Discourse Community Ethnography

Project 3: Discourse Community Ethnography
English 3840J - Writing, Reading, and Rhetoric in the Professions
Length Requirements Project Proposal: 300-500 words Reflective Essay: 500-700 words Essay: 2100-2500 words, (7-9 pp)
Important Dates Mar. 26: Project Proposals due Apr. 4: Project 3 drafts due Apr. 9: Final draft due
Introduction
In the first article we read for the course, Anne Beaufort stressed the importance of gaining genre knowledge and local knowledge to be a successful writer in the workplace. In your second project for the class, you examined an analyzed one or more genres in your field and read articles on theories of genre to begin attaining genre knowledge in your field. This third project is meant to help you understand and study the local knowledge necessary to be a successful writer in your field by looking at your profession through the lens of discourse community theory. In a sense, we're zooming out here in order for you to get a sense of the lager community of your profession. For project 3 Im asking you to do a discourse community ethnography of your intended profession or field. Beaufort, as well as Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff have already introduced us to the concepts of discourse community and ethnography. The readings for this unit will challenge you to examine the concept of a discourse community and the importance of local knowledge further, as well as what is important in doing ethnographic research and some examples of some ethnographic studies of professional communities. As in the genre analysis, you'll want to pay close attention to these readings as you'll be expected to do some synthesis in the final essay you produce. While your last project focused on particular genres in your profession, for this project you will be considering your professions community as a whole. This might include not only the texts used and written within the community and how they shape and are shaped by the community, but also the particular language, assumptions, values, and ideologies, involved in participating in and becoming a member of that professional discourse community. Ethnography, as the study of social groups, allows us to go beyond the text on the page to see writing (and any form of communication) as thoroughly embedded in social and material circumstance. Furthermore, the concept of discourse community allows us to see that norms, genres, and values of the community are always operating on and influencing the writing we do in those communities. This project provides the opportunity to do additional primary research in your field or profession to find out more about how writing works in that community. Keep in mind that many of the insights you have already gained (in previous assignments) regarding the community of your profession might be good starting places for research and invention as you begin this project. These insights may even help you create a foundation on which to base your project.
But also remember that this is a research project and whatever knowledge you've already gained about the writing in your profession needs to be further explored through primary research guided by one or more heuristics or research questions. I've listed a few possibilities below but I also encourage you to come up with your own questions that are particularly appealing and interesting to you. Remember as you develop these questions that you want to keep make some kind of explicit connection to the readings about discourse community theory, as we did in Project 2 with genre theory.
Possible Research Questions

What should a new member of this specific discourse community do to become an effective writer in that community? What do the formal and content features of a set of texts in a discourse community have to say about the political, ideological, and/or cultural values of that community? Is it possible for an individual to subvert or challenge the conventional textual/oral forms of a profession or is his/her writing always determined by social code or convention? How does someone newly joining the professional discourse community become a full participating member of that discourse community? What is the specialized language (lexis) of the discourse community and what role does it play in shaping and influencing the discourse community and attaining the communitys goals? How is the discourse community overlapping with and interdependent upon other discourse communities? How does this affect the discourse communitys functioning and communication? Wardle adopts Wengers idea of newcomers in a discourse community having three interrelated modes of belonging: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Anson and Forsberg describe new members in a professional discourse community going through the three stages of expectation, disorientation, and transition and resolution. How do new members in the professional discourse community go through these modes of belonging and stages? How do social roles or identities within a community, organization, or profession determine and/or influence writing? How are identities or social roles shaped, or constructed by, writing or other signifying practices?
Field Work
In order to find answers to your research questions, you will need to do your own primary researchfield work. This field work must consist of at least two of the following methods: Interview members of the professional discourse community. Don't wait on this! Start contacting possible interviewees immediately. We will do an in-class workshop to help you develop interview questions, but it's very important that these questions are guided by your central research questions and that you take use appropriate tone and diction that your interviewee can understand.
Observe the discourse community first-hand, taking detailed field notes about communication and writing practices, social roles, etc. You might contact an individual to shadow in a specific workplace or make observations at a more public event. Collect and analyze artifacts from the discourse community. This might include textual genres and materials used in the discourse community as forms of communication. You may choose to use some of the materials you've already collected for Project 2, but keep in mind that you need to do new and substantial analysis on these materials through the lens of discourse community theory.
Steps for the Project

Decide upon your research questions Make a research plan of your interviews and field work Do your field work, keeping your research questions in mind Analyze the data you gather in your field work, looking for patterns, inconsistencies, surprises, answers to your research questions (that might confirm or contradict your hypothesis) Begin Drafting Peer Review Revision
Recommended Outline
As you write your paper, I recommend that you use the following outline to structure it: Introduction, which includes: A synthesis of research on professional discourse communities as they relate to your particular focus (your research questions) Purpose of your ethnography (your research questions and what you hoped to discover in your research) Forecast of your analysis and its implications Methodology How you set up the study and collected and analyzed your data Results What you found out from your field work (the answers you found to your research questions) Discussion/Analysis/Implications Analyze and discuss the results of your study Connect the results back to the academic conversation on professional discourse communities What are the implications of your results (why might they be important and to whom? What might it change?) References back to and emphasizes your overall thesis/argument/main conclusions that you forecasted in your introduction
Works Cited/References Which includes the academic sources you referenced (secondary sources) Appendix Which includes your primary evidence: interview questions, documents, transcripts of interviews, etc.
My Criteria for the Discourse Community Ethnography

Articulates an original argument concerning the influence of discourse community on communicative/writing practices and helps us better understand writing in the chosen profession Argument is supported with ample evidence from primary research (quoting, summary, and analysis of your findings) Demonstrates thoroughness of primary research (interviews, observations, etc) and detailed research plan. In other words. You can't fake this kind of research the night before. There needs to be a substantial process and plan which is evident in the quality of your essay and your appendix Demonstrates understanding and engagement with readings on discourse community theory (class readings) through effective synthesis Engages with scholarly research on discourse community theory (class readings) by extending, complicating or questioning one or more of those theories/concepts Demonstrates an understanding and application of ethnographic-empirical organization (Intro, Methods, Results, Discussion) Is well-organized with appropriate forecasting and topic statements Uses appropriate academic tone and style; follows standard conventions for spelling and grammar
Project Proposal
Your project proposal (300+ words) should include A brief description of the professional discourse community youre examining and how you want to define that community (organization, location, general field, etc) Your research questions and your reasoning for choosing those research questions Your research plan, such as who you will interview and when, what kind of observations you will make and when, and how you will do this field work (e-mail, phone, in-person, etc) How you think your research plan will help you effectively find answers to your research questions What readings so far will help you frame your research questions in an academic conversation and how those readings fit in
Reflective Essay
As in the reflective essay for the previous project, this is a chance for you to talk to me (the instructor) directly about the difficulties and gains you encountered in this project. Which readings were most difficult? Which ones did you learn the most from? What have you gained in terms of metacognitive knowledge that will help you become a better writer in your field? You'll also want to discuss your process of gathering (primary) data. What most surprised you about these methodologies? How were they helpful (or not helpful)? Overall, what did you learn from the project. Finally, provide an agenda for feedback. What do you think is working in your essay and what do you need or want help with from me? Remember, again, that the work you do now on this will help you write your final (more substantial) essay that will reflect on the whole course. (500-700 words)

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Project 3: Discourse Community Ethnography

English 3840J - Writing, Reading, and Rhetoric in the Professions

Possible Research Questions

Steps for the Project

My Criteria for the Discourse Community Ethnography

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