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Presentation about the "Writing Lives of College Students" research study by the WIDE Research Center, Michigan State University - presenters Jeff Grabill, Stacey Pigg, and Bill Hart-Davidson.
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Mapping the Writing Lives of College Students: A Story about a Study in Three Parts
Pigg, Grabill, Hart-Davidson
Michigan State University
Writing in Digital Environments Research Center
http://wide.msu.edu
Part I:Visualizing Composition I
Bill Hart-Davidson
@billhd
Michigan State University
Writing in Digital Environments Research Center
http://wide.msu.edu
1. How does the day-to-day activity of composing unfold in the social and technological scenes that constitute emerging literacies?
2. What strategies for coordinating socio-technical resources reveal themselves to be important, particularly effective, and/or persistent literacy practices?
Questions We Began With…
A Method: Time-Use Diaries
•A qualitative research technique that involves participants in record keeping of specific activity.
•Used to prompt first-person accounts that are detailed and comparable in ways that benefit the researcher.
Melinda’s Diary
Date
Duration in minutes Goal Location
Reading or Writing?
For project?
How for project? Tech. Used People Summary
6/4/09 93Working on essay Library Reading Yes Research me
Looking up information for reparations for African Americans
6/5/09 55
Make outline for essay
Living room Writing Yes Planning me
Making an outline for the essay
6/7/09 60
To send email to the professor
Bessey computer lab Writing Yes
Emailing my plan and reason for my essay me
I have to email my plan before I can turn in a draft.
6/8/2009 19
Trying to complete essay
Computer lab Writing Yes
Gathering information Computer me
Trying to gather information for essay
6/8/09 96Finish first draft Library (missing) Yes
The main purpose [is] to finish my essay Computer me
[I] come to the library to get things done; I stay focused here.
6/9/09 97
Completing first draft Library (missing) Yes Actual project Computer me (missing)
6/10/09 110
Edit each others' papers
111 Bessey
Reading and Writing Yes
Editing the project None
me, "Angie," "Katelyn"
We read each others' papers, edited them, and gave reasons.
6/10/09 36Fixing errors
Living room Writing Yes (missing) None me
Fixing errors made in first draft
6/11/09 120Finish final draft Library (missing) Yes
Finishing essay Computer me
Final essay is due Monday. No time to mess around.
Jennifer’s Diary
When Are Diaries a Good Choice?
•When the activity to be studied is difficult to directly observe and difficult to recollect in sufficient detail in an interview.
•When the researcher wants participants to attend to details that are otherwise in the background of day-to-day activity.
•When the researcher wants detailed first-person accounts that are also comparable to one another.
•When they aren’t the only method.
Why Diaries to Study Composing?
• Composing is distributed in time and space, unfolding over long stretches of time and in short, intense bursts.
• Composing involves writers interacting with other people and with technologies, each having potentially important influences on process and outcomes.
• Composing can be improvisational, emerging in response to a rhetorical situation, physical and organizational setting, emotional states, etc.
Do I detect…
Theoretical perspectives on writing that would make diary study methods more amenable?
1. Writing as Activity • Activity Theory & its variants such
as CoP• Actor-Network Theory (as long as
the machines can keep diaries too)• Distributed Cognition
2. Writing as Praxis• Habitus & Field in Bourdieu
3. Narrative Theory• Structuralist & Post
Goals for the VizComp Study
• Prompt comparable first-person accounts of literate activity inside and outside of the classroom
• Generate accounts that could be compared, not only by us but by our participants as well
• Reveal patterns in individual and group activity that were interesting, fruitful sites for further inquiry via other methods (interview, observation)
Visualizations
Visualizing composing practices
Prior & Shipka, 2002
• Detailed information about locations, participants, genres, media, & technologies.
•Also: motivations, affect, & activity development over time
•Difficult to compare to other accounts due to questions about units, role/perspective
•Difficult to see patterns worthy of further investigation?
Visualizing Writing Practices w/ CEM
• Detailed information about events and sequences that might otherwise be less obvious
•Missing: motivations, affect
•Data reduction techniques used for comparisons, but less data points are in play
•Requires multiple methods of sorting to be useful as a reasoning tool?
2/21
2/22
f2f
f2f
ph
2/23
2/24
2/28
3/2
proposal
e-mail IM
active genres
f2f
key
writing document
E-mail, web forms, web editing
note-taking, planning
conversation
Hart-Davidson, Spinuzzi, & Zachry, 2006
Melinda’s CEM
web forms
keywriting document
instant messaging
reading
6/2
6/3
6/4
6/5
6/6
6/7
6/8
6/9
6/10
6/11
6/12
6/13
Items in orange were writing for her composition course.
*the prewrite, write, rewrite “process” sequence
*
2 Weeks of Literate Activity
Work4/31
C C C
C
Play4/31
W R W R R
School7/31
R W W W WR W
W
Home16/31
W W R W R W
W
W
W
W
IM W R
R W R W
6/2 6/3 6/4 6/5 6/6 6/7 6/8 6/9 6/10 6/11 6/12
Where does “Melinda’s” literate life unfold?
Seeing Patterns Worth Asking Questions About…
1. School writing is done at school
2. Most writing is done at home
2 15
39
Event Types
Journal
Essay
E-mail &IM
WorkUI
3
2
17
9
Genres
How does Melinda represent her literate life?
IM
ReadingWork-Related
Writing
Journal
Essay
E-mail &IM
WorkUI
3
2
17
9Who does Melinda coordinate with and how?
friends
other workers
45
1 to 1
msu alumni
2
peers
instructor
12
1 time only
1 time only
1 time each
many times
limited interaction among workers
private
Part II:Visualizing Composition II
Jeff Grabill
@grabill
Michigan State University
Writing in Digital Environments Research Center
http://wide.msu.edu
Visualizing Composition I
• Survey (n=1366) of students enrolled in a first-year writing class during April-June of the Spring 2010 semester.
o Elon University
o Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne
o Lansing Community College
o Leeward Community College
o Michigan State University
o The University of North Carolina at Pembroke
o The University of Texas at El Paso
Visualizing Composition I
• Purposive, stratified sample
• An attempt to match the demographic profile of US college students
High Level Findings
• SMS texts, emails, and lecture notes are three of the most frequently written genres
• SMS texts and academic writing are the most frequently valued genres
• Some electronic genres written frequently by participants, such as writing in social networking environments, are not valued highly
• Students’ write for personal fulfillment nearly as often as for school assignments
High Level Findings
• Institution type is related in a meaningful way to the writing experiences of participants, particularly what they write and the technologies used
• Digital writing platforms—cell phones, Facebook, email—are frequently associated with writing done most often
• Students mostly write alone, and writing alone is valued over writing collaboratively
Frequency
1. Texting2. E-mail3. Lecture notes4. Academic paper5. Research papers6. Lists7. Instant messaging8. Comments on status messages or posts9. Status message updates10.Reading notes
We see in this list a range of traditional academic genres along with types of writing that we think of as “helpers” for larger tasks. We see as well a number of genres that are a function of networked technologies. They have a place in the writing lives of these participants.
We see in this list a range of traditional academic genres along with types of writing that we think of as “helpers” for larger tasks. We see as well a number of genres that are a function of networked technologies. They have a place in the writing lives of these participants.
Value
1. Texting2. Academic Paper3. Lecture Notes4. Research Paper5. Email6. Resume7. List8. Letter9. Journal/Diary10.Forms
School-sponsored genres are valued highly by survey participants. 21% of participants ranked academic papers as their first or second most valued genre. 19% of students ranked research papers as their first or second most valued genre.
School-sponsored genres are valued highly by survey participants. 21% of participants ranked academic papers as their first or second most valued genre. 19% of students ranked research papers as their first or second most valued genre.
Frequency and Value
Institution Type Matters
Cell phones: The New Pencil for Personal Life?
•Facebook is used frequently to write a broad range of genres.
• Students do not report valuing this writing (reasons are unclear)
• Most of the writing students report is directly related to interpersonal messaging.
• Participants also report using the platform for writing everything from lists to screenplays to poetry.
Facebook ... meh
• Cell phones have become a prominent writing technology for students for self-sponsored writing.
• Students use phones most often for SMS texting, but they also use them for a range of other digital writing
• Cell phones are also frequently used for lists
• We have had students report using their phones to compose academic essays.
Students Writing Alone .. for Personal Fulfillment
• Students are doing a great deal of personal writing.
• They report writing alone and for personal fulfillment quite often.
• Why? And what is meant by personal writing? And how does this square with with all the writing they do to connect with others?
Part III:Next Steps for RevisualizingComposition
Stacey Pigg
@pidoubleg
Michigan State University
Writing in Digital Environments Research Center
http://wide.msu.edu
Phase II Research
• Survey results raise a number of new questions of importance, which drive a proposed follow-up study
• Draw from rhetoric and composition’s foundations tracing practices and processes with deep case studies of student writers
• Sample of case studies to be taken from the same population, reflecting our survey sample
Research Questions 1 & 2
47% of participants rank texting in their top 5 for value. Participants also report high levels of value for academic writing.
RQ1: What forms of writing do college students value in their lives and why?
78% rank texting in their top 5 most often written genres, and 46% indicate texting is the kind of writing that they perform more than any other
RQ2: Where does texting fit within the writing lives of college students--what does it do and how does it function in relation to other writing practices?
1
2
Research Questions 3 and 4
Our survey shows that student writing lives are complex, but we lack information about the resources they draw upon.
RQ3: What resources students draw on to accomplish a range of writing tasks, how they do so, and why?
Our survey shows that writing experiences differ across institution type, especially for genres associated with digital technologies, but we lack an understanding of why or how.
RQ4: How do the writing experiences of our students differ across institution types?
3
4
Data Collection
• Experience sampling methods > prompt students to record what they are writing along with technologies, collaborators, audiences, and motivations
• Artifact analysis > connect resources to products
• Interviews with participants > gather student understanding of value, meaning, and additional resources used in writing
Data Analysis
Network analysis• traces the networks of resources that participants
assemble to write (Latour, 2005)
• addresses questions 2 and 3, focus on the role of texting, as well as the resources students draw upon
Discourse analysis • structured and systematic way of interpreting underlying
discursive themes (Fairclough, 1992; Dijk, 1997; Wood & Kroger, 2000; Schiffrin, Tannen, & Hamilton, 2001; Bazerman & Prior, 2004; Gee, 2005; Johnstone, 2008)
• addresses question 1 concerning value, and question 4 concerning institution type
Anticipated Results and Impact
•Complex network models of the writing activity of first-year college students
•A data repository for sharing research data and tools internally and publicly
• An expanding network for continuing research on student composing practices
WIDEWriting in
Digital Environment
s Research Center
Bill Hart-Davidson
http://wide.msu.edu
Thank
You!Jeff Grabill
Stacey Pigg
