REMINDER: Place-Based Writing Courses

["I. Moriah McCracken" <ila.moriah@sbcglobal.net>]

May 14, 2007

Good afternoon, everyone.

My apologies for re-sending this e-mail, but I figured many of you, like me, filed the earlier call away during the end-of-semester rush, and I wanted to extend another invitation for you to participate in my dissertation research project.

My name is Moriah McCracken, and I am a PhD Candidate at TCU. As part of my dissertation research on the role of place in academia, I am surveying writing instrutors who use place-related  
pedagogies in their writing courses. 

If you are a writing instructor who is interested in (or uses) place-related assignments in your classroom, please take a few minutes and complete my 20 question survey, which should take no more than 15 minutes to complete. Below is a link to the survey, or you can copy and paste it into the Internet browser of your choice. 

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB22622HAW22F

I am also interested in how instructors are incorporating ideas of place into their writing classrooms. But, in order to offer an overview of current writing courses from across the country, I must first gather these materials from helpful volunteers, like you. 

If you are willing to share your course materials with me (syllabi, textbooks/reading assignments, writing assignments, writing sequences, in- and out-of-class activities, etc.), I would love to include them in my data collection. My goal is to collect materials from another 10 writing courses before the end of the month. If you would like to contribute materials to the project, all you need to do is send the files to me (offlist) as attachments. That is it. In a few days, you will receive a consent form from me, and after signing the form and returning it to me in the provided envelope (complete with the necessary $0.41 postage), you are off the hook! I will gladly accept any materials you are willing to volunteer, and please note that a follow-up interview is not required. Your materials alone will be beneficial. 

No material is irrelevant; please send anything and everything you think might be useful. Before I analyze and store these materials, I will remove all identifying information with the exception of your university affiliation  --  I am also trying to track where people are talking about place for my project. If you would prefer to remove your name before sending the materials, please feel free to do so. 

If you are willing to share an hour of your summer with me, I would also like to conduct 8 more follow-up interviews. These interviews focus on your approach to place-based pedagogy, your place-based writing course(s), and (when appropriate) the materials you have so generously shared with me. I know how valuable summer freedom can be, so I want to arrange a time that fits best with your schedule. My schedule is incredibly flexible, so please do not hesitate to suggest a time that is early in the morning, in the evening, or even on the weekend (though I do not want to interfere with your personal time). I've even conducted a few interviews during the participants' office hours. Below, I have inserted a space for you to (1) select the type of interview that would work best for you, as well as (2) a possible time for this interview.

[  ] Phone interview
[  ] Instant Messenger interview (either Yahoo or Google)
[  ] E-mail interview

Day and Month preferred:
Time preferred:

Again, I know you are busy, so I appreciate you taking the time to help with my research. 

I look forward to hearing from you. Have a great week.

Moriah

I. Moriah McCracken
PhD Candidate
Department of English 
Reed Hall 314 
TCU Box 297270 
Fort Worth, TX 76129
i.m.mccracken@tcu.edu