Blog Post 16

I found the interview to go well, in this instance, because Courtney and I both are well versed in and both enjoy Halloween. So it was easy to follow up her answers with more questions that pertained to Halloween. I realized that if its something I'm not really familiar with, it might be harder to get my subject to open up about the topic at hand. So I realize with this practice interview that if its a topic I am not familiar with, I'm going to do research to make sure I can follow the participants replies, and ask more informed follow-up question.

Blog Post 15

I will be studying comedy told in monologues focusing on the works of Jon Stewart. I will examine what makes him funny, what makes his audience laugh, what discourse he uses to garner laughs, and how much laughs certain things gets laughs from the audience.

I will study Jon Stewart as my main subject, and in a literature review I will read a paper on Jerry Seinfeld.

I will talk to fans of his and watch clips from the internet

I will collect information by studying clips of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and will interview fans of his to see what makes them find him funny.

Blog Post 14

1. What are some of the things you find funny?
2. What are some of the things you dont find funny?
3. Is there certain types of comedy you find funnier than others?
4. How many things that society considers funny (stand up, improv, sitcoms, sketch varity shows) that
you watch regularly?
5. Is the way its said as important as what is said?

I would show a couple of clips at this point.

6. Did you find those clips funny?
7. What made you laugh about these?
8. If you were to get into comedy, what type of comedy do you?

Blog Post 13

In the Transcript "Chat Room" the subject A speaks about her experience with using and getting to know the web in the early days when it was first becoming widely available. The matter off fact way of talking  and the  inclusion of humorous  stories shows that she doesn't consider a conversation on the early days of her internet experience a serious topic.

The story of her and her friend talking to a boy that turned out to be her bosses on is told in  a way of an embarrassing story you would tell among friends not to a researcher doing a interview.

Research question

If a subject is talking about something nostalgia or something they considered fun, does the language they use show that?

Blog Post 12

I can assume from the transcript,  that Ch is a researcher who is gathering information for an article, but is not looking for anything new, but wants to steer B into giving answers that Ch already has an idea of.

Ch that's literacy - you have the basic tools, the right basic set of assumptions for how to read, understand, interpret a program. And so what I'm looking for is the connection between all the gaming experience you have and your ability to do that with the applications - the academic applications
B well like a lot of games, in the beginning, there's menus. You don't just start playing. There's menus, you get to customize your decal your spray, clothes, 
laughing
It's not all playing the game it's a lot of process to prepare for it, there's like box, scripts, you practice it, and you're not playing with other people, you're just like fooling around.
Ch OK so all those things - same kinds of processes, same kinds of moves - so navigating menus is something you learned from games that can carry over - anything else?

You can see in this exchange Ch lays the framework for an answer with little room for B to stray away from the question, allowing Ch to pretty much control  the interview.

Not only is Ch forcing B into the direction they want, they reaffirm B's answers in their own words to help the subject along.

Research question I would ask is: Is it important to control the interview and keep your subject on point, or are you skewing results by forcing the answers on them.

Blog Post 11

I am doing am doing a research project for my English writing class, that will study stand up comedy and comedians and what makes them "funny." Focusing on what they say, mannerism, interaction with the audience, and the amount of laughs they get. I will ask people who consider themselves fans of stand up comedy to ask them why they enjoy it.

It will be a question and answer interview with notes being taken, and the results will be added in the paper that will be read by faculty and staff of the Kean University English department, and select students in the writing program. Any interview can be stopped and information can be discarded at the participants request at any time during the study.

Blog Post 10

The patterns I noticed in the comments given in each paper started with  something positive to let the student know they were on the right track. As in 4-3  the comments start off with "you have a great start on this," or in 4-4  where the professor leads off with a compliment of  "You defiantly done  a lot of research here!" When it comes to critique I noticed that the Professor chose to  use a question asking system to let them know here they need work. In 4-1 the comments include the phrase "Do you cover all the related ideas for each point in the same section" which seems to suggest that they want the student to include points  that they have left out without coming right out and telling them that.

For a research question I would ask

"Are students drafts better served with professors telling them to specifically change or add something, or by the professors asking questions and letting students come to the conclusion on their own?"

Blog Post 9

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in

My focus is I want  to study comedy, particularly stand up comedy and notice what language and/or actions the comedian uses to interact with the audience and make them laugh.

 2. Identify your research question:  What in particular do you want to find out?  State your question in as specific terms as you can: the age/identity of your subjects, the location of your study, the particular activities/features you will focus on. 

I want t o find out what kind of language, tones of voice, use I will look at shows like the daily show of props affects the level of interaction of the audience.

Your research question is really a group of related questions, stated in specific terms, where you narrow in on what in particular you want to learn about in your study.

I really want to know what affects the audience more. The material or the way its presented.

 3. Who has studied this question and what do they say.  For this prompt - mention any article that you have read where researchers have explored answers to your question.  If you can't find any articles - tell me something about what you searched for and what you found (even if it wasn't right).

I have the dissertation Dr. Chandler sent me.

 4.What do I need to find out to answer this question?  This prompt is to help you clarify and deepen your research question.

I have to judge audience reactions, plus maybe do a few interviews from people who enjoy live comedy on a regular basis to gauge what there interest in it is.

 5.  What do I need to do to gather information that will answer my question?
 This prompt is to help you think about how to design your study.  Who will you work with?  Where?  what will you do together?

I will look at videos of live stand up, talk shows like the daily show or the tonight show, and I will read humor books written by comedians to see how the writing works without audience participation.

Blog Post 8

When students entered the program they were not sure what field to use their degree in, with most students given short answers and vauge responces. But the graduation survey showed that most of the graduating students were eventually able to determine where they wanted to use their field of study with specific careers being cited. As far as confidence in student writing, they are more confident in their abilities in their writing when they leave. For Example, they are able to write a 25 page paper, they are able to write a primary research paper, and they are more confident in using their writing in their future profession. Their knowledge of writing scholars also increased, Peter Elbow went from 33% to 100% in student recognition as shown in the two diffrent surveys. I think that the purpose of the program is for students to increase their knowledge on writing,  and to be more adept at writing, and this survey shows they get that out of the program.