Discourse Community Project

You will turn in one-two quality paragraphs for *each* of the first seven questions and two-three paragraphs in response to #8.

A discourse community exhibits six characteristics:

members share goals,
communicate with each other, and
provide information and feedback to each other using
specific genres with a
specialized vocabulary. The community
has enough expert members to get started. (Swales)
By such a definition, coin collecting, adoptive parenting, and women's lacrosse could all be discourse communities for people who actively communicate with others about those subjects. But with this assignment, we're focusing you on discourse communities that will be important to your future as a student and in the work world.

Your Discourse Community

one-two quality paragraphs: What is the discourse community you're studying?
What academic majors, departments, and disciplines is it related to?
What jobs do its members typically hold?
What defines membership in this discourse community?
Where did you find information about your discourse community?
What larger discourse communities is yours a part of?
What are some of the smaller discourse communities within yours?
Writing in Your Discourse Community

one-two quality paragraphs: How does your discourse community communicate? What forms, methods, media, and genres does it use? (We will learn more about genres throughout the semester.)
one-two quality paragraphs: How important is writing in your discourse community? Ask professionals in your area what percentage of their time they spend writing and how important good writing is to their advancement.
one-two quality paragraphs: Does your discourse community communicate in non-verbal ways? Can you give examples? If possible, hang out in the halls or the websites of your discourse community and see what messages you get from such things as the flyers on bulletin boards and the images on screens.
one-two quality paragraphs: What kinds of evidence does your discourse community value? That is, how can someone writing in your discourse community establish credibility and authority?
one-two quality paragraphs: What can you learn about writing papers in your discourse community? For this part of the project, you have three choices, though doing all three would be the best way to go.
Find actual instructions for an assignment, project, or job in your discourse community and analyze them.
Interview someone teaching in your discourse community, trying to find out what the teacher's goals are when assigning a paper and what grading issues and pet peeves the teacher's students should know about.
Find people working in a job related to your discourse community and ask them how much they write, for what purposes, and in what form.
How You Connect to Your Discourse Community

7. one-two quality paragraphs: What subjects in your discourse community particularly interest you? Are there issues you'd like to explore that are relevant to your discourse community? Could members of your discourse community benefit from your knowledge? As you research your discourse community, keep thinking about potential subjects for your genre experiments later in the semester.

8. two-three quality paragraphs: Reflect on the most interesting and relevant information you've discovered about your discourse community. What surprised you? What have you found that makes communication in your discourse community similar to or different from that in other discourse communities? Look particularly for things we take for granted in one discourse community but do very differently in another. What resources were most useful to you in your research? (Be prepared to present to your classmates 2-3 minutes about what you wrote.)

Your paper should have:

Detailed answers
Reflection: what does this process teach you about discourse communities, genres, and writing in general?

Desired learning outcomes:

Students will understand the concept of "discourse community" and how it affects everything we write
Students will be prepared to analyze and successfully write in new discourse communities as they progress through the university and in their careers
Having highlighted and discussed similarities and differences between discourse communities, students will know what to look for and what to change as they move between discourse communities
Students will find in their discourse community subjects and genres for their genre experiments
Transfer Skills:

The ability to analyze new discourse communities and prepare to communicate in them
The ability to choose the most effective genre for a specific context
You will be graded on:

Depth of research and completeness of answers
Thoughtfulness of answers to question 8
Six characteristics of discourse communities from John Swales, "The Concept of Discourse Community," Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Ed. Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011.