Most writing instructors are well-versed in teaching secondary research: browsing databases, choosing sources, creating bibliographies, and citing sources properly. At the same time, many of us seem to avoid teaching primary, hands-on research. Perhaps, this is an issue because this type of research can be more intimidating or less familiar, or simply because instructors have little experience and few examples.

To help Ball State instructors learn more about teaching primary research, Elmar Hashimov, recipient of the Writing Program’s 2013 Summer Research Fellowship, will present “Go Do: Heuristics for Hands-On Research for Writing Teachers” as part of Ball State University Writing Program’s First Friday speaker series. Hashimov is a doctoral candidate in rhetoric and composition and assistant director of the Writing Center. He studies and teaches writing, digital literacies, and qualitative research.

His talk explores the research of “how things work” (Stake, 2010)—specifically ethnography and case study, which are arguably the most useful for learning, researching, and teaching writing. Learning through hands-on qualitative research not only helps fill the gap in our students’ education, but also makes their learning experience more engaging. Moreover, as Creswell (2009) argues, this type of research “honors an inductive style, a focus on individual meaning, and the importance of rendering the complexity of a situation.” It emphasizes the interpretive nature of knowledge, as well as the importance of the particular that serves in understanding the complex.

His presentation will explore the theory and practice of hands-on qualitative research as well as help build a hands-on research toolkit for writing teachers.

The event will take place on Friday, April 4, 2014 at noon in the Schwartz Digital Viewing Room on the first floor of Bracken Library. Please direct questions about the series or the presentation to the Writing Program office.