Dear All,
Most of you enrolled in this course will have followed Written Communication I at Université Laval, or the equivalent. The handbook we have been using for that class clearly treats writing as a process “that involves at least four distinct steps: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. It is known as a recursive process. While you are revising, you might have to return to the prewriting step to develop and expand your ideas” (MIT). The text that we will be using as a guide throughout Written Communication II continues this approach, which is neatly summarized as follows by the Cleveland University Writing Center :
Nothing new there then… That said, parallel to going through the writing process in order to consolidate and deepen your knowledge of it, we will be focusing on the reflective nature of writing. Indeed, it has been proven that keeping a journal of your ideas and activities as an on-going log of your thoughts about your research can be most beneficial. Ortlipp (2008) concludes that “keeping and using reflective journals enabled me to make my experiences, opinions, thoughts, and feelings visible and an acknowledged part of the research design, data generation, analysis, and interpretation process. [...] However, the effect of keeping and using reflective journals went beyond achieving methodological rigor and paradigmatic consistency. Critical self-reflection had an effect on the research process; changes were made to the research design, methods used, and approaches taken” (p. 703-704).
The positive impact of using a research journal as a tool in an educational context is recognized by Borg (2001) although he points out that “it should be acknowledged that the writer needs to approach the task of journal writing with some initial awareness of the nature of reflective writing and a willingness to adopt a reflective stance to research” (p.169).
What exactly is a research journal and what should be in it?
See it as a companion to the research and writing process that results in your final paper. As you try to come up with a topic, write down interesting questions that you come across, identify the problems involved and brainstorm to come up with possible solutions. Make a note of names of important facts that are associated with your topic and indicate sources to explore, that you think might include valuable information.
As you continue to reflect on your topic and how to relate it to a specific purpose and approach for your paper, you will notice themes, thoughts that seem to connect, and patterns. When you begin your formal research, note its progress in your journal. Write down specific questions and notes on your methods and results. Your research journal then becomes a record of what you hypothesized, did, and found, as well as a place to consider the implications of your work. Don’t forget to note the “facts” about any sources you discover (the author(s), title, journal/date (for articles), and pages of any articles/books you find). In this way, keeping the record of your search process in an organized way saves time and enhances performance.
Why a blog?
The fact that the Internet has become a contact zone between the local and the global in everyday literacy practices is beginning to receive important priority in the field of literacy, cultural, and educational studies. As I have pointed out in a conference talk held at SPEAQ (2008), “the Internet as a worldwide literacy practice environment has created a new situation in communication, providing a new dynamic field for research developing three main aspects of the Internet: as an informal learning environment for English as a second/foreign language; as a discursive space where identities are formed and social relationships are negotiated; and, as a space where the intermingling of the global and the local gives rise to hybrid language varieties. The Internet can then be considered as a “safe house” structuring alternative spaces for social and consequently discourse participation, where ESL students have more opportunities for freeing writing from the constraints of the traditional classrooms”.
As a compliment to the reflectional nature of the research journal, the blog benefits from the potential of interactivity that facilitates connections to related content, and provides a space for reactions from readers. In this way, it can become a rich source of collaborative activity as readers have options to reference, link, react to, or add information, thus shaping the content of your blog while at the same time creating a type of virtual community. The research blog can assist you in becoming regular readers and/or writers, and hone both interpretive and presentational skills. In other words, it can facilitate knowledge sharing, reflection, and debate, and act as a vehicle for self expression and self empowerment. Finally, the research blog can be considered as a “middle space” situated somewhere between online and traditional classroom settings; it can represent learner spaces that are both social and student-owned. You will interact as readers and writers as you co-construct your own learning; thus social interaction becomes necessary to second language learning. Through your interactions, you can even develop a sense of belonging to a community of readers and writers.
In brief – what do you write in your research blog?
Interesting questions,
problems and possible solutions,
references to read and notes on those you’ve already read.
For each of these, you can provide
a description,
additional material that comes to mind (even if it needs elaborating or verification),
a reflection (attending to feelings and evaluating experience) and
things that remain to do (make notes to pick-up later).
Do not hesitate to make your blog a reflection of your own personality, and take advantage of different Internet technologies such as hyperlinks to interesting online content, YouTube videos, etc.
In addition to posting to your own blog, you will have the opportunity to share your opinion with others by commenting on their posts, making this a truly constructive and interactive effort.
Happy blogging!
Andy.
Tags: research blog, written communication II
