Dissertation research.

A column sponsored by the ABC Research Committee

NOW IN ITS 6TH YEAR, this annual research column presents the work of two new, emerging scholars in professional communication. Doreen Starke-Meyerring received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2003 and is now an assistant

Each of these scholars holds an earlier degree from a university outside the United States, which may provide some insight into their common interest in conducting research into educational practices in a global context. For their dissertations, both researchers conducted studies that offer new ideas about the rapidly changing world of academe, calling our attention to global trends that are shaping higher education.

Starke-Meyerring's dissertation reports a cross-cultural critical rhetorical analysis of higher education policy initiatives related to Internet usage in the United States and Germany. Through this study, she demonstrates how the notably different rhetoric used to shape national policy in each of these two countries ultimately yields similar conceptualizations of the overarching importance of the Internet in higher education. Evia's dissertation presents a multimodal study of the learning experiences of students in introductory professional writing courses at two universities on the U.S.-Mexico border. He shows how the varied and culturally unique, precollege educational experiences of students shape their understanding of what constitutes good work on a writing assignment. As Evia discusses, one major implication for students, of course, is their ability to earn high grades for their work once they are in college.

Both of these scholars were asked to prepare an overview of their dissertation research, identifying the questions/issues addressed in their studies, connections between their work and that of others in the field of professional communication, and the implications of their research. Their overviews are presented on the following pages.

As in past years, these two researchers were nominated to participate in this column by faculty in their doctoral programs. Faculty who are currently working with promising new scholars are encouraged to nominate their students for possible inclusion in an upcoming installment of the Focus on Research column. To nominate an emerging scholar who is conducting research that would be of interest to the journal's readers, please contact the editor.

Mark Zachry, Editor

Utah State University

Address correspondence to Mark Zachry, Department of English, Utah State University, 3200 Old Main Hill, Logan UT 84322; e-mail: mzachry@english.usu.edu.