Research: beginning Web Designers
My primary research interest is the composing processes used in Web writing and Web design. I'm interested in how people learn to become Web writers and Web designers. Why am I interested in this? I want to know more about how to teach Web writing and Web design. I also want to help people create useful and usable software and documentation for Web writing and Web design.
My first research on this topic was conducted in 2003, when I studied how people made Web pages as part of a working group. In Spring 2006, I studied how people learn to make Web pages and produce Web writing in a classroom environment by recruiting participants from Dr. Nichols's section of Writing for the Web (CMS/ENG 222). In Spring 2008, I hope to repeat my study again.
Right now, I'm analyzing the data from my 2006 study, giving presentations on it at conferences, and writing articles about it.
Publications and Presentations Using This Research
Here are some of the publications and presentations that I've done which include this research.
- “Everyone and No One All At Once: Theorizing Audience Awareness in Web-Based Self-Presentation.” Teaching Audience: Theory and Practice. Eds. Brian Fehler, Elizabeth Weiser, and Angela Gonzalez. (forthcoming)
- “Focus on Research Column: Dissertation Research.” Business Communication Quarterly 68.3 (September 2005): 340.
- "Theorizing Audience Awareness in Web-Based Self-Presentation." Computers and Writing 2007. Wayne State University.
- “Researching Beginning Web Design(ers): Then and Now.” Computers and Writing 2006. Texas Tech University.
For more information about my publications and presentations, please see my curriculum vita.