Out of all the research topics I have previously considered, I finally decided my topic! I took information from my third idea, “Examine the way technical writing is used in legal writing,” and information from my capstone to explore the idea I have come up with. I have decided to explore the rhetoric in advocacy between ASFA and Family First in Family Law, specifically Guardian ad Litem. By doing this, I am going to be exploring the rhetoric within court documents and personal one-on-one interviews. I will use this research to describe how rhetoric is used throughout ASFA and Family First individually, since they explain two completely different ways of solving a case. Because they are so different, they also use different ways to persuade judges, and that is where I will be looking at the specific documents, and other information mentioned previously. I will see how rhetoric within the Professional and Technical Writing department plays a role in this specific law. Below are ten secondary sources I will be using to start my research! The first two are my priority. One is a book given by an attorney I intern for, and another is a website that includes tons of forms that I will be analyzing. The rest of the sources could change, but I am hoping to use at least the first two sources.
1. Gupta-Kagan,
Josh, et al. Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents,
and Agencies in Neglect, Abuse, and Dependency Cases. 4 ed., National
Association of Counsel for Children, 2022
2. Utah
Office of Guardian ad Litem Forms (utcourts.gov)
3. Ideology
and Rhetoric Replace Science and Reason in Some Parental Alienatio...:
EBSCOhost
Ideology
and Rhetoric Replace Science and Reason in Some Parental Alienation Literature
and Advocacy: A Critique Written by Madelyn S. Milchman, Robert Geffner, and Joan
S. Meier
4.
viewcontent.cgi
(columbia.edu) Reforming Family Court: Getting it Right Between Rhetoric
and Reality
7. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651920932198 Legally
Minded Technical Communicators: A Case Study of a Legal Writing Course
8. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651908315980
Making Academic Work Advocacy Work: Technologies of Power in the Public Arena
9. https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519211044195 Curricular
Efforts in Technical Communication after the Social Justice Turn
10. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281616639472 The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication
When looking at the questions on part one, I chose, "3. What issues, voices, and topics are missing from this listing?" I think I am missing quite a bit when it comes to topics. I want to use more research from people that have the forms/documents I can review. Although I think I have some great sources from scholarly journals that will help introduce parts of the topic I am writing about, I think I need more documents to identify the rhetoric. I am just worried that some of my sources listed above may not necessarily need to be in my paper. For the summary and revision plan, I want to go through the sources I mentioned above more in-depth and include the ones that are needed the most. I am thinking of getting rid of the sources that do not include anything about advocacy or relate to rhetoric. Overall, I think it will just take time for me to go over all the sources and decide which ones I want to keep or others that may need to be replaced.
ReplyDeleteHi Christina,
ReplyDeleteLooks like you had a good start on your sources, so far. I know you'll be distilling more of your topic interest as you plow through and annotate the sources you've found. At this point, I think the PTW-specific sources thrown into the mix (c/o source list on Canvas) direct your investigation more towards the lens of PTW. Remember that the sources in the Lit. Review do not need to be directly the same research focus as yours -- as you annotate them, you'll surely find the ones to keep. If you then noticed that nobody seems to have done the same research focus that you plan, that's the gap where you can come in and contribute to the field. :)
After the Lit. Review is done, maybe we can set a quick appointment to brainstorm ideas for your Research Proposal and make the research design more beneficial and applicable to practitioners/scholars within our field. (As always, feel free to set an appt. with me anytime if you need help -- am here).
Keep up the good work!
Best,
Dr. B