Improvisations: Methods and Methodologies in Lifespan Writing Research
Edited by Ryan J. Dippre and Talinn Phillips
Copy edited by Caitlin Kahihikolo. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
Improvisations provides readers with insights and options as they develop new lifespan writing research projects or seek to re-orient existing projects to incorporate a lifespan lens. In Part 1 of this edited collection, contributors consider research methodologies that have been adapted to the particular demands of lifespan writing research, with each methodology given two chapters: one that outlines the process of taking up the methodology, and another that provides a detailed example of the methodology in action. In Part 2, contributors suggest new methodologies for lifespan writing research and highlight challenges that this line of inquiry presents as an ethical and socially conscious research agenda. These chapters, representing both established experts and new voices in writing, literacy, and education research, will be of use to graduate students and novice researchers, accomplished researchers pivoting to this area of study for the first time, and others who want to learn more about lifespan writing research.
Table of Contents
Open the entire book: In PDF Format 
In ePub Format 
Acknowledgments and Dedication
Introduction. Conducting Lifespan Writing Research: Challenges, Opportunities, and the State of a Radical Research Agenda, Talinn Phillips and Ryan J. Dippre
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.1.3
Part 1. Rigorous Crafting + Radical Improvisation: LWR in Action
Chapter 1. Temporal Discourse Analysis as an Analytic for Lifespan Writing Research, Catherine Compton-Lilly
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.01
Chapter 2. Writing Elementary School: The Cases of Gabby and Adam, Catherine Compton-Lilly
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.02
Chapter 3. Methodologies for Lifespan Writing Research: Using Composite Narratives in Narrative Inquiry, Jennifer Sanders, Sarah Donovan, Joy Myers, and Danielle DeFauw
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.03
Chapter 4. Using Composite Narratives to Explore Writing Teachers’ Development Across Their Careers, Danielle L. DeFauw, Joy Myers, Sarah Donovan, and Jennifer Sanders
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.04
Chapter 5. Interpreting Research with Participants: A Lifespan Writing Methodology, Collie Fulford and Lauren Rosenberg
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.05
Chapter 6. Co-interpretation in Action, Lauren Rosenberg, Collie Fulford, Gwen Porter McGowan, and Adrienne Long
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.06
Chapter 7. Studying Writing through the Lifespan with Grounded Theory, Ryan J. Dippre
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.07
Chapter 8. Deepening and Keeping the Present: Grounded Theory in Action, Ryan J. Dippre
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.08
Chapter 9. Improving Systematic Reviews of Longitudinal Writing Research: Definitions, Questions, and Procedures, Teresa Jacques, Jonathan M. Marine, and Paul Rogers
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.09
Chapter 10. Implications of Longitudinal Writing Research Methods for Lifespan Perspectives on Writing Development: A Systematic Review, Jonathan M. Marine, Paul Rogers, and Teresa Jacques
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.10
Part 2. A Selection of “Ands”: Imagining Methodological Futures in Lifespan Writing Research
Chapter 11. An Autoethnographic Springboard to More Extensive Lifespan Writing Research, Kathleen Shine Cain, Pamela B. Childers, and Leigh Ryan
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.11
Chapter 12. A Matter of Time and Memory: A Methodological Framework of Memory for Lifespan Writing Research, Joe Cirio and Jeff Naftzinger
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.12
Chapter 13. Writing in Transitions across the Lifespan, Soledad Montes and Karin Tusting
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.13
Chapter 14. Centering Positionality in Lifespan Writing Research through Institutional and Auto/Ethnographic Methodologies, Erin Workman
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.14
Chapter 15. Wayfinding: The Development of an Approach to Lifespan Writing, Karen Lunsford, Jonathan Alexander, and Carl Whithaus
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.15
Chapter 16. How Might We Measure That? Considerations from Quantitative Research Approaches for Lifespan Writing Research, Matthew Carl Zajic and Apryl Lynn Poch
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.16
Chapter 17. Becoming Researcher-Poets: Poetic Inquiry as Method/ology for Writing (through the Lifespan) Research, Sandra L. Tarabochia
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.17
Chapter 18. Approaching Lifespan Writing Research from Indigenous, Decolonial Perspectives, Bhushan Aryal
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.18
Chapter 19. Motivating Lifespan Writing Research Toward Education Policy, Jeremy Levine
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.19
Chapter 20. A Graduate School “Drop-Out”—After School, Suellynn Duffey
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.20
Chapter 21. Radicality in the Short Term: Generating Structural Change, Ryan J. Dippre and Talinn Phillips
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289.2.21
About the Editors
Ryan J. Dippre is Associate Professor of English and director of the College Composition Program at the University of Maine, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in writing and writing pedagogy. In addition to studying writing through the lifespan, he also studies writing program administration and the teaching of writing. He is the author of Talk, Tools, and Texts: A Logic-in-Use for Studying Lifespan Literate Action Development (WAC Clearinghouse, 2019) and the co-editor (with Talinn Phillips of Ohio University) of Approaches to Lifespan Writing Research: Generating an Actionable Coherence (WAC Clearinghouse, 2020). With Talinn Phillips, he serves as co-chair of the Writing through the Lifespan Collaboration (lifespanwriting.org) and co-editor of the Lifespan Writing Research book series at the WAC Clearinghouse (wac.colostate.edu/books/lwr). He lives in Maine with his wife and son.
Talinn Phillips is Professor of English at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. With Ryan Dippre, she serves as co-chair of the Writing through the Lifespan Collaboration (lifespanwriting.org) and co-editor of the Lifespan Writing Research series at the WAC Clearinghouse (wac.colostate.edu/books/lwr). She teaches undergraduate writing courses and graduate courses in rhetoric and composition, including Research Methods. In addition to her work in lifespan writing research, her scholarship investigates graduate writing development and faculty/consultant development to support graduate writers.
Publication Information: Dippre, Ryan J., and Talinn Phillips. (2024). Improvisations: Methods and Methodologies in Lifespan Writing Research. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289
Web Publication Date: June 18, 2024
Print Publication Date: Pending
ISBN: 978-1-64215-228-9 (PDF) 978-1-64215-231-9 (ePub) 978-1-64642-685-0 (pbk.)
DOI: 10.37514/PER-B.2024.2289
Contact Information:
Ryan J. Dippre: ryan.dippre@maine.edu
Talinn Phillips: tiller@ohio.edu
Perspectives on Writing
Series Editors: Rich Rice, Texas Tech University, and J. Michael Rifenburg, University of North Georgia
This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). It is also available in a low-cost print edition from our publishing partner, the University Press of Colorado.
Copyright © 2024 Ryan J. Dippre and Talin Phillips and the authors of individual parts of this book. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. 394 pages, with notes, figures, and bibliographies. This book is available in print from University Press of Colorado as well as from any online or brick-and-mortar bookstore. Available in digital format for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website. For permission requests and other questions, such as creating a translation, please contact the copyright holder.