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RSEL presentation

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Minutes for 03/12/2013

In our group meeting yesterday, we surpassed our expectations in completing more work than planned.

We began the meeting by catching up on our progress: 

• Philippa and I showed the group our results from the questionnaire 
• Kerry, Matt and Leanda presented the literature to the group.

From this, Kerry, Matt and Leanda continued to research relevant literature which could be applied to our hypotheses and wider project. 

Philippa and I began to analyse our results and present them in our Powerpoint presentation using a mixture of percentages, pie charts and quotations from participants in order to produce an engaging, interesting presentation.
This took up a large proportion of our time due to the large amount of data and hypotheses we had. 

 

Next, we went through our list of 'things to include in the power point' and began to complete these slides. These included: 

• An introduction to our project 
• Our research question
• Literature 
• Hypotheses 
• Methodologies 
• Results
• Conclusions 
• Credits

What we have left to do: 

Matt and Kerry picked up the headsets from Alison's office in preparation for our recording on Saturday.  

Agenda for our next meeting

03/12/2013
Tomorrow we will be meeting as a group in the group study room in the main library to begin our presentation.

Last week Philippa and I successfully distributed our questionnaire. We did this by starting off in the Mason Lounge in the Arts building collecting data from Arts students and then did the same in the Watson building. We found that participants were co-operative and willing to participate which allowed us to gain a large amount of data.

In terms of the Literature side of our presentation, Matt, Kerry and Leanda have been researching various academic and non-academic articles which we will relate to our project in the meeting tomorrow.

Minutes from 25/11/2013

Minutes from 25/11/2013

This week in our meeting, the group arranged to meet in the main library where we aimed to discuss and organize a number of elements of our project. 

The questionnaire 

After carrying out our pilot study there were a few issues we had to take into consideration. One being the length of the questionnaire. We had originally planned to use 20 images then 3 questions for each image. The participants in the pilot study were finding this to be too lengthy as the questionnaire is highly repetitive, so in order to maintain focus and interest in the participants we cut back to 10 images again. 

    Another issue we faced was the distribution of our questionnaire. The length of the questionnaire and the number of participants we wanted to ask meant that the printing would be economically and financially problematic. Therefore, Alison suggested that we looked as using an online system such as Survey Monkey but we struggled to upload images onto these sites. In order to overcome this, we decided to use a tally method where we would show the participants the images of the apostrophe misuses and verbally ask them the questions marking down their answers in a tally form. 

e.g. Is the apostrophe use in the image: 

a) accurate II
b) unsure
c) inaccurate IIII

We then discussed in the meeting the division of work. We decided that Philippa and I would distribute the questionnaire, whilst Kerry, Matt and Leanda compiled the literature and articles and applied it to our project. 

The presentation 

As we are currently in the process of collecting data, we have arranged to meet as a group on 03/12/2013 and analyse the results and see whether our original hypotheses were met. We will then relate the data which Kerry, Matt and Leanda are currently working on. 

What we have done and what we have left to do

What we have done and what we have left to do

 

What we have done:

• We have made the first draft of our questionnaire which contains 20 images of examples where the apostrophe is used in a non-standard form. For each image we have then asked 3 sub-questions.
• Each member of the group has also read relevant literature on the topic of our project. We started by distributing the literature suggested by Alison between the group and from this we have then researched and read further literature.

 

What we have left to do:

• After completing our questionnaire, we are going to carry out a pilot study in order to get feedback from participants and make any relevant changes from this
• We are then going to begin our research by handing our questionnaire. Our method of doing so, either paper hand outs or online methods, is yet to be decided.
• The data from our questionnaire will then be coded, analysed and then be displayed in our power point presentation



Minutes from 13/11/2013

Minutes from 13/11/2013

Philippa and I met in the Library today to discuss the progress of the project. In this meeting we mainly focused on the development of the questionnaire in order to begin our pilot study. 

Example question: 

1.a) The usage of the apostrophe above is:
a) accurate
b) unsure
c) inaccurate 

Minutes - Meeting 28th October 2013

Our main priority for this week’s meeting was to discuss and reflect on Alison’s feedback regarding our project proposal. Our topic of apostrophe usage on a whole is a manageable topic, but our research question needed some attention.

Research question:
When looking at examples of apostrophe misuse in social media, text messages and written work, why are people incorrectly using apostrophes?

When discussing our research question, we concluded that ‘everyday usage’ was far too vague. For this reason we have selected instances including, social media (Twitter and Facebook), text messages and written work where apostrophe misuse will be displayed.
Furthermore, instead of looking at ‘attitudes’ towards punctuation misuse, we have altered this to specifically looking at the reasons why people aren’t using apostrophes correctly.

Methodologies:
Altering our research question has inevitably led to changes in our methodologies.
 1) With ethical considerations in mind, we will be looking closely at social media, text messages and any friends’ lecture notes or work and pick of instances where apostrophes are misused. To do this we will take a print screen shot or note down any examples.

2) From picking out these mistakes, we will then gain informed consent from the participant who made the mistake asking them to take part in our covert ‘punctuation test’ – (we won’t tell the participants that it is a punctuation test)

3) Finally a questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions will be given to the participants, measuring the reasons for their apostrophe misuse.

Literature

During this week’s meeting, we also distributed the readings Alison suggested between us. These are as followed:

·       Me (Ellie) - Wardhaugh, R. (1999) Proper English: Myths and Misunderstandings About Language. Oxford: Blackwell

·       Philippa- Burridge, K. (2005) Weeds In The Garden of Words: Further Observations On The Tangled History Of The English language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

·       Leanda- Szmrecsanyi, Benedikt & Lars Hinrichs. 2007. Recent Changes in the Function and Frequency of Standard English Genitive Constructions: A multivariate analysis of tagged corpora. English Language and Linguistics

·       Kerry - Zwicky, Arnold M. & Geoffrey K. Pullum. 1983. Cliticization Versus Inflection: English n't. Language

Garrett, P, Austin, C (1993) The English Genitive Apostrophe: Judgements of Errors and Implications for Teaching Language Awareness

RESEARCH PROJECT – GROUP 5

PROPOSAL

Topics

• Apostrophe Usage
• Attitudes to apostrophe usage

Research Question

To what extent is the apostrophe still used in everyday written language and what are the surrounding attitudes towards this?

Relevant Literature

Initial literature to be used:

• Lynne Truss (2003). Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, London – A non-fiction book on prescriptive attitudes towards grammar usage

• Sklar. S, Elizabeth. (1976). The Possessive Apostrophe: The Development and Decline of a Crooked Mark. College English. 38 (2), 175-183. -  This journal article looks specifically at apostrophe usage which is the specific area of grammar we are studying

• Mitchell, D.M, 2010. Only a poltroon despises pedantry. The Guardian, 03 January - This article published by David Mitchell discusses how prescriptive attitudes are somewhat necessary and how grammar slobbery can be used as a form of mockery. We will be supporting this in looking at instances where grammar is misused – for example shop signs.  

Methodologies

When discussing the aims of our project, we decided that we wanted to gain quantitative data and qualitative data. Some ideas we suggested to do this was to carry out a questionnaire which consisted of two sections.

Section 1 – a grammar ‘test’ where the participants select the answer which uses the apostrophe correctly

Section 2 – a selection of open and closed ended questions on attitudes towards grammar, and more specifically apostrophe usage.  

By using these methodologies we should be able to reach a clear conclusion (in the form of quantitive data) but also gain some genuine and interesting insight into attitudes towards punctuation by using open questions which allow more scope for individual response.

We plan to distribute the Questionnaire to 30 recipients. We will aim to distribute them amongst people of different ages and educational backgrounds in order to improve the validity of our results and give us a greater insight into a range of opinions and usage patterns.

Analysis of Data

In order to analyse the data we collect, we plan to compile the quantitative data into charts so the results are easier to compare. We can then compare these in terms of percentages which will make the results clearer and easier to compare.

We will compare the qualitative data and – as best we can without changing or altering the answers we are given- group the responses into relevant groups so that they too can be more easily compared. 

·      Second Meeting Confirmation

Date: Monday 21^st October
Time: 4pm
Place: Main Library

Preparation for the meeting:

In order to prepare for the meeting we have been reading Alison Sealey’s ‘Researching English Langauge’ (Alison Sealey (2010). Researching English Language . Oxon: Routledge. 1-94.) in order to give us a deeper understanding of researching the English Language.

Topics for discussion:

Since our first meeting we have maintained contact in order to reach a clear and concise project proposal.  With our topic in mind, we are then going to spend the meeting looking at relevant literature available in the library and online.  

Example - (Lynne Truss (2003). Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, London)

In accordance with literature, we will also be developing our research methods ideas which have already briefly been discussed in previous meetings. We will be focusing mainly on questionnaires as our main source of research.

Summary of First Meeting

1. Brainstorm of topic ideas - we each talked about the topics which we found particularly interesting. 

• Child Language Acquisition - We all had a particular interest in child language acquisition and it was the topic we originally thought we would focus on. However, when we discussed it in more depth we realised we might struggle to find an appropriate method of gathering data, especially considering the short time period we have to carry out our research, so we decided that it wasn't going to be a practical choice. 
• Attitudes to accent and dialect - We realised that no one in our group shared the same accent and we found it interesting to compare accents, talk about the reactions people have had towards our accents, the phrases we use that are commonplace at home but unheard of elsewhere etc. So we considered looking into attitudes to accent and dialect. We thought University provided a large pool of different accents/dialects which could be useful for collecting data. However, when we discussed it further, we realised we couldn't pin down exactly what it was we were hoping to find out or what it was we were hoping to gain from the study and so we thought our project might end up lacking a clear focus.
• Grammar/Prescriptivism - We began discussing the way people use grammar. We agreed that we've all seen examples of non-standard usage of punctuation. We had to consciously call it "non standard" because our instinct was just to call it "wrong". We agreed that we all know someone who is extremely strict about the "correct" use of the apostrophe. But equally, we also know people who don't really worry about it. We then began thinking about the fact that often there are times when, although punctuation is non-standard, we can still understand the message because we know what was meant. So we started to question how relevant or necessary the apostrophe is, if people use it differently. We wanted to look into both opinions and actual usage of the apostrophe. For example - whether people say they care about the "rules" and then whether they can spot a "non standard" use of the apostrophe. 

Brainstorming Methods

We began to think about the ways we could look into this. We thought that a questionnaire would be a good way to gather data. We can ask overt questions about opinions and then we can also include a section which tests participants use of the apostrophe by asking them to spot non standard uses and asking them where they think an apostrophe is needed when given cues such as 'The house belongs to Ben... where would there be an apostrophe in the phrase "Bens house"?' We thought this might help us to see how many value the apostrophe and how many people fully understand the point of it. 

Designing a Question

We have not finalised the phrasing of our question yet, because we wanted to read around the topic a little bit first. We thought this background knowledge might help us hone in on exactly what we're trying to find out. Our initial ideas for a question were along the lines of - "To what extent is the apostrophe still necessary/relevant/used?' 

We wanted to make sure our question included a phrase such as "to what extent" because we thought this would help to focus the results. We want to make sure that we are collecting data that can be easily analysed. For example we might have results along the lines of "60% of people said they did not know the correct use" and  "70% of people could not identify the non standard usage". 

Getting Going

Now that we have selected a broad topic, we are going to spend this week researching it in more depth. Some of us are going to read around the topic of grammar, prescriptivism and apostrophe usage. Others are going to collect examples of apostrophe usage - for example on signs, in newspapers, on social media. We want to get an idea of how the apostrophe is being used and make sure it is something worth researching before we dive fully in to this project. 

Once we have this information we will try to finalise our question and begin to plan our research methods.