Phenomenology of writing with unfamiliar tools in a semi-public environment: A case study
Introduction
People often write with unfamiliar digital tools in semi-public environments. Those without computers go to public libraries where they may write high-stakes business communication with the library's hardware and software. Job seekers may be directed to in-store hiring kiosks to complete job applications. In particular, students may be required to write in computer classrooms or controlled computerized testing centers. The prevalence of college testing centers in the United States and their adoption of computerized testing (including essay examinations for admissions, placement, or proctored online course exams) create high-stakes situations in which students write with unfamiliar tools in a semi-public environment. In all of these environments, the writing is typically monitored in one way or another: by recording software, a teacher, proctor, peers, or video camera. This surveillance of writing in these environments has become more thorough and widespread with the continued development of computer recording technologies.
What these environments have in common is people writing with hardware and/or software that they do not own and that is unfamiliar to them, in a place where there are other people who are or may be observing or interacting with them–though not collaborating with them, as in co-present writing, and not providing direct personal support for their writing, as in typical classroom instruction or tutoring. In this case study, we focus on graduate students doing an in-class writing activity using unfamiliar hardware that contains keystroke recording and eye-tracking software. Though this particular combination of hardware and software in a classroom is rare, we use it as a bell-weather case to explore the experience of writing with unfamiliar tools in a semi-public environment, with both other people and electronic monitoring present.
Our case study answers Takayosh's (2015) call for more empirical studies of in situ writing processes that are becoming increasingly prevalent in the computer age (in her case study, the “short form, networked writing” of social media). It also answers Pigg's (2014) call for increased attention to the role “environments play in interactions with virtual spaces” (p. 256). Her case study investigates what she terms “semi-public” writing where people are using their personal computers (and other devices) in public, as in coffee shops. Our case study, in contrast, addresses the increasingly prevalent (but largely unrecognized) semi-public computer- and network-mediated writing process where people write—often with high stakes—in public spaces with hardware and/or software with which they are unfamiliar, writing for which they will be held accountable to others.
Section snippets
Theory and literature review
We focus on the experience of writing in these environments from a first-person, phenomenological approach, in order to explore the bodily and emotional experience of it, which is often elided in cognitive or socio-cognitive research on computers and classroom writing. Phenomenology is a method of doing both philosophy and empirical qualitative inquiry that describes “how things appear, show, or give themselves in lived experience or in consciousness” (van Manen, 2017 p. 775). The goal is
Research questions
We wanted to know how Ph.D. students would react to using a writing tool that they were unfamiliar with for in-class writing, one that provided affordances and constraints that would allow us to see what the experience of writing with unfamiliar tools in a semi-public setting entails.
RQ1: How do graduate students in a classroom experience writing with unfamiliar tools in a semi-public environment?
Additionally, we wanted to examine this case of writing with unfamiliar tools in semi-public
Methods
The IRB-approved case study took place in a writing studies graduate seminar about phenomenology, genre, and writing processes in a large Midwestern university. The 9 students conducted a collaborative project to explore the phenomenology of research writing. They wrote two summaries of articles relevant to the course while in class using the provided desktop computers and a software program that recorded their keystrokes and eye movements. They then interviewed one another to describe the
Results and discussion
The most consistent finding was that students reacted very negatively to writing with unfamiliar tools in the semi-public environment. Perhaps because CyWrite was used in a semi-public environment rather than a one-on-one tutorial situation, as it had been used in a previous studies (Ranalli et al., 2018, 2019); perhaps because it was used only briefly, without sufficient time for guided exploration and practice, or perhaps because it was used to conduct a study rather than offer formative
Conclusion
The first research question asked: How do graduate students in a classroom experience semi-public writing with unfamiliar tools? Some participants reported positive effects of the unfamiliar tool in the classroom. However, in general participants reported that the unfamiliar tools initially created anxiety and stress, including sometimes physical pain, which appeared to decrease over time through exposure. The unfamiliar tools also initially affected the perception of performance negatively. In
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank the developer of CyWrite, Evgeny Chukharev-Hudilainen, and his team, who made it available to us, as well Jim Ranalli, who lent his knowledge and encouragement; our technical support person, Lucas Figueroa; Paul Prior, who gave timely criticism, and most of all the other members of the class. The faults are of course our own.
Footnotes
(1) Two mentions of power differential were recorded in the data. Each minimized the influence of authority figures in the study. In the first, Paul stated, “I mean I might not be proud, I mean I hope that if [the professor] were to read this with my name attached, I think I would be like “Oh, gosh, he thinks I do not understand research,” but that is not happening so I am not too concerned.” In the second occurrence Cindy said, “At first, I felt anxious because I knew at least you would read
Philip B. Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Mercer University, a member of STC, ATTW, and the ACM's Special Interest Group on Design of Communication. His-current research examines technical communication pedagogy for STEM, surveillance and presence in online learning, and technology in writing ecology. His-previous work on technical communication pedagogy appears in SIGDOC ‘19: ACM's 37th Annual Special Interest Group on Design of Communication conference
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Philip B. Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Mercer University, a member of STC, ATTW, and the ACM's Special Interest Group on Design of Communication. His-current research examines technical communication pedagogy for STEM, surveillance and presence in online learning, and technology in writing ecology. His-previous work on technical communication pedagogy appears in SIGDOC ‘19: ACM's 37th Annual Special Interest Group on Design of Communication conference proceedings and in the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy.
Philippe Meister is a Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric and Professional Communication and Human-Computer Interaction at Iowa State University and a member of the Adaptive Cognitive Systems Laboratory. His current work focuses on the design and evaluation of augmented reality weather training for General Aviation.
David R. Russell is emeritus professor of English at Iowa State University, where he taught in the Ph.D. program in Rhetoric and Professional Communication. His-research interests are in writing in the disciplines, international writing instruction, online multi-media case studies, and the phenomenology of writing. His-book, Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History, examines the history of United States writing instruction since 1870. He has published more than 70 articles and co-edited four collections on writing in the disciplines and professions, drawing mainly on cultural-historical activity theory and rhetorical genre theory.
The work in this paper has not been previously published. The paper is not being considered for publication in other venues. The authors will not allow the manuscript to be so considered elsewhere before notification in writing of an editorial decision by Computers and Composition.
The research data have been collected from human subjects in accordance with the standards and guidelines of the human subjects review board at the authors’ institution.