Research Methods And Writing

RMS 231: Research Methods and Writing

60 Hours

Course Introduction: This course will hone the reading writing and textual analytical skills of the participants. While the first two modules will be lecture oriented module three will take the workshop mode involving intensive reading and writing exercises. Course Objectives • To introduce the participants to the various research methods in English Studies. • To equip students with the skill of textual analysis • To hone research writing skills • To expose students to the theories of reading authorship Course Description Module I 10 Hrs Research Methods for English Studies Archival Methods; Oral History as a Research Method; Visual Methodologies; Discourse Analysis; Ethnographic Methods; Quantitative methods for text studies, Textual analysis as a research method; Interviewing. Module II Research and Writing 5 Hrs The research dissertation as a form of explorations; The research dissertation as a form of communication; Conducting research; Compiling working bibliography; Evaluating sources; Taking notes; Outlining; Writing drafts; Language and style Module III 45 Hrs Writing Generating ideas; identifying arguments and purpose; abstracting; developing paragraphs and essays; reviewing, revision, reworking; coherence and cohesion; discovering one’s voice; genres of writing, goal setting; monitoring and evaluating writing; being conscious of one’s writing; outlining framework. Module IV Theories of Reading, Authorship, and Criticism Barthes, Roland. 'Work to Text', 'Death of the Author' from Image/Music/Text, translated by Stephen Heath. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977. Derrida, Jacques. From, Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Part II, Ch.2, ". . . That Dangerous Supplement. . ." Foucault, Michel. 'What Is an Author?' in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, ed. Donald F. Bouchard; also in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. White, Hayden. 'The Historical Text as Literary Artifact', from Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978. Jameson, Frederic. 'Preface' and 'On Interpretation' from The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1981.

----Ideologies of Theory, Volume I. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 1988. ----'Metacommentary', ----'The Ideology of the Text'. MacDonald, Peter. 'Ideas of the Book and Histories of Literature: After theory?', PMLA Volume 121, 1 (January 2006): 214-28 Bibliography Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New Delhi: EastWest Press. 2004. Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2008. Somekh, Bridget and Cathy Lewin. eds. Research Methods in Social Sciences. New Delhi: Sage/Vistaar, 2005. Griffin, Gabriele. ed. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. The Chicago Manual of Style 15th ed. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. New York: American Psychological Association. 2001.