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Context Analysis

Purpose

To better understand the conventions of writing that will be expected of you, you will want to first learn the context and the culture that you are writing within. This assignment gives you the opportunity to examine a specific discipline or context that you anticipate that you will be writing within and asks you to learn more about the institutional culture and your anticipated audience.

Instructions

Choose a context that you are writing within or that you will be writing within. This can be either a professional context (e.g., a business, school-as instructor) or an academic context (e.g., university-as graduate student). In some situations, you will have to choose a context that approximates the one you want to study.

Epistemological Process

Once you have determined the context that you will study, you will want to conduct research to learn about the culture. Use our discussions about institutions and discourse communities to develop an appropriate inquiry. You may find answers to your research questions by...

  • drawing upon your experiences and knowledge of the institution
  • doing scholarly research on this institution or similar institutions
  • studying the institution, division, or program on the web (what does the institution say about itself? what do others say about the institution?)
  • contacting people who work at the institution (conducting a formal or informal interview)
  • studying documents produced by this institution

Contact the instructor if you are having problems doing research.

Writing

Compose a 3-4 page white paper in which you inform an audience who entering this context what they will want to know to be a successful–both within this community and as a writer . Within this document, provide specific suggestions that your audience should consider when approaching this context. Your claims should be supported by evidence that appropriately illustrates the point that you making.

You will choose the organization of your text based upon what you believe is most important to report about this context and what order this information should be reported.


Criteria

Logistic:

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

  • a sense of audience–is this document informative and illustrative? is this document written in a way that an uninformed audience would feel more confident about approaching this context?
  • your ability to support your claims with appropriate evidence
  • viable suggestions for approaching this context
  • an informed understanding of disciplines, institutions, and discourse communities
  • appropriate use of conventions, including appropriate use of APA citations if applicable
  • a professional persona