whoops

I actually started my blog post on October 19, but never finished it! It was still sitting in Drafts but it was a totally different topic because I was still confused about my research topic and focus.

Because most of my research was historical as I was looking at the evolution of composition textbooks, I deviated from the format that Dr. B wanted. It was during peer review that Alex and Eric pointed it out to me. I also got so caught up in the 8 page limit that I felt I had written too much (Alex and Eric wrote even more!)

For my next revision, I'm going to add in those research questions, organize my categories a little more, synthesize more, and add myself into the conversation. I have already planned to have my ENG 111 students evaluate a children's book for their final essay, so before, while, and after they do that, I want to find out how they would feel if they had some more multicultural material in their first-year writing textbooks.

I really like this topic. When I mentioned it in the ENG 111 class, one of my education students wanted to write about it as well. I told him that I could toss a source or two to him. :)

mental progress :)

I have been thinking a lot...Does that count as progress? :)

Dr. B suggested focusing on composition textbooks, which is good because I started out with history textbooks. Eric mentioned 19th century composition textbooks, which I have in my Bibliography. Eric also recommended two books: Archives of Instruction: Nineteenth Century Rhetorics, Readers, and Composition Books in the United States and The Young Composers: Composition's Beginnings in Nineteenth Century Schools. Alex suggested narrowing my scope and possible empirical studies I could do, such as looking at textbooks or surveying instructors. All of the feedback I received is very helpful.

After doing the Bibliography, I decided that I’m going to focus on first-year composition textbooks, categorizing them by basic writing, cultural studies, and I’m still looking for different categories.