Discourse Community Ethnography and Researched Argument

Assignment Overview
For your second major assignment, you will begin by exploring how communication is
structured by the communities it takes place within. This part of the assignment is called
the Discourse Community Ethnography.
Having studied the characteristics of a specific online or physical community in detail,
you will then create a researched argument that is relevant for members of the
community you studied. The entire project should be between 5-7 pages.
Below you will find detailed instructions and formatting requirements for this assignment.
Objective and Requirements
In "The Concept of Discourse Community," John Swales proposes six defining characteristics of
discourse communities:
A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
A discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
A discourse community uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide
information and feedback.
A discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the
communicative furtherance of its aims.
In addition to owning genres, a discourse community has acquired some specific lexis.
A discourse community has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of
relevant content and discoursal expertise (Downs and Wardle, pp. 471-473).
You will explore these elements of discourse communities as they relate to the communication
within a particular online or physical community. After choosing a community and conducting
this Swales Test, you will consider the extent to which this community does or does not qualify
as a discourse community.
At the bottom of these instructions you will find a pool of online communities that you can
analyze for this project, and you are also welcome to choose a physical or online community of
your own. However, this community cannot be one of which you are already a member (like
your family, this class, etc.). It must also be a community within which you can identify a
specific issue for your argument.
Researched Argument Portion of Assignment

Generally, when we use the term argument we think of trying to winwe want our opponent,
humbled by defeat, to accept our view on the issue being argued. In this class, we will explore a
different conception of argument, that of argument as conversation. This is a common practice
in many academic and professional settings, and it requires the ability to synthesize information
from different sources and organize it in support of your argument. This part of the assignment
will ask you to develop new argumentative strategies by practicing the idea of argument as
conversation.

Having studied the communication of a specific community in detail, you now have the
opportunity to enter the discourse (aka the conversation) and create an argument that targets
members of the group you studied. Identify an argument within this group, and support OR
refute it using primary (interviews and observations; optional) and secondary research
(published articles/books; required).
Once you have identified an issue, compose a researched argument that supports or refutes a
central argument within that issue. Formulate a strong thesis, and support your argument by
utilizing secondary and primary research. Make sure to tailor your argument to your audience,
which should be related to the discourse community you studied in the first part of this project.

Formatting Requirements
5-7 double-spaced pages with standard 1 margins, not including title or reference pages.
12 pt. Times New Roman or a typeface of equivalent size.
5-7 primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are optional, but you must include
at least 5 secondary sources. Your Lit Review section must include at least 2 sources (and
you are welcome to use Swales and Porter), and your Confirmation section must include
at least 3 sources.
APA format (title page, running head, and first-level section headings), including in-text
(Authors Last Name, Year, p. #) and reference page citations.

Required Sections
Introduction
o Here you might introduce the concept of discourse community, explain your
choice of community, and preview the contents of your report and argument.
Literature Review
o Summarize at least 2 sources and show how they relate to your report. You need
to include Swales, and Porter would also be a strong choice. Your Lit Review can
draw exclusively from course readings, but you are free to incorporate additional
sources.
Discussion
o Include your Swales Test, discuss the groups communication in detail, and
make connections to other sources (for example, you might look for examples of
what Porter calls traces).
Audience
o Simply identify the audience for your argument. (e.g., Audience: Readers of
College Composition and Communication; Audience: Readers of Journal in
Your Field of Choice, Teachers Connect, The Student Room, PoliceOne,
Threadless, etc. )
Main Claim
o Transition into your argument. Identify and elaborate on your main claim.
Confirmation
o Support your argument with evidence from your research. This section must
include at least 3 sources.
Refutation (Optional)
o Identify and address counterarguments.
Conclusion
o Review your work on this project, discuss what you learned about the nature of
communication, and reaffirm your argument. This section can take many forms
and doesnt have to be a straightforward summary, but it should bring your paper
to a logical point.
Note: The last four sections represent an Aristotelian argument, but you can experiment with
different argumentative structures. For example, you could opt to organize a Rogerian
argument, which would include the following sections: Summary of opposing views, Statement
of understanding, Statement of writers position (Main Claim), Statement of contexts, Statement
of benefit.
However, whatever your argumentative structure, you must present a coherent, well-researched
argument.
Section Guides
Here is a more specific set of questions, based on Swales six criteria, to consider as you write
your Discussion section:
What are the shared goals of the community? Why does the group exist and what does it
do?
What mechanisms do members use to communicate?
What are the purposes of these mechanisms?
Which of these mechanisms are considered genres?
What specialized language does this community use?
Who has expertise? Who are the newcomers? How do newcomers learn appropriate
language, genres, and knowledge?
Do your findings seem to line up with our readings, or do your findings call some ideas
from the readings into question?
Use these questions, which are modified from Greene, as a guide as you plan your argument:

What problems did you uncover during your Discourse Community Ethnography ?
What kind of evidence might persuade your readers? Who are your readers?
What objections might these readers have?
What is at stake in this argument? (What if things change? What if things stay the
same?)

Sources can include:

Scholarly journal articles
Books/book chapters
Documentaries
Interviews
Surveys
Observations
Newspaper/magazine/blog articles from credible sources

Online Community Examples

You are not limited to the following options:

College Composition and Communication (academic journal, accessible through
UTEP Library website): http://www.ncte.org/cccc/ccc (homepage); First-Year
Composition curriculum, Writing about Writing; student writing processes, peer
review, evaluation of student writing, etc.
Scholarly Journal in Your Field of Choice: this is one way of connecting with and
writing for a community relevant to your academic and professional interests.
Teachers Connect: http://community.tes.co.uk/; standardized testing and
curriculum, international educational models
Mumsnet (By parents for parents): http://www.mumsnet.com/; education, health,
finances, and other family issues
Model Mayhem (connects models with photographers):
http://www.modelmayhem.com/f.php; beauty standards, eating disorders
CommunityCare (Social workers): http://www.communitycare.co.uk/; various social
issues, particuarly those of relevance to social workers
PoliceOne: http://www.policeone.com/; criminal justice, incarceration rates, drug
policies, police violence and violence against policemen
The Student Room: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/; various educational issues,
tuition and debt, health, lifestyle, and relationships
Threadless (Artists and designers): https://www.threadless.com/; creative freedom,
the value of art (and the price of art)
Inbound.org (online marketing): http://inbound.org/; um online marketing, spam
GMO Skepti-Forum: http://www.gmosf.org/; GMOs themselves.
Kony 2012: http://invisiblechildren.com/kony/; effectiveness and source of
campaign, online social activism; sample resource:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/the-controversy-over-
kony-2012/2012/03/10/gIQAzc6M3R_blog.html
PETA: http://www.peta.org/; animal rights, euthanasia controversy; sample
resource: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/peta-euthanasia-huffpost-
live-video_n_3055854.html
Care2 Petition Site: http://www.care2.com/; any of the many issues on which
petitions are circulated at this website, the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of Care2s
online petition methodology.
Politifact, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, or another newspaper:
http://www.politifact.com/, http://www.washingtonpost.com/,
http://online.wsj.com/home-page; issues: current events and government, bias (The
Washington Post is generally regarded as a liberal publication, the The Wall Street
Journal as a conservative one, and Politifact is a fact-checker that has itself been
accused of bias)
Susan G. Komen for the Cure: http://ww5.komen.org/; breast cancer research,
funding and spending issues; sample resource:
http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/10/susan-g-komen-ceo-salary-up-64-as-charity-
loses-funds/; pinkwashing, http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org/.
Second Life: http://secondlife.com/; addictive nature of the game; moral issues;
economic and intellectual property issues; the consequences of emerging
technologies, particularly increasingly realistic virtual reality.
Fantasy football: http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage/football (example site);
gambling
Star Wars: The Old Republic: http://www.swtor.com/; issue and sample resource:
Star Wars: The Old Republic Gay Planet Controversy
(http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/01/15/star-wars-the-old-
republic-gay-planet-controversy-gets-its-own-choose-your-own-adventure-game/)
World of Warcraft: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/; issue and sample resource: What
WOW can tell us about race in real life
(http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/03/08/287368917/what-world-of-
warcraft-can-teach-us-about-race-irl)

Additional examples of online communities can be found here:
http://www.feverbee.com/2010/11/15-examples-of-thriving-online-communities.html












Rubric

Writing is very subjective, and rubrics cannot always take that into account. I will take the
following elements and criteria into consideration while grading your assignment; use these
elements and criteria as a guide for your essay, but do not limit yourself to only whats on the
rubric.

Core Elements

Analysis/ 6 5 4 3 2 1
Depth of Thought

Use of Research/ 6 5 4 3 2 1
Strength of Argument

Focus/Organization 6 5 4 3 2 1

Writing Fluency 6 5 4 3 2 1

APA 6 5 4 3 2 1

Criteria
Strengths Weaknesses
Effective focus and organization
Clear writing
Strong thesis
Shows creativity and originality
Excellent supporting details
Correct citations
Effective transitions
Effective interactions with sources
Correct citations (APA format)

Unclear thesis
Lack of evidence
Problematic/unsubstantiated claims
Poor sentence structure
Punctuation errors
Verb tense errors/Subject-verb agreement
issues
Assignment is unfinished
Lack of transitions
Incorrect in-text citations
Incorrect reference citations
Other Considerations
Shows growth as a writer
Shows attention to revision