Try This: Research Methods for Writers

Try This explores interdisciplinary research methods employed in research in writing studies but rarely drawn upon in undergraduate courses. This shifts writing instruction from a model of knowledge delivery and solitary research to a pedagogy of knowledge-making and an acknowledgment of research writing as collective, overlapping, and distributed. Each chapter is organized around methods to approach a particular kind of primary data—texts, artifacts, places, and images. Accompanying "Try This" invention projects in each chapter invite readers to "try" the research methods. Some projects are designed to try during class time and take 5 to 15 minutes, while others are extensive and will take days to accomplish. Each research writing opportunity introduced in a "Try This" invention project is designed to scaffold a research project. Each chapter offers different genres that allow research to circulate and connect meaningfully with audiences, including digital research posters, data visualizations, and short-form presentations.

This book is also available as an open access ebook through the WAC Clearinghouse.

Jennifer Clary-Lemon is associate professor of English at the University of Waterloo and past editor of the journal Composition Studies. Her research interests include writing and location, disciplinarity, critical discourse studies, and research methodologies. Her work has been published in Rhetoric Review, Discourse and Society, The American Review of Canadian Studies, Composition Forum, Oral History Forum d'histoire orale, enculturation, and College Composition and Communication.

Derek N. Mueller is professor of rhetoric and writing and director of the University Writing Program at Virginia Tech. A graduate of Syracuse University's Composition and Cultural Rhetoric (CCR) program, Mueller teaches courses in visual rhetoric and information design, rhetorics of science and technology, and computers and writing. His research interests include digital writing platforms, networked writing practices, theories of composing, rhetorical aspects of computational methods, archiving and databases, and discipliniographies related to rhetoric and composition/writing studies. He is coauthor of Cross-Border Networks in Writing Studies and author of Network Sense: Methods for Visualizing a Discipline. Mueller's work has also appeared in College Composition and Communication, Kairos, Computers and Composition, Composition Forum, and JAC. For more information, visit derekmueller.net.

Kate Pantelides is associate professor of English and director of General Education English at Middle Tennessee State University. She is coauthor or A Theory of Public Higher Education (with Blum, Fernandez, Imad, Korstange, and Laird). Her work has been recognized in The Best of Independent Rhetoric and Composition Journals and circulates in venues such as College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Computers and Composition, Inside Higher Ed, Journal of Technical and Professional Writing, and Review of Communication.