Mini-Poll: Your Main Reason for Using Twitter (or Yammer)

Trustworthiness and Objectivity in Varying Epistemological Assumptions

Trustworthiness in research tends to be discussed in extremes by the proponents of different research approaches, philosophies, and epistemological assumptions. In the below graphic, I attempt to show what I term the micro and macro levels at which trustworthiness can be achieved. For this post, I decided to take a deeper look at aspects of trustworthiness on the macro level, epistemological assumptions in particular, while only hinting at issues at the micro level. As micro-level trustworthiness I define the trustworthiness of the actual research article including but not limited to the content. Examples would be the researcher’s own ethos, adherence to established notions of organization, arrangement, form, format, layout conventions, and mechanics as well as perceived honesty, disclosure of limitations, treatment of human participants, etc., all are important elements contributing or detracting from trustworthiness. At the macro level, the focus is on epistemological assumptions, adherence to or deviance from traditionally recognized research approaches, the research institution the researcher is associated with, in general, the larger context the research is situated in.

Discussion Cloud: Striving for Trustworthiness

Wordle.net

TagCrowd.com

notes: metaphor and knowledge: the rhetorical challenges (Baake, 2000, Ch 7

NOTE: To enlarge, click the below graphic, and then click the resulting graphic.

Lecture Notes: Engl 5389

notes: The Discourse-Based Interview, A procedure for exploring the tacit knowledge…(Odell et al, 1983)

NOTE: To enlarge, click the below graphic, and then click the resulting graphic.

Lecture Notes for 5389

writers’ attitudes toward technical communication (Miller/Herndl)

In the these and the previous readings, much time has been devoted the topic of finding an adequate space and place for a Technical Communication program at a university. Often, the debate attempts to create dichotomies: Technical Writing vs. Literature, Humanities vs. Sciences, positivism vs. constructivism, rhetoric vs. science, techne vs. ars, objectivism vs. subjectivism, deductive reasoning vs. inductive reasoning. We have heard opposing views of what constitutes knowledge and how knowledge gets created. Invention yes, invention no. Is language knowledge or does language merely transport knowledge?