WRIT 1133 Lecture Series
Rebekah Shultz Colby

For the WRIT 1133 lecture series, organized by David Daniels, professors from around campus discussed the specific research and writing they undertake in each of their respective disciplines. Lecture panels were organized around three major research traditions: interpretive, qualitative, and quantitative research. The lecture series showed students first-hand how the writing and research they were required to do in WRIT 1133 would be relevant and useful throughout their academic and professional careers. The lecture series was held in Boettcher Hall from 6:30 to 8:00 about once a week throughout the spring quarter on alternating weeknights so that all students could attend at least one or two of the lectures. As a result, the lecture series was well attended and seemed to be appreciated by many students.

On April 8, the lecture series commenced with a panel on interpretive research. Grant Garceau wrote how Ann Dobyns, chair of the English department, discussed the need to indirectly gather information though studying other texts produced around [Chaucers] time and specifically the texts referenced in [Chaucers] works in order to compile an image of where his ideas are coming from.... The goal was to determine what influenced the construction of his definition of jape. Next Ingrid Tague, chair of the history department, discussed her historical research on pets and pet keeping in eighteenth century Britain. Through her talk, Grant realized that merely having a question does not constitute sufficient enough reason to pursue the research. [Tague] argued that equally important as having the question was how to approach the question in such a way that is interesting and/or important. Finally, Grant wrote, The final speaker, Professor Ludwing, [writing lecturer,] discussed how the research process commonly begins with a primary text and subsequently results in an interpretation. A key point of his was that anything can be a text, not just literal textual evidence; he gave the example of a boot as a text.

Another interpretive lecture happened on April 16. Luc Beaudoin, a Russian scholar, discussed his research into how the visual informs and reflects Russian male culture. Annette Stott, director of the School of Art and Art History, talked about her art historical research into tombstones. Finally, writing program lecturer, John Tiedemann, discussed his interpretive, word-level research of T. S. Elliot.

Beau Burrows wrote that Robert Dores (biologist) April 29 quantitative lecture on the scientific method helped to remind me to keep my research systematic and in relation to my central theme. ...I had no idea that there was so much peer review and testing involved with the publication of scientific documents. . . . Because of the introduction to scientific journals and publishing methods, I was particularly interested in Jennifer Hoffmans [physicist] lecture on supernovae and theories behind their creation. I imagined what it would be like to test those theories and thought about what methods I would use to write up a scientific journal involving the theories of how supernovae are born. Finally, writing lecturer, Richard Colby, talked about how quantitative research is still essential for writing studies, even though it at first seems counter-intuitive with the study of language.

The first qualitative panel happened on May 1. The anthropologist, Kristina Krepps, was the first speaker. About her talk on the nature of qualitative research, Caleb Severns wrote, Qualitative researchers arent making things up; they tell it how it is. Going into the field, they dont go with a hypothesis or to prove anything; they are just learning about the culture. Anthropologists are interpreters of other cultures. One of the hardest jobs is to select what should go in the final copy, and to really understand and see what is important to that culture. Caleb also concluded that Eric Fretz, the Director for the Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, has taken his profession from just looking at books to understanding groups of people today. Now he looks at how the fund from DU is working to improve other peoples social being. The analysis that he provides into peoples lives gives the University a better grip on what needs to be done to help [people]. Finally, Rebekah Shultz Colby, another writing lecturer, discussed how she used qualitative methods within a classroom to learn about the causes for student resistance.

The second quantitative lecture panel happened on May 5. The first speaker, engineering professor Corinne Langsfeld, spoke about the importance of effective grant writing in the physical sciences. Parker Wiseman wrote, I didnt know anything about professional research papers until this lecture series, but I learned quite a few things. When writing a new research [grant] on a certain topic, you build the rest of the paper on the first two pages. If you can prove that your topic is significant and important, then you may receive a government or corporate grant to do research. The next 15 pages might be read after convincing the readers it is worthy. The talk about defining variables in survey research by Tom Knecht, a political scientist, also made Parker realize that in his own survey research on how much athletes play video games, measuring the variables will be the most difficult because all of the responses are anonymous. Lastly, Brittany Catanach wrote that "Richard Colby [writing lectuer] concluded the lecture by applying Dr. Doress and Jennifer Hoffmans speeches to Writing 1133. He spoke of his World of Warcraft class and the importance of research skills to both college-level writing and professional writing. Research-based writing is a distinctive skill to be learned that is different from normal writing ability.

About the last panel on May 14, which covered qualitative research, Jack Reiss wrote: Professor Daniels said something that I found to be particularly interesting. Qualitative research hopes to restore the value of the particular person. I had to think about this for a few minutes before I realized how profound this statement was. So much personal worth has been lost in the group mentality. So often we forgo the importance of our own existence or productivity. The product of qualitative research is a conclusion that peers into the raw output of a given subject, assigning to that value a level of importance. Jack also wrote that the talk Dean Saitta, chair of anthropology, gave also inspired him, particularly when Saitta said that we cannot approach anthropology with a calculated perspective, it has to be personal, a partnership per se with native peoples. In effect, it is a down and dirty, personal angle for research. This reminded me specifically of Mr. Daniels. With hands on research, we may give value to the things that we investigate. Finally, students were particularly impressed with Theresa Conleys talk on how important effective writing is in her field of marketing. Kyle Ostrow wrote, [Conley] said that you cant do well in business if you cant communicate and write. This helped me realize the importance of writing for my [business] degree because I never really thought it was before. Finally, Samantha Azarow wrote that the last speaker, Jennifer Novak, [writing lecturer] talked about how she became interested in researching and writing about doctors and medicine. She gave her whole background and story. Generally, she discussed how an ordinary experience, such as going to the doctor, can be research in depth.

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