FieldWorking: Reading and Writing Research. Second Edition
by Bonnie Stone Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater
About FieldWorking
A local truck stop, a grandparent’s attic, a homeless shelter, a telemarketing office—these are just a few examples of the field sites students can research with FieldWorking as their guide. Rather than relying solely on written texts as sources, students go out of the classroom and beyond the library to explore field sites and archives, where they learn to observe, listen, interpret, and analyze the behaviors and language of “others” around them. Fueled by these active experiences in the field, students bring new energy, insight, and skills to their writing.
Praise for Fieldworking
“FieldWorking is the most exciting textbook I’ve seen in a long time . . . Because students choose their own field sites, they have ownership of their writing. Because they’re the ones doing the hands-on research, they become the authorities.”—Meg Carroll, Rhode Island College
“My students enjoy the researcher-to-researcher tone of the book. The description of research methods is clear and easy for students to understand . . .The greatest strength of FieldWorking is that it gets students engaged in and enthusiastic about primary research.”—Janet Bean, University of Akron
“The text discussions are nothing short of superb . . .The balance here between explanation and example is among the most carefully wrought I’ve seen.”—Kathleen Shine Cain, Merrimack College
“I’m not surprised that the text is so strong, since . . .the authors are Bonnie Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater. Both not only have excellent writing styles and a deep commitment to teacher and writers but also are excellent and committed ethnographers.”—Wendy Bishop, Florida State University
“Before FieldWorking was available, we had to cut and paste from all over to provide valuable reading on ethnographic methodologies . . . Bonnie Sunstein and Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater have written one of the best textbooks I have ever encountered.”—David Seitz, Wright State University
Academic Literacies: The Public and Private Discourse
of University Students.
Foreward by Denny Taylor
Academic Literacies argues that the narrow focus on academic ways of reading, writing, and thinking is limited and limiting for both students and teachers. Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater uses ethnographic field methods to uncover multiple literacies that two college students bring to different disciplines and shows how factors such as gender, human development, and private talents are ignored in the college curriculum. She suggests that those who plan curricula and set goals for higher education too often ignore the individuals who are the patrons of the system, our college students. Working against a restricted view of “cultural literacy,” the author offers many ways of expanding our notion of what it means to be “literate” in an academic setting.
Composition scholars who are interested in the work on academic discourse communities and writing across the curriculum will find Chiseri-Strater’s position of interest. As well, since the book offers a critique of the dominant “mastery” mode of instruction, it should appeal to those women scholars who are developing feminist pedagogies that will welcome women students into the academic conversation.
