Subject: BHA: Request for help on the issue of "models" in CR
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 09:38:15 +0200


Please could mailing list subscribers help me with this.  I've carried out a depth investigation into certain key aspects of written composition over the last 20 years, and have arrived at a view of writing which has enabled me to produce a writing tutor computer program.  I didn't start this as a formal research project, but found out fairly recently that the type of inquiry I was engaged in was critical realist in nature.  I then formally adopted a critical realist research orientation, and am engaged in writing up the development of both a "model" of written composition and the writing tutor program informed by it as a Ph.D. thesis.



The investigation was more of a "life experience" than a formal research project, but the results of the investigation can be backed up from literature, current approaches and theory on written composition, as well as several formal research projects.  I found video protocol analyses (of which I've carried out more than 40, with students writing actual assignments) particularly useful in being able to project my thinking past the events/experience mismatch which Bhaskar notes (he uses the term "out of phase", I think).  I also found it useful to focus on particular characteristics of the written mode of production itself, which Tobin Nellhaus has helped me to back up by providing a copy of  one of his conference papers.  My inquiry revealed four levels of stratification, and I have a tentative model which explains composing by showing it as an individual act, a social act, and a mode of discourse with specific features - I have also been able (again, tentatively) to trace the mechanisms as far as certain key aspects of human communication.



At this stage, you may well ask, why don't I just "die happy"?  Well, my supervisors require a formal exposition on the development of models, as well as evidence of "rigour" (and, obviously, evidence that the criteria demonstrating it have been fulfilled in the actual research).  Now I'm not sure if critical realists actually develop models, or if the notion of "rigour" itself is typical of critical realism (and if it is, I would expect the definition to be different from that offered in other orientations).  Instead of "model building", critical realists might carry out "depth investigations" and arrive at explanations involving mechanisms at various layers, which is what I actually have done.

 

Please could I have some help on the issue of model development within a critical realist perspective, and any readings or websites where I could find out more?  If this kind of "model building" (even the word "building" sounds a bit positivist) doesn't apply you critical realism, I would be very grateful to be able to cite some authority on this to satisfy the degree requirements (personally, I'm quite happy to take your word on it). 

 

Regards

Dee Pratt

 

P.S. I'm senior lecturer in the English Dept at a multicultural technikon in Durban, South Africa, and would really like to complete my Ph.D. before I retire!

 



--- StripMime Warning --  MIME attachments removed --- 
This message may have contained attachments which were removed.

Sorry, we do not allow attachments on this list.

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts --- 
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---


     --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---