Unit 2 Inquiry-Based Research Assignment
Now that you have investigated and reflected on a discourse community that you are a member of, I want you to take the role of an active member. (If you do not want to continue with the discourse community that you started with in Unit 1, you may choose to research a new one.) Identify an issue or a problem within the community you choose and explore this issue through a research project.
In your final paper you will present research on the issue using both primary and secondary sources, and you will offer a way to help solve (or progress it for the better) the problem the community is facing. The final version of the project will be 1500-2000 words. The final paper will include at least one scholarly source (peer reviewed from City Tech’s library databases), three general sources (such as articles, podcasts, or videos), and at least one primary source (Either an interview with someone who is a part of the discourse community you choose, or a survey that has been directed at the community)
This project is designed to build your research skills, and to make you further aware of the communities you are a part of. If you would prefer to work in groups (2-4 people) for this project you may.
I will be using the rubric you were given on the first day of class to grade this assignment, but in addition you will have three smaller assignments which will lead up to your final project. Below is a brief description of each and their grade weight, but I will give you further instruction when their due dates arrive.
Project Proposal (5%) Due 03/04: You will write a project proposal (250-500 Words) that answers:
A) What is the discourse community, and what is the issue you will be researching?
B) Why did you choose this community? What is its importance?
C) What is your research question? How did you come up with it?
D) Why is this particular issue important? What can be gained about solving this issue? What is your personal connection to the issue?
E) Who is the audience that you are trying to reach, and why?
**If you are working in groups I would still like you to write proposals individually. You may have similar reasons to why the issue is important, however, I want to know why you are interested, not just the group.**
Annotated Bibliography (15%) Due 03/11: I will dedicate half of a class to explain this further, but essentially an annotated bibliography is assessing your sources. You will include your MLA citations of your five sources along with a summary of your source, a description of its credibility, and an explanation of how you will use the source in your paper.
Interview/Survey (20%) Due 03/11: Some of you may have already started this in your last paper, but I would like you to interview someone in your discourse community and the issue your paper is investigating. You will ask them 10-20 questions that are pertinent, and then you will produce a transcript along with a 250-500 word analysis of the survey or interview.
Rough Draft/ Peer Review (20%) Due 03/18: Like the last paper, you are required to submit a rough draft and do a peer review for this paper. The process will be similar to the last paper.
- Final Project (40%) Due 03/25.
*As always if you have any questions please email me or meet me in my office hours.
UNIT 1 PROJECT
Discourse Community Project
Final Paper: 1000-1500 words
Over the next couple weeks, we will be studying discourse communities. In particular we will be addressing Swales definition that discourse communities have common goals, participatory mechanisms for intercommunication that provide information and feedback with its members, community specific genres, specific lexis, and hierarchy of expertise within the community. For this project I want you to examine a discourse community that you are a part of and write an article directed at your peer group in the community. For example, if you are writing from the perspective of an 18-year-old college student, then you will be educating others in the same age group about your discourse community. Please investigate the community in the two following ways:
First, I want you to analyze the group you choose through its ways of saying/writing, doing, being, valuing, and believing. Ask yourself: How long has the group been around? Who is a member? Why does this group exist? What are the groups’ shared goals? How does the group communicate with each other? What genres are used as communication? Are there specialized languages used? etc. This section will make you cognizant of how your chosen community functions, and it will familiarize yourself with analyzing future communities.
In the second part of your paper I want you to investigate how the discourse community has evolved from the past. Even if you choose to write about a community that is fairly new, it most likely has undergone changes. For example, if you choose to write about a discourse community that exists on social media, the community may change rapidly with new language or evolving values. You may ask yourself: Have certain values changed in the discourse community overtime? Has language changed? Have beliefs strengthened or weakened? Have mechanisms of communication changed? Has ways of inclusion into the group changed? etc. For this part you will need to do research to adequately answer the question. You may find it useful to interview those that have been involved longer in the discourse community than you have as they will be able to specific changes that have occurred.
In the conclusion of your article I want you to reflect on these changes in the community and communicate them to an audience of your peers. Do you think they’ve made the community stronger? Are there values that your generation can evolve further?
**As always, you will be graded in accordance with the rubric that was given to you the first day of class. The major due dates to keep in mind are as follows:
Rough Draft/ Peer Review: February 19, 2019
Final Draft Due: February 24, 2019
Freewriting exercise:
As you read in Peter Elbow’s, “Freewriting Exercises,” freewriting is an effective way to improve your writing and help you find ideas for a paper. Using the project above I would like you to begin freewriting for the first half of the class to see if you can come up with ideas for your project. The following is a structured freewriting exercise that will help you get closer to deciding which discourse community:
- Begin by jotting down discourse communities you think you are a part of. This can be simply a list. Try to at least get 3-5 down. I would recommend when you start writing papers to think past the first idea you come up with. Most likely when you start thinking deeper you will find better ideas to focus on.
2. After you have your list of discourse communities, I then want you to go through your list and see if you can come up with the six characteristics of a discourse community we discussed last time in class for each community.
3. For the final part of the freewriting I would like you to ask some of the questions that I mentioned on the previous page: Have certain values changed in the discourse community overtime? Has language changed? Have beliefs strengthened or weakened? Have mechanisms of communication changed? Has ways of inclusion into the group changed? Etc.
For Wednesday 2/12 by 6:00pm I would like you to email me a typed (250-500-words) project proposal on the discourse community that you decided to choose. This project proposal should include why you chose your discourse community, a plan for how you will answer the project, and a working thesis. I will respond to you with comments, so you will have time to write your first draft.
