Resources” 87). Such strategies are not self-evident in composition studies, making the bibliographic instruction provided in this text necessary. I contend, though, as does Scott, that what makes composition studies bibliographically challenging is what also makes it bibliographically interesting (“Bibliographical Resources” 90–91).
In 1994, Paul Bryant wrote that because bibliographic resources in composition studies now exist, the discipline no longer needs to function as if we face “a brand new world every morning.” Yet the bibliographic needs of the discipline are still pressing:
Perhaps most important, and still much neglected, is the education of graduate students soon to be entering the profession. Use of the ample bibliographic resources in literary studies has been a staple of graduate education in English for generations, but similar instruction in composition and rhetoric is still seldom found, even in some of our most progressive research institutions. This, perhaps, is the next major project for those who would make the study of composition and rhetoric a fully developed academic discipline. We have the tools. Now let us make sure that the next generation of composition teachers and scholars are adequately prepared to use them. (“No Longer” 150)
As I write this chapter fifteen years later, the need for bibliographic instruction in composition studies is still largely unmet. With this book, I hope to fill this need.
Suggestions for Using This Book
The first half of this book provides an introduction to composition studies as a field. More specifically, chapter two explains the modes of inquiry that people in the field use to construct disciplinary knowledge, and chapter three explains the ways in which knowledge in composition studies is disseminated to others in the field. Both of these chapters provide a useful context for helping you to locate work done in composition studies and assess the significance of any source for your own research project as well as its significance to the field. The remaining chapters of this book guide you through your own research process. While reading chapter four, you will make preliminary decisions about your own bibliographic search techniques and criteria. Chapter five will then introduce you to databases and bibliographies that are especially useful to composition studies, and chapter six will guide you through the research and writing process to produce an annotated bibliography and literature review. Even if you are most interested in the discipline-specific databases and guidance for bibliographic assignments that is offered in the final chapters, I recommend that you read this book in sequence and in its entirety because the early chapters will give you knowledge about the field that will help you to make wiser decisions about your research strategies and the individual sources you find. Ultimately, though, you will gain the most from this book if you don’t simply read it; you should instead identify a bibliographic project that you can undertake as you read, which will allow you to practice the research strategies and become more adept at using the bibliographic resources discussed in this book.
Perhaps you are encountering this book as a text for a course in which you are enrolled. If so, it is likely that your professor will assign one or more written projects that require you to locate, read, and synthesize prior knowledge in composition studies about a particular topic; the guidance offered in this text can help you to complete those assignments. Or, you may be consulting this book independently of a course, perhaps to hone your research skills in the discipline before beginning an extensive endeavor like writing a thesis or dissertation. Whatever your situation, it can be helpful to identify an issue in composition studies that you’d like to research as you read the remaining chapters of this book.
Take the first step now by formulating a question you would like to research. By using a question to guide your research, rather than just a topic, you will be better able to judge which sources are useful to your research. For example, the research topic “online writing instruction” offers less direction than the research question “What are the best practices in online writing instruction?” or the question “How does online instruction impact students’ improvement in writing skills?” Your question should be open-ended, not a question that can be answered with simply a “yes” or “no.” Consider writing a group of related questions that you can use to initiate your research, and then after you read some of the sources that these questions help you to find, you can then revise your inquiry, narrowing it to a core question that has not yet been fully resolved by knowledge-makers in the discipline.
If you have difficulty identifying an initial question to research, consider your prior exposure to composition studies. When you think of scholarship you have already read in the discipline, what topics have interested you most? Why? Also, what from your reading have you found most confusing? What could be accomplished by conducting bibliographic research to resolve this confusion? Your experiences as a writer, a writing student, a writing tutor, and/or a writing teacher can serve as additional prompts for research questions. When you have had these experiences, what has puzzled you about the practice, theory, or teaching of writing? If you have thus far had limited exposure to the discipline of composition studies, you may also want to read an introduction to the discipline, which can help you to identify what issues define the discipline. One such introduction is Janice Lauer’s essay “Rhetoric and Composition,” included in the book English Studies: An Introduction to the Discipline(s); the full citation is included in the bibliography at the end of this chapter.
Once you have written your research question(s), write a paragraph that explains why you are interested in this inquiry, then seek feedback on your question(s) and explanatory paragraph from your professor, classmates, and others you may know in composition studies. Although you should then refine your question(s) based on the responses you receive, be aware that once you identify relevant sources and read more about what is already known and what remains to be known about your topic, you will likely need to revise your question(s) again. In other words, just as bibliographic research is a recursive process, so too even the identification of a research topic and question is often recursive, requiring revision throughout your research process.
Some Cautions about This Book
Now that we have examined the need for student-centered introductions to composition studies, for bibliographic instruction in the academy, and for bibliographic instruction specifically in composition studies, and you have identified a research interest to investigate as you read the remainder of this book, I want to conclude this chapter with some cautions about your use of this book, as it is only fair to forewarn you about what this text cannot do.
As should be obvious, this text can’t prepare you for what’s not available at the time this book is being written. Edward Corbett, a founding member of the profession, has written that “Nothing—not even last year’s hemline—dates as quickly as a published bibliography” (qtd. in Scott, “Bibliographical Problems” 167). Fortunately, bibliographic resources do not date as rapidly as do bibliographies themselves, but they too change. For example, when I began writing this book, in only a matter of months several changes took place that required me to make revisions before this book even went to press: the American Psychological Association (APA) issued a new edition of its publication manual; the CompPile and JSTOR databases both got new interfaces, which in turn changed several of their features; several databases added key journals to those they regularly index; and some journals added to their websites the capacity to search the journal’s archives. By the time this book appears in print, additional changes affecting bibliographical endeavors in composition studies will undoubtedly have occurred. Much larger changes, such as the increased availability of scholarship through digital formats and open access publishing, are also on the horizon. You will therefore need to update your knowledge of bibliographic resources as the discipline changes in years beyond the publication of this book. However, because this book explains not just bibliographic resources in their current form but also bibliographic strategies, this book will teach you the skills you will need to independently update your knowledge of bibliographic tools.
You should also recognize that while this book will help you to identify scholarship in composition studies relevant to your research interests,
