DePew, Kevin Eric “Through the Eyes of Researchers, Rhetors, and Audiences”

From RhetorClick

In his article, Kevin Eric DePew discussed the ways in which the digital writing situation can be and is researched. He primarily discusses two different methods: Triangulation and Text Analysis. He describes triangulation to be a “‘complex process of playing each method off against the other,’” which he believes “‘maximizes the validity of the field efforts’” (53). DePew discusses four different instances of digital writing research and the methods used to conduct the research. Within each section, DePew discusses how effective each method was and what it lacked. DePew believes, “By adopting these triangulation methods, the researcher connects with those who are actually using the writing technologies” (66). By simply using a text analysis method, the researcher incorporates his or her own response to the text which may be completely different from the users. He states, “Textual analysis strategies prove to be problematic in that they eliminate or de-emphasize the human feature of digital writing” (67).