Welcome to English 3450: Methods & Research in PTW!

 Hello everyone!

This blogspot is a safe space for us to share our research progress and processes as we plow through our course assignments this semester.

Please do the following:  (1) blog about your thoughts, breakthroughs, questions, etc. regarding your research journey as indicated in the course syllabus before the due date 

AND don't forget to 

(2) reply to one of your classmate's posts (please refer to the English 3450 Assignment Schedule handout for more details about this assignment).


Hopes and dreams?  This semester, we hope to not only enhance our abilities to pursue field-specific research topics, but also inform our communication practices in producing effective subject matter/user-centered documents. In particular, we wish to address the question of what it means to conduct research in professional and technical writing (PTW). 

By reviewing and applying various modes of inquiry, we gain a better understanding of how to perform, or to be an informed consumer of, research in technical communication.

BONUS:  We also become more confident and prepared for Capstone research!!  :)


Why research methods? Note that we rely on research to inform best practices in the field and allow us to move forward, improve our technical communication decisions, and act collectively based on those decisions. 

If we understand the wide range of research methodologies in PTW, we can draw connections between the principles that inform our practices and ultimately become critical consumers and producers of print, digital, and/or multimedia texts.

Finally, I posit that the construction of knowledge within our field is based on multimodal inquiry, current research, and interactive writing principles. So, good for you for taking this course... you are on the right track! :)



Have a great semester as we all learn together about research methods in PTW --

Dr. B