Cinnabar and Alabaster

introduction/abstract? (in some examples this is the same section; in others it's not)

theoretical/disciplinary contexts (1 sec. in tracy's; 2 in amy's)

Although the motivations for this study are primarily pragmatic and pedagogical in nature, and as such arise from the intersection of my classroom experiences with such broad disciplinary concerns as the nature of academic writing and the degree to which academic writing is teachable vs. an aptitude some possess and others lack, and such culturally-specific influences as the current media hysteria about plagiarism, the primary theoretical influence on this work comes from authorship studies, particularly its demonstration of the discrepancies between how we as a field conceptualize the author and how writers'—particularly our students'—understandings of themselves as authors (or non-authors) play out in their authoring of texts.

In authorship studies, a number of projects have variously examined [what, exactly? data data data]. Few, however, at least outside the specific contexts of seeking solutions to "the plagiarism problem," have looked closely at what I consider the pivot-point of writers' authorial coming-out[yes, this is a fraught metaphor. i kinda like it. i'll think more about whether it's usable or not. might requre too much of a tangent to explain; it's illuminative, though. we do have to "out" ourselves as writers when we work with others' texts effectively. we can't just hide behind culturally-inscribed notions of "information"; we have to explain (often defensively, & to an uncertain reception) our (personal) relationships to ideas & other writers.]: the points in their texts where they share authorial voice with other thinkers and writers, where they position themselves in relation to those other voices, as framers and re-staters of others' words, as co-representers to their audiences of ideas they need the work of others to completely convey.

methodology

In this dissertation, I will investigate these notions of authorship, textual ownership, and authorial intent by examining the current practices of varyingly experienced writers authoring texts in collaboration with the spoken ideas and existing texts of other authors. Believing that these are common cultural challenges among academic writers, challenges that these writers confront regularly in their own work and attempt to overcome using a variety of strategies, some more successful than others, some the result of deliberate instruction but many the product of writers' interpretation of cultural expectations, I will call upon writers within the academy, both more and less experienced at integrating the ideas and words of others into their own prose, to consider and describe their own actions and rationale. To that end, I will conduct and analyze the results of conversational, semi-structured interviews with writers and collaborative examination of writers' sample texts. This project will draw on both interview methodology [inc/s.a.] and one-on-one teaching strategies such as those practiced in writing center pedagogy [inc/s.a.].

projected chapter breakdown

Following LGR—it's hard to be too specific doing this while trying to retain an open-ended questioning approach to this project. I have hypotheses about the phenomena I expect to observe and about their sources, but I'm hesitant to overdetermine my reading of writers' contributions and responses by sketching out what I expect to find.

1. (Guiding metaphors—autonomy vs. participatory authority) [introduce/rationale for project (major claims/argument)]

This chapter will propose that the ways inexperienced and experienced academic writers percieve their authorial roles are different, and that those different perceptions directly influence the way these writers approach textual tasks involving the collaborative interaction of their words and ideas with those of others (as in the production of researched texts and research-based arguments). To this end, this chapter will review [am I allowed to use Amy's diss. as a resource for my own? not too much of it, of course; it's not established & overflowing with old school field validity. but her students' comments, for example?]