Inquiry Project Proposal Questions

When the general public considers the subject I’m working with, what are the issues, questions or concerns that they think are important to discuss?

The general public probably considers this subject important because it proposes a new method of teaching writing that could be more beneficial to students’ overall educations than techniques currently utilized now. People understand that reading is important for a multitude of reasons, but they may be hesitant to trust that reading can also work as a tool for teaching different writing components, like grammar, punctuation, and spelling. The public will probably want substantial evidence to prove that this technique works and they may be concerned if this is not possible to find at the current time.

Do these questions and concerns differ from those of the scholarly discourse community?
I don’t think so- in general, all scholarly discourse communities seem to ask the same questions- they all want to see thorough support and evidence to back proposed theories.

In discussions of my subject, what are some of the status quo assumptions that appear to
go unsaid but nonetheless seem almost universally believed? For example, if I am exploring how writing should be taught in high school, what do most people tend to believe about the kinds and amount of writing that high school students should do? What do people believe writing teachers should do to prepare students for the world beyond high school? How do people believe that teachers should respond to students’ writing?

Most people believe that reading helps students in all aspects of their education, but I would argue that most people do not think that there is a direct connection between teaching literacy and learning the “knots” and “tangles” of the writing process. I assume most people feel spelling tests and rhymes (i before e except after c) are the most effective methods of teaching spelling, but I feel that becoming very familiar with spelling, through reading, is the most effective method.

In texts that people produce about my subject, what kinds of outcomes or results do they expect the texts to have with readers? Do writers about my subject usually expect a reader simply to consider their ideas, to believe in them strongly, to take some specific action? What?

I think people may be skeptical because this teaching theory seems simple in comparison to other theories that have been used for many years. People often shun new ideas because they feel that the most complex idea is best just because it is more complicated (whatever happened to Ockham’s razor, anyway?) However, I think this theory is enlightening and could really help people to understand how writing can be taught in a variety of ways outside of the established norm.