RMS 231: Research Methods and Writing 60 Hours

Course Introduction: This course will hone the reading writing and textual analytical
skills of the participants. While the first two modules will be lecture oriented module
three will take the workshop mode involving intensive reading and writing exercises.

Course Objectives
• To introduce the participants to the various research methods in English Studies.
• To equip students with the skill of textual analysis
• To hone research writing skills
• To expose students to the theories of reading authorship

Course Description
Module I 10 Hrs
Research Methods for English Studies
Archival Methods; Oral History as a Research Method; Visual Methodologies; Discourse
Analysis; Ethnographic Methods; Quantitative methods for text studies, Textual analysis
as a research method; Interviewing.

Module II
Research and Writing 5 Hrs
The research dissertation as a form of explorations; The research dissertation as a form of
communication; Conducting research; Compiling working bibliography; Evaluating
sources; Taking notes; Outlining; Writing drafts; Language and style

Module III 45 Hrs

Writing
Generating ideas; identifying arguments and purpose; abstracting; developing paragraphs
and essays; reviewing, revision, reworking; coherence and cohesion; discovering one’s
voice; genres of writing, goal setting; monitoring and evaluating writing; being conscious
of one’s writing; outlining framework.

Module IV
Theories of Reading, Authorship, and Criticism
Barthes, Roland. 'Work to Text', 'Death of the Author' from Image/Music/Text, translated
by Stephen Heath. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977.
Derrida, Jacques. From, Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. Part II, Ch.2,
". . . That Dangerous Supplement. . ."
Foucault, Michel. 'What Is an Author?' in Language, Counter-Memory, Practice, ed.
Donald F. Bouchard; also in The Foucault Reader, ed. Paul Rabinow. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1984.
White, Hayden. 'The Historical Text as Literary Artifact', from Tropics of Discourse:
Essays in Cultural Criticism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978.
Jameson, Frederic. 'Preface' and 'On Interpretation' from The Political Unconscious:
Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1981.
----Ideologies of Theory, Volume I. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, 1988.
----'Metacommentary',
----'The Ideology of the Text'.
MacDonald, Peter. 'Ideas of the Book and Histories of Literature: After theory?', PMLA
Volume 121, 1 (January 2006): 214-28

Bibliography
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New Delhi: East-
West Press. 2004.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New
York: Modern Language Association, 2008.
Somekh, Bridget and Cathy Lewin. eds. Research Methods in Social Sciences. New
Delhi: Sage/Vistaar, 2005.
Griffin, Gabriele. ed. Research Methods for English Studies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press, 2005.
The Chicago Manual of Style 15th ed. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2003.
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 5th ed. New York:
American Psychological Association. 2001.