in writing (like Emig), I am interested in the way that the R/C course influences their attitudes towards writing, researching, and learning in their university experience. Freshmen at large; I'm very interested in knowing how UH's freshmen ground themselves in the university experience and how their first semesters affect their purpose or sense of purpose. Ultimately, I could use this information as a launch to working with retention programs, since that is ...