Kicking It Up

Today I really started to feel my research agenda (and hence program planning) coming together.

Dr. Fred Kemp and Dr. Angela Eaton led a session discussing research questions in preparation for the dissertation. Then Dr. Sean Zdenek led a session about assembling a reading list for qualifying exams.

Their explanations of how this process works together made these daunting tasks seem much more reasonable and actually rather excited me to think about what I want to do.

At lunch Dr. Craig Baehr shared his research plans for the upcoming year.

A day filled with learning and advice and a whole lot of thinking!

I'm starting to really think about my own research agenda. I think I really want to focus on writing studies (I just don't feel that composition studies defines what I do and what interests me). Dr. Eaton stresses that you should really have 3 research areas to strengthen your position in the job market.

Writing Studies

* What do our students need to know to successfully negotiate college and professional discourse communities
* What do writing teachers need to know to effectively teach writing
* What impact does technology have on the teaching, development, and sharing of writing

We ended the day by taking a walk around campus. This really is a beautiful campus. The exercise and break was a great way to relieve the stress and refocus.