Kerri McCuistion ENGL 6401-50 Research Methods in Technical Writing & Digital Rhetoric

I'm at the revision stage of my research proposal for my Research Methods in Technical Writing and Digital Rhetoric class. I got some great feedback from my peer review. I plan to make some formatting revisions to my in-text citations. I also plan to add more about the gap I found and can fill to my summary within my literature review. My conclusion is still just notes, so I need to write that out soon so I can edit it with fresh eyes before it is due. Once I have it all written out I'll give the entire thing another read or two and edit for cohesion and any last minute grammar errors I notice.

I just turned in my first ever literature review. In it, I was able to build a research-based foundation for principles of technical communication. I was also able to find instances in online courses where technical communication principles make a difference. I didn’t see anything asking online instructors about how they utilize those technical communication principles in course design.  My research is looking to fill that gap. I want to conduct a qualitative study where I interview online instructors at my local university about how they design their courses and whether they consider principles of technical communication when they do so.  I’ve organized the principles I want to focus on in this chart: Table 1.1: Technical Communication Goals That Apply To Online Instruction Helping users find information Helping users understand information Usability Testing Course Organization Information Organization Remediation Plain Language Effective use of visuals Instructors might not ...

Coming up with an interesting and effective research question has been a struggle for me. I’m still learning what research in TW&DR looks like. I’ve done lots of brainstorming but my ideas weren’t quite there. This is where I’ve currently landed after taking with some of my professors: How are online instructors with Utah Tech University utilizing practices of technical communication to make materials accessible for their students? The hopeful plan is to conduct interviews with the Learning Design team and several online instructors here at the university. I’ll focus on information and document design along with remediation (as the practice of translating content from one medium to another). My question and plan may still change some going forward, but I feel like this is a good starting point for my literature review. Here are some tentative sources: Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (2000). Remediation: Understanding New Media . MIT Press. Carliner, S. (2000). Physical, cognitive, ...

What do you think of when you hear the word "research?"  You might think of scientists in lab coats experimenting with liquids in vials. Some might think of studying what kind of car or house to buy. You could also picture pouring over dusty old books in an unlit vault of a library, the kind of research my mom did for her literature degrees. I understand research from this general kind of view, but I want to know it more intimately. What does research look like in my field of technical writing & digital rhetoric? What are the current trends and findings? I feel like I don't know the answers to those questions well enough.  My goal for this course is to learn those answers. I want to be actively aware and engaged with the research going on in my areas of interest.  Here are some areas I'm interested in: Technical communication Visual communication Effective educational communication Better ways to convey educational materials to have better student outcomes Cross-c...