Abstract:

In this article, we describe an approach to teaching first-year composition that is
built on a qualitative design for undergraduate research and writing. As writing
instructors at a state teaching college, we see the need to move our students beyond
the boundaries of expressivism, personal narrative, and argument and into the
murkier, messier, and more critical territory of considering subjectivities, interpreting
cultural texts and contexts, and, ultimately, coming to see the dynamic and dialogic
nature of rhetorical situations and knowledge production. We have discovered that
asking undergraduates to do field work as a way to enter the academic conversation
allows them to shift from high school writing to college-level writing. Inviting them
to delve into a primary research project of their own design grants them permission
to construct their ownership, authority, and intellectual engagement of ideas. Case
studies of the experiences of five student research writers illustrate the process
through which, as ethnographers, students become actors in their own learning
process.

Author: Jennifer Susan Cook, Meg Carroll, Karen Pfeil