Research Exploration

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-cultural communication
      • Global Englishes
    • UI/UX
  • Digital Rhetoric
    • What effectively influences people to branch out of echo chambers or to change their views?
I hope to become a more informed scholar in my field through this course.

Comments

  1. Emily Mildenhall's ENGL 6401: Research Methods Blog FA23August 29, 2023 at 10:29 AM

    I too feel a bit mystified by technical writing & digital rhetoric research at times! Our research interests also have quite a bit of overlap. I'm all for sharing resources if you're up for it. :) I'm especially also interested in effective educational communication because different students thrive with different teaching methods, and I sometimes worry that I'm not accommodating everyone equally.

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