Week 2: May 20, 2025

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Topics
Study design: field work 
Practice: how to read research

Read for class:

The first three pieces I am asking you to skim are providing insights into how folks rhetoric and communication see research. The emphasis on the field in the second two are a good way to understand empirical methods and needing to do research work that draws information from people, places, and things, and to see how folks talk differently about the same thing. So as you’re reading them mark terms or terminology that are not clear to you and questions that you may have. 

  • Skim: Broad, B. (2013). Strategies and passions in empirical qualitative research. In Nickoson, L., & Sheridan, M. P. (Eds.). Writing Studies research in practice (pp.197-209). Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
  • Skim: Middleton, M. K., Senda-Cook, S., & Endres, D. (2011). Articulating Rhetorical Field Methods: Challenges and Tensions. Western Journal of Communication, 75(4), 386–406. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2011.586969 (This piece in particular really highlights the conversations in the field. Why? Because it is likely you feel like you don’t fully understand parts of it because of the way they integrate existing scholarship. This is a point we will talk about in class.)
  • Skim: Rai, C., & Druschke, C. G. (Eds.). (2018). Field Rhetoric: Ethnography, Ecology, and Engagement in the Places of Persuasion. The University of Alabama Press. Introduction (.pdf)
  • research questions blog 

Do for class:

Explicate this article

Gunning, S. K. (2025). How Do Nonprofit Proposal Writers Learn Their Jobs? Results of a Nationwide Survey and Interviews. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 39(2), 191-224. https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519241307786 (Original work published 2025)

When I say explicate, I want you to sit and read closely and mark up the text.

    • highlight and note the research question, methodology/theory, method, and findings. Take note of the evidence the author presents in answering the question. Consider the findings and how well you believe them based on what is presented on the page. Make note of questions that arise as you are reading. Questions of terminology, approach, process. Questions of interpretation or analysis. 
    • Upload your explication (start your file with your last name) to the shared google folder. N.B. This process of having you upload is one of sharing insights. We can learn from one another’s approach to reading and interpretation. So please try to resist the urge to compare. It’s ok if we’re different, and it’s ok if we’re also at different places. 

In class: N.B. we will likely go a bit longer than last week. 

    • discussion of what fieldwork means and how it relates to research study design and empirical methods
    • how to read an article discussion
    • crafting research questions