Beyond Google Scholar: The Goals of WRIT 1133

"Writing and Research focuses on the relationships between epistemology and rhetoric, using that understanding to develop writing abilities." Put most concisely, that's the goal of DU's second required writing course, WRIT 1133. Fortunately, we spare students that language. (Now, it is tempting to invoke it when students claim, "But I already know how to write a research paper.")

WRIT 1133 differs considerably from the researched writing students have done in high school and, even, in other university programs. "Research" in traditional situations consists of finding and, one hopes, evaluating published sources; synthesizing them in a paper of moderate length; then producing a manuscript that meets format and other conventions. Indeed, that kind of writing is featured in "Writing and Research," albeit with closer attention to the intellectual and rhetorical work involved, not just the simply formal ones, like properly hanging the indentations in a References page.

But research in the academy takes many other forms, of course. There are quantitative and qualitative traditions, methods of gathering data as diverse as ethnographic observation, interview, survey, physical measurement, and experiment. In addition to googling or searching the library, students may have a sense of researchers boiling things in test tubes, but they don't know much about traditions between these polls. Just as crucially, undergraduates rarely understand research as a process of creating knowledge; usually it strikes them as a way of testing or performing.

So, WRIT 1133 aspires to teach researched writing in multiple traditions. Even when students do "primary research," they learn that data is always situated and interpreted against the knowledge of the field. They learn, further, that different disciplines expect different conventions.

Some of them are obvious at the surface level: MLA v. APA v. Chicago Manual. Some are more nuanced. What counts as evidence? How much or little do writers summarize previous scholarship? Is first person encouraged or forbidden? How about passive voice? Are there prescribed sections organized under headings, or is the paper supposed to be "organic," following the data and its interpretation rather than a standard template?

Our goal in the course is decidedly not to make students expert in all the methods and styles of the academy. That would be pretentious, even misguided. We recognize that students learn to write effectively within a discourse community over time, as they're ever more steeped in a field's knowledge and practices. However WRIT 1133 introduces students to concepts and strategies, which they practice in multiple drafts, in multiple assignments. We insist on writerly habits, such as reading one’s own work with a critical eye and being willing to do the hard work of revision. We foreground how to analyze and synthesize source materials and how to present research—to popular audiences as well as popular. All of these occur in the context of extensive writing. Finally, too, we want students to read research more critically, especially reports in popular media.

Following, then are the course goals for WRIT 1133. Students will:

1. Demonstrate practical knowledge of academic research traditions (for example, text-based or interpretive; measurement-based or empirical; and observational/qualitative) through effectively writing in at least two of those traditions.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of rhetorical/conventional differences among various academic disciplines or groups of disciplines.
3. Demonstrate practical knowledge of rhetorical differences between writing for academic audiences and writing for popular audiences, through both analysis and performance.
4. Demonstrate proficiency in finding, evaluating, synthesizing, critiquing, and documenting published sources appropriate to given rhetorical situations.