Final Due Date

The final project will be due Tuesday, Nov. 22 before 12pm noon. I cannot accept late papers. Please e-mail me your project as an attached word document. Include a copy of your interview questions as well. Refer to the rubric on the blog and e-mail me if you have any questions. I will confirm that I have received your papers so if you don't hear from me by Wednesday noon, please try again. Thank you for a terrific quarter.

Project 4 Rubric

• Introduction provides a review of related literature / demonstrates understanding of that literature.
• Introduction shows a gap or niche in the conversation/research
• Introduction demonstrates how study will occupy that niche, previews the purpose/ argument of the study.
• Essay contains a description of the discourse community to be studied but doesn’t spend too much time on this description. Information in description is relevant to study.
• A methodology section details data collection methods and processes and hints at how data will be analyzed but does not begin presenting results.
• A results section presents RELEVANT results not just every piece of data collection.
• Results data is organized efficiently.
• Results data is analyzed / interpreted using relevant literature/theory.
• A conclusion section refers back to niche.
• Conclusion section provides new information about discourse communities in general which was gained from study of specific discourse community.
• Conclusion speculates on future research.
•  Tone emulates an academic style (formal prose, limited use of "I," active voice, third-person.

An essay in the A range effectively fulfills between 11-12 of the criteria

An essay in the B range effectively fulfills between 9-10 of the criteria

An essay in t he C range effectively fulfills between 6-8 of the criteria

An essay in the D range effectively fulfills between 3-5 of the criteria

A failing essay fulfills between 1-2 of the criteria.

Additional expectations for Honor Grades: (A and B)

+Essay is titled and contains a header with course information and your name.

+Works Cited follows MLA or APA conventions.

+Meets length requirement.

+Meets source requirement.

+Includes a copy of interview questions.

Peer Review 2

Don't forget to bring a hard copy of your extended ethnography draft to class tomorrow. This draft should include sections with results as well as a conclusion or discussion section. See you tomorrow!

Peer Review 1

Don't forget! Bring a rough draft (hard copy) of the first three sections of your ethnography to class tomorrow: Introduction, Discourse Community Description, Methodology. We'll have a Peer Review in 016.

Discourse Community Ethnography Outline

Introduction

• Brief review of the existing literature (published research) on the topic. ("We know X about discourse communities" [cite Swales, Gee, Johns, Mirabelli, and/or Wardle as appropriate"])
  
  
• Name a niche ("But we don't know Y" or "No one has looked at X").
  
  
• Explain how you will occupy the niche. This is a kind of preview where you say what you're going to discuss, what your study is trying to accomplish. Branick occupies a niche in the following sentence: "To figure this out, I conducted an ethnographic study on how the coaches at the University of Dayton go about reading people and reading the game" (561).
• Preview findings / Thesis (come back to this when you're finished with the whole thing)

A Description of the Discourse Community (similiar to "Lou's Restaurant" on 543)

• Use this section to describe this discourse community-but don't start analyzing the community until the results section. You could skip this section and have this information in the intro too.

Methodology -a description of how you collected and analyzed your data.

• who did you interview? how did you draft interview questions?
• how/ when did you observe? record conversations?
• What texts do you examine and how did you gain access to those texts?
• How did you decide which information to highlight in your results section? and which to leave out?Look back at Mirabelli's "methodology" section on 543 for a good example.

Results

• Discuss your findings in detail and compare them to the relevant research: specific elements or concepts of discourse communities presented in the literature. So if you're discussing authority in your discourse community? What can you add to what Johns has said about authority?

Implications/Conclusion.

• Zoom out. What can we learn about discourse communities in general though your investigation of this specific discourse community? Refer back to your niche or research question/ and tell us what we learn about this specific discourse community overall.

A Description of the Discourse Community (similiar to "Lou's Restaurant" on 543)

Post 18; "Coaches Can Read, Too"

Read this student example of a discourse community closely; it's another great model for you to emulate as you begin drafting your own ethnography. Then pay close attention to Branick's introduction and make a rough outline that identifies how Branick fulfills the following three rhetorical moves:


Establishing the territory-
Establishing a niche-
Explaining how he will fill the niche-

(To better understand these terms, look back on pages 6-8 in WAW for a summary of how the three moves function. )

250 words before class Tuesday.

Post 17; "Learning to Serve: The Language and Literacy of Food Service Workers"

In many ways, Mirabelli's article is a good model to study as you prepare to research and write your own ethnographies because it displays a basic empirical paradigm: research question, data collection, findings/results. What seems to be Mirabelli's research question and where does he state it? What kind of data did Mirabelli collect to analyze the diner discourse community? What seems to be his primary findings in answer to this research question?

250 words before class Monday

Drafting Interview Questions

The amount of relevant data you can get from your interview depends on well-planned interview questions. I've listed some examples below. The first set of questions could be applied to any community. The second set demonstrates how the interview should be tailored to your specific community. You can draw from both lists to create your own interview. You'll also want to look back at the readings thus far (Gee, Johns, Wardle) and pinpoint a few concepts/issues you want to focus on (newcomer initiation/authority/conventionalism/ anticonventionalism/general-specific/cost of affiliation/secondary/primary discourse, etc.), then draft questions which can explore these issues. Remember, it's best to start with more questions than you need. You can always pare down your list and you don't have to use all the data you gather. Finally, consider the rhetorical situation. Who is your audience? What type of language will they best understand?

Things to remember when drafting interview questions:

1. Some can be general but you should tailor a certain number of questions to your community.
2. Questions should examine issues and concepts from the textbook readings.
3. Come up with more than you think you'll need, then pare down to the best/most important.
4. Consider the rhetorical situation: who is your audience? what is your purpose (what do you hope to gain?

Generic questions

How long have you been here?

Why are you involved

What do X, Y, and Z words mean?

How did you learn to write A, B, C?

How do you communicate with other people on your team?

What kinds of texts do you write and read here? memos/emails/notes?

What distinguishes these texts from writing you do outside this community?

Do you consider yourself a full member of this community?

Who has authority here and how is it displayed?

How often do you write?

What kinds of texts do you write? Informal or Formal?

How difficult is it to publish in your field? Who can get published?

More specific questions tailored to a specific discourse community: Macau Sports Dance Association (source: http://yuehailing.blogspot.com/2008/10/interview-questions-to-analyze.html)

1. Do you have shared goals in your community? What is it? How do you know and when did you realize it?

2. Except for the regular training and competition, are there any other forms of communication, like parties, meetings, performance? What are the purposes for these communications?

3. Does everyone attend regular training? How often does the regular training? Is there any minimum requirement for regular training?

4. Do all members have to compete? What are the requirements for competition?

5. How do you communicate with your partner(s) during training? Is there any difference between the language you use during training and after training?

6. Are there any newsletters, websites or other mechanisms of communication for all members of your community to read or understand? Are they often updated?

7. How are new members admitted to your community? What is the requirement for admission?

8. How do new members know that you are experienced(if they could know)?

9. How do you become interested in ballroom dance?

10. How did you connect of this group in the first place?

11. How many members are there?

Class Activity: Draft questions individually for 20 minutes. Use the above models for inspiration and look back to the articles in the book. Switch with peers and have them edit for clarity, and language use. What kinds of responses do the questions prompt? We want more than Yes/no answers in most cases so make sure these questions are open-ended and invite the interviewee to respond at length.