Writing in the Academy

Résumé fourni par la source

Case studies are useful when the investigator is trying to answer “how” or “why” questions about events in real-life settings over which he has little control. A case study might involve the careful description of a particular student studying for a literature exam, or an extended account of a reading lesson conducted on a particular afternoon in a particular class. Case studies normally build up detailed answers to the questions by employing several mutually-reinforcing sources of evidence. They can be used to describe or explain a phenomenon, but they have been most commonly used in rhetorical research to explore a particular phenomenon in preparation for developing questions and hypotheses that subsequently become the foci of more sharply focused investigations. Spilka (1988) explored writing in industrial settings by examining carefully what each of a group of writers did as he carried out a writing task at work. Similarly, Sperling and Freedman (1987) explored how students respond to teachers’ written comments, examining the interaction between one teacher and one student about the draft of a paper. Nelson’s study explored approaches of college students to writing assignments by collecting “detailed writing process logs” from each of 13 students as they worked on papers assigned in their classes, “collecting all notes, drafts, and graded papers the participants produced during the semester, and interviewing both the participants and their teachers” (p. 101).

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