Writing the Qualitative Dissertation: Understanding by Doing / Qualitative Communication Research Methods / The Elements of Information Gathering

Meloy models the high respect for participants such an approach demands. [...]the work illustrates her priorities and the emphasis on narrative descriptions of what can happen rather than on reproductions of what did occur in any particular case. Since "hard" science is also subject to the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technical communication quarterly 1997-04, Vol.6 (2), p.219
Main Author: Dautermann, Jennie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic disciplines
Communication Research
Curricula
Dissertations & theses
Epistemology
Graduate students
Graduate studies
Graduate Study
Humanities
Intellectual Disciplines
Language
Literacy
Methods
Qualitative research
Research methodology
Researchers
Scholars
Students
Studies
Teaching
Teaching Methods
Technical communication
Verbal communication
Writing
Writing Instruction
Writing Processes
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Summary:Meloy models the high respect for participants such an approach demands. [...]the work illustrates her priorities and the emphasis on narrative descriptions of what can happen rather than on reproductions of what did occur in any particular case. Since "hard" science is also subject to the vagaries of vested interest, interpretive activity, and rhetorical presentation (see the section on "Science and Rhetoric," pp. 247-50), the two paradigms are more like two versions of a very similar project (to understand social or physical phenomena) even though the tools may be quite different. Particularly important for technical communication scholars is her assertion that "The" computer does not exist and that researchers must begin with the recognition that they cannot generalize from one electronic writing environment to another. [...]any mode of inquiry in technology studies should also include such variables as the access writers have to computers, the ease of learning the system, the sophistication of the system (i.e., from word processing to graphics and networks), the age of the equipment, and the general classroom or workplace ergonomics. Since this book deals principally with the issues, activities, and leaders of SPEE, Kynell provides only general discussion of the preceding period in American educational history as background for the primary focus of her study.
ISSN:1057-2252
1542-7625