last.updated 8.17.13

Discourse Community Analysis

Purpose

As most of you begin to participate in the new discourse community of college academics, you will want to draw upon strategies that you have used to approach previous literate practices. This essay gives you an opportunity to reflect upon those literate practices and examine the strategies that you believe will help you succeed in this new context. Also, writing this essay may prompt you to discover a topic to examine over the course of the semester.

Instructions-Research

Using your response to Prep Blog #3, choose one or two discourse communities that you think have been very influential on your academic and/ or career goals. Also pull from the blog entry your description of the community and the communication skills that you have learned from this community.

Instructions-Writing

In 750-1000-words write an essay in which you...

• describe one or two discourse communities that you have or currently participate in that have significantly influenced your academic or career goals.
• describe a discourse community that you are aiming to participate in; reasonably speculate about the exceptions the community will have about the discourse you produce.
• explain how you anticipate your participation in specific past or current discourse communities will influence and inform your participation in a specific future discourse community.

Remember the more detail you provide, the better your audience can imagine what you are describing.

Criteria

Logistic:

• 750 - 1000 words
• double-spaced
• On September 25, 2013 submit the final draft to the instructor as a hard copy by the beginning of class.
• Your portfolio should contain...
  • Pop Quiz
  • Instructions for writing an IMRAD
  • Prep Blog Entry #1
  • Prep Blog Entry #2
• 50 points

In addition to the general evaluation criteria, the instructor will be looking for evidence of...

• a sense that you understand the concept of "discourse communities"
• an understanding of your audience, primarily the instructor who is interested in seeing what your discourse practices have been and the influence you think they will have on future practices
• connections between past practices and current practices, as well as a anticipated connections to college-level academic practices
• an appropriate tone for academic writing
• appropriate use of conventions, including MLA, APA, or an appropriate citation formatting if you cite text or use images.