Bibliographic Research in Composition Studies. Vicki Byard

are greater if the writing prompts are used for a longer period of time and if the writing prompts require metacognition, but the effects are lessened if these writing curricula are implemented in middle school grades or if the writing assignments are too long. The results of meta-analyses are more noteworthy than the results of a single research study because they help to combine and appropriately weight the findings of many studies, thereby contributing substantially to knowledge in the discipline.

Advice for Locating Empirical Research

      When you are conducting bibliographic research, do not dismiss empirical research that has relevance to your topic simply because its methodology and reporting may seem unfamiliar to you. Empirical studies provide valuable knowledge to the discipline, so much so that when Richard Haswell, one of the founders of CompPile (a major database in composition studies), noticed that two of the main professional organizations in composition studies have discouraged the publication of empirical research, he charged those organizations with waging a war on disciplinary knowledge. Haswell argues that the consequences of dismissing empirical research are severe: “when college composition as a whole treats the data-gathering, data-validating, and data-aggregating part of itself as alien, then the whole may be doomed” (219). Haswell cites others who share his stance, including Stephen Witte, who states, “A field that presumes the efficacy of a particular research methodology, a particular inquiry paradigm, will collapse inward upon itself” (qtd. in Haswell 220). To limit this threat, Haswell has coined the term “RAD research” to refer to research in composition studies that is replicable, aggregable, and data supported; he has also restricted CompPile’s use of the search term “data” to refer to “any study that systematically collects and reports facts usable in further study, through whatever research method (interview, ethnography, experimentation, descriptive measurement, case study, etc.)” (Haswell, CompPile Glossary).

      When investigating an issue for your bibliographic project, you can use several of the databases that you will learn more about in chapter five—CompPile, WorldCat, ERIC and JSTOR—to search specifically for reports of empirical research. When using the CompPile database, you can locate empirical research by using the search terms for your topic in conjunction with the search terms “RAD research” or “data.” To find any book-length research reports published on your topic, conduct an advanced search of the WorldCat database, using the keywords for your topic along with the following Library of Congress subject descriptor: “English language—Composition and Exercises—Research” (it must be typed using two hyphens to represent each dash). Using the ERIC database, you can more easily identify reports of empirical research on your topic if you limit your search to just the two journals that publish the greatest number of empirical research reports about composition studies: Research in the Teaching of English and Written Communication. Additional journals that publish empirical research reports about topics in education more broadly are indexed in the JSTOR database; the journal Review of Educational Research, which published the meta-analysis about WAC discussed as an example here, is one such journal. After you have read chapter five to learn more about these databases, return to the advice offered here if your initial bibliographic searches on an issue yield insufficient empirical research.

      For Writing and Discussion

      1. Have you had exposure to empirical research methods, perhaps through courses you have taken in other disciplines? If so, how would you describe the value of empirical research as a means of constructing disciplinary knowledge? If you have not been previously exposed to empirical research methods, what questions do you have about this mode of inquiry based on what you have just read?

      2. In his article about how some professional organizations in composition studies have discouraged the publication of empirical research, Richard Haswell depicts these actions as waging a war on disciplinary knowledge. What do you think of Haswell’s use of the word “war” in this context? Why do you think that those who are engaged in composition studies may differ in their assessment of the value of empirical research?

      3. As explained in this section, two major types of empirical research are qualitative studies and quantitative studies. How might each contribute uniquely to the construction of knowledge in composition studies? In what ways might it be important when conducting bibliographic research in composition studies to look for both qualitative and quantitative studies?

      4. Consider the issue in composition studies that you want to research as you read this book. How do you expect that empirical research reports you locate will help you to better understand this issue?

Practice

Definition of Practice

      The final way that knowledge is formed in composition studies, according to North, is through the practical experience of teachers, tutors, and writing program administrators. North calls knowledge that is based on practical experience “lore,” which he defines as “the accumulated body of traditions, practices, and beliefs in terms of which practitioners understand how writing is done, learned, and taught” (22). North writes that practice doesn’t always contribute to disciplinary knowledge; instead, North sets the condition that practice can only deservedly be considered inquiry “whenever it contributes to lore—only when, in short, it produces ‘new’ knowledge” (33). He estimates that for a college teacher employed full-time, practice may qualify as inquiry “less than ten percent of the time” (34).

      For North, one of the distinguishing characteristics of lore is that it is uncritical. This can be deduced from North’s delineation of what he calls “three of its most important functional properties” (24): anything can become lore if someone suggests it; there is no method of removing anything from lore, even if it contradicts other lore; lore is practical (24–25). North also discusses lore as ultimately individualistic:

      But whereas in other communities the greatest authority over what constitutes knowledge resides with the community—lies, in effect, with public knowledge—here it lies with the individual Practitioner, and private knowledge. The communal lore offers options, resources, and perhaps some directional pressure; but the individual, finally, decides what to do and whether (or how) it has worked—decides, in short, what counts as knowledge. (28)