Posts

Blog #5: What I've Learned

I learned much more than I thought I would in this course, although when I say learned, what I really mean is understood. I admit I was spooked by the name of the course, expecting that it would be dense and difficult. It's actually been very enlightening! Before, I had a general idea of what qualitative and quantitative methods were, but the textbook, in-class examples, and writing projects made me feel much more comfortable with conducting (or at least proposing) research in various forms. There's a certain satisfaction that comes with composing a research proposal, despite the amount of time and effort it takes. I'm actually looking forward to the possibility of adjusting my topic in this course to fit my capstone now that I have a solid idea of what to do. As a prof/tech writer, I've come to understand that "writing" or "editing" will never be my single role. Being a technical writer requires effective research skills and adaptability, both of wh...

Blog #4: Plans for Revision

 As would be expected, the first thing I plan to do for my research proposal is to make the needed/suggested corrections to my literature review and figure out how to condense it in such a way that includes all eight of my sources while maintaining effective synthesis. I also got some extremely valuable feedback on my proposal outline from Rachel, which will help me in fine tuning some of my interview and survey questions about the treatment of women in the PTW workplace/how feminine writing is perceived. To be honest, I think that once I get the skeleton of the project figured out, it'll go much smoother from there. I'm just a bit wary of how to fully structure my methods section and how to fit the literature review into the whole thing (especially knowing what length is appropriate). 12-15 pages feels a bit daunting, but having written a grant proposal before, I'm sure that when I actually piece it all together, it won't seem as difficult. I'm lucky in that my res...

Blog #3: The Research Gap

You could drive a van through the gaps in my research topic: women in professional and technical writing, how they're treated in the workplace, and what effect "feminine" writing/communication traits have on women's/writers' credibility. To be fair, this topic ended up being pretty broad because of how few sources I could find on just "feminine" writing styles/structures. There weren't even any articles that connected hedging with feminine language except in one article that only mentioned in briefly--this was very surprising to me, as I've heard several English and Communication Studies professors make the connection between hedging in speech/written language and women's tendency to do it. I ended up improvising as best I could and sort of made a 2 1/2 pronged literature review out of the sources I was able to connect to my main idea. I think I was able to synthesize them well enough, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to write a more ...

Blog post #2: my ten tentative sources and official research topics

 My research topic is on the rhetoric used in pamphlets surrounding Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) and how it can be improved to increase awareness and educate the public in order to prevent future, continued, or any CSA. My ten tentative sources: Babatsikos, G. (2010). Parents’ knowledge, attitudes and practices about preventing child sexual abuse: a       literature review. Child Abuse Review, 19 (2), 107-129. doi: 10.1002/car.1102 Blake, R. (2003). Informational and awareness packet on the subject of child sexual abuse. Issues of Child        Abuse Accusations, 13 (2), 2-38. Retrieved from         http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libproxy.dixie.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=16&sid=ac4352f6-aa6a-       4526-   8992-49991b12b170%40pdc-v-       sessmgr01&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=10990881&db=asn Chouliara, Z., Karatzias, T., ...

Blog Post #2: Research Topic and 10 Tentative Sources

My research topic for my literature review will tackle technical communication (written) practices and gendered language in the workplace. The central question is a bit malleable depending on what information I can derive from the available source material, but I'm excited to dig in and see what I can find. I currently have 11 tentative sources: Bardolph, D. (2014). A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF RECENT GENDERED PUBLISHING TRENDS IN AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. American Antiquity, 79(3), 522-540. doi:10.2307/43184920 Calvert, S. (2013). Gendered Narratives of Innovation Through Competition: Lessons From Science and Technology Studies. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 54(1), 3-14. Retrieved September 16, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43686928 Cech, E., Rubineau, B., Silbey, S., & Seron, C. (2011). Professional Role Confidence and Gendered Persistence in Engineering. American Sociological Review, 76(5), 641-666. doi:10.2307/23019214 Grebelsky-Lichtman, T., ...

Blog Post #1: Topic of Interest

One thing that I've read about recently that interests me a lot is the gap between weight loss surgery and quality of life. Statistically speaking, people that undergo weight loss surgeries have higher rates of suicide, which is obviously counterintuitive as most people that qualify for weight loss surgery get it at the recommendation of medical professionals to lengthen their life. I feel like there's probably a gap here that doesn't acknowledge emotional eating, which if taken away (some surgeries shrink stomachs or put on a gastric belt, etc.) immediately, may have some seriously negative psychological effects. I'm not sure what method or goal I'd have for that subject other than how to tackle the issue of suicide risk for people who have undergone weight loss surgery. As for prof/tech writing and technical communication, I'm still unsure what I could research under that umbrella. The concept of "hedging" and how gendered language affects written co...